June 16th, 2007 | 
Author: I’m a total sucker for cheap electronic gadgets. For Valentine’s day, instead of getting an iPod Nano, I bought my wife a Seal SV-1620 “MP4″ player from Geeks.com. It’s a cheap knock-off from China, but it still works, it plays movies and text files, doesn’t require special software, and was way cheaper. The downside is that it seems very fragile, and the firmware is total crap, and you can completely forget about support. However, my wife was 100% pleased with it then and now.
I bring this up because I think I’m about to get suckered into more cheap Chinese junk again.
The Game King-II is a portable media player that I found while looking around at Geeks.com again. Here are the rather impressive claims for this gadget:
- 1 gig internal storage
- SD card slot supporting up to 2 gig
- Can play MP3s
- Can play AVIs (it’s probably AMV or similar format with conversion software, not actually AVI)
- Can view pictures (JPEG, BMP, GIF)
- Can view “eBooks” (plain text files)
- Has a microphone for recording WAV files
- Has a built-in camera
- Has a built-in NES and Gameboy emulator
- Is only $69.95.
I was on the verge of buying a Sprint PPC 6700 phone that would do much of this stuff (plus Windows Mobile apps, a keyboard, and cell phone calls) for around $200-$300. Now, I’m pondering whether I should just keep my cheap “free” Sprint phone and buy this gadget instead. Whadya think?
If you scoff at the tiny amount of storage it has availble, don’t. While I could always use more, 3gig is enough for me to function and enjoy. And while I already have a 2gig SD card I could use, buying another one from Geeks.com would set me back all of $18. I could easily fit *every* NES game and probably a large chunk of Gameboy games on one SD card as well. My entire MP3 library could fit on one SD card, and if it does use AMV, I could probably fit Season 4 of Lost on one SD card.
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Sounds like a deal, my mp3 player was 15 bucks, so I am right on track with you.
My only complaint is that you are going to be upset you didnt get the phone. Think of all the things you can do with the phone, and that you will carry it all the time, now think of this thing? Then add the pda you may want one day, then your phone… sounds like you will need a utility belt! Batman!
I suppose you’re right, but maybe I could just put off the new phone and get this thing instead…
Did you pull the trigger on this? I’m curious to hear what you think of the player.
You could just do a search and find a PMP Game King I, I heard that it had a N64 emulator as well as an xbox 1 emulator, the big problem was the licensing, they couldn’t keep it, so they had to drop it; this PMP Game King II is crippled!
Lame crap, I cant believe you waste money on this stuff
Hater! What’s lame about it?
SO, did you actually get it? I have been looking into the GameKing II myself and I was curious what you thought about it, assuming you bought it.
I will order it this weekend, and post a full review.
I was going to order this myself, but after looking over the description again, I changed my mind because it looks as though it has to be powered by a wall plug. It doesnt say anything about battery size, so im assuming you can use it as a true “portable” device.
Sorry, I meant CAN’T use it as a portable device.
Double deuucee!!!
Actually, I emailed geeks.com because I had the same concern, but they were “pretty sure” it had a battery. I guess I’ll find out…I’m a pioneer!
if you find out if it takes batteries, or end up ordering one, please let me know. im still interested in getting one. although, over the weekend, i found an emulator for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis that will run on a playstation 2! so now i have hundreds of games for each that i can pop in and play on the ps2! sweeeeet!!
It’s being shipped to me as we speak: http://www.fedex.com/Tracking?tracknumbers=291013820393399
Definitely interested. The Wikipedia (and subsequent Googling) entry for the “Game King II” seems to point to a different model, that uses a proprietary cart system rather than SD cards. If this thing can actually play GB/GBC/NES games, I’m buying one.
So did you ever find out if it can run on batteries? If it can only run by plugging it into a wall outlet, I dont think i would be interested in it.
Still waiting for shipping…
I found a newer model called the GP2X. This has an embedded Linux operating system, and can run NeoGeo, SNES, Sega Genesis, NES, as well as others. I found a place in the USA that sells these for $179.99, so I might order one of these, but am not sure what I want to do yet. If anyone wants to check it out, look here:
http://craig.gp2x.de/review/GP2XReview.html
I can provide links to the places where it can be bought in the US if anyone is interested.
Mine was delivered on the 3rd. I love it. Works like any of the other “MP4″ players, handles Divx/XviD avi files at 320×240, has a camera, indeed. Oh, and did I mention I tore myself away from a thrilling game of Contra to type this?
As for portability, it has an internal battery, so no tether to the wall for me. Screen is bright, interface is easy to understand, and it was almost $200 cheaper than an iPod. Not that I don’t love my elderly 3G iPod.
I don’t think it really compares to iPod in most respects, but yeah it’s a fun little gadget. I didn’t realize the avi files were Divx/Xvid–that’s kinda out of the ordinary isn’t it?
Oh heck, no. But everyone wants to trumpet how great their toy is and how it beats the iPod hands down. I don’t really see it either, but I’d rather give the kids a $70 device than a $250 iPod, no matter how “cool” the iPod makes ‘em.
As for Divx, it’s relatively new. The latest and slightly more expensive processor in the “MP4″ word is called the rockchip and it handles AVI exclusively. No AMV or MTV or whatever. Plus side is most folks can find an AVI converter that they like for any platform. I’m a Mac fanboy, so that’s a huge plus as there is no AMV converter for OS X.
Bad news is the Game King II does not sync up with a mac even as an USB drive like my other players do. Oh well, at least with a stack of SD cards around the house I’ll never be without video on the road.
It also has an FM tuner.
Where can I get usable GAMES for it?
Games are just ROMs, like with any emulator. You can find them in torrents, on IRC, or heck I can still find a bunch on Google. Just make sure to unzip them before you put them on the Game King.
