Background History:

The Warp Zone is one of the first websites to present an accurate review on Mystery's Game Theory Admiral. For those of you who are not familiar with the Game Theory Admiral (GTA), it is a new portable Famicom system. The Game Theory Admiral began showing up in some Asian web-stores, including Game Choice Club and Success Company.

I was pretty much inanimate when I received my Game Theory Admiral. It was a typical Saturday morning (or should I say noontime?) and I was still in bed. I had stayed up too late the night before watching movies. As you can imagine I was pooped. Before I knew what was happening, my brother bursts into the room with a package in his hand. To make a long story short, I took a look at the GTA and thought "that's cool; too bad I don't have any batteries for it." I put my Game Theory Admiral away and took a shower.

Specs:

Technology sure has improved since 1989. The Game Theory Admiral seems so much nicer then the [ancient] Game Axe. The majority of the problems consumers have experienced with the latter have been fixed with the GTA (to some extent). The Game Theory Admiral is slightly larger then a Gameboy Advance. Although the screen is fairly small (2 inches x 1.5 inches or 3.81 centimeters x 5.08 centimeters), the screen is really crisp and clear (it would be good to mention that I did not remove the plastic cover from the screen while scanning it, hence the reason it looks a bit funny). The TFT display that Mystery used is quite superior to the LCD screen on Redant's Game Axe.

To reduce the overall size of the Game Theory Admiral, Mystery uses a removable cartridge adapter for the games. Although this looks quite gimmicky at first, one quickly overlooks it. The cartridge adapter allows for a really good connection, unlike that of the Game Axe. The Famicom game keeps a really good connection and you don't have to worry about it crashing. This is a great improvement over the Game Axe. With the Axe one wasn't able to bump the system without resetting the game. Shame Redant, shame.

I have read on a few websites that the Game Theory Admiral will not play Nintendo games properly. However, this is quite untrue. Using the NES ===> Famicom adapter which came with my Game Axe, I had gotten many Nintendo games to run on my Game Theory Admiral. I experimented using a variety of games from Die Schlumpfe to Legend of Zelda and Castle of Deceit to Mega Man 3. All licensed NTSC Nintendo games seemed to run fine on the GTA. The American Video Entertainment and American Game Cartridges games ran fine, while the Camerica and Color Dreams games ran at about a 50:50 ratio. Those of you which do not own a NES ===> Famicom adapter are also in luck. Mystery's promotional flyer touts future compatibility with USA and European NES cartridges once an adapter is made available for distribution. It will be interesting to see if this one ever sees the light of day.

Unlike the Game Axe, the Game Theory Admiral has excellent battery life. The unit runs on three AA batteries for over seven hours worth of game play. I was able to complete the entire game Faxanadu before changing batteries---infact the batteries still haven't worn out yet! This is quite an improvement over the Game Axe's battery life. Very good.

Also for those who were wondering, the Game Theory Admiral is available in both NTSC and PAL formats. The NTSC models were going to be pink and the PAL models blue. However, my model is marked as an NTSC model yet it is one of the blue systems. Hmm.

Disadvantages:

Like any handheld gaming device, the Game Theory Admiral certainly has its flaws. One of the only beefs I have with the Game Theory Admiral is the sound. I have noticed that the sound's volume seems to fluctuate from stage to stage during some games. The prime example of this was in Super Mario Bros. 3. I had a hard time hearing the castle music, though the sound in the normal stages would come in loud and clear.

Final Thoughts:

Anyone who likes the original Nintendo should definitely buy a Game Theory Admiral. This portable system is superior to either of the other portable Famicom systems that I have tried before (Game Axe and Top Guy). With a low retail price of $50, this is surely the way to go.