Woozle’s GBA Consolizer Review (4.5/5)
This is my review and brief experiences putting together the Woozle GBA Consolizer and using it.
Delivery: I was part of an initial pre-order by www.game-tech.us. I realized that this was part of a fund-raising process to get this project off the ground (which meant it was going to be a while). That being said, it took a long time to get this kit and the the communication was sparse during that time (my only real complaint was just not knowing what was going on). Hopefully if you pre-order now, your wait won’t be so long (especially because I believe they have a lot of it in-hand). The kit came in a pretty bare-bones box, but that’s really all that was needed.
Installation Experience: The experience was interesting. I read and watched Jason’s video on installing this and that did help (mostly just with the board install). There was some confusion at the time about the power switch for me and I ended up bodging that up pretty good (because the traces there were garbage). I think later Jason’s videos show that process better. His audio installation notes were quite good (basically disabling the volume pot to get cleaner line out). After I finished the install, I watched Voultar’s video and was pretty mad that i hadn’t see that beforehand. It was that good of an install video.
If you’re not reasonably good with soldering, then please get someone else to install this for you. It’s very easy to screw this install up (most likely pulling up a trace) - especially with a GBA that has battery or leaky-cap acid damage. If you are going to replace the caps on your GBA, be extremely careful (those traces are also often delicate). Watch the Voultar video a few times before trying. I practiced cap removal on a junk GBA board and ended up pulling up a trace. After looking at the caps on my candidate board, I decided just to leave them (they looked to be a high quality brand vs the parts board - which had non-name caps). I think the cap replacement is the most dangerous part of this install.
Positives:
This thing works and looks great (nice sharp pixels).
I happen to really like the mechanical power switch (the new push-button switch is nifty too, but I really like the metal toggle).
The controller port is high quality
The case is really sturdy (see below)
There is a menu you can access with a controller press with scanlines and grid lines, but I find that the default view looks the best.
Negatives:
I wasn’t quite as happy with the enclosure as I thought I’d be (because the version I got was just convoluted with all the layers and the plexi and the screws going through it all). I will say that this thing is rock solid in construction though. I believe the version you get now is much much simpler to construct.
I ended up having to use the audio out into my TV because the device doesn’t seem to follow the HDMI standard and it’s hit or miss which devices can use the audio coming from HDMI.
Conclusion:
I would recommend this to anyone that’s really into collecting for GB/GBC/GBA and wants the most authentic experience. It’s very neat to use the real hardware. That being said, there’s the Analogue FPGA offering that’s coming out next year (supposedly with a TV dock) and there’s the new GBA Mister core that’s also coming out. This thing isn’t cheap. If you’re an enthusiast and don’t have an authentic solution to play your handheld library on your TV, then yeah.. go ahead and get one. Otherwise, wait for those other alternatives or just use a GameCube with Gameboy Interface software (requiring no mods) - especially with the HDMI and component out solutions that are available now.
