The Watara Supervision Flash Cart
This review isn't sponsored, I just like buying niche products ;)
The Supervision is far from the most expensive game console in the world to collect for, yet some games can get quite expensive considering they're mostly terrible and come in packages that don't age well.
It's true that you could play these games in an emulator but then you'd be missing out on the charm of the Supervision's bizarre and interesting hardware, from it's "jumbo" LCD to it's odd bendable mid section. Furthermore, some Supervision games just don't emulate that well, giving the player the impression that they're worse than they actually are (although they're still pretty bad for the most part). That's where A2Heaven, a website run by a Bulgarian tech enthusiast, comes in to solve this problem by providing our small, niche and slightly insane community with a flash cart for our beloved Watara Supervision!
All of the available bundles
The cartridge starts at $69.99 for the cartridge and leather case. There's also a $99.99 standard set that adds in a programmer so you can add your own games to the cartridge. Finally, there's a $135 deluxe set that adds in a leather case for your Supervision along with all the previously mentioned goodies.
Considering the price of some Supervision games and the niche nature of this product there's clear value for money here. So in this review I want to take a closer look at this cartridge and the other items included in the deluxe set and see what your $135 gets you.
Everything that I received in my package
The initial unboxing experience for the flash cart is beyond stellar. The cartridge and it's accessories come in a simple cardboard box with A2Heaven's logo stamped onto it, certainly this isn't going to rival Apple for the most premium unboxing experience, but once you open that box it becomes clear how much love has been put into this package.
Inside the package I purchased I got the flash cart itself, a leather case for both the Supervision and the flash cart, an extra 3D printed cartridge case, an instruction leaflet, the cartridge programmer, a variety of Supervision related stickers (and a Mega Duck sticker for some reason) and a postcard from Bulgaria. It's the personal touch and stunning presentation here that takes a good product to a great labour of love. I find the postcard particularly sweet.
The leather cases for the flash cart and Supervision
First let's take a look at the leather cases that came in the deluxe package: Both of the cases have exceptional build quality and feel like a premium product even beyond something that a console manufacturer would officially put out today, never mind something made by a hobbyist for an obscure console from the 90s. Additionally, they both have the Supervision logo printed on them, making them perhaps the most esoteric products ever made. They may also both come in varied colours that differ from the images posted here thanks to different materials being available at the time of manufacture. My only concern is that the cartridge case uses a button as opposed to a lip like the official cartridge pouches. This isn't necessarily a problem but I worry that it might not stand up to heavy use, although if you're careful when opening and closing the case it should be okay.
Another thing worth mentioning is that the Supervision console case only fits the rarer DMG-style GB-2000 model as opposed to the more common 9205 "bendy" model. This wouldn't necessarily be a problem were it not for the fact that this isn't mentioned on the A2Heaven website at the time of writing (although I have informed A2Heaven that this is a problem). This issue could potentially leave people with a case they have no use for.
Overall though I really like the leather cases and think you should absolutely put down the extra money for the deluxe set if you have a GB-2000 or intend on getting one in the future.
The 3D printed cartridge and stickers, not great inside or out
Unfortunately my opinion on the actual cartridge isn't as positive as everything else in this package.
First I have to talk about the cartridge stickers that come with the cartridge. I was sent four: one with a gritty texture and one with a smooth texture plus two more with the same textures but with rounded edges. The quality of the stickers is very good but unfortunately I was sent stickers without sticky backs. I can forgive this since A2Heaven is just run by a hobbyist, but if you're unwilling to accept little mistakes like this then this might not be the product for you.
My opinion on the cartridge itself is unfortunately not great, A2Heaven is now selling their Supervision flash carts with 3D printed cases that are inferior to the plastic cases that these carts used in the past (presumably as I have no way to compare). These 3D printed cartridges don't seem to shut properly at the top and just generally don't look as nice as the plastic ones. Furthermore, as I was disassembling the cartridge a piece of the 3D printed case got stuck on one of the screws. Anther unfortunate aspect of these cartridges is that you will eventually have to disassemble them as there's no way to connect it to your computer without disassembly.
My ugly solution
Ultimately, I just ended up putting the flash cart's PCB in an original Supervision cartridge case. Supposedly these PCBs are able to fit in any Supervision cartridge; I found that I have to sand off one of the poles inside the cartridge, though I suspect that has more to do with my cartridge case being damaged than the flash cart PCB.
If I could improve one thing about this product it'd be these unfortunately awful 3D printed cases, they're a huge let down for what is otherwise an excellent product.
(Update 13/11/2023: A2Heaven has confirmed to me that the flash cart PCB has fit in every case they tested. They've also confirmed that a more accurate case design with a hole for programming and better materials is in the works.)
