Wiiboy Color II
Wiiboy Color II
It returns. What’s different?
The Wiiboy Color II is an updated version of the original Wiiboy Color, with some new features for the end user and some cleaner circuit boards to make my assembly process more straightforward. The device still uses a real Wii inside, so that Wii and GameCube games run perfectly. The price for this build is $1500 due to the expensive costs of the parts used, the months I spent designing and refining, and the time it takes to put one together. For this price, you will get a Wiiboy Color with the following features:
A 3.5” 4:3 480p IPS display with an easy to clean plexiglass cover
Custom resin cast buttons and sticks in whatever colors you’d like. Buttons can be metallic, transparent, filled with a small item, and nearly anything else you can imagine. If you would like letters on the buttons, then those will need to be sourced elsewhere, as I don’t have a way to properly emboss letters with the setup I have now.
A high quality 3D printed case in any color you’d like. The case can be transparent if desired, with an additional cost of $50. Some examples of past cases can be seen here.
USB-C fast charging with a PD compatible charger
Digital audio through the speaker and heaphone jack
256gb of storage, which is enough space for 100-200 GameCube and Wii games, as well as pretty much any amount of retro titles. Storage is upgradable upon request, up to 1tb. Additional storage cost will only be whatever the cost of an equivalent micro-SD card is.
A protective foam carrying case
A USB-C fast charger and charging cable
A 3D printed display stand
Improvements to the original Wiiboy Color include:
A plexiglass covered screen with better colors
The case is a HUGE 1mm thinner overall (same width/height as the original)
Improved battery management features. The battery life is now displayed on the screen in game when a combination of buttons are pressed.
The volume level is now displayed on the screen when the volume is adjusted
Batteries no longer slowly drain even when the portable is turned off.
Fully removable micro-sd card, instead of accessing it over USB-C
Hall-effect joysticks (feel nicer, have tighter ranges, and last longer than standard Joycon sticks)
No portable build is perfect, and so I like to be up front with the flaws of handmade devices like these. None of these issues are serious in my opinion, but I want you to be aware of them before committing to a purchase.
The triggers are not full analog triggers like a normal GCC due to the space constraints. Instead, a two tact system is used to come as close as we can. The first tact is activated at a light press, which acts as the analog portion of the trigger. This allows for things like running and spraying water in Super Mario Sunshine or light shielding in Melee. The second tact activates when you push a bit harder, and acts as the digital press. This results in like a full shield in Melee or standing still and shooting water in Super Mario Sunshine. Ultimately, this affects very few games at all.
The build does get pretty warm. I install the best cooling system I can, but expect the unit to get pretty toasty.
I guarantee at least 2 hours of battery life on the system. You will likely get around 2 hours of battery life on Wii games, and 2.5 on GameCube games.
There is no rumble feature. Rumble motors use up a fair bit of power, and I personally don’t like it enough to justify using it in my builds.
Not all Wii games will be playable with the built in GameCube controller. I include a hack with the build that allows you to emulate a Wii remote with the built in controller, but this doesn't work well for games that require tilting or precise motion. That being said, I've had very good results with games like Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, Super Paper Mario, the LEGO games, NSMB Wii, Xenoblade, and several others.
The case will have some subtle ridges around the curves of the case and minor cosmetic flaws. I get the cases professionally 3D printed, so the quality is as good as I can make it.
For legal reasons, I will not include any ROMs (games) on the portable. I will help direct you through the process of putting games on it when you receive it. The process is very straightforward, everyone I’ve sold a portable to have gotten things working.
Custom Paintjob?
This time around, I’m working with Palette Customs to get very pretty paint jobs on your Wiiboy Color if that’s of interest. They have a lot of experience with painting GameCube controllers, so their work is designed to withstand the wear of your oily hands. Below are a couple of pictures of a paintjob they did on a Louii I built, to give you some idea of what they’re capable of.