I’ve been using the conversion app that came with it, and my .avi files are coming up at around 120MB per hour on the high setting. That’s not so bad since source file were ranging from 350-600MB/hr. That’s 15-20 episodes on a 2GB card. Most of a season, anyhow.
And if I need 15 episodes with me ant any one time, I need some help, I think.
I enjoy all these flashbacks with the old No-friend-o games. Today, Mario, Tomorrow, Donkey Kong.
I would hope that 15-20 episodes of video would be enough even for a really long flight. Probably your battery would die before you could watch them all, though.
So is the NES emulator built into the unit? You can only put ROMS on the SD card, right? have you tried putting another kind of emulator and games on an SD card to see if it works, like SNES or Sega? Just curious. I have a CD at home with about 900 Nintendo Roms on it, so im sure that would be plenty to keep me busy if i decided to get one of these
I read through the comments and I was wondering about the quality of playback, ease of use, and battery life. Any info would be helpful.
There is a full review at: http://www.mgroves.com/Game-King-II-A-full-review
There is a full writeup about emulation: http://www.mgroves.com/Game-King-II-Emulation
You can’t just put a Windows/DOS emulator on there–it can’t run those programs. You can put ROMs on the internal memory (which is what I have done). I tried a bunch of other systems and ROMs, but I only was able to emulate 3 systems: NES, SNES, GBx.
Oh? so SNES roms work on it as well? that significantly ups the amount of games playable on the unit then. Between NES and SNES, there must be over 1500 roms available.
when you say you put them on the “internal” memory, do you mean on your SD card? So theoretically you could have 3 SD cards, 1 for NES roms, 1 for SNES roms, and 1 for GBx roms, and swap them out as needed?
No, I mean on the 1gig of internal memory that comes with the Game King. I do have a 2gig SD card, but I have music/movies on it.
just an FYI – I bought an MP4 watch (also from Geeks.com) and it came preloaded with a bunch of cool stuff like music, photos, video clips, and a VIRUS!!
Make sure your running protection when purchasing these China movie/music players!!
Thanks for the Heads up on the game king even though I ordered it then looked up info guess I’m gadget crazy too!!
So true on the viruses! The Game King-II disc didn’t have any, but I bought a Seal MP4 player for my wife earlier this year and it had a virus on the disc. Heh.
Just got mine in today! Yes, it is white like in geeks.com photo. Still tinkering with a number of items on it, but it plays the roms great.
HELP!!! I just bought this for my son, who is turning 13 in a few weeks. I have never even touched any MP3 players up til now. Here are the problems I’m having: My computer doesn’t recognize it, I can’t get the driver disk to do anything but show a text file(that I can’t open) and shows a video compression page(that I have no idea how to use). When I plug it into the hub, nothing happens. When I look for it in new hardware, it says unknown device and driver not found. How on earth do I download to it if it doesn’t show up? Thanks
I didn’t need to install any drivers or software to get it to work. If you are using Windows XP or later, it should recognize it as a standard flash/usb drive.
just ordered mine yesterday and can’t wait.
hey i just got a pmp game king 2 yesterday and i cant figure out how to put games on it. can you guys give me a hand? my aim is greenmasterj. thankyou
Okay, so I figured out how to do everything(I think)except how to change the screensaver. My son isn’t a fan of seashells. Any advice? Thx
I have the red and black one that a friend gave me and it does not take batteries its charges..i have pokemon yellow” gbc” harvest moon ” snes ” and pokemon crystal and it runs at normal speed and you can speed it up as well and itsz sooo worth it and i have a 2gb sd card in it^_^
I bought the Audionic MP4 PMP from geeks.com (very similar to the PMP-Game King). I’m at a loss when it comes to these SD cards (besides knowing that I can store pictures on it in my camera), so I really have no clue how to put games one one. I figured I’d have to buy games. If that’s the case, what platform do I buy? The user manual is obviously written by Chinese and not very clear (either that or I’m stupid). Any suggestions? You’re the first real info I’ve come across. Thanks!
crap crap crap, I can’t believe you all
I noticed there have been several postings where peoples PC doesnt recognize the GameKing – my situation also. I didnt see any responses tho
Im on XP and almost never has recognition issues with my devices.
I did however get songs and pictures put directly onto my SD card which show up on the GameKing. But I want it to work right and “see” it. Also, the games – is there a specific file extension I should look for to know I can load it onto the SD card and it will play. Im not much of a gamer. Im not having much luck finding any othe website that can assist me – not to mention the fact that theres no website or phone number in the manual.
ANYBODY HERE CAN HELP PLEEEEASE???
In general, file extentions you might want are NES, GB, GBC, SMC, and BIN. I also made a post about how to find roms: http://www.mgroves.com/ROMs
lol how i get the movies on it?
i cant get the transecoding tool 2 work…
me too I don’t know how to put the videos on it. I want Vids NOW please help me
hi please hlpe me: i mistakly clear file dell my pmp game king_ii and scren face is black too not show any things ?
After reading all these comments, I’m certainly getting one of these to replace my aging PSP-1001 (and mostly broken as well…).
I’m just curious at how the menus are set up and the battery life with minimal screen usage…
how to DL free games..
I bought the PMP Game King III for my 8 yr old daughter so she could listen to some music. So now I’ve had this thing for 3 days, she figured out how to take photos, record audios and all that but NO ONE myself or my husband or my cousin can figure out how to get any music on this thing????? Can anyone help? We know we have to use a MS player. It seems to indicate on our PC that the songs have been synched up, then we look for them on the device and no songs?
Help please……
Try using the explorer instead of the music menu.
i just got the game king II and i just cannot figure it out can someone help me? how to install the games and where to get them?