History of K-team Consoles

Exeq Gamebox and K1 GBA SP

Little is known about the early stages of console development, but it is clear that Maxzhou88 was simultaneously developing two consoles: Exeq Gamebox and K1 GBA SP. Although these consoles are very similar, one has fewer features, and the other has more. Or, more accurately, one is cheaper, and the other is more expensive. The Chinese have long understood that there will always be buyers for the cheapest product.

Conceptually, these two consoles differed in the following: Gamebox is simply a hardware clone, almost without any additional features. It is just a new console that "doesn't lag" like other clones and is significantly cheaper than the original Game Boy Advance SP (or at least it was supposed to be, but more on that later). On the other hand, K1 GBA SP is a heavily upgraded version of the Game Boy Advance SP.

On one hand, if you evaluate the features, the changes don't seem significant. Multimedia capabilities were added to this console (reading books, listening to music, etc.), and a proprietary flash cartridge appeared. On the other hand, multimedia capabilities couldn't work with the standard 16 MHz ARM7 processor, so a 100 MHz ARM9 processor was added. The flash cartridge is a separate story because its implementation depended not on technical reasons but on psychological ones.

What's wrong with the flash cartridge?

The problem is that it lacks everything that is typical of flash cartridges.

This cartridge has only one of the three elements – the storage device, or more precisely, just a slot for a memory card. So, this is not a flash cartridge but just a card reader for the console. Where is the rest? It is located directly in the console, on the motherboard, where one SDRAM chip is installed, and the controller is in the SOC (system on a chip).

Then the question arises: why is this entire construction needed? Why not just install a card reader directly in the console?

In fact, Maxzhou88 made such a version of the console:

If you look closely, you can see that the memory card slot is located at the bottom. And at the top is the SDRAM memory. So, the K-Card is not needed for the console (in fact, according to the developer, both memory cards worked with this configuration). But psychologically, this would resemble cheap and bad GBA SP clones that were mass-produced and also had built-in memory. Moreover, with this arrangement, it's not very clear how to insert the memory card. And disassembling the console every time to remove the flash card is too much.

Let's return to the release of these consoles. Surprisingly, the Exeq Gamebox was the first console released by Maxzhou88. It was released in mid-2011. I've read a lot online that the K1 GBA SP and Gamebox are the same thing with different names, but that's not entirely true.

Gamebox is simply a clone of the Game Boy Advance SP console. Yes, it's a good hardware clone, but it has almost no additional features, and it has a significant drawback: almost all modern flash cartridges don't work on it. On the other hand, the K1 GBA SP is also a hardware clone but with additional features. We'll talk more about the additional features and drawbacks of these consoles later.

Let's compare photos of the early prototype of the K1 and the Gamebox console. The K1 GBA SP is on the yellow background, and the Gamebox is on the white background.

As you can see, the console's design is almost identical, except that the K1 GBA SP has additional chips, and some elements have been moved due to these additions.

Exeq Gamebox was sold in both China and Russia, but the packaging and instructions were in Russian. Even the power adapter plug was European standard.

The console was sold for 2499 rubles. It came with a cartridge containing 999 games, but of course, there were many duplicates. However, the games on the cartridge could not be rewritten. In other words, it was a simple multi-game cartridge that could also run on a regular console.

Pros of the console:

1. It had 5 backlight modes for the screen;

2. The console had a sleep mode;

3. You didn't need to turn off the console when changing cartridges;

4. The port for playing via cable worked;

5. It was a good clone that ran at 60 fps.

Cons of the console:

1. The most significant drawback – poor support for flash cartridges. Of all the flash cartridges available on the market, it only worked well with the Everdrive GBA x5. Ez Flash cartridges simply didn't work;

2. The quality of the materials was rated 4 out of 5, and it felt like it wasn't an original console;

3. The screen was slightly stretched in height, so the image was stretched (not very noticeable unless you compared two consoles);

4. The screen was slightly misaligned. There was more space on the right than on the left;

5. The selection of games on the cartridge was very strange, mostly NES and Game Boy games.

K1 GBA SP was sold worldwide. But it looked strange because it had no logos or labels. Although the packaging design was copied from Nintendo. Interestingly, the console came with the same European charger as the Gamebox.

This console was sold for $69.99 (approximately 2500 rubles at the exchange rate at the time). In China, it was sold for 299 yuan (1500 rubles at the exchange rate at the time).

Pros of the console:

1. It had 2 processors. One for GBA games, the other for multimedia capabilities (listening to music, watching movies, reading books, etc.);

2. It could be connected to a TV;

3. It came with a flash cartridge (almost a flash cartridge);

4. The console had a sleep mode;

5. You didn't need to turn off the console when changing cartridges;

6. The port for playing via cable worked;

7. The screen had 5 backlight modes.

Cons of the console:

1. The screen was slightly stretched in height, so the image was stretched (not very noticeable unless you compared two consoles);

2. There was no logo on the case, and no label on the back;

3. No RTC.

Almost immediately after the release of this console, Maxzhou88 began developing the K101 console.

K101

The prerequisites for creating the K101 console were more related to the law than anything else. On one hand, when copyright in your country is not very developed, you can do whatever you want. On the other hand, if you want to enter the international market, you will have to take into account the legal requirements. No matter how you look at it, the body used in the K1 GBA SP console was patented by Nintendo. That is why Maxzhou88 started developing a console with a new design.

