I think that many of us who are interested in emulation and homebrew gaming are also interested in hardware modding. I don’t know how big the overlap is between these two hobbies, but I’d say it is about 50%. I’ve been modding consoles for the last five years. I’ve been playing games via emulation for over ten years. You need to have some spare cash to get into hardware modding. You don’t need much, but I’d say if you invested £300 into buying broken consoles and handhelds as well as tools and spare parts, you’d keep yourself busy for a few weeks at least. I started off by buying a broken Nintendo DS, trying to fix it, and when I couldn’t, I’d make it into a Game Boy Macro as you can see below. I enjoy modding and emulation and I also write about these two hobbies through software and hardware reviews as well as features. Read on for a short article about the modding ups and downs as well as the testing of a great ExtremeRate GBA SP shell.
ExtremeRate are a company aligned with HEX Gaming (who produce great PS5 and Xbox Series X/S controllers), who specialise in great looking shells for controllers and handheld gaming consoles. On this site I have reviewed one or two of their products before. In this article, I have used images of the Graphite Carbon Fibre GBA SP shell, which I have installed on a GBA SP. This shell has a great look and was not too difficult to install (although the hinges can be tricky). The story of the Game Boy motherboard within the shell is what this article focuses on.
Game Boy Advance SP modding usually involves screen upgrades and shell swaps. I have two IPS screens (that make an SP 001 look like a 101) that I have installed in a couple of GBA SP’s. The RetroSix IPS screen you can see on the left of the image below is one of those screens. These screens are a great upgrade from the dim frontlight of the AGS 001. The screens are super bright and you’ll love owning what is one of the best Game Boys available. The image below compares a stock GBA SP AGS 001 screen (on the right), and a RetroSix IPS screen (on the left). The SP is capable of not only playing GBA games, they also play original game boy games, and game boy color games. This means that they play games from every Game Boy system ever released. They can also play NES and Sega Game Gear games via emulation if you have a flash cart (which I have).
I’m a beginner modder. My soldering skills are ok. I have done mods like installing a Game Boy Pocket IPS screen (which requires the soldering of one wire). I have also made a couple of Game Boy Macros. Both from using a DS Lite and original DS. Soldering a resistor is required in order to trick the system into thinking that the top screen is connected so that the device powers on. With the original DS conversion to Game Boy Macro I also soldered a speaker (although when playing these on the train headphones are recommended).
I’m aiming to build my skills until I can solder with precision. I might invest in a premium soldering iron such as this one. I made a mistake with the GBA SP that I was using. I thought that I could swap the charging port with a USB-C one for the convenience of using a USB-C charger for all of my devices. Precision soldering skills were needed to attach the port to the exact points on the board and I messed up and bridged them and couldn’t attach the port. I was then left with a motherboard with no charging port. This was bad as I had basically wasted a fine GBA SP. However, a few days later I decided that I would try and reattach the original charging port. I placed the port where it should be on the board and stuck it down using epoxy putty. I also roughly soldered the points to where they correlate on the board. I left it for a few days waiting for it to dry and thinking my fix would definitely not work.
Today, I found the board and could see and feel how the port had successfully reattched to the motherboard. I used an official GBA SP charger and plugged it in. To my complete shock the orange charging light turned on! I then knew that the fix had worked. This GBA SP would have turned on and worked even without the charging port working. However, I would never have been able to charge it again if I hadn’t fixed the port. Now that I had fixed it, I basically had a fully working GBA SP again (although I have multiple others). I’m assuming that the botched solder job somehow connected some of the right points to where they were meant to be allowing the device to charge. I’ve now fully charged the system and used it and can confirm that the battery has indeed been charging.
When I realised it was fixed I installed it into the ExtremeRate Graphite shell which I had ready. The shell is top quality and the way the buttons click when playing is super satisfying. On top of the issue with the charging port, the motherboard had had many issues. I had bridged two resistors with wire. I had also removed an element and connected two points with solder as I had been advised to do online to get the motherboard working quite a while ago. So much has been done to the motherboard that I’m surprised the thing works!
Game Boy systems are quite simple electrical circuits that an amateur tech person can have fun with taking apart and improving or fixing when it is needed. I think that the electronics A Level that is available in the UK sounds like it would be great for video game hardware modders. I think that courses to teach people about electronics should be more easily available. I’ll keep practicing my skills and maybe soon I will be good enough to do precision soldering. At the moment, I’m fixing quite a lot of handhelds. I do usually have a couple of motherboards that I’m working on. