Bootleg Portable NES Hides Behind Pompous Naval Rank

At first glance, the Game Theory Admiral looks like a first generation Game Boy Advance. It's around the same size too - it even has a pretty solid build. The cart slot is a little different, so what goes in there? Oh... the crazy adapter thing that was bundled in the box.

Then what? Looks like the right kind of slot for a Famicom cart. That's the original Japanese release of Nintendo's video game powerhouse. The cartridge is pretty small, so maybe this oddball arrangement can kind of work? I powered up the very peculiar setup, and yes - it does work. The screen is a backlit TFT - not the worst screen I've seen, but at this low resolution it's hard to make out the elements of the many games I tried. Audio is weird too, but that's common to most NES clones out there.

The Game Theory Admiral was alleged to include (mine didn't) small pigtail leads that adapt a full sized NES controller to connect to the portable. Two people trying to share a single tiny screen wouldn't work too well, but the GTA can output to a full sized TV. Kinda neat, but pretty much defeats the whole purpose of having a pocket sized game unit.

This is the cousin of a notorious portable NES bootleg called the Game Axe (which still trades hands for unreasonable money - pictured here.) The GTA is neat for a collector, but I wouldn't recommend it for really enjoying a game. The GTA is unusually sturdy for a bootleg (with the controller buttons and d-pad getting a special mention for being well executed), but the loopy design just invites trouble. Having that Famicom cart flopping around is just asking for a lost connection during an exciting game session.

The question you might ask is whether an American NES cart can play on the Game Theory Admiral. The answer is yes, but you wouldn't want to. Not only do you have to contend with the much larger NES cart, but there's extra height added when plugging in the Famicom slot adapter. Promising start, but really... this thing is just ridiculous.

Just stick with one of the newer portable NES units by Hyperkin or Yobo with better screens and (hopefully) better design overall. You'll also not run into the danger specified in the Game Theory Admiral's manual.

"Relevant Crazy Warning! When take a look at in the usualenvironment inside usually a certain flashlight that appear or a certainpattern, minimum amount the part of people will or crazy disease go into actionis take placed to temporary lose the consciousness".

You just can't afford to ignore a warning like that.