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details
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Specs:
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Four Megabits of Memory
Rewritable cartridge
Two mini games
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By:
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Bung
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Category:
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Peripheral
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Price:
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$25
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PocketVoice
Record your voice and play it back on your Game Boy using this handy device.
December 7, 1999
Sometimes good ideas come from companies other than Nintendo. Bung, a Hong Kong-based company responsible for many "gray area" Game Boy devices, has created a peripheral called the "PocketVoice," a cartridge that plugs into any Game Boy system, and lets you record your voice on the built-in 4 megabit Flash RAM, and play the sounds back on the built-in speaker.
The unit has a very bare-bones interface – the cartridge has voice memory locations divided up into eight sections, and each section can hold about 11 seconds of digitized audio, giving the cartridge the ability to store around 88 seconds of audio. That's if you only use the free two megabit memory locations. Two megabits of memory are filled with high-color images that cycle while you play back your sounds, as well as two Game Boy games that have been pre-installed onto the cartridge.
The unit might be confusing to play around with, but the sound quality is actually pretty good. The built-in microphone picks up the sound quite well -- just don't speak directly into the cartridge and you'll be fine.
Bung also sells a separate development tool called the Xchanger (which we will review shortly) that will enable you to write and delete files to and from the PocketVoice cartridge. Basement developers can create games that will utilize the cartridge for digitized audio – making the cartridge "talk" at various points of the game with preset sounds. The company will also upgrade the interface for the PocketVoice in this fashion – just download the new file and write it to the cartridge.
Since the PocketVoice is not a Nintendo-licensed device and because the PocketVoice is a Hong Kong import, you most likely will not find this unit on shelves like Electronics Boutique or Babbage's. But if this little device intrigues you, click here to head over to www.upstategames.com, one of Bung's official US distributors. The unit is $25, about the cost of a standard Game Boy Color game.
-- Craig Harris
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