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Adding a hinge to a Game Boy that God never intended
- padobson 4y agoI like that the title implies that Gunpei Yokoi[0] is God. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpei_Yokoi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpei_Yokoi
- jollyllama 4y ago>Purely in terms of industrial design, I don’t think a Nintendo handheld has matched the elegance of the SP. 100%. Awesome post.
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- qbasic_forever 4y agoThe SP was pretty painful to hold and use for long times in my experience. The shoulder buttons were particularly hard to hit comfortably. The original GBA horizontal design is my favorite and most comfortable. Swap it to a nice backlit LCD or even OLED and it would be perfect.
- jollyllama 4y agoGBA wasn't bad but it was bulkier to carry on your person. The portability of the SP was killer and the beautiful LCD screen was protected in your bag or pocket. As far as ergonomics, it wasn't so bad. For more action oriented games, it could be a bit tiring, but for Pokemon it was the perfect machine.
- uni_rule 4y agoI think the relative peak was the micro's black and silver (either way) design, personally.
- kjkjadksj 4y agoDs Lite imo is even better. Its thinner so it fits easier in the pocket even though its wider. You put in a flashcart with a 32gb micro sd and now you can store every game worth playing from the nds, gba, gbc, gb, snes, nes, sega genesis, various ataris and other early game systems. It has the longest battery life for a nintendo handheld I believe. Plus I find it pretty comfortable in adult hands still, definitely moreso than the nintendo switch.
- jollyllama 4y agoGood point but I'd contend that the SP might have been more durable. I'm not sure. Either way, I liked the weight of it over the DS lite. Both great devices though.
- purpleflame1257 4y agoThe one pain point on the DS Lite is that if you want to put in an actual, physical GBA cartridge it sticks out. Everything else is great.
- deergomoo 4y agoI absolutely adore the Game Boy modding scene that’s exploded in the last few years. Case overhauls like this or the Boxypixel slab pictured in the article, numerous backlit high-res IPS screen replacements, mods to improve sound, Li-ion battery packs with USB charging. And that’s to say nothing of Analogue or the MiSTer project, creating full FPGA reimplementations of the hardware. It’s a really cool example of what some very creative and passionate people can do with commodity technology. The only downside is it’s actually becoming quite pricey to get original hardware.
- doublepg23 4y agoCompletely agree. It’s a really cool scene and inspired me to collect some old Gameboys.
- lapetitejort 4y agoRetro Future on YouTube has made some similarly cursed builds, such as the original GBA but with a hinged screen for some reason, and double screen GBA SP (it shows the same image on two screens).
- kjkjadksj 4y agoSadly the original hardware is slowly degrading over time. Nintendo DS lite screens for example are all yellowing at this age. Buttons suffer too, my gameboy color is just a paperweight now because the buttons hardly register a press. Maybe these issues can be repaired but I’m not skilled with a soldering iron which is a big requirement it seems.
- BoorishBears 4y agoI lived down the block from that NYU makerspace and walked my dog past it every day. I'm also a self-taught dev who's wanted to go back to college and get a degree for posterity. So naturally applying to NYU made sense, get started on the education stuff I was putting off, get access to a really cool makerspace, etc. I talked to someone from admissions at the school, learned more about the process, but then we got to pricing and the fact I wouldn't qualify for assistance... well it turned out it was practically unaffordable for me, a senior SWE in NYC making a "FAANG-like" salary. I say "practically" because technically I could pay it, but to what end? I'd be looking at over 150k over the next two years for a simple bachelors with no appreciable change to my career trajectory. - It really blew my mind. I was making what their graduates can expect to make years out of school and the math wasn't working, how is it supposed to work for someone coming out of high school? The cynic in me would look at that makerspace that easily had *40k in Ultimakers that never actually seemed to be printing anything peeking out the window and think "is this what they're paying for?", but I guess on the flip side you get things like this post? * Actually I went and looked at an old picture, I only counted 8 or so in view of the window...
- hancholo 4y agoIf I may ask... what specialization are you in? and is it the same thing you started off in? I've been thinking of pivoting and have narrowed it down to 1-3 niches, but also don't have a degree but currently working in a FAANG company.
