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I 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, nu

I 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 ago
Completely agree. It’s a really cool scene and inspired me to collect some old Gameboys.
lapetitejort 4y ago
Retro 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).
- city41 4y ago
  And can't forget his best one: the Long Boy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zPehVx_J0M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zPehVx_J0M
  - heywoodlh 4y ago
    This was so fun to watch, thanks for the share
kjkjadksj 4y ago
Sadly 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.
- 22c 4y ago
  It's relatively easy to learn soldering basics, and even if you're not good at soldering, it's pretty forgiving (especially on older hardware where the components aren't so finicky).
- amiga-workbench 4y ago
  The GBC is quite easy to disassemble (If you have one of Nintendo's silly triwing screwdrivers). Give the pads under the buttons a rub with some isopropyl, and at an extreme buy some new conductive silicone pads for about £8 online. No soldering required to get you back up and running.
- bennysonething 4y ago
  I bought a no solder IPS screen for gameboy color. Think I bought the kit off eBay, it came with a new case and buttons too. It's pretty great! (And if I can do it anyone can)
- deergomoo 4y ago
  For what it’s worth, I’ve managed to successfully mod a Game Boy Advance as a total soldering noob, with a cheap poor quality iron from Amazon. Some mods (particularly for home consoles) are difficult as all hell if you’re inexperienced, but the Game Boy tends to be fairly easy-going. There’s also an increasing number of mods (particularly screens) that are slightly more expensive, but are solder-less (or solder optional). Macho Nacho on YouTube covers quite a few of them. As for your buttons, you can buy new rubber membranes that make contact with the board to register the press. Give the board a good clean with isopropyl and pop some new membranes in and your buttons will no doubt be good as new—no soldering needed!
- AussieWog93 4y ago
  I run a video games business and fix button issues all the time! All you'll need to do to fix a GBC with stuff buttons is open it up (requires a tri wing screwdriver, $2 from eBay), clean the button pads with a q-tip and alcohol. The pads in question are the black bits on the back of the rubber immediately underneath the button, as well as the circular copper traces on the board that the black bits come into contact with when you depress the button. You might need 3 or 4 q-tips. You'll know when you're done because the q-tips will stop turning black. Takes 10 minutes overall and is only slightly more technical than wiping your arse! Don't be intimidated!
derefr 4y ago
I love it too, though I wish that along with it there was renewed interest in Gameboy game development. There are GB game-jams, but more-often-than-not the results of those just languish in obscurity rather than seeing any community attention; and so there's no incentive to put any polish into these titles. (There's nobody trying to make anything like David Murray's Planet X3 for the GB scene.) I feel like something that would really kick such an ecosystem off, would be some sort of wi-fi-enabled GB/GBC flash-cart, which boots to Mario-Maker-like UX for downloading, playing, and reviewing (liking/disliking, making playlists of, etc) bite-sized GB/GBC experiences from a community-maintained cloud service; where the supply side of that cloud service would be easy upload integration with tools like GB Studio.
- hnlmorg 4y ago
  There’s loads of homebrew Gameboy games released each year. One of my friends reviews games and receives lots of new GB and GBA titles. You can also get GB carts that support SD card. I appreciate you’re describing a more complete, end to end, UX but we can already do everything right up to inserting the SD card into the Gameboy cart. With Gameboy emulation as good as it is, you could do away with original hardware for 99% of players too (though for me, the joy of retro gaming is using the original hardware. But I’d never look down on anyone who preferred emulation).
  - derefr 4y ago
    I didn't say people don't make them. I said they aren't polished. And by that, I don't mean the gameplay! Rather, I mean that nobody's fabbing GB game carts, printing glossy color manuals for them, putting them in boxes, and shipping them to Kickstarter backers. Nobody's translating these games into 10 languages. Nobody's QA-testing the heck out of them to ensure they don't have any obscure edge-case bugs. Etc. (This was why I brought up Planet X3: it's an example of a modern retro-game that is polished in exactly this sense.) But a desire to go through all the effort to create polished modern GB games, is the sort of thing that requires market demand — a willingness to spend real money to buy new GB games (whether digitally or physically.) No hobbyist game developer is going to spend a year on "things that aren't programming" to make a nice shippable product out of their game, if that isn't going to result in at least breaking even on their effort. And a prerequisite for that demand, is public awareness of the fact that modern GB games are being created — and, more importantly, a public "brand" awareness for the people creating them! Indie game jams are great and all; but they don't create brand awareness. App Stores with "studios with most stars" views create brand awareness. Easily one-click accessibility of the games to allow them to be played on a PC (rather than on a portable with no video-capture support), to enable streamers and content-creators to play them on a whim, create brand awareness. Gamedev tooling that expects/requires a "publisher logo card" to be shown on boot, create brand awareness. Etc. Basically, think of "modern gameboy games" as if they were a thing made by one company, rather than a diffuse community. What would that company be doing to market them? The community can do those things too!
ngold 4y ago
Didn't even know this was a thing. And I immediately fell in love. What a great hobby. I remember my first game boy. You could probably knock someone out throwing it. And it would be fine.
fennecfoxy 4y ago
Yeah I've rebuilt a GBC & GBA with nice new oled screens. Both completely transparent; cases, buttons even the membranes all see-through. I've gotta take the GBA apart again to fix a d-pad issue but other than that they're perfect. Slowly building up a collection of games for them again, too.

doublepg23 4y ago

Completely agree. It’s a really cool scene and inspired me to collect some old Gameboys.

lapetitejort 4y ago

Retro 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).

city41 4y ago
And can't forget his best one: the Long Boy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zPehVx_J0M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zPehVx_J0M
- heywoodlh 4y ago
  This was so fun to watch, thanks for the share

kjkjadksj 4y ago

Sadly 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.

