new gameboy post with propa media :D

content/posts/old-gameboy-fresh-screen.md

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+---
+title: Old Gameboy Fresh Screen
+description: The backlight LED mod on GBA's is literally so good
+date: 2026-06-21T20:32:08-07:00
+draft: false
+category: article
+image: /media/img/gba/gba-splash-led.jpg
+---
+
+## The Starting Point
+
+A while back I decided I wanted to get back into some retro mobile games because
+it feels comfy and gives me an excuse to do some basic resto-modding.
+My first target in this case was the Gameboy Advance that I've had since I was
+just a lad :3
+
+
+{{< pic "/media/img/gba/basic-off.jpg" "Close up of Gameboy" >}}
+
+As soon as I turned on the thing though I realized that the total lack of
+backlight completely sucks. For those that don't recall how bad, here's mine
+before doing any modifying and in the sunlight ;-;
+
+{{< pic "/media/img/gba/saphire-save-closeup.jpg" "Saphire save closeup" >}}
+
+_Ignore the custom buttons, this pic was taken during my testing period :3_
+
+## Opening Up to Replacing the Old and Dull with New and Bright
+
+It seems weird in hindsight but I intiall ythought that a backlight mod would
+require soldering and modifying the original screen when in fact the "easier"
+way of doing this was just replacing the old screen with a newer more modern one.
+
+The one I picked was the {{< link "No Cut IPS Backlight Mod Kit" "https://retrogamerepairshop.com/collections/gba-displays/products/gba-game-boy-advance-drop-in-ips-backlight-mod-kit" >}}
+from {{< link "Retro Game Repair Shop" "https://retrogamerepairshop.com/" >}}  which
+is an awesome kit and comes with nearly everything to do this mod.
+The only thing that it's missing is a tri-wing screw driver which makes doing 
+this substantially easier. I didn't have one and **thought** that Harbor Freight
+would help me here but as you can see below the  tri-wing that you can get
+required some..... sharpening to make it fit into the **tiny** screw heads.
+
+
+{{< pic "/media/img/gba/hf-tri-hex-fixing.jpg" "Closeup of tri-wing" >}}
+
+I did manage to sharpen the bit by clamping some 80 grit sandpaper to my
+workbench and **slowly** removing material until I had a good enough fit.
+Luckily once the tri-wing screws holding the case are gone we are greeted with
+phillips head screws securing the motherboard to the front of the case which
+are easily removed.
+
+{{< pic "/media/img/gba/internals.jpg" "Closeup of tri-wing" >}}
+
+{{< pic "/media/img/gba/internals-close.jpg" "Another closeup of the internals" >}}
+
+I didn't get any pictures of the process for replacing the screen but I did get
+one of the testing phase. :warning: Testing ended up being super crucial because
+the first screen unit I bought was actually DOA. Luckily the second unit was fine
+and I was also able to get some nicer buttons becaue I ended up not really liking
+the clear button aesthetic.
+
+{{< pic "/media/img/gba/testing-led-screen.jpg" "Testing the new screen" >}}
+
+Closing everything back up _should_ have been easy though one thing I had to do
+was shave down some of the after market buttons since they were **just barely**
+too big. Other than that however just going slow led to a very smooth re-assembly
+process. Turning it on I'm greeted with this :)
+
+{{< pic "/media/img/gba/gba-splash-led.jpg" "Closeup led splash screen" >}}
+
+Also going with black buttons was definitely the move I think because it just
+looks _so much cleaner_ :3
+
+
+But of course what good are pictures when you could _watch_ this lovely little
+thing in action.
+
+{{< youtube "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENgrivaA4gY" >}}
+
+
+conclusion: very nice and epic :3