The game selection menu (feat. lots of glare)
(Also yes, this flash cart does work on both the bendy and GB-2000)
One of the most impressive aspects of this flash cart is the software experience; The first thing that you'll see when you power your Supervision with the flash cart inserted is a custom A2Heaven boot screen in lieu of the usual Supervision boot screen, this is a really nice touch that helps to give this cartridge its own identity. The next thing that you'll see is a list of games that contains every single commercially released Supervision game ever released already preloaded onto the cartridge, with one exception: Journey to the West, one of the most infamous Supervision games. Unfortunately it isn't included in this flash cart because it requires special hardware in order to work. A2Heaven actually sell a Journey to the West cartridge separately, which makes me wonder how possible it would be to create a flash cart that combines A2Heaven's original flash cart and the Journey to the West cart. I'd be happy to pay extra for something like that.
Alongside the game titles you'll see an image of the game's title screen, its release date and its developer. I've heard reports from individuals in the Supervision community that suggest some of this data might be inaccurate, but considering the scarcity of information about the Supervision one can't hold the developer of this flash cart accountable for a few errors if these reports are true.
Another notable aspect about the game selection menu on this flash cart is its music. On a system with mostly garbage music it's incredible to hear something that might actually get stuck in your head.
The only gripe that I have with this menu is that you can only quickly jump to the top or the bottom of the list of games; it's not possible to quickly go through the list alphabetically, instead you have to scroll through each game manually. However, this is an extremely minor issue given the small size of the Supervision's library, at most it will take 30 seconds for you to look through all the games available on this cart.
That's a cool robot!
Testing in progress...
Finally, it's worth mentioning some extras that you get with this flash cart that are included in the game selection menu. First, a rom for the TV Link accessory, this is of no practical use but it does show you a cool robot, that's a win for me though of course this won't let you play your Supervision on your TV without a TV Link (incidentally, according to Obsolete Worlds this flash cart does work with the TV Link). You also get a Supervision testing program called Watest, perhaps this will be useful to people who want to test Supervisions (if this is you some serious life choice re-evaluation is needed).
Overall I think that this game selection screen is among the best on any flash cart, period. It honestly leaves an impression closer to the curated museum type experience of Nintendo's mini consoles than an unofficial flash cart. Absolute top marks to A2Heaven for designing this menu! We can only hope that other flash cart devs will take note!
Popo Team as the developers intended!
When you select a game to torture yourself with play you can easily start it by selecting it from the game menu. Once you do that the game will be quickly loaded and you'll be presented with the Supervision or Travelmate logo like you'd usually see on a Supervision cartridge. This is another area where this flash cart excels over flash carts for other systems: there's virtually no load time before getting into a game whereas other flash carts can take up to a minute to load a game in my experience.
You know you want to play Sonny Xpress like this
Once you're in game it's like you have the official cartridge inserted into your Supervision, this is because as far as your Supervision is concerned it is reading the game off an original cartridge, no emulation or hacker-y involved! This of course makes the flash cart a great option for playing some hard to find Supervision games that don't work well in emulators (for instance games with heavy flickering that don't work well on modern LCD displays). Won't your parents be proud to know that you've played Sonny Xpress how the developers intended?
Custom games in the menu
A homebrew game running
Another cool feature of the A2Heaven flash cart is that you can actually add your own rom files using one of 8 free spaces on the game menu. This is useful for prototype games and homebrew. I tested this feature with a few games and it seemed to work quite well, but the user experience is somewhat convoluted and needs some work.
The first major problem with this feature is that you actually have to disassemble the cartridge to program it due to there being no hole in the case for the programming connector, I imagine this being particularly annoying if you decide to apply a sticker to the case as the screws would be covered by the sticker. The next problem is that roms have to be a specific size for you to write them to the cartridge, for official games this isn't a problem since for the most part they're all 64kb. However some homebrew programs are smaller than this and therefore not compatible with the cartridge writing software (If you want to try the crosslib homebrew games on your A2Heaven flash cart you can download 64kb versions of the games here). The final major problem is that once you have your games on the cartridge they aren't named in the menu, so you have to remember which game is which based on the number of the slot you put it into when you programmed it into the cartridge. Another more niche issue is that the programming software is only available for Windows, so if you use a Mac or Linux machine you're out of luck for the time being (though it is possible to use Parallels on a Mac!). The saving grace here however is that all of these problems can likely be fixed in software.
(Update 13/11/2023: A2Heaven has confirmed to me that the issue with homebrew games that aren't 64kb has now been fixed.)
More games for your...pleasure...?
In conclusion, there's no denying that this is a product with several glaring flaws. However, it is also an absolute labour of love that demonstrates the power of the retro gaming community. Furthermore, it is undoubtedly one of the coolest retro gaming products to come out in recent memory, as well as one of the most niche.
I would primarily recommend this cartridge to people who just want to experience the Supervision without spending insane amounts of money to collect all of the games and taking up space with ugly boxes. It's also good for anybody who wants an all in one solution for their Supervision. Personally, I really like using this flash cart on the go so I don't have to carry around a bunch of different cartridges.
Ultimately, my opinion is that this cartridge reflects great value for money even despite its flaws. There's no reason that everybody reading this review shouldn't go out and buy one right this moment!
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Review published 12/11/2023
This review is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit must be given to Immy if this work is distributed.