22c 4y ago
It's relatively easy to learn soldering basics, and even if you're not good at soldering, it's pretty forgiving (especially on older hardware where the components aren't so finicky).
amiga-workbench 4y ago
The GBC is quite easy to disassemble (If you have one of Nintendo's silly triwing screwdrivers). Give the pads under the buttons a rub with some isopropyl, and at an extreme buy some new conductive silicone pads for about £8 online. No soldering required to get you back up and running.
bennysonething 4y ago
I bought a no solder IPS screen for gameboy color. Think I bought the kit off eBay, it came with a new case and buttons too. It's pretty great! (And if I can do it anyone can)
deergomoo 4y ago
For what it’s worth, I’ve managed to successfully mod a Game Boy Advance as a total soldering noob, with a cheap poor quality iron from Amazon. Some mods (particularly for home consoles) are difficult as all hell if you’re inexperienced, but the Game Boy tends to be fairly easy-going. There’s also an increasing number of mods (particularly screens) that are slightly more expensive, but are solder-less (or solder optional). Macho Nacho on YouTube covers quite a few of them. As for your buttons, you can buy new rubber membranes that make contact with the board to register the press. Give the board a good clean with isopropyl and pop some new membranes in and your buttons will no doubt be good as new—no soldering needed!
AussieWog93 4y ago
I run a video games business and fix button issues all the time! All you'll need to do to fix a GBC with stuff buttons is open it up (requires a tri wing screwdriver, $2 from eBay), clean the button pads with a q-tip and alcohol. The pads in question are the black bits on the back of the rubber immediately underneath the button, as well as the circular copper traces on the board that the black bits come into contact with when you depress the button. You might need 3 or 4 q-tips. You'll know when you're done because the q-tips will stop turning black. Takes 10 minutes overall and is only slightly more technical than wiping your arse! Don't be intimidated!

derefr 4y ago

I love it too, though I wish that along with it there was renewed interest in Gameboy game development. There are GB game-jams, but more-often-than-not the results of those just languish in obscurity rather than seeing any community attention; and so there's no incentive to put any polish into these titles. (There's nobody trying to make anything like David Murray's Planet X3 for the GB scene.) I feel like something that would really kick such an ecosystem off, would be some sort of wi-fi-enabled GB/GBC flash-cart, which boots to Mario-Maker-like UX for downloading, playing, and reviewing (liking/disliking, making playlists of, etc) bite-sized GB/GBC experiences from a community-maintained cloud service; where the supply side of that cloud service would be easy upload integration with tools like GB Studio.

hnlmorg 4y ago
There’s loads of homebrew Gameboy games released each year. One of my friends reviews games and receives lots of new GB and GBA titles. You can also get GB carts that support SD card. I appreciate you’re describing a more complete, end to end, UX but we can already do everything right up to inserting the SD card into the Gameboy cart. With Gameboy emulation as good as it is, you could do away with original hardware for 99% of players too (though for me, the joy of retro gaming is using the original hardware. But I’d never look down on anyone who preferred emulation).
- derefr 4y ago
  I didn't say people don't make them. I said they aren't polished. And by that, I don't mean the gameplay! Rather, I mean that nobody's fabbing GB game carts, printing glossy color manuals for them, putting them in boxes, and shipping them to Kickstarter backers. Nobody's translating these games into 10 languages. Nobody's QA-testing the heck out of them to ensure they don't have any obscure edge-case bugs. Etc. (This was why I brought up Planet X3: it's an example of a modern retro-game that is polished in exactly this sense.) But a desire to go through all the effort to create polished modern GB games, is the sort of thing that requires market demand — a willingness to spend real money to buy new GB games (whether digitally or physically.) No hobbyist game developer is going to spend a year on "things that aren't programming" to make a nice shippable product out of their game, if that isn't going to result in at least breaking even on their effort. And a prerequisite for that demand, is public awareness of the fact that modern GB games are being created — and, more importantly, a public "brand" awareness for the people creating them! Indie game jams are great and all; but they don't create brand awareness. App Stores with "studios with most stars" views create brand awareness. Easily one-click accessibility of the games to allow them to be played on a PC (rather than on a portable with no video-capture support), to enable streamers and content-creators to play them on a whim, create brand awareness. Gamedev tooling that expects/requires a "publisher logo card" to be shown on boot, create brand awareness. Etc. Basically, think of "modern gameboy games" as if they were a thing made by one company, rather than a diffuse community. What would that company be doing to market them? The community can do those things too!

ngold 4y ago

Didn't even know this was a thing. And I immediately fell in love. What a great hobby. I remember my first game boy. You could probably knock someone out throwing it. And it would be fine.

fennecfoxy 4y ago

Yeah I've rebuilt a GBC & GBA with nice new oled screens. Both completely transparent; cases, buttons even the membranes all see-through. I've gotta take the GBA apart again to fix a d-pad issue but other than that they're perfect. Slowly building up a collection of games for them again, too.