Ick, long saves! Yikes, especially if you have to hold down the button the entire time! (as is recommended on the ED64 clone)..
I bought Ultra Everdrive (aka V3) from Stone Age Gamer on a black friday sale, so that helped cut a bit of the high price down... I think I payed roughly 160-180 after adding in their light pipes, black case (it cost a litlte more), and collector's box. But you could get cheapest v3 model for 140-150 I think which was around the price of 2.5 on a normal day in most US shops/Krikkz directly...
I think that USB slot can be used to hack in Pokemon Stadium pokemon transfering too, assuming you don't have the adapter, but I'm not sure on this... I havne't played that game and don't know much about it...
I'm definitely happy with the V3, no problems, no mess, works like a charm with most games! Since I have NA tvs/console only the PAL games offer issues, since most haven't been fully patched to work with NTSC yet.
ONly game I really should look for all accessories for if I want completism is the stuff for Hey You, Pikachu (voice recognition) so rom is useless by itself, and possibly the stadium games?