[ TRY ] Nintendo has offered a few ways to
play handheld games on your television over the years - most prominently, the Super Game
Boy for Super Nintendo, and the Game Boy Player for GameCube, but the experience does have
some drawbacks. For those with a high-quality GameCube video
output solution, such as component video or the newer GCVideo options, the Game Boy Interface
homebrew software is an excellent tool that can improve image quality and input latency
over the official Nintendo software. But now there’s a new option - a real Game
Boy Advance equipped with HDMI output and a Super Nintendo controller port. This is the GBA Consolizer. [ MUSIC: “Principle” by Matt McCheskey
] [ Music: Iridion II ] [ Coury ]In 2016, Stephen Williams, known
online as Woozle, first began to openly discuss his Game Boy Advance HDMI output project. Years of development later, we’ve got the
end result in our hands, and it is no exaggeration to say that it is one of the most exciting
mods that we’ve ever tested. Woozle sent us early units for testing and
feedback, while his distributor, Jason Rauch of Game-Tech US, provided us with final units
in custom enclosures, which leave the cartridge slot open for front-loading action. Game-Tech has a pretty crazy variety of other
case colors on hand too. The GBA Consolizer is currently only designed
for the original horizontal Game Boy Advance - model AGB-001. This is great because these units are generally
not desired due to their unlit screens, and it’s quite easy to find a fairly inexpensive
unit with a scratched up screen. Some systems use a 40-pin ribbon cable to
connect the system’s digital video to its LCD screen, while others use a 32-pin connection. The Consolizer kit is designed for 40-pin
systems, but Game-Tech sells an adapter for 32-pin systems separately for $10. You can get an idea of whether you need the
adapter by looking at the number printed on the system’s PCB, visible through the tiny
slit behind the battery cover. If the code on the motherboard starts with
a zero, then it is probably a 40-pin unit, but the only way to be sure is to open it
up. According to Game-Tech, the frosty “Glacier”
units are a pretty safe bet for 40-pin connectors. If you just want a pre-assembled unit directly
from Game-Tech, Jason is currently accepting pre-orders for those as well. Bob of Retro RGB considers the Consolizer
to be an install that people with intermediate soldering skills should be comfortable enough
doing. I’ve only just begun to try my hand at basic
console modding projects myself, so this one might be just a bit above my current level. But if you do think you’re ready for it,
check out Voultar’s excellent installation video on YouTube. While the 3D printed enclosure with the plexiglass
cover may look like more of a true consolized system, the basic installation with the 3D
printed “lump” replacing the GBA screen does have an extra bit of functionality. This version allows you to use the GBA itself
as a controller. Since it’s a pretty comfortable system to
hold - more comfortable than the SP models we’d say - this is a convenient way to play
for those who may not have an SNES controller. Perhaps more importantly though, is that games
with a built-in motion sensor can be played in this configuration. This is especially nice for Kirby Tilt ‘n
Tumble since it’s impossible to play the game using the lit screen of a Game Boy Advance
SP due to the bottom-loading cartridge slot, which causes the controls to be reversed. We’ve found many full-size to mini-size
HDMI adapters to be rather touchy, so we suggest buying a relatively lightweight cable that
has the mini-sized HDMI port. Unfortunately, if you wanted to use fewer
cables, you cannot use batteries in these modded systems. Currently, Game-Tech is selling this basic
kit with the original GBA body for $140, and the enclosure kits for $30 more. If you want the cheaper one, the item that
you need to select from the drop-down menu is “Black LCD.” Buttons aside, the functionality of the full
enclosure is identical to the basic kit. The enclosure even has the right hooks and
connections for GameCube and GBA link cables, in addition to access to the headphone jack
- which is important, and we’ll explain why a bit later. But you will want to be careful with the plexiglass
cover, as we’ve heard that cleaning it with isopropyl alcohol will actually cause it to
crack! Our only other particular concern with the
physical build of both installations is that the SNES controller socket seems to hold the
controllers pretty tightly - so be gentle with your controllers when connecting or unplugging
them. Well, with all that said, let’s put this
thing through its paces and see what we can do with it! [ Music: Gremlins 2 ] The Consolizer menu is accessed by hitting
down and select simultaneously. Options in sub-menus are cycled through by
pressing left or right on the Dpad. To be honest, menu navigation feels a bit
unresponsive. Woozle tells us that this is because of the
way the controller is polled during menu use, but the controller is polled every single
