Shark MX by Interact Reviewed by pikamom pikamom@supernet.com, and my new gameboy e-mail address: pikamom@gamesharker.com Released: 2000 Use with: the manual says it works with gameboy pocket and gameboy color, so I don't know about the original gameboy. PLEASE SEND ME E-MAIL TO MY GAMEBOY! remember to keep it under 2000 characters and text only. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Opening Snide Remarks: With the gameboy camera you can take pictures, make a movie, compose a song, make your own game with hotspots...if you have the Mission: Impossible game pak you can use your gameboy as a remote control... listen to the radio on your gameboy with the Boom Box Boy...print stickers with the gameboy printer...colorize your old black and white games with the brainboy...and NOW, with this cool new gadget, you can send and recieve text e-mail with your gameboy! There are even more things you can do with this device that turns your gameboy into a PDA (personal digital assistant)! I'm getting Song Pro whenever it gets released, then I'll be able to download music from the internet! Hopefully someone has already thought of a way to download books onto the gameboy. I have the Bible on one little game pak, and besides the entire text, there is a concordance and 3 games! So I know there would be enough room on a pak to download a couple of books! And I hope one day we will be able to make our own game on gameboy. I saw a review for another system for a game like that, and it sounded great. Imagine the possibilities!!! Oh yeah, I saw something about a video cam gadget for the gameboy, where you'd be able to video conference and see the person you are communicating with. Oh yeah, and something else, they are making a device that connects to a cell phone so you'll be able to play games and trade pokemon and stuff with anyone who has the same equipment. I love gameboy. It's the best hobby I ever had. I love looking for information about it on the internet, reading magazines like Nintendo Power and Pocket Gamer, and posting about it on DMG ice. And making my webpage: All Things Gameboy All the Time. And writing reviews. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Impressions: When you first open the box of your new Shark MX, you will see a telephone line, a plastic card, and a clear plastic unit that goes into the game pak slot on your gameboy. The unit sticks up in a bulge over the top of your gameboy, and on top of the unit is a phone jack. The first thing you need to do is call the number on the card and get your account set up, then you recieve a registration number that you type into the gameboy. You will not be able to use the Shark MX until you do this, and then everytime you use the unit, you have to put in your PIN number. I really like this, so no one but me can read my e-mail. Besides being able to send/recieve text e-mail (no html or gif's... and the size of the e-mail is limited to 2000 characters), there is a calendar that saves up to 60 events, an address book with 50 slots, an automatic phone dialer (I really like this feature; just open your address book, put your phone up to the speakers of your gameboy, click on the phone number, and voila! your phone dials itself!!!) Two more things the Shark MX does... it has a calculator and a world time zone map. The e-mail itself is great for people that don't have a PC and the internet, but I would rather just use my computer. Typing in a message is tedious and time consuming as you must do it one letter at a time. There's a virtual keyboard on the gameboy screen that you navigate with the plus pad. When you set up your account, you are given 30 free minutes, after that it's $6.00 for 60 more minutes. The minutes are converted into Top-up units, 30 minutes = 300 units. Then everytime you call in, units are deducted from your account. How many units you use each time are determined by the amount of e-mail you send/recieve. The Shark MX can store up to 50 e-mails. I signed up for a free newsletter, and in this letter you get up-to-the-minute details of gameboy game release dates and gameshark codes. Lots of pokemon info!!! You can also sign up for e-mail from celebrities, and enter into contests! Liked: I love gameboy peripherals, and this one is very, very cool!!! But there's not much information on the internet about it, and it's not even mentioned at the gameshark website which I find very odd. I liked the fact that there is absolutely no sound. None. No music, beeps or blips. So if you use it in school or at the office or anywhere, no one can hear. I thought that was a nice touch! Also, when you recieve e-mail, there is an option to add the senders' address to your address book. Hated: There are some problems. For one thing, you can't use your address book to automatically input the e-mail address in your new mail, so you still have to write somewhere else the address you want unless you have it memorized. So far I haven't found a way to alphabeticalize my address book. There's not enough room to put in all the info I want in the address book or the calendar. And the calendar starts in June 2000 so you have to scroll through to get to the present month. Also, for the first week after I had it, everytime I called in, my e-mail bounced back because the server wasn't up yet, and top-up units were deducted from my account anyway. I sent e-mail from my pc to the support, but the response they sent back was just "have you registered your Shark MX yet". No one would tell me the server wasn't running yet, and I thought it was pretty stupid to ask if I had registered since you can't get past the registration number screen until you call in and register. How could I have composed and sent e-mail if I hadn't already registered? Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the first unit I got didn't work at all, the nintendo logo was scrambled... I had to take it back and exchange it. So the first week with the thing was frustrating. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Improve: More space for the information in the address book and calendar. Maybe a real keyboard that would plug into the gameboy, even if it is tiny and you have to use a pen to type. (Will the gameboy advanced have a touch screen?) Memory for the calendar, so that when you open it, it's already on the correct date. Being able to click on the e-mail address in the address book and use it to compose new mail. And one last thing. It's extremely difficult to get the phone line out of the jack. They should fix that! (Editor's Note: VERY IMPORTANT LINE BELOW!!!) It would have been nice to be able to print out e-mail with the gameboy printer. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Final Words: Despite it's problems, the Shark MX is still a must-have for gameboy lovers and collectors of peripherals. And for anyone who doesn't have a computer or the internet, this is a great way to have e-mail! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Score: 90% I gave the Shark MX a high score despite its many flaws, simply because it is revolutionary. Just think, now you can communicate with anyone who has e-mail anywhere in the world, with only your gameboy and a phone line! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Secrets: I don't know of any, except that if you sign up for the free newsletter, gameshark.com will send you secrets and codes for your games.