For more examples of their work, check out Palette Customs’ Portfolio. The cost for a paintjob like the one pictured above is $220, though the price could shift up or down somewhat depending on the complexity of the design you request. You’re able to pick whatever colors/theming you’d like, so feel free to be creative! Palette Customs is also capable of including the Wiiboy Color logo on the front in a more permanent way than the sticker I’ve used in the past. If that front logo is important to you, then the paint job will be the best way to incorporate it.
I’m also working with someone with a UV printing setup to try and have another way to get a good Wiiboy Color logo onto non-painted cases. Let me know if this is of interest. There will likely be a small cost for this, I’ll have more details once they experiment on some test pieces.
The paintjob will extend the turnaround time by an estimated 8-10 weeks, as Palette Customs needs time to work these orders into their regular commissions.
Repairs
Repairs are handled on a case-by-case basis. If you have any issues with your build whatsoever, let me know and I will do what I can to help. If a repair is needed, you will likely need to at least cover the cost of shipping. If the issue is due to something I did poorly on my end, I won’t charge you for time or materials, but if you did something you shouldn’t have then you will be expected to pay for repair. For example, if you drop the portable 5 feet onto concrete and it breaks, that’s on you and you’ll be paying. If a speaker wire pops loose shortly after you receive the portable, that’s on me and I will fix that out of pocket. Providing an exact warranty is something I can’t really define, but I’m not too worried about it failing quickly. The portables I’ve built for my personal use have been running great for years, but I also do a good job of taking care of them. Some portables are still working even 10 years after they were closed up, and I’m hopeful that mine can live up to that legacy. At the very least, I guarantee that I will assist with any issues or repairs for one year after I ship the portable, and likely longer into the future.
Turnaround Time
My goal is to have portables shipped out within 2-3 months of accepting the first payment. There’s a wait of 3-4 weeks for the cases I order to arrive, which causes a lot of the delay. Things often run longer than I expect, but I do my very best to keep people in the loop on what’s happening.
Note that the 8-10 weeks of additional wait time for the paintjob will stack on top of the 2-3 month estimate, though there’s a bit of overlap in those wait times.
If a long wait time is too grueling for your Amazon.com-addled brain, then you can also check my Immediate Sales page to see if I’ve got anything that can ship immediately.
General Rules of the Road
There are a couple of additional rules I have when buying a portable that I would like you to be aware of before making any commitments.
Any time you are traveling with the portable, you must use the carrying case. My builds are sturdy, but this device isn’t the sort of thing you can drop into the bottom of your backpack or shove in your pocket without any additional layer of protection.
Do not perform any major software changes to the portable after shipping. If something messes with the main program the Wii uses, then it is very possible for your portable to go dead in the water and require a whole new Wii. If it’s a simple homebrew program that doesn’t modify any CIOSes then it is fine to use. If you are uncertain of whether a program or modification is safe to use, feel free to ask me first! If you aren’t familiar with Wii homebrew or don’t have any interest don’t worry about this, I make sure all the softwares you're likely to want are included with the portable to make it easy on you.
Payment
All payments will be made through PayPal. I ask for half of the money up front to cover the cost of parts once I am ready to begin the build process. The remainder of the money will be requested upon completion of the build before I ship. If you have to cancel the commission after I have begun purchasing parts and working on the build, then that money is forfeited and will not be refunded. If I have to cancel the build part way through for any reason (would only be in the case of some sort of emergency) I will refund any money you sent in full.
If you live outside of the USA/Canada, then you’ll need to cover the costs of shipping as well. I ship my portables through DHL, so the cost of shipping will likely be $200-300. It might be higher if you live somewhere that I’ve never shipped before.
Next Steps
If everything here looks good to you then the next step is to reach out to me directly through Instagram, Twitter, or email. In your message go ahead and indicate that you’ve read this page and include the following information in your message to help speed things up:
Do you live in the USA?
Are you interested in either the custom paint job, a transparent case, or having a bigger micro-SD card included?
If you have additional questions that weren’t answered here or on the FAQ page, then feel free to ask those as well. Thanks for reaching out!