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CREATED NOV.24.2010
UPDATED MAR.12.2011
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TEXT WRITTEN BY
MARTIN NIELSEN
GAMEBOOSTER
... GAMEBOY GAMES ON YOUR NINTENDO64
Way back in the N64 days a lot of companies tried their luck with all sorts of gadgets. One was the infamous Datel based in the UK and known for their Action Replay (GameShark) brand. One of Datels gadgets was called GameBooster and yet it wasn't really a GameBooster, just like another project of theirs wasn't a GameKiller.

What the GameBooster is that it allows you to play Gameboy games on your Nintendo. Cool! you might say, this is a Super Gameboy for the N64. Well that is partly true, the gadget does indeed play Gameboy games, but only the old, classic black/white, Gameboy games, so forget all about the Gameboy Color.

But wait, that's not all you can forget all about, because the GameBooster is unable to output the Gameboy sound, what you get instead is an awful tune that'll drive you mad before any of those old Gameboy games, something they fail to mention anywhere.

Not all is bad though, to make up for the missing sound, Datel included a small game called ReBound, which can be played if no Gameboy cartridge is inserted into the GameBooster. ReBound was originally called "POKE Mission 97" and was made by a sweidsh guy called Anders Granlund.

But the missing sound is a major flaw, in fact it is what makes this device go from cool to dumpster junk. Okay so the emulation isn't perfect either, but playing a game without sound, and even replaced with something as horrible as the tune played in the Game Booster, sorry Datel but you screwed up, and why on earth not make the product perfect before releasing it.

I have a feeling that Datel knew they wouldn't be able to include sound emulation and instead of scrapping the project and loosing the money that went into development, they released the device to hopefully break even or maybe they said to themselves, "okay so what we have here is junk, but they a little money earned is better than nothing right"?.

Anyway, also included in the Gamebooster is the compatibility with games that makes use of the SNES Super Gameboy feature, meaning 4 colors and game borders. Also included is a game trainer which I haven't wasted any time on though, so I won't comment on that.

The GameBooster software was revised once to version 1.1, but I don't know what they fixed in the version, other than sound wasn't available in the revision either. A label variation of the GameBooster also exists, one would think that maybe one was the V1.1, but both seems to have the exact same flaws (and no sound) and there's no version indicator on the screen or the PCB for that matter.

GameBooster could've been a cool gadget for N64 owners, but it was just a piece of useless junk really, shame on you Datel!

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