Game Boy & GB Advance Appreciation Thread

[electricmastro]

I recommend Tang Tang for anyone who's interested in puzzle platformers, particularly Solomon's Key. Could use some more polish in making some sprites less static, but I think the fun and charm still shine through.

 

[iwan_canobi]

First foray into GB colour, new shell and screen and it’s looking good! 
 

 

Forgot to solder the button wires so I can change the logo colour though so need to open it back up again.

[Darwock]

In contrast, I just added the new screen and shell to my regular GBA to match the SP I posted on the last page.

 

That one went smoothly but this time every single thing that could go wrong, did go wrong. All was feeling great, soldering went smoothly, screen went in without any dust (although I had to reapply the gasket once which left some adhesive showing around the edges of the glass panel.

 

Everything was cool until I put the case together and turned it on, and I had somehow introduced two vertical lines of dead pixels. In my attempt to take the case apart to check connections I completely stripped one of the original screws. In my effort to remove that with needle nose pliers I then accidentally bent one set of battery contacts. Couldn’t fix the black lines, and also noticed the screen was not level (despite being aligned perfectly) so tried to fix that, which subsequently introduced a speck of dust under the screen which led to a fingerprint, and then a massive smudged stain on the inside of the glass when I tried to wipe it off and accidentally smeared some of the adhesive. LOLOLOL.

 

Oh, also my perfect soldering job to change the brightness with select plus shoulder buttons doesn’t work at all, but I have no idea why - all the solder connections look good and no overflow or anything…

 

Is this likely to be a damaged ribbon cable or the whole screen? To be honest I’ve made such a mess of the glass I think I’m looking at buying a whole new kit to try again anyway.

[Gorf]

I would try your luck and claim with the seller the screen they sent you is faulty, did you buy from AliExpress?

 

The glass can be bought separately of course

 

Regarding soldering the GBA I decided not to bother when I did mine as the GBC I did before it was difficult enough for me and the contact points on the GBA looked even smaller

[Darwock]

Yes it was Aliexpress. I thought returns could only be done if you hadn’t installed it yet?

 

I have since discovered that my soldering at least did not fail, it’s just I have to jam the select button really hard for some reason before the L and R presses register.

 

Also it turns out that the “pre-cut” case they sell is not cut, it’s custom moulded, and includes some little protrusions to align the screen (although not perfectly as I discovered). Not knowing this, I bought a custom bracket for IPS screens from handheldlegend.com that can’t actually be used. Whoops.

[Yasawas]

I never had a GameBoy, barely even played one, but all these customised ones are lovely. I’m starting to stick a toe in with the GB games you get on contemporary retro compilations and some light emulation via a 3DS but I can see me getting sucked in to the real thing before long. The innocent simplicity is incredibly refreshing, it’d be fitting to do it justice on the hardware side too.

 

I’ve just finished Operation C, I am a Contra virgin no more! It’s really, really good too. Looking forward to trying those Turtles ones next since I have them handy on Switch, they seem to have reviewed well at the time.

[Paulando]

1 hour ago, Yasawas said:

The innocent simplicity is incredibly refreshing

I love this too. You haven’t got thousands of menus to wade through, or dozens of buttons and systems to learn. Super simple and refreshing.

[Darwock]

Regarding my IPS screen woes, I found one similar case to mine with the black bars on the screen on Reddit. The advice there was it was probably the ribbon cable needing replaced but the guy didn’t update with any resolution so I don’t know. I’ve ordered new parts anyway. If I damaged my cable, it could only have been when I soldered it - but I kept a pretty steady hand and only touched the connection points. Could overheating it do something like that?

 

On another note, I’m using an EZ Flash Omega but it doesn’t play GB roms correctly. Robocop has invisible enemies and when you upgrade to the laser in Parodius you can’t see it either. What’s the typical method used to play older games? Original hardware only?

