Third party companies love to make peripherals. They can range from practical things like game cases and protective gear to utter crap like useless controller “grips” and, for that matter, most third party controllers themselves. But every now and again something actually good comes out. Where does the Handy FamiEight fit in the realm of third party peripherals? Read on…

Handy FamiEight features:
 

  1. Converts your Gameboy Advance SP into a portable Famicom.

  2. Converts your Gameboy Advance SP into a compact Famicom that

      can be hooked up to a TV with RCA cables.

  3. Converts your Gameboy Advance SP screen into a portable

      television, allowing you to view and play any gaming device that

      uses RCA AV (yellow, white, red) leads as well as view other AV

      sources such as DVD players and camcorders.

The system comes new with the following:
 

  1 FamiEight main unit

  2 controllers w. turbo buttons

  1 Famicom to NES adaptor

  1 AV Cable

  2 sets of instructions; one in Chinese the other in pidgin English

Have you ever wished you could use your GBA SP to play your Famicom games? Probably not, but unlicensed company Dragon brings your unspoken wish to life! In addition to serving as a portable Famiclone, the device also can be used as a mounted Famiclone and output the image to a television screen. It also can be connected via AV input ports to import video feed from other AV devices, allowing users to essentially use the GBA screen as a tiny monitor.

The unit itself is well designed. It's powered by three AAA batteries that seem to last quite a long time. It has two speakers on either side, built in +pad and action buttons as well as turbo buttons. It features two controller 9-pin Atari 2600 style jacks, a volume knob, an NES/AV switch, headphone jack, power switch and even a DC power input the same size and shape as the licensed GBA SP/DS AC adaptor!

The box claims the device is ergonomic and comfortable, and for the most part I would have to agree. There are no sudden sharp edges, the device is fairly light (though not "super holy-fuck this is light") and everything is labelled in English, which is always a help.  The device doesn’t look super cheap, and the Start and Select buttons even light up up when touched. Nice.

My only real problem with the design is why Dragon felt the need to integrate their own shitty controls while the GBA SP’s own controls work so well. Instead of controlling the game, the GBA manages screen brightness, hue, saturation, contrast and volume.

The device is built solidly, but as soon as you feel the controllers or the built in controls, you’ll immediately recognize this was made in China. The buttons and the D-pad have that cheap plasticity feel, and for the built in controls, you’ll feel like you need to press every button much harder than you should for it to register as a movement. The included controllers are less static, but they still retain that feeling of cheapness. I’ve been trying to find an alternative controller solution but so far, no luck.

Plug a Famicom game into its back and your good to go? Not quite. The GBA needs a small .gba extention file to operate beyond its initial boot-up. This can be accomplished by placing in any GBA game. Once set, the screen can be used. The cart acts as a dummy plug. Use any GBA game you have, but personally I used Ace Combat Advance due to its inherent crappiness.

I haven’t had any problems getting any Famicom games to work with it. The image quality is a bit blurry though. Also, the simple fact that the GBA screen is not as large as the original Famicom’s (FC 256x240 vs. GBA 240x160) means that the image is squashed to fit. This makes reading test and viewing small sprites near impossible and can distort some sprites. I was kind of expecting this though. It doesn’t really effect gameplay, just something of which to be aware.

Due to cartridge size and bulk, NES play isn’t that much fun. The FamiEight doesn’t work with Castlevania 3 (though it does work with Akumajou Densetsu, oddly enough). The included adaptor is well constructed, though, and NES games fit snug and don’t rattle around like you would think they would.

A neat little feature is that you also can use the FamiEight to display a screen. If you already have at least one other Famicom this feature is pretty useless, but if you’re at a friend’s house or on vacation and want to slip in some Famicom play, this can be a handy feature. Quality of the output is comparable to a real AV Famicom and the device works well. My only problem here is that you have to use those shitty controllers.

As a portable monitor for other videogame systems, the picture quality isn’t perfect, but I credit this more to the cheapness of the GBA’s screen than the fault of the Handy FamiEight. If you’ve seen video on Nintendo’s Play-Yan you know what to expect. This is a neat feature for rooms where you don’t have a TV set up or if you want to play your PS2 in bed.

The Handy FamiEight turned out much better than I was expecting. It can be found on eBay for around $20 to $30 and comes in your choice of black, dark blue, red, silver, pearl blue or pink. Since my GBA is black, I bought the black one.

  FamiEight Pros:

    - Inexpensive.

    - Quality construction and design.

    - Robust, multi-purpose device.
    - Using the GBA screen as a portable TV can be very handy.

  FamiEight Cons:

    - Controllers are simply terrible.

    - Lacks the Famicom EXT port.

    - Image quality is blurry and Famicom/NES text unreadable.