- BoorishBears 4y agoMy first paid programming gigs were on video games as a freelance Unity developer, but my "real career" was founded on embedded Android Embedded systems were a good match for my background tinkering with assembly for calculators and messing with MCUs, but it's a very "traditional" part of tech. Android in embedded is much closer to mobile in terms of culture, so my lack of a degree wasn't a problem getting started, and demand has only grown over the years. I currently work in HMI for self-driving vehicles these days but I've worked on everything from in-store interactive displays to prototype fitness equipment Bonus: You can also pivot to traditional mobile dev, which I've done for some stints over the course of my career
- jansan 4y agoJust to confirm that I understand this correctly, that clear case is really 3D printed? I don't follow 3D printing too closely, but I did not think that something like this would be possible.
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- 1MachineElf 4y agoI did not think so either, although, SLA is the one method I'd guess, if I had to, just going by the main picture. SLA is indeed the process they used, but what really surprised me was that it's offered as a 3D printing service from JLPCB and PCBWay.
- kube-system 4y agoDid some searching because I was impressed with the quality as well, and I think they may technically be using polyjet instead of SLA.
- javawizard 4y agoYeah this is definitely an SLA print. SLA is capable of amazing quality with respect to both dimensional tolerances and overall appearance of finished product. I've been on the fence about getting one. This post might be the thing that pushes me over the edge. HN readers: what SLA printers do you recommend?
- BoorishBears 4y agoI have an SLA printer (Prusa SL1) and rarely use it Unless you get an industrial printer, dimensional accuracy gets messy with SLA. Slicers can try and compensate, but you end up having to work around warping For organic shapes like figures I'm sure it's great, but as someone who prints functional items 99% of the time I'd rather tune an FDM printer than fight with my messy SLA machine
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- sho_hn 4y ago> Another thing I learned about myself: I kinda like being old. I recently turned 41 and sure, my back hurts all the time and I’m going grey, but I have enough experience and domain knowledge at this point that picking up CAD and PCB design over the summer isn’t that big a deal. It feels nice to reap the rewards of all of my experience. Lovely quote.
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- smrtinsert 4y agoGorgeous, but I'm throwing money at my monitor and nothing is happening.
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- hanniabu 4y agoDocumenting all this seems more daunting than the actual conversion
- Felger 4y agoI'm always amazed and impressed by the amount of effort and energy needed for those ultimately "useless" (said not in a sarcastic way) personnal projects... I personnaly absolutely can't muster so much efforts for almost anything. And sooo would love to be able to... Documenting being a major drag.
- Forgeties79 4y agoAs someone who can’t even solder, it’s fun! Messing with my gameboy color, N64, and Dreamcast, and made me more comfortable screwing around with electronics. Been learning slowly but surely!
- Felger 4y agoI professionally solder about 2 to 3 time a week to replace mainly dead capacitors, broken USB or DC power jack connectors, as well as a few SO*-8 EEPROM chips. Became quite good at it after 20 years. But at the end of the day, prices are on the rise in western europe while personal energy is low. I must admit I'm equally ashamed to not be able to do more and being envious. Still, always a pleasure for a tech guy to scroll through a bonafide geek project. Loved the page of the guy that mapped and memory-injected a WD hdd PCB Marvell's ARM cores to ultimately install its own linux kernel on it.
- vlunkr 4y agoThis is awesome. I miss hinges. The Switch is great, but I loved being able to throw my sp or ds into a bag or pocket without worrying about scratching it.
- kibwen 4y agoNow that folding-screen smartphones are a thing that actually exist on the market, it's not entirely impossible to imagine that the next Switch could be foldable like the SP. :P
- gambiting 4y agoAt the pace Nintendo adopts new technologies, maybe in 20 years ;-)
- autoexec 4y agoYou can't even put the switch in its own dock without worrying about scratches. Considering that Nintendo has always been a company that makes good hardware the switch has been a huge disappointment. All the scratched screens, dead pixels, and joycon problems shouldn't have made it past the first batches sold.
- vlunkr 4y agoI thought the dock scratching the screen was a hoax that was dispelled roughly at the same time it launched. My kids have been docking it very ungracefully for years and it’s not scratched.
- autoexec 4y agoStill seeing problems reported online: https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/303578/how-prevalent-is-the-dock-scratching-the-nintendo-switchs-screen https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/303578/how-preval... https://old.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/krl6b1/dock_scratches/ https://old.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/krl6b1/dock... screen protectors and other weird tricks like wrapping your switch in cloth or modifying the dock seem pretty common which probably helps make it less likely.
- eisbaw 4y agoSamsung Gameboy. Hopefully this doesn't have builtin ads ;)
- danesparza 4y agoThank you for this detailed article. I don't have a Game boy (and don't intend to start). But man o man. Articles like this remind me of why I being a geek. Thanks.
