256 Flash Advance Linker Extreme review by ME No bias...find out if you should buy...

**KRomeleoN** · 6th September 2002

After the frustration of the Japanese getting games early, and GBA games costing more than crack (35$ a pop). I decided an Xtreme linker would be a good investment. At $201 ($179 plus shipping and handling from lik sang) it pays itself off after about 10 games, considering yopu pay a low price of 20$ a game (altho many are 35$).

I live in New York, i ordered it Saturday and got it today (Thursday), which imo is very fast considering 2 of the days was a sunday and labor day.

It arrived and after carefully opening the box so no hong kong insects or diseases got through, i took out all the contents. Linker, usb cable, paralell port cable, flash card, AC adapter and driver cd.

I hooked the linker up with only the usb cable hooked up and installed the softweare...no linker found. Drivers not found. hmmmmm. I try the parallel wire, with the usb wire powering. Sucess! For 1 rom. I decided the real test would be 3 roms. Uh oh fail. hmmmm. Format. fail. Hmmmm

I then again tried to reinstall the drivers for the usb. Sucess! It finally recognized my linker in usb, and i tried writing 3 roms. FAIL! ARGHHHHH! Format. Fail! Damnit!

I then thought, what if the usb isnt giving enough power. I ripped out the suppied ac adapter. I now had the linker hooked up with the USB cable and AC adapter only. 5%. 30%. 95%. 100% sucess! This is me -->

How is the speed via usb and paralell? Honestly, almost identical speed. And both slow. It took longer to write 160 mbits (what is that 8 megs?) via usb, then it does to write a 800MB CD-R in my 48x burner.

Also the build quality is SHIT. I just know the flash card is gonna break one day. Its fragile feeling and has a hard time fitting into the linker. As far as it being professionaly built, when the paralell port cable is in, its almost impossible to fit the AC adapter in. A big oversight for professionals

Pros:

+Free GBA games on yer handheld
+Usb or Paralell connectivity
+Pretty good straight foward software.
+USB wire supplied.
+fast delivery (from lik-sang)

Cons:

-Cheap build quality
-Iffy usb drivers
-ac adapter needed even in usb mode
-usb is slow. Almost identical to Paralell speed
-no manual, or documentation.

Overall:

So far after initial tweeking and trouble shooting, it does the most important thing...it works. I currently have Kuru Kuruin, Blender Bros, and some Hampstar weirdo jap game on 1 card. All are working fine. I have about 500 games ready to go...1000+$ worth of games. Is it worth $200? WTF you think? MMMMMHHMMMMM!

**Frosty110** · 6th September 2002

thats nice

**KRomeleoN** · 6th September 2002

lol yeah $15,000

i never graduated.

**moriaty** · 11th September 2002

i got the same thingy and it worked for me right away via USB. You're right about the parallel and power cable though, had troubles with that too.

The card is indeed a bit fragile but so are original games imo. Handle with care. Speed sux, but i'm glad I can just put up the games I want and delete m if i don't need m anymore. Selling it on ebay is such a fuss.

Anyway, if you can afford it, be sure to buy it.

**KRomeleoN** · 13th September 2002

well, heres another negative, after like a week, i got up to cave 1 on kuru kuru kururin, and today the sAVE JUST DISAPEARED. what a dissapointment.

**khai** · 13th September 2002

I'm glad I got an F2A card.

**nintendo's** · 18th September 2002

heyyy how many nes roms can you fit on that card.....

flash POCKET NES emu on it and please tell me !!~~~~~

i get around 40-50 nes roms on 1 64 meg flash cart...
so im curious about the 256 meg carts !!!!!!

**jstack321** · 19th September 2002

I got the 64mb from lik-sang since I am poor. They had it on sale for $70 with the cart and linker. The only difference between you and me was the shipping. It took 14 business day for my package to arrive from Hong Kong to San Francisco. When I ordered it, I thought shipping would be semi fast since Hong Kong and San Francisco are on the coasts.