Hey everyone, it's Colin. How's it goin'?
Backlighting the screens of original Game Boys has been a thing for a while now.
But what if I told you there was a way to get even better contrast in the process?
Let's take a look at two products from Hand-Held Legend that promise to give you
the best Game Boy picture quality possible.
[♪ Music - Intro ♪]
Let's start by installing the backlight module.
The original Game Boy's held by six tri-wing screws, then a ribbon cable connects the two halves.
It's just friction-fit, so gently pull it out.
Set the back half of the console aside for now, we'll come back to it later.
Then, remove the Philips head screws that secure the circuit board to the front casing.
The board and LCD screen will come out as a single unit.
A small amount of adhesive holds the glass LCD to the white plastic frame.
Use a spudger to pop the screen from the frame, but be careful here.
There's a ribbon cable behind the display that's pretty short and soldered to the circuit board.
Don't try to pull the screen too far away from the frame.
Remove these two small screws that secure the bottom ribbon cable
to give yourself some extra working room.
If you've ever done or seen a backlight installation on a Game Boy Pocket, this next step should seem familiar.
On the back of the LCD is the polarizer and reflector.
It's held on with adhesive like a big sticker.
This needs to be peeled off so the light from the backlight can shine through.
What makes it tricky on the Game Boy is that the screen is
permanently attached to the board by those two ribbon cables.
And to make matters worse, they're pretty delicate.
Damage one and the screen is toast.
So, we need to work around them.
Using a utility or craft knife, peel up the corner of the reflective film.
Try to get underneath all the layers.
I like to start in this corner because it means you'll be peeling away from the ribbon cables.
But luck wasn't on my side this time and I ended up separating the layers in this corner,
so I started again on another corner and managed to peel the whole thing up as one piece.
You'll likely have some adhesive left behind and a cotton swab soaked in isopropyl alcohol
does a good job of removing it.
Let's prep the backlight next.
Fire up your soldering iron and apply some solder to the two pads on the ribbon cable.
Then, solder the included wires to 'em.
The ribbon cable's marked as to which pad is positive and negative.
You may wanna trim the plastic frame of the LCD screen at this point.
It's not strictly necessary because the backlight's ribbon cable is so thin,
but I think it makes the installation slightly easier.
I used a pair of flush cutters to snip out this small section of the frame.
All right, let's get the screen itself finished up.
Slide the backlight module behind the LCD panel.
The kit also comes with a piece of polarizing film. Without it, you won't see anything on the display.
It needs to be installed in a specific orientation though,
and the trick I like to use to figure it out is to hold it up to another LCD screen.
If you rotate the film, you'll see it go from clear to dark.
You want to install it so it appears dark.
Peel the film off of both sides of the polarizer,
and carefully slide it between the LCD and backlight.
Then, to help keep everything in place,
reinstall those two small screws that go through the display ribbon cable.
The backlight needs power, so let's get that taken care of next.
We'll tap power from this capacitor just below the display, so solder the negative wire to the pad on the right.
The backlight kit comes with a resistor and I recommend you use it.
Trim the ends short and slip a short piece of heat-shrink tubing over the positive wire.
Solder the resistor to the wire, and shrink the tubing, then solder it to the left pad by the capacitor.
You can slip the extra wiring through the hole here, as there's plenty of room on the backside of the board for it.
Might as well test things out before buttoning the Game Boy up.
Throw some batteries into the back housing, and reconnect the ribbon cable.
Success!
If all you wanted to do is install the backlight, go ahead and reassemble the console.
But you know what, we can do better.
The backlight's great, but it highlights just how little contrast the Game Boy's screen has.
Let's improve that by installing a bivert module.
Normally, these are a pain to install because you have to solder wires to the legs of a tiny chip.
But, the Hand-Held Legend bivert module makes things way easier.
The chip comes already installed on a small circuit board that only needs a few simple connections.
This work gets done to the logic board on the back half of the console.
To make a little more room for the module, use a pair of flush cutters
to trim down the excess leads at these two solder points.
The module solders to the ribbon cable connector,
but before we can do that, we need to disconnect a couple pins.
Counting from the right, they're the sixth and seventh pins. They have two traces that run next to each other.
Use some fine desoldering braid to wick away the solder from the pins.
Put it between them, and you'll get both at the same time.
This'll get most of the solder, but a small amount's bound to get stuck under the pins themselves,
so use a craft knife to carefully lift each pin while applying some heat.
Bend both pins upwards a bit.
Go ahead and set the module into place.
What's so cool about the way it was designed is it has holes
directly over three of the connections we need to make.
All you gotta do is heat up each connection and feed some solder into it.
Then, bridge the connections between the two long surface pads and the pins we lifted earlier.
All that's left then is to solder the included wire to the ground pad on the module,
and the other end to this point on the logic board.
Of course, we'll want to test things again and...
What the hell?
Yeah, this is where the bivert module gets its name.
It works by flipping the colors of the LCD.
Pixels that were on turn off and vice versa.
It works out that these screens can get much better contrast if you bivert 'em like this.
If you like this reversed look, you're all done,
but I think most people will want things to look normal.
Thankfully, it's really simple.
Just go back to your screen and turn the polarizing film 90 degrees.
This incidentally is why you need to install a backlight for the bivert mod to work.
The original polarizing film is set the wrong way.
There's one last thing to finish up.
My Play it Loud edition Game Boy is overall in good condition,
but like many Game Boys, the screen cover fell off.
This is pretty typical, as are the scratches in the cover itself.
Let's really show off that new screen mod by installing a glass replacement cover.
They're really simple to put in.
I used some E-6000 craft adhesive, which is strong, but has some flexibility to it.
Just put a few dabs on the back of the screen cover, then press it into place.
The overall difference is striking.
We're all so used to how the original Game Boy screen looks that it's hard to believe that it can be this good.
And who knew the pixels were actually blue?
After looking at that low-contrast ugly green display for years,
it really brings back life to these games again.
It's easy to see that there are actual levels of grayscale in this screen and everything looks really crisp.
The bivert mod really is worthwhile, with results like this.
Battery life shouldn't take too much of a hit either, since the backlight uses LEDs,
which draw very little power.
And the icing on the cake is that glass screen protector.
I really dig the black-on-black look here.
So if you're a fan of the original DMG (It certainly brings back lots of memories for me),
I think installing a backlight and bivert module is the best improvement you can make to your console.
Big shoutout and thanks goes to Hand-Held Legend for hooking me up with the parts to make this video possible.
Links to the backlight, bivert module, and glass replacement screens are down in the description below.
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