line for actual gameplay, so at least there’s no added lag where it matters. We do wish there were failsafes against accidentally
bringing up the menu, such as an IR sensor for menu functions, or an option to disable
hotkeys. While we haven’t thought of any games where
hitting down and select simultaneously might be common during gameplay, we’ve certainly
done it on accident a time or two. The Consolizer maps A and B to their corresponding
buttons on the SNES controller, while Y doubles as an extra A input and X also functions as
B. This way, confirm and cancel are exactly where
you would expect them to be on a Nintendo system, which works great for RPGs. However, this might feel a bit awkward for
action games, where most people are probably used to jumping with B and attacking with
Y. If you prefer using a comfortable upward angle
for your buttons, you could rest your thumb over A and X and play that way instead. If that still doesn’t cut it for you, simply
go to the System Options menu and turn on the A-B swap. This way you can hold your thumb over B and
Y, just as you would for most SNES action games. However, this also reverses confirm and cancel
and may make on-screen button prompts a bit more confusing. But we did rack our brains to come up with
some interesting controller alternatives… for one, the 8BitDo Retro Receiver opens up
a world of possibilities. Of course, there’s 8BitDo’s own selection
of SNES styled-controllers, but that’s almost too obvious - and they’re notorious for
Dpad issues. 8Bitdo’s far superior Genesis-styled M30
Bluetooth controller does work though, and might be fun for some Sega games like Gunstar
Super Heroes or Sonic Advance. But let’s get a bit more creative - did
you know that Nintendo Switch controllers work with the Retro Receiver if its firmware
is up to date? Well, guess what, those NES-styled Joy-Cons
sync up to the Retro Receiver and feel great for original Game Boy and Game Boy Color games! But for GBA games, the tiny R and L buttons,
while functional, don’t feel wonderful to use. So we decided to buy 8BitDo’s Gbros wireless
adapter to see what was possible with its GameCube and Wii controller ports. For one, you could use an SNES Classic Edition
controller, which is probably a lot fresher than your real SNES controllers. But for us, the most exciting possibility
here is the Hori Dpad controller for GameCube - this controller was designed primarily for
the Game Boy Player after all, and for us has been our preferred GBA-on-TV controller
for a very long time. Well, guess what? If you flip the gray toggle from Switch mode
to Xinput mode, it actually works! The tricky thing here is that GameCube normally
doesn’t have a select button, so in Switch mode you lose that button. Xinput, however, treats the Z button as the
select button, which hey, might be even better in this case. Now this what I’m talking about!The only
other thing you have to do is go into the Consolizer menu and activate the A-B swap,
since Xinput reverses these buttons. But if you happen to be sensitive to the bit
of lag caused by Bluetooth, there is no shortage of alternative SNES controllers out there. There’s even an SNES controller designed
especially for Game Boy games - the old Super Game Boy Commander by Hori. No matter what your preference, it shouldn’t
be too hard for anyone to pick a controller they’d enjoy using with the GBA Consolizer. [ TRY ] The GBA Consolizer outputs only one
resolution - 1280 by 720 - 720p. While this might seem limiting, it is absolutely
the right choice given the resolution of Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games. The screens for the original Game Boy and
Game Boy Color are 160 by 144 pixels. 144 might look like kind of an oddball number,
but guess what? 144 times 5 is exactly 720. You can take advantage of this by visiting
the Video Options menu and setting Zoom to 5x. As long as your TV is set to not cut off any
overscan, this will perfectly fill your screen’s vertical space with glorious giant Game Boy
pixels. If your TV does a good scale of 720p, this
should look pretty great. And hey, don’t forget that 4K - 2160p - is
three times taller than 720p. That makes for a whopping 15x scale of the
original Game Boy pixels. While most TVs aren’t going to do a nearest
neighbor type scale of 720p content, I find that, at least on my own 4K screen, 720p and
1080p are scaled equally well, resulting in an extremely crisp look for this type of pixely
content. Game Boy Advance games, on the other hand,
run at a resolution of 240 by 160. This is a bit more troublesome - 160 doesn’t
go cleanly into 720, 1080, or even 2160. If we use the same 5x scale that we use with
Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, we’ll lose 8 lines of the picture at both the top
and bottom - which may not sound like a lot, but GBA games tend to use every bit of the
limited screen space as possible, so we really don’t want to lose any of that information. Setting to 4x then, is the better choice for
a clean integer scale. This does not fill the vertical space entirely,