[spatular]

21 minutes ago, Darwock said:

I’m using an EZ Flash Omega but it doesn’t play GB roms correctly. Robocop has invisible enemies and when you upgrade to the laser in Parodius you can’t see it either. What’s the typical method used to play older games?

 

yeah i looked into this, the GBA one plays GB games via emulation, i think if you have a GB one it should play them via hardware (edit - or at least how they would usually play on a GBA, which i guess could also be emulated)... didn't end up getting one so haven't tried it myself though.

 

https://www.ezflash.cn/product/ezflash-junior/

[Gorf]

On 04/09/2022 at 23:49, Darwock said:

Regarding my IPS screen woes, I found one similar case to mine with the black bars on the screen on Reddit. The advice there was it was probably the ribbon cable needing replaced but the guy didn’t update with any resolution so I don’t know. I’ve ordered new parts anyway. If I damaged my cable, it could only have been when I soldered it - but I kept a pretty steady hand and only touched the connection points. Could overheating it do something like that?

 

On another note, I’m using an EZ Flash Omega but it doesn’t play GB roms correctly. Robocop has invisible enemies and when you upgrade to the laser in Parodius you can’t see it either. What’s the typical method used to play older games? Original hardware only?

Im using an EZ flash omega definitive edition for GBA games and haven’t noticed any issues

 

For GB/GBC games I use an everdrive GB X3 and it’s been great

 

But I don’t play GB games on the GBA

 

[Darwock]

I finally have the GBA working properly after the new bits arrived this morning. First thing I tried was changing only the ribbon cable, but the lines were still there which confirmed it was a duff screen and not my fault in any way. Too bad I didn’t get a refund.

 

That meant I didn’t have to do any resoldering thankfully, just used the ribbon cable from my last attempt. Took three or four tries to get the screen in without being squint. The issue with adhesive on the inside of the glass screen happened again, it’s because they have an inner sticky backing that is pre-cut around the window area, and some of that adhesive is rough around the edges. I had to pry it off again and try and poke the adhesive back up behind the black border, but it’s left another small smudge. I’m just going to put up with it, you don’t notice at all when the screen is lit. What I can do is spend some time trying to clean up the original one I had, and if I get it to a point I’m happy with I can swap it back in.

 

The other mod I did was to put in the USB-C rechargeable power source. My brightness controls seem to be working better now too, maybe the buttons weren’t sitting right last time. Super happy with this, I like it much better than the SP.

[Darwock]

I spent all last night playing different stuff with the goal of fully draining the battery so I can give it a proper recharge. It really is an awesome machine with a great selection of games. When I first owned it I probably focused too much on trying to experience ‘full’ console games in handheld form, with things like Streetfighter II turbo, Sonic Advance and stuff like that which is not where it’s strength really was.

 

Interesting behaviour from the modded system when the battery started to run low on juice though. The screen started pulsing, fading to black every few seconds and coming back like a heartbeat (or a generic horror movie trailer). I panicked at first and switched back to AA batteries, before figuring out it was probably due to being low on charge. Switched the rechargeable power back in and noticed the red power light was very faint, but when the screen faded out it would come back really bright. Hooked up the USB cable and it was fine, so I just unplugged and let it run out of juice. It’s definitely not normal but I suppose you can’t expect normal behaviour when you are running a screen (and also flashcart) that was never intended to be installed in the system. It also serves as a good last minute warning to save your game I suppose, haha.

 

edit - forgot to say that when the battery eventually ran out I was so into the games I had been using that I switched over to the SP and kept playing anyway. I had never noticed before how much nicer the speaker is on the SP too, I always assumed it was just the screen that got the upgrade. I know there are speaker mods you can do to a GBA as well but I’m not opening it up again for that.

[Ninja Doctor]

Which screen mod was that? I’m going to be doing one at the end of the month. I’m likely going to use the funny playing ita kit though. That uses a dsi bottom screen but has identical pixel pitch to the horrific unlit original screen. 

