shockrah
06756cd3c5
All checks were successful
Build and Deploy Blog Site / setup-website-content (push) Successful in 10s
81 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
81 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
title: The Gameboy Mod My Younger Self Always Wanted
|
|
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/opengraph.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
|