but in my opinion, it’s close enough - about 89% of the screen’s height. For comparison’s sake, had the Consolizer
been capable of outputting a 6x scale at 1080p, as you can do with GBA games on the Wii U
Virtual Console, the exact same amount of the screen would be filled, so 720p really
is the logical choice all around. Now, there is a 4.5x Zoom setting as well,
and because 160 times 4.5 is exactly 720, this does completely fill the screen. But you probably already know what I’m gonna
say… non-integer scales are a no-no because you’ll end up with uneven pixel scaling
and therefore the screen will shimmer as the game scrolls. But this is not the case on the GBA Consolizer
because Woozle has incorporated the magic fix - interpolation. When 4.5x is chosen, pixel edges are automatically
softened just a bit so that the image still gives a sharp impression, and pixels appear
uniform in size so that you don’t get that distracting shimmer effect. It appears to be a very simple but effective
interpolation implementation. While we prefer to record in 4x because the
sharp pixel edges are good for video editing, 4.5x is also a very worthwhile choice. So, 4x or 4.5x for GBA games, and 5x for Game
Boy or Game Boy Color titles. Luckily, your GBA preferences are stored separately
from the other two, so after you’ve saved your settings, you’ll never have to change
Zoom sizing when you play one or the other! [MUSIC: Boktai ] In terms of overall image quality while using
original hardware, the GBA Consolizer’s chief competition is the Game Boy Interface
homebrew software by Extrems for the GameCube Game Boy Player - specifically, the High-Fidelity
version. If you have a high quality GameCube video
output solution - in this case we’re using component video via the GCHD Mk-II - you can
connect your GameCube to the Open Source Scan Converter - the OSSC - for 1080p output - an
overall 6x scale of the GBA pixels! This may be just a touch sharper than the
GBA Consolizer depending on your TV. However, there may also be some visible analog
noise and it can take a bit of fiddling to make sure the pixels are sampled correctly. So, this is definitely more of a power user
sort of solution. Next, let’s take a quick look at the artificial
Scanline options. At first, this might seem a bit strange for
Game Boy games, since Game Boy screens don’t have that separated scanline effect that CRT
televisions do. If you do like this effect, you can choose
between three levels of intensity. The effect is more pronounced at 4x compared
to 5x. But the real treat is the grid-style scanlines,
which are meant to look like a GBA’s tiny LCD pixels blown up to gigantic size. This looks super cool, and while we’re mostly
recording with the effect off due to how patterns like this tend to not work well in web videos,
I otherwise could see myself actually using this. I like the level 1 intensity, but the choice
is yours. However, this is one area where 4.5x Zoom
sizing just doesn’t work out. Whether you use the traditional horizontal
scanlines or the LCD grid-style scanlines, they just look very obviously uneven in this
mode, so if you like the scanlines, definitely use an integer scale instead. The Smoothing option offers two levels of
emulator-style smoothing if oversized pixel graphics aren’t your thing. However, this feature only works when using
4x Zoom. To be honest, something about this isn’t
so bad to my eyes when it comes to the limited colors and simple graphics in original Game
Boy games. I mean, I would still never use this feature,
but for whatever reason, I don’t hate it as much as I usually do. The rest of the Video Options have to do with
color. The Palette setting is an especially cool
feature - and one that I never would’ve expected to be possible with a GBA mod. Specifically, this is only for original Game
Boy games. By default, Palette is set to OFF, which allows
the system to colorize Game Boy games the same way a Game Boy Color or Game Boy Advance
normally would. So, as usual, certain games will boot with
a pre-selected palette, but oftentimes they’re really not that great - the default palette
for Kirby games is just disgusting to me. You can override these palettes by holding
various button combinations while the system boots up - Left and B is grayscale, which
is a safe bet. Left and A isn’t too bad either. One bonus to the GBC and GBA colorization
technique is that sprites and backgrounds are assigned different palettes, breaking
the 4-color limit. This can be kind of nice, but personally,
I always felt like it was kind of cheating, and vastly prefer the way that the Super Game
Boy for SNES handles color. The Super Game Boy allows quite a bit of color
customization for the Game Boy’s four shades. But there is also a menu filled with four
pages of presets, and I have always been partial to these when it comes to how I like my Game
Boy games to be colorized. Luckily for me at least, Woozle saw fit to
include these in the GBA Consolizer firmware - that’s what the palette choices are based
on! First, you won’t see the palettes actually
change if the Palette was set to OFF when you turned on the system. Choose a palette - any palette - save, and
