GBA EMULATION

IQue Review

A new Nintendo System?

When Nintendo announced a lowcost-videogamesystem for China in September 2003 freaks from all over the world wondered what type of hardware they planned to release. The very first rumours expected sort of a 'GameCube Light' but on TGS 2003, a few weeks later, Nintendo stated that they will release a system to distribute localized classic SNES and N64-Games in China on 21st November 2003.

The Name of that videogamesystem is 'IQue Player' (roughly translated: God's Toy)

Nintendo's strategy is quiete simple, they want to sell lowcost hardware and cheap games to the chinese whose economy is going very well over the last years. More and more chinese people earn good money and want to spend it, still, they dont earn as much as the usal worker in western countries. Thats why the idea is to sell a affordable hardware and classic games. The Games can be transfered to an IQue flashcart in a lot of stores in the big cities in China where they only cost around $6 per download. By using a digitally signature they lock a flashcart to the bought unit. That fact, together with the ridiciolous low prices on the game downloads is Nintendo's strategy to prevent people copying the games. If you think about it, its a good idea to offer games for download at only 10% of the usal price. Its about to be prooved though, that this distribution channel is being accepted by the chinese people.

We ordered the System from import gamers first choice store, Lik-Sang.com. They sell two versions of the system which differ in the content on the bundled flashcart. In the Bundle priced $99 you would receive the full games Dr. Mario and Mario64 as well as 3 trial editions of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Wave Race and Starfox64. Bundle #2 costs $119 and features the full versions of all 5 games. The games are the good old Nintendo64-Versions but in chinese language.

Why would this IQue Player be of interest to western gamers?

IQue combines some very neat features on a very small space. Actually the complete system is integrated in the controller unit, this means. there is the reader for the bundled 64Megabyte-flashcart, a multi I/O-port for video/audio and a USB-connector, probably supposed for linking-capability. All you have to do, is to connect the device directly to the TV-Set. Technically its an advanced Nintendo64-System which is capable to hardware-emulate SNES-Games too. However, don't cheer too early. Before we can call this a portable V64/SWC with integrated N64/SNES there is going to be some hacking required by someone.

Let's take a look first at everything and speculate afterwards about possibilities some people might already thought about including a few starting points.

When ordering at Lik-Sang.com, you get a package with the following:

- IQue Player
- 64Megabyte Flashcart with the pre-stored games
(differs depending on the type of bundle you have chosen).
- Power Supply
- chinese instruction manual
(we have a scanned version of that manual on Dextrose)
- one AV/Sound-cable
(incl a neat power supply connector)
- four scratchcards you would use to download new games in china

Funny thing is, that the controller pretty much looks like a Dreamcast-controller rather than a N64-controller. One also notices that the former Z-Trigger has moved from the bottom of a N64-Controller to lower left side of the IQue Player beneath the shoulder button. The flashcart is being inserted in the slot at the frontside of the IQue while the AV/Sound-Cable is being connected to the backside where it doesnt disturb the gaming experience at all. Above the Multi I/O-Connector there is small USB-Connector. The rest of the button layout has been transfered from the N64 and extended by a on/off-button which is also being used to reset games and exit to the main menu of the IQue Player.

After connecting the IQue to the TV-Set, you will notice that all menus are in (simplified) chinese language. Its not a big problem though, since there are only two menu options. First one leads to the content of the inserted flashcart and lists all games including a picture to each title while the other option takes you to the memorymanager for the savegames. The Savegames are stored on the Flashcard by the way.
If you select a game, it is being loaded into the IQue Memory. This takes around 15-30 seconds depending on the game you play.
We have included some screen grabs to demonstrate the menus as well as the loading of games. However, Nintendo confirmed that the IQue Player's Operating System is upgradable, so we speculate that there is a possibility to update the Firmware sooner or later to include additional features and translations. The bundled games are all the original Nintendo64-Versions but in chinese language, so, there is not really much to talk about gameswise.

Inside the IQue

The Player, as stated before, is based on N64 Hardware and assembled on very small place using nano technology on a single chip. It should have 8MB Videoram, but we are not 100% sure. But if Nintendo want to release classic N64-games which made use of the former 4MB-ExpansionPack like Donkey Kong 64, they better have upgraded the IQue-Videoram to 8MB. Together with HunterX we have checked the Pin-Layout of the Multi I/O-Port usign a voltmeter:

1 ... + power (input)
2 ... + power (input)
5 ... audio left signal
6 ... audio right ground
7 ... video ground
10 ... - power (input)
13 ... audio left ground
14 ... audio right signal
15 ... video signal

There is no real clue whether there is a RGB-Mod possible, for now, we can only see the composite signal. The signal is NTSC by the way, so make sure your TV-Set supports NTSC.

All in all a nice console in a controller that brings back old memories ;-)

And last but not least, if you want one for christmas - you may want to check Lik-Sang.com.

Cheers Actraiser & Hartec ! :-)

iQue Player 6 Games Pack Buy now at Lik-Sang.com