The Nintendo Gameboy Color remains my favorite portable vintage video game system.
In fact, I prefer it over playing games on my iPhone because I like to have tactile controls
that I can feel with my fingers and that aren’t covering up part of my screen.
The problem is, almost all gameboys ever made include a reflective LCD screen that is really
hard to see without light coming in at just the right angle.
Ironically, most of my favorite games are actually games designed for the original black
and white gameboy.
There are many reasons for this, but I think one of the big reasons is because by the 1990s
we really made some dramatic increases in the capabilities of graphics on game consoles
and computers.
And, I think that game developers were too busy trying to wow consumers with graphics
and they kind of forgot that games need to have good gameplay.
And, so those sort of games that they made don’t tend to hold up today because it takes
quite a bit to impress somebody these days with graphics.
Because our computers, and our phones and our tablets can do pretty much anything regarding
graphics.
So, if the game doesn’t have good gameplay then there’s really not much there to see.
For example, as strange as it may sound, I actually prefer to play the original PITFALL
on my Atari 2600 in all of its pixelated glory, than to play the gameboy color version of
PITFALL.
While the graphics are much better, for some reason the game doesn’t interest me.
Surprisingly, most of these games actually do have some color to them even though they
were designed for the black and white model.
That’s because they included small amounts of color data so that when used with the super
gameboy adapter for the Super Nintendo, you could have some color.
So that’s why I prefer to play these games on a gameboy color instead of the original,
that along with the fact it is an active matrix screen so it has better contrast.
Back in 2014, in one of my earliest videos, I modified a Gameboy Pocket so that it would
have a backlight.
Sure, you can modify a gameboy advance with a backlit screen, but I never felt like this
was the real authentic gameboy experience because of the layout and the fact the screen
was the wrong aspect ratio and size for original gameboy games.
So, at the time I figured this was the most authentic way to enjoy original gameboy games
because there was no way to add a backlight to a gameboy color until now.
I also hesitate to even do any videos right now on Nintendo products because Nintendo
the company has been acting like a jackass lately.
One of the things they’ve been doing is they’ve been falsely accusing several YouTubers
of copyright violations even when no copyrights were actually violated, particularly when
they were using things under fair use.
But, most YouTubers like me don’t have an army of lawyers to help defend them like Nintendo
does.
So, that’s one thing.
And secondly, they forced takedowns of the Commodore 64 port of Super Mario Brothers,
which in no way affected their bottom line, since it isn’t like anyone playing this
34 year old game on a Commodore 64 is going to cause Nintendo a lost sale or something.
It really reminds of a lot of CBS suing their own Star Trek fan base for financing Star
Trek fan films because they weren’t bothering to create any new Star Trek.
I mean, it’s just really bad tactics that don’t accomplish anything other than making
them look like a jackass.
Nevertheless, today I’m going to show you how to modify a gameboy color to add a backlit
screen.
OK, so let’s get started.
Disassembling the gameboy color is actually pretty easy.
However, you will need a special type of screwdriver, known as a tri-wing.
It’s really similar to a Philips but it has 3 wings instead of 4.
Nintendo used this on a lot of their products, among other weird screws to keep people from
opening them up.
Of course today they are easy to find on amazon or ebay.
Anyway, so there are just 4 screws on the back, which I always advise storing properly
so you don’t lose them.
And then there are two more screws in the battery compartment.
And then, it should just come right apart like so.
Next, I’ll remove the power switch and IR lens.
And now we need to disconnect this ribbon cable.
This is one of those locking cables so you can use your fingernail or a tool like this
to unlock it.
And there we go.
Next there are some Philips screws holding the board down.
And there we go, the board is out.
So far, this process is surprisingly easy.
I’ll remove the buttons and pads and store them safely out of the way.
OK, here’s where things start to get a little more complicated.
This screen is glued in place.
But there’s a trick for removing it.
Just grab it like this, and twist.
There it goes, it popped loose.
Now just keep working it until it comes out completely.
And there you have it, the old screen is removed.
You’ll also need to remove this screen protector.
And the way you do that is just to push from the inside like this.
Just be gentle with it and work around the edges slowly and there you go!
OK, so let’s take a look at this box from Midwest Embedded.
So, what this actually is, is brand new screen.
It’s a modern backlit LCD.
The LCD is exactly twice the resolution of the original gameboy color screen in both
directions.
On the back is a custom FPGA designed to receive the gameboy color signals and display them
on this screen.
Since the screen has a native resolution that is doubled in both directions, it makes it
fairly simple to scale an image and keep it looking exactly like the original.
So, for every one pixel the gameboy transmits, this screen will light up 4 pixels instead.
And here it is compared with the original screen I just removed.
OK so the new screen will go down like this, but this little ribbon cable on the left is
in the way.
So, some slight case modifications will be required there.
I’ll just use a sharpie to mark each side like this.
And I’ll draw a little line to show exactly the area that needs to be removed.
The easiest way to remove this chunk of plastic is simply by cutting it with some wire cutters
like this on each side.
And then you can just grab it with some pliers.
I’m having trouble getting my pliers to fit on one side, so I’ll pry the piece over
some first.
And, there we go!
Piece removed.
According to the instructions, the next thing I need to do is cut out this template.
So, I’ll do that, and here we go.
I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to do with this.