then restart. Now the system will boot into a custom grayscale
mode that allows Woozle to map the tones more easily. A variety of pleasing options are available
that may work well for a range of different games. If you’re like me and prefer your Game Boy
games to have a green tint, then palettes A5, D3, E4, and E5 are just a few of the ones
worth checking out. One small hitch, though - it seems that these
palettes do not work when using a Game Boy EverDrive, possibly because it boots the system
into a GBC mode. So, when using earlier games through an EverDrive,
you are simply limited to the usual palettes that you can use on a Game Boy Color or Game
Boy Advance. The only particular complaint I have with
how these are implemented is that for palettes that don’t use pure black as the darkest
shade, the black space surrounding the game window is also tinted. Maybe it wouldn’t bother you, great, but
leaving a solid shade like this for extended play on my OLED TV makes me feel a bit antsy,
so I’ve only been using the palettes that include true black. The big missing thing, of course, are the
Super Game Boy enhancements in supported games, such as the palettes that can use way more
colors and change from scene to scene - those are handled by the Super Nintendo itself and
the necessary hardware to use those palettes was sadly never included in GBC or GBA systems. As an aside, since the Super Nintendo displays
at a wider aspect ratio than actual Game Boy screens, the Consolizer will look narrower
- but is more true to the games’ intended proportions. Getting the proper square pixel aspect from
a Super Game Boy can be achieved with upscalers or custom sizing on the Super Nt. The last two options in the Video menu - Shader
and Gamma - affect all games. Because there are so many different types
of screens that these games could’ve been played on, people might have different opinions
about what the colors “should” look like. Or, in many cases, certain games might use
overly garish colors to compensate for the extremely dark screen of the original Game
Boy Advance. By default, the Consolizer’s output is pretty
vivid, which you might like - it feels akin to playing on the brighter backlit AGS-101
or DS Lite screens. But if you feel like the colors are burning
your retinas, the preset color shaders are meant to mimic GBA, original DS, and uh, PSP
screens - sure, why not! All of these options are a bit more muted
compared to the default colors, which does suit certain games. For the most part, we’ve been recording
without Shaders, except for original Game Boy games… the GBA shader helps make the
greens look a bit more pea soupy- just like I like ‘em! If you bump the Gamma to 2.4, then the shaders
increase in contrast a bit, which may look kind of nice. For reference, the GBA Consolizer does output
Full Range color. If you’d rather dial in your own look, set
the Shader to CW1, and then back out to the main menu. Here you’ll find the Color Wizard. This lets you make the image look warmer or
cooler… darker… or more desaturated. The Shader and Color Wizard settings can also
be useful when using the Palettes for original Game Boy games - in theory, you could push
these color tones to look quite different from how they normally are, in a sense, expanding
the color palette customization even further. [ COURY ] Well, that’s it for the Video
Options, but there’s one more visual aspect we need to discuss that impacts how the GBA
Consolizer compares to other methods for playing GBA games - which might be a good thing or
a bad thing depending on your perspective. Similar to the Hi-Def NES, which is an HDMI
mod kit for the NES, the GBA Consolizer alters the system speed by just a tiny, imperceptible
bit to maximize compatibility with modern displays. This is because the native screen refresh
rate of everything from the original Game Boy on up to the Game Boy Color and Game Boy
Advance is approximately 59.7Hz, and thus this is the framerate that the games target. This is kind of a weird framerate though,
so there’s almost always some kind of compromise when bringing these games to the big screen. For instance, the Super Game Boy, Super Game
Boy 2, and Game Boy Player all exhibit some greater or lesser degree of stuttering in
the video output because 59.7 Hz doesn’t match the Super Nintendo or GameCube refresh
rates. The various versions of the Game Boy Interface
software deal with this in various ways - the standard version uses temporal interpolation,
the Speed Running version just straight-up outputs 59.7Hz, which could cause compatibility
issues, while the High-Fidelity version forces the GameCube to use 60Hz output. The GBA Consolizer’s method for circumventing
this is to instead overclock the system by just a fraction of a percentage so that the
framerate jumps from 59.7 to 60, which makes it so that the frames are perfectly synced
to the HDMI’s 60Hz output. This should work with any modern display and
produce absolutely no scrolling stutter. This exact timing is also how the GBA Consolizer