[MikeBeaver]

12 minutes ago, Ninja Doctor said:

Which screen mod was that? I’m going to be doing one at the end of the month. I’m likely going to use the funny playing ita kit though. That uses a dsi bottom screen but has identical pixel pitch to the horrific unlit original screen. 

You can get a kit that repurposes a DSi lower screen ?!? THIS sounds interesting, any details greatly appreciated

[Ninja Doctor]

It’s this one. https://funnyplaying.com/products/itas-new-agb-tft-backlight-kit

[Darwock]

 

4 hours ago, Ninja Doctor said:

Which screen mod was that? I’m going to be doing one at the end of the month. I’m likely going to use the funny playing ita kit though. That uses a dsi bottom screen but has identical pixel pitch to the horrific unlit original screen. 

I’m not sure of the brand for the screen I used, I just followed the Aliexpress link posted by Gorf a page or two earlier when I asked the same question. The shell was custom moulded for the screen and everything I received worked together with no trouble (except for a mm or so of wiggle room that you have to be careful of if you want everything straight).

[electricmastro]

GBA Puzzle recommendation: Tiny Toon Adventures: Wacky Stackers

 

 

 

[bplus]

On 13/09/2022 at 20:20, Ninja Doctor said:

Which screen mod was that? I’m going to be doing one at the end of the month. I’m likely going to use the funny playing ita kit though. That uses a dsi bottom screen but has identical pixel pitch to the horrific unlit original screen. 

Did this require soldering? I've got an gba sp but it really hurts my hands playing it. Want an orginal modded ips one, but eBay prices for premodded are silly!

[Colonel Panic]

You need to solder wires for brightness controls. And if you don’t buy a shell designed for a new screen, you need to trim some plastic. 

[electricmastro]

So what you guys are some of the more underappreciated Game Boy games more people should try out? For me, one of them is Toki Tori. Such a charming, easy to get into puzzle platformer.

[spanky debrest]

Mercenary Force / Tenjin Kaisen is a beast of a game: a unique technical shooter with immaculate aesthetics. 

 

[Yobo Ahoy]

Despite being a massive fan of F-Zero X I never really clicked with either of the GBA releases; Maximum Velocity was too bare-bones (and no double-tap attack!) and GP Legend hilariously easy with bugger all rival racers on screen at any given time. I'm sure this isn't news to anyone else but I've only just discovered a third game was released in Japan, Climax. It's a lot closer to X in feel (lack of analogue an exception obviously), absolutely loving it so far and it looks great on the RG351.

 

Edit: and a fair chunk of it is in English too, all menus etc. 

 

 

 

[Ninja Doctor]

Finished my stealthy boy this morning. 

it’s using an ITA screen from the dsi. I really like it but I couldn’t get the l button working with the ribbon. I can increase brightness with select and R but have to use the touchpad to reset it. Not a big deal really. 

[JamesC]

3 minutes ago, Ninja Doctor said:

Finished my stealthy boy this morning. 

it’s using an ITA screen from the dsi. I really like it but I couldn’t get the l button working with the ribbon. I can increase brightness with select and R but have to use the touchpad to reset it. Not a big deal really. 

That's lovely. Somehow it looks less like a GBA and more like somehting SEGA would have released.

[Ninja Doctor]

Maybe should get a copy of sonic advance

[Ninja Doctor]

Well balls. It’s been working fine all day but fired it up just now and the sound volume has gone super low. Any ideas anyone?

[Ninja Doctor]

And the sound has gone completely. I think the power draw of the new lcd has killed a bit of the main board. Screen still looks lovely though. Ideal console for a deaf person. 

[Phantoon]

Try headphones, hear anything through them?

[Ninja Doctor]

I haven’t yet. I’m not hopeful. I think something has failed on the pcb. 

[Phantoon]

If headphones work then it's the speaker / amplifier, probably. There's no music chip to fail in the GBA.