It does fit perfectly in the screen protector area.
I think I’m supposed to cut out that little notch on the right.
As such, I cut the inside part of the template out some, and now I can see exactly where
I need to cut.
For this job, I’m going to use my trusty Dremel.
I actually scored this a bit on one side, so it should snap pretty easily.
And there we go.
Of course it’s not a super clean cut, so I’ll follow that up with a little file.
And there we go, that’s just about perfect.
It was at this point I realized I had made a mistake.
When I tried to fit the screen in, I realized that the template I was looking at earlier
actually needed me to cut the whole inside of the screen back some, not just that little
notch.
So, that meant getting the Dremel back out again.
This was going to be much more difficult than I originally thought.
I always go really slow when cutting plastics because it is so easy for the Dremel to jump
suddenly and then slice a big piece of plastic you didn’t mean to slice.
I also make sure to cut inside the lines, which leaves room for me to clean it up with
a file.
There’s an old saying that its better to cut too little than to cut too much because
you can always file down what you missed, but you can’t put back plastic once you’ve
cut it off.
I also am going to need to remove this adhesive because it is covered in plastic dust now.
Fortunately, most of it will scrape off with my fingernail.
And then, I can remove the residue with alcohol.
And here it is after all of the cutting and filing is done.
I’m also going to need to remove the adhesive from this screen protector.
I decided to go with WD-40 because it works a bit more gently than alcohol and I was worried
about messing up the clear plastic.
So, I let that sit for a bit, and I was able to remove most of the adhesive.
However, I did have to follow it up with alcohol to get it clean.
Unfortunately, it ended up looking like this.
That’s actually not damaged, but rather it is a fine layer of smeared adhesive.
So, I just had to apply more WD40 and let it sit for a while to better dissolve all
of that.
And here’s the finished product.
OK, we’re getting closer to seeing if this is all going to work.
I’m going to attach the new screen to the board, which it is a perfect fit.
And I’ll just lock down this cable.
Now, looking at the other side, it will be necessary to solder a single wire.
It needs to go from VCC here on the board, which basically means a power supply, and
it goes to VCC on the board near the power switch.
So this is how the screen gets power.
Now, this is actually the only wire that is necessary.
However, if you desire, there are also 3 more pads here called down, up, and select.
And what you would do with these is run wires down to the test points near the buttons like
this.
And what this mod would allow you to do is change the brightness by holding down the
select button and pushing up and down on the D pad.
I’m not going to bother with this mod unless I feel the brightness needs adjusting
Since I no longer have any adhesive on my screen protector, I’m going to cut some
out of this double sided tape.
I’ll just apply the tape all around the screen and then use a razor knife to cut off
any excess, which should leave a perfect amount behind.
So, now I’ll put the screen down in the case.
And it does seem to fit now.
I’ll reassemble everything else.
I’m not going to screw it back together just yet, but I want to see if it works.
And it does!
Not only does it work, it looks amazing!
I’ll go ahead and put the screen protector back on.
I just cleaned the screen with a microfiber cloth first.
OK, I think the adhesive is going to work fine.
And I’ll give the outside a little polish.
And I’ll go ahead and screw everything else back together.
OK, so how does it look?
Well, it looks amazing.
I mean, with the screen protector back on, you can barely tell that there is anything
different about the Gameboy color, but the backlit screen is just absolutely amazing.
And, as I mentioned earlier, I really love to play the original gameboy titles like these.
And they look better than I’ve ever seen them before!
OK, time for some comparisons.
This is the only game that I happen to own two copies of.
So, I’ll take another Gameboy Color that is not modified and we’ll do a little side
by side comparison.
So, this game does have some color but since it was designed for the black and white gameboy,
it only has minimal amounts of color.
But what we’re looking at here is the contrast, viewing angle, and just overall visibility.
Of course, right now I’m holding this at an angle to the light that works best for
the older reflective model.
But.
When I change angles, you can clearly see the backlit model is way better.
And, of course, if I turn out the light in the room then the original model becomes unplayable.
However, I could keep playing this one in the dark with no problem.
How does this compare to the GB Boy Color that I reviewed a while back.
This cheap gameboy color knockoff works well enough and it does have a backlit screen.
But my biggest complaint about it was that the pixel arrangement on the screen is really
meant for playback of video or maybe a digital camera or something like that.
And so with games, everything just appears to have really rough edges.
And so I want to show you some closeups I took of the screens of all 3 units.
This is the original gameboy with the reflective screen.
This is the same game shown on the GB Boy Color, and you can see how jagged everything
looks.
And then this is the new modified Gameboy Color.
Which one looks the best to you?
Well, for me there’s no question.
This latest mod is the best choice!
OK, next comparison.
How does this one stand up next to the gameboy pocket that I modified with a backlight a
few years ago?
Well, both of them can be played in the dark, which is nice.
But I think you’ll see the new gameboy color screen has a lot more contrast to it.
And this boils down to the fact that the gameboy pocket used a passive matrix screen and the
gameboy color, even the reflective model, used an active matrix screen.
And I think we’re all spoiled today with active matrix screens in everything.
So I don’t think my gameboy pocket will be getting much use anymore.
I’ll put a link down in the description field of where you can buy this backlit screen
if you are so inclined to do the mod yourself.
And, I guess that wraps it up for this episode, so as always, thanks for watching!