Tototek GBA-SNES AD adapter: A look inside + short review.

Behold!! ​

The GBA-SNES AD adapter!!
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Ok so this is a follow up of this thread: http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?47266-Tototek-GBA-SNES-adapter-Anyone-tried-them

I just received the adapter and gave it a run. I thought it would be cool to write about my first experience with it and share some PCB porn.

The adapter comes in a simple box with no instruction booklet( not that you'd need one) and the only accessory is the AV cable you need to connect it to the TV. That is right, in case you are not already aware of this, the adapter uses the SNES for power and inputs but it still uses its own AV cable.

There is lot of Japanese text on the back of the cart and box. I cannot read it but I expect it is not really important. However if someone here can read this and finds something that might be of value, a translation would be very welcome




So how well does it run?

First, there is already a pretty good review of it on youtube. If you have not watched it yet, I recommend it.


From my own experience I cannot say that anything said in the video is wrong, but I will add some more technical stuff.

Video quality:
The video quality is really good considering it is composite only. It is sharp enough and there is no significant observable "dot crawl" effect. personally, I find dot crawl to be the most annoying thing with composite. The full screen scaling looks nice, it does not have the ugly reshaping pixels of the GBA TV adapter. The scrolling is smooth and the colors are vibrant. I would say it is on par with the GC GB player but you do not have the ugly HUD. I am pleased with the image.

Sadly, It appears from my first look inside the adapter that modding it for better video signal might not be possible but in this case the composite is as good as it gets so i'd say it is not a deal breaker.

Audio Quality:
I have yet to hear good audio quality out a GBA. The original GBA sounds like a scratchy tin can, the GC GB player sounds like a scratchy tin can and this adapter also sounds thin and scratchy. However I may be wrong but it seems that maybe it is a bit less scratchy than other sources but I would need to do an audio comparison to be sure. I may just do it later on - stay tuned.

However there is one pretty obvious drawback. This thing outputs only mono... The output cable has left and right jacks but it is a split mono channel... I followed the traces inside and it seems that the audio is only mono all the way to where I lose the trace to a Via near the big glob top chip... I read the GBA is supposed to be stereo but I have no idea of how used the feature is. Maybe this is not such a big deal breaker but I do not know. My first impression however is that this sucks. I love my stereo sound

There is also another problem that was pretty obvious. There was a horrible buzz in the audio. I tried with 2 different SNES and 2 Different TVs and 2 Different wall outlets and I still get the buzz every time. It only happens when the Video is connected. If only audio is connected, no buzz. I think the problem might be with the cheap AV cable they supply with the unit. Yes the cable is really thin and cheap. On par with your standard cheap bootleg cable. The reason why I blame the cable Is that I have a cheap bootleg SNES av cable and I get the same exact buzzing when I use it with a regular snes game. If I use a genuine Nintendo AV cable, absolutely no buzzing.

Compatibility

I cannot say much here, there is more in the youtube video posted above.
I only have 3 gba games... Phantasy star collection, FF V and Super mario world.
All I noted so far is that the sky is black in the SMW intro. This does not seem normal. Other two games seemed to work as usual.

I have recently ordered a GBA flash cart so when I receive this I might be able to test more games.

I also tried it with a regular GB game ( tetris ) and it would not work. So my guess is that, unlike the real GBA and the GC GB player, this can only run GBA games.

Let's take a look Inside! *To view larger pictures, open picture in new window and remove "h" at the end of file name.

Ok so here is the PCB from up close, a view of of the front. I indicated where Video and Audio are connected on the cart connector. This is the reason you do not need to use the AV cable on some SNES clones. *I am sure one could mod a regular SNES to take advantage of this*


Here is the back. Not much to see there... I hate glob tops... I find them hard to fap to. The little chip is a Windond W25Q16CVSSIG


Here is a close view of some of the chips. I wonder why they tried to Hide the "MX" on the chip ( looks like liquid paper!). You don't really see it clearly on the pic but under light here I can see MX brand pretty clearly.
The small chip on the side is a PIC 12f629


Here, for those small ones. I was hoping initially one of em might have been a video encoder, no such luck...



So... ?

So that is all there is to it.. I was initially hoping there would be some cool modding possibilities with this. Does no look like it, everything is integrated.
However I think it is very possible to mod the SNES to take the AV directly from the cart, which would be a very cool thing to do!
I have started investigating the idea and will post a thread about it soon, stay tuned!

 

No borders, this fills the screen completely. I am honestly very impressed by how well this thing scales it. It does not look like any of the edges are clipped either. In FF V, in the menu, the framing ends square on the edges as it should.

 

I am not into the clone SNES market yet I still bought this. This totally beats the GBA TV adapter, which is a POS. DON'T BUY IT.
As to the GC adapter, this certainly makes it faster to load games and you do not need to mess around with the CD.

For Image quality, Id says it is as good if not better than the GC adapter, ( as far as composite goes ). You do not have the permanent un-hidable HUD that I dislike.
For sound, Hard to say without doing a proper audio comparison test, which I will likely do so stay tuned.

 

How much $ do these usually go for?

 

Find me one for 250 and I'll buy it now.

 

Wow! That's Sick!

 

Maybe it's just me but this seems to be possibly the most pointless SFC cartridge I've seen.
Why make it a cartridge if it requires it's own TV out ? :S
And for $250 that's rediculous, get a gamecube and GB player for cheaper than that, and it'll play GB games too.

 

The ad adapter is $29.95. Making it a cartridge cuts the cost and size of the unit by a good margin. I doubt it was even possible to make it not require an AV cable on a real SNES. Because of how the SNES is made. It can work without the cable on some clones though.
To me it does not seem all that pointless. Its still a pretty sturdy unit that works pretty well. It was worth investigating in any way. It does not have the Game Cube permanent HUD, which annoys me. So it is a + and it still has very good scaled video despite being composite only.

I have an idea to try modding the SNES to not need the AV cable which is a fun thing in itself.

 

I don't think it's pointless. Atleast it appears to be a fairly solid clone of the GBA. It's probably better than the Genesis and NES versions of the same thing. The quality of NES and Genesis clones tend to be pretty poor, much worse than a legit console.

 

Think this would be perfect for making a tiny consolized gba.

 

I'm just wondering, does it have the gbc hardware?

 

It appears to not have the hardware to play Gameboy/Color titles, at least by virtue of real games; but I believe the DS/Lite and/or Gameboy Micro are able to play such games via a flashcart, so we'll have to see how this device handles flashcart-ed GB/C titles.

Now, for what I think: as neat as the concept is of playing GBA games on the SNES with the latter's controls and no screen border, the lack of GB/C compatibility and stereo plus the need for separate A/V output turn me off the deal, alongside apparently having issues with some games. I'll survive with the borders of the Gameboy Player and the Super Gameboy 2. Regardless, this was a well-written and informative review, MaxWar.

 

If it doesn't have the GB/C hardware, then emulators like Goomba/Color won't work as they use that hardware. The author of the video review said that supercard sd won't work, so that's another turndown for me. I really wanted to get this.

 

I don't see any reason why emulated GB/GBC wouldn't work especially if these use something on par with the K1 SoC .

 

because the goomba color emulator uses the original GBC hardware that is present in the GBA. Also that's why it doesn't work on a GBmicro

 

we talking about the same GOOMBA?

http://www.dwedit.org/gba/goombacolor.php

The K1 also lacks GBC hardware and runs a version of goomba

 

Goomba definately does not require GBC hardware.