SuperChis 2.0 GBA Flashcart Review
Here are two useful finds for original Nintendo hardware.
For Nintendo DS: DSPico flash cartridge with USB-C.
For Game Boy Advance SP: an IPS-ready eXtremeRate replacement shell.
SuperChis 2.0 is sold as if it were a newer version of the original SuperChis, but the name is misleading. I previously discussed it in “Fake SuperChis cartridges and the strange SuperChis v2.0”; this time I bought one and tested the hardware directly.
Basically, I expected to see the very same SuperChis with no real changes, apart from new markings on the shell. The only difference, judging by the video, was that it had a small CR1220 battery inside.
I initially expected a near-copy of ChisBread’s design with little more than different shell markings and a CR1220 battery. The tests showed that the differences are much more important—and mostly negative.
Package Contents
This cartridge comes in a nice transparent plastic box.
The package includes only the box itself, a card reader, and the cartridge.
For comparison, here is the package of the original cartridge.
They even managed to mess up the shell, right in the areas where the screws are and where the fit should be as tight as possible.
Where It Is Sold
The listing below is where my test unit came from. I am leaving it here only to identify the product; based on the results in this review, I do not recommend buying this cartridge.
SuperChis 2.0 vs Original SuperChis
Before we move on to the direct comparison, a little theory first. The original SuperChis is a rethinking of the SuperCard. ChisBread fixed literally all the main drawbacks of that cartridge: the need to patch games on a computer, compatibility problems, and slowdowns in games.
The result was a solid budget cartridge. When I tested it, I used four games:
1. Doom 1;
2. Doom 2;
3. Pokémon Sapphire;
4. Super Mario Advance 2.
These games were chosen for a reason. The Doom games would not run on the SuperCard, Pokémon Sapphire could be launched with certain patching, but saves did not work at all, and Super Mario Advance 2 had severe slowdowns.
As I wrote above, SuperChis fixed all of these issues. And since I thought SuperChis 2.0 was just a “marketing” trick for sales, I expected all of these games to work exactly the same way.
However, I was wrong.
I had an Analogue Pocket with the original SuperChis on hand.
So I simply moved the memory card to the other flash cartridge and tried launching the games. The result was a bit strange:
1. Doom 1 — launched;
2. Doom 2 — did not launch (black screen at startup);
3. Pokémon Sapphire — did not launch (white screen and audio glitches);
4. Super Mario Advance 2 — did not launch (just a white screen).
I tried writing the games to NOR memory, but the result stayed the same.
Then I decided to test the cartridge on an original console.
1. Doom 1 — still worked as it should;
2. Doom 2 — launched, but literally five seconds after the game started, everything broke (and the second time it did not launch at all);
3. Pokémon Sapphire — launched normally, but when I tried to save, the image on the screen broke and an error message appeared (I did not manage to photograph it);
4. Super Mario Advance 2 — launched, but when I got a little further, this happened:
This error appeared twice, exactly in the cases where the game did manage to start and did not freeze right away.
After trying to save in Pokémon Sapphire, games stopped launching altogether.
The SDRAM memory test began reporting an error: SDRAM (Rom storage report).
I tried to restore the cartridge using the SuperFW flashing tool. The program immediately reported that the firmware had an incorrect header (Invalid firmware header detected).
The attempt to restore the firmware worked, but things did not get better. The cartridge continued to show the SDRAM memory error, and at first no games would launch at all. After I swapped one Game Boy Advance SP for another, I was able to launch Doom 1 again, but the memory error still appeared.
Overall, some new failure kept showing up all the time. For example, at one point it even felt like the cartridge was about to die completely.
Board Comparison
Let’s look at three boards: SuperCard, SuperChis, and SuperChis 2.0.
I got the impression that the developers of SuperChis 2.0 used some parts from the SuperCard. Perhaps that is exactly why everything works so strangely and not very reliably.
SuperChis 2.0 Turned Out Worse Than the First Version
In the end, SuperChis 2.0 turned out not to be an improved version of SuperChis, but rather a worse one. Of the four test games, only Doom 1 worked reliably for me.
After the whole article had already been written, I decided to clean the contacts and test the cartridge one more time. Games written to NOR memory worked normally. The ones launched through RAM memory also seemed to start working. But, for example, Doom 2 showed graphical glitches almost immediately. At the same time, the game did not freeze and continued running.
I do not think there is any need for a complicated conclusion here. I simply do not recommend buying this cartridge.