He started with the design of the console. Initially, the lower half of the Nintendo DS Lite was taken as a basis, to which a brightness button was added (this button is used for different key combinations to activate additional functions of the console).

The first and most logical change was to remove two unnecessary buttons. After all, this is a clone of the Game Boy Advance console, which means the X and Y buttons are not needed. In addition, the position of the A and B buttons was changed to a more convenient one (as it was in the classic GBA).

Then Maxzhou88 played around with the placement of the elements until he came up with a version where the start and select buttons are located on the left side of the console, and the brightness button and speaker holes are on the right.

Then he came across the Dingoo A330 console.

He really liked the design of this console. However, he didn't like its rounded shapes, so Maxzhou88 made his design more rectangular.

Next, he was not satisfied with the loop for the strap, so he reduced it and moved it inside the body.

Finally, he added the X and Y buttons and moved the brightness button to the top of the console.

Of course, this seems strange, and I wondered for a long time why this was necessary (adding the X and Y buttons). Especially considering that they cannot be remapped as you wish, and they duplicate the L and R buttons. But Maxzhou88 himself was a gamer and added these buttons to make it more convenient to play fighting games.

Then a special 3D model was developed.

These colors are used to see different parts of the body.

A little later, the first prototype of the body was made.

This is the first version to try how it feels in the hand and how it looks. Then the A, B, X, and Y buttons were enlarged, the speaker holes were changed (they turned out terrible), and the gaps for the D-pad were increased, as it was hard to press.

The next step was for Maxzhou88 to make a board and solder all the necessary ports and components to it to check their placement.

He refined the 3D model and sent it for production.

Then he made the final version of the printed circuit board and placed all the necessary components on it.

By the way, here is how the SMD soldering process of all components took place.

Here you can see how the SOC with two processors is soldered.

He tested the screen.

And assembled the first prototype of the console. As you can see, it was still in the first version of the body.

The development and creation of the console were completed on August 13, 2012, and on August 17, 2012, pre-orders for the console opened. The developers planned to ship it in a month. This delay, considering that the console was already ready, was related to an interesting event.

If you look closely at the photo above, you will see that there is no logo or name of the console. There was only the model number K101. I initially thought that this name appeared because of the model names of the GBA SP, where the first was called AGS-001, and the second and improved version was called AGS-101. But no, according to the developer, the model of the console was called K1, and its number was 01, so the final model number became K101.

On August 13, 2012, a post appeared on the obscurehandhelds blog (they reviewed consoles) about two contests. The first was to come up with a name for the console, and the second was to create a logo (the second contest was to take place a little later).

Many names were submitted. The winner was a user with the nickname Pepone, who combined the two names Retro and Evolution and came up with the word Revo. That is, he described the console in two words. It was indeed retro, and it also evolved and acquired new features. Now the console was officially called Revo K101.

On August 20, 2012, immediately after the winner was announced, the second contest started. It was necessary to develop a logo for the console that would include the invented name Revo.

On September 4, 2012, the winner of the contest was announced, and it was Philip Howard with this design:

Frankly, in my humble opinion, it didn't turn out very well. Apparently, the developer thought so too, because this logo never appeared on the console. But a little later, someone sent him a version of the console packaging.

This version was so liked by the developer that he even applied the logo to the console.

In fact, the console turned out to be really great, the only complaint I have is the not very high-quality materials for the body. It feels like a four-minus. However, it is understandable why this happened. When you need to make a part as cheap as possible, you have to look for not the best factories (unless you have an order for a million parts). Maxzhou88 complained that the factory that produced the body was very dirty. And he is right, just look at how it looked.

But this console was still not perfect. Due to factory limitations (for some reason, they could not install two SDRAM chips), only one 32 MB SDRAM chip was installed. This was enough for European/American games, but not enough for Chinese ones, and in addition, this made it impossible to implement the ability to exit the game. And the saves sometimes didn't work well. Although I personally don't see any connection here.

All these problems were solved in the final version of the Revo K101+ console.

REVO K101+

This was an improved version of the K101 console.

Of course, the changes were not very significant, but this is clear from the model name.

The console now had two 32 MB SDRAM chips installed. (This mainly affects only the Chinese, whose translated ROMs weighed more than 32 MB).

The function to exit the game was added.

The battery capacity was increased from 600 mAh to 800 mAh.

The built-in speaker was turned off when the console was connected to a TV.

A protective film was added to the console package.

K2 DS

This is perhaps the saddest moment. Maxzhou88 started developing a clone of the Nintendo DS console but couldn't finish it (apparently, sales of his consoles weren't going well).

He started with the design of the console and the placement of elements.

Then he created a prototype of the console to try holding it in his hands.

Then he had an interesting idea – to combine the screens into one and add two buttons, A and B.

An interesting concept emerged: when playing NDS games, you hold the console one way.

And when you want to play GBA games, you hold it another way.

Just take a look at how the console could have looked in real life.

Unfortunately, for some reason, the console was never completed. Despite the fact that a technical prototype of the console was released.

Epilogue

I really liked Maxzhou88's approach. Not only did he develop an excellent console clone that I'm not ashamed to recommend to others (especially beginners), but he was also a gamer and personally tested his console. When developing them, he took into account his gaming experience to ensure everything turned out as players needed.

Moreover, he didn't stop there and continued developing consoles. For example, the RG 351 is his creation.

What saddens me the most is that he didn't finish his K2DS project. This console looked much better than the original Nintendo products, and if it had been at least 90% as good as the Revo K101+, it would have been an excellent Nintendo DS clone.