- nsxwolf 4y agoI never liked the SP form factor. It’s too cramped. The original GBA is absolutely perfect. It’s like a DS without the weight of the top screen. It’s too bad it couldn’t have had the SP 101 model backlit screen. One of these days I’ll do that mod.
- hazn 4y agoPersonally, I find the gameboy advance sp one of the slickest designs ever. You could say that the sp is one of the most iterated on designs in later nintendo products
- anthk 4y agoBefore the SP there was the Game and Watch.
- nicoburns 4y agoAgreed. The DS is a similar size to the GBA, but it’s much bigger and heavier. Even as a kid I could have a GBA in my pocket and not think too much of it. And the horizontal form factor was really nice to hold. The only really flaw was the lack of backlit screen.
- juanci_to 4y agoI think exactly the same. Even though the SP design was more successful and influential for consoles like the DS series, the shape of the original GBA is not only very comfortable but also pretty darn iconic! Wikipedia says: «As of December 31, 2009, the Game Boy Advance series has sold 81.51 million units worldwide, 43.57 million of which are Game Boy Advance SP units and 2.42 million of which are Game Boy Micro units.» So, the SP was the most sold version, but I can't name a single GBA emulator that uses its design as the logo.
- cybrox 4y agoI actually loved the SP, perfect form factor for your pocket. But I agree that the normal Advance would benefit greatly from a backlight. For what it was, I'm surprised how well the external light you could buy held up (connector & flex cable)
- 1letterunixname 4y agoAn intended one: Super Game Boy is an adapter cart for the SNES that has a GB CPU (Sharp LR35902 - 8080-like) inside. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Game_Boy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Game_Boy
- anthk 4y agoZ80 like.
- glonq 4y agoDivine intentions notwithstanding, I think the author intended to say "Adding a hinge that God never intended to a Game Boy"
- otikik 4y agoWow a labor of love for sure. Obviously we need a hinged Nintendo Switch now.
- nazgulsenpai 4y agoFrom this article I learned you can get a woodgrain GameBoy SP shell[0]. Great article and awesome project! [0]https://extremerate.com/products/ips-ready-upgraded-the-wood-grain-soft-touch-custom-replacement-housing-shell-for-gameboy-advance-sp-gba-sp-compatible-with-both-ips-standard-lcd-console-screen-not-included-asps2001 https://extremerate.com/products/ips-ready-upgraded-the-wood...
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- dcow 4y agoIf God never intended it, why is the Gameboy Advance SP a thing?
- mamurphy 4y agoThe "That’s it!" at the end gave me a nice chuckle. Fun article, quite involved it seems.
- AussieWog93 4y agoIf the author's here, please note that the embedded pictures in the article are huge! Felt like I was on dial-up again, waiting for them to load on 2.4g WiFi.
- exmadscientist 4y ago> I quickly discovered I’d accidentally put the footprint for my FPC connector on backwards: That's how you tell the professionals from the novices! The professionals only get it wrong once. Per connector, of course. The novices can get it wrong up to five times, which is really impressive! (The novice in question may or may not have been me.)
- Semaphor 4y ago> I have a distinct memory of dismissing the whole Pokémon craze as gauche, childlike, beneath my refined nearly-adult maturity. I mean, of course, Pokémon was childlike. Us almost-adults played clearly superior games like MtG with cardboard. The GameBoy was for Tetris.
- garfieldnate 4y agoI love projects like this because I learn about new materials or gadgets. I'm filing them away slowly in my mind hoping to put together an Ex-Word clone in the future. I didn't know you could order flexible PCB, and now I do. I thought the hinges were perfect, too, but now I realize that the SP hinges don't also act as a power switch. I just love that the Ex-Word would switch on and off automatically when you open and close it.
- garfieldnate 4y agoLooking at my Ex-Word PCB again, I think it actually uses a Hall Effect sensor to detect when it's closed; I couldn't find a magnet that mates with it when the device is closed, but the frame is metal so maybe it just detects that? Hall effect sensors for clamshell devices appear to be industry standard (laptops, flip phones, etc.).
- pwillia7 4y agoHe used FreeCAD?? That is the most amazing and shocking part of this for me. Every time I have ever tried to use that software something goes wrong only for hours later to find a forum post that Oh that doesn't work in FreeCAD currently. Maybe I just have had a few bad experiences and I'm by no means a CAD expert, but that one is close to the top of my list and I have used 5/6 CAD programs over the last 15 years.