is able to keep input lag at zero - but always remember that you’ll need a low-lag display
to take full advantage of that. While this sounds great and all, this speed
discrepancy could be a big problem for some people. Even if the difference is not humanly perceptible
- I mean, check this, the Consolizer gains only about one and a half seconds over the
course of 5 minutes - but still, even if it is a real Game Boy Advance, that might tip
the scales just far enough away from authenticity for some people to accept - especially speedrunners. When we asked Woozle about this, he gave us
two interesting bits of information. First, the Consolizer board actually has a
solder jumper that can be closed to allow for running the system at the original speed
- but as of right now he feels this feature still needs more testing, and is not yet offering
a 59.7Hz firmware - hopefully eventually, though. Secondly, he told us that the Consolizer uses
a very high-end oscillator so that the system runs at an extremely precise frequency - more
precise than the stock GBA oscillator, which he says doesn’t stick to the specification
frequency very tightly. That sounds pretty cool, so... make of that
what you will. However, there is one aspect of the GBA Consolizer’s
output which may cause compatibility issues for some people. In the System Options menu, you’ll find
a setting for the DVI+ mode. As is the case with many community products
like this, the HDMI output is actually using DVI protocols… but it’s not exactly to
spec. That’s because DVI isn’t supposed to carry
digital audio, but you can kind of force it to. However, not all displays and devices may
approve of how this is done. In our particular setups, our LG OLEDs would
see a direct connection between the TV and the Consolizer. In trying other TVs and computer monitors,
compatibility was hit and miss… with most of my new...ish displays having no problem. In most cases, this is likely your only concern,
so this could bode well for your chances… However, in our situation, we have an additional
layer of complexity because we like to capture and stream our gameplay. As we covered in RGB 106, we use currently
both use a Denon X3400H AV receiver for distributing our HDMI sources to TVs and Capture cards. Unfortunately, the Consolizer’s DVI+ mode
did not work for us through our receivers, yielding the dreaded No Signal. However, the Consolizer will work with DVI+
mode turned OFF... but this also means that the HDMI output won’t carry any audio. So, if you’re considering buying the Consolizer,
you might need to be prepared to come up with an audio workaround. This is why it’s so important that you can
still use the Game Boy Advance’s headphone jack, since you may have to use analog audio
in your setup. However… there may be a glimmer of hope
for those who find this particular audio situation to be a dealbreaker. During the production of this episode, I found
that running the GBA Consolizer’s HDMI cable through an intermediary device of some sort
can improve DVI+ compatibilities with various components. I was able to test both a ViewHD HDMI splitter
with audio breakouts and this J-Tech HDMI audio extractor, both of which allowed my
Denon AV receiver see the signal and fix all of my issues. But, it’s important to keep in mind that
my results are purely anecdotal, and by no means a guarantee. But, adding one of these fairly inexpensive
devices to your video chain may be just what you need to make everything sunshine and rainbows
again. [ GAME AUDIO ] On that note, we have one final System Option
to look at. The Audio LPF. No, it won’t get rid of the grainy sound
that the system is known for, but this setting allows you to cut out some of the less pleasant
frequences you might hear in the GBA audio. However, the LPF only applies to the digital
output, which again hinges on DVI+ mode compatibility. [ Game Audio ] We’ve been told that a small number of games
apparently do exhibit some audio pops with the way GBA’s digital audio is upconverted
to 48kHz for HDMI output. Even if it’s an uncommon issue, that may
convince you that maybe analog audio is the better, more authentic choice anyway. { TRY ] The GBA Consolizer has been a long
time coming, but it has certainly been well worth the wait. It’s simple to use and presents games from
the entire Game Boy family in fantastic quality. For the most part, it has all of the features
that we would’ve ever wanted from such a mod, along with several others that we never
expected. And overall we feel that Woozle has made smart
choices where compromises were necessary. For those who have the means to use homebrew,
and the equipment to get the most out of it, the Game Boy Interface software for the GameCube
Game Boy Player is an equally viable choice for the ultimate GBA video output experience. It really just comes down to whichever suits
your playstyle better. But I just love that we’ve got all of these
ways to bring our favorite handheld games onto the big screen - to make them look their
best, to be able to capture them and share them, to give them the spotlight that they
deserve.
