GRcade

As mentioned in the dedicated retro thread, I decided to buy a faulty cheap gameboy pocket from eBay with the intention of modding it in some way. I've always fancied customising a gameboy, but my own ones are too precious to risk breaking them, so instead I decided to get a pocket (as I never had one of those).

This is my £20 eBay blind purchase (had no idea what the condition or colour was beyond it works but the screen polarizer is burned).





Removing the scabby coating (context) revealed a screen in a bad way. Looking through my polarized an glasses, it looks like this:



There's no way that screen can be saved. New screen it is then. In fact, let's upgrade almost everything while we're at it.



New outer shell, buttons and membranes, new ips screen, new power regulator for the extra voltage needed, new glass, and a wireless charging high capacity battery because why not

Also purchased was a tool kit (for the tri wing screws Nintendo love so much) and a soldering iron, because I need it to do most of this. I've never used one before

Time to take the case off the gameboy to see what it's like. Great condition really, just a little mucky. Needs a clean.



Get the pcb out, and identify the 3v power regulator, remove it by desoldering the through board pins (was a bit tricky)



And add the new 5v regulator



Trim the screen clips on the shell (these are ips ready so have most of what you'd need to remove excluded already)



Stick the screen tape in place and VERY carefully attach the screen (high chance of ruining it completely here).



You need to have wires from the screen to certain buttons to allow an on screen display to change colours, move the picture round etc. These were incredibly fiddly to both locate and solder). The two protruding wires are sensor pads you stick to the inside of the shell. You then tap the outside to change colours and brightness.



Put it all back together very very carefully, and...



Beautiful Not pictured is the pixel effect I then found, which adds a pixel grid which looks great.

Overall I'd say it took 3 or so hours which included learning to solder.

Hope you enjoyed reading.

Looks lovely.

Been meaning to do something similar with my 2 GBAs and GameBoy Color.

Looks gorgeous, nice one.

What the heck?! When I saw your tweet about this, I just assumed it was the Pocket Colour. I had no idea they did a monochrome Pocket! (That, or I forgot all about it.) I'm now trying to think which GBs I owned. I'm certain I had the OG, which I played Link's Awakening on, and a transparent purple GB Colour... I never owned a Pocket!

I'd have somehow wrecked it even more if I'd opened it xD I tried fixing the R trigger on my last DS4. Ended up selling it on eBay as parts You did an amazing job in 3 hours. And soldering for the first time to boot! Nice one.

Saint of Killers wrote:What the heck?! When I saw your tweet about this, I just assumed it was the Pocket Colour. I had no idea they did a monochrome Pocket! (That, or I forgot all about it.) I'm now trying to think which GBs I owned. I'm certain I had the OG, which I played Link's Awakening on, and a transparent purple GB Colour... I never owned a Pocket!

I'd have somehow wrecked it even more if I'd opened it xD I tried fixing the R trigger on my last DS4. Ended up selling it on eBay as parts You did an amazing job in 3 hours. And soldering for the first time to boot! Nice one.

Cheers. There was:
Game boy
Gameboy pocket (this one)
Gameboy pocket light (Japan only I think)
Gameboy colour
Gameboy advance
Gameboy advance SP

I always wanted a pocket back when I had the original gameboy, mainly due to it having a bigger and better screen (higher contrast and better response so not smearing with motion). My parents wouldn't buy me one as it wasn't any different in their eyes , so I went straight from my gameboy to the colour when that came out.

Cheeky Devlin wrote:Looks lovely.

Been meaning to do something similar with my 2 GBAs and GameBoy Color.

It's not difficult at all really. The worst part was seating the screen in one shot, and I know the colour and advance have little brackets you can get which do that for you.

The new screen looks so bright and sharp. Well done OP I enjoyed this post.

Great write up, and it looks absolutely amazing.

This is tremendous, Victor! I was lucky enough to see some shots earlier thanks to OnlyFans Twitter, although it's even better to see the project step-by-step here. You did such a good job, man!

That screen sharpness

Tremendous stuff, very enjoyable post

jawaX wrote:This is tremendous, Victor! I was lucky enough to see some shots earlier thanks to OnlyFans Twitter, although it's even better to see the project step-by-step here. You did such a good job, man!

Moanlyfans

Beautiful work.

Very impressive work, Ad, bravo.

This looks great, I'd never have had the confidence to do this, and certainly wouldn't have got it all done in three hours on my first attempt!

Very interesting. I'd be half tempted to try something like that on a busted GBA but my soldering skills are god awful. OG GBA with a lovely back lit screen would be so pretty. How much did the whole shebang end up costing you?

OrangeRKN wrote:This looks great, I'd never have had the confidence to do this, and certainly wouldn't have got it all done in three hours on my first attempt!

Half the difficulty is getting over the anxiety of doing things. I think I sat and just repeatedly checked the fit of the screen for an hour before deciding to just get on and fit it and live with the consequences.

Rex Kramer wrote:Very interesting. I'd be half tempted to try something like that on a busted GBA but my soldering skills are god awful. OG GBA with a lovely back lit screen would be so pretty. How much did the whole shebang end up costing you?

I think it was about £150 - £170, but that includes tools which I don't need to buy again, plus you could save £25 straight off by not having the battery (but it will chew through AAAs with this screen).

Victor Mildew wrote:

OrangeRKN wrote:This looks great, I'd never have had the confidence to do this, and certainly wouldn't have got it all done in three hours on my first attempt!

Half the difficulty is getting over the anxiety of doing things. I think I sat and just repeatedly checked the fit of the screen for an hour before deciding to just get on and fit it and live with the consequences.

Rex Kramer wrote:Very interesting. I'd be half tempted to try something like that on a busted GBA but my soldering skills are god awful. OG GBA with a lovely back lit screen would be so pretty. How much did the whole shebang end up costing you?

I think it was about £150 - £170, but that includes tools which I don't need to buy again, plus you could save £25 straight off by not having the battery (but it will chew through AAAs with this screen).

On that basis I might just wait to snag an Analogue Pocket (if they ever become available).

You could probably do your gba for about £60. I think those even have solder free screens.

Tell me about the hardware.

It looks lovely and it's great to see previously damaged hardware get a new life.

This looks AMAZING!
The difference on the new screen is massive!

I'm tempted to go on eBay to do one myself now!

Victor Mildew wrote:I think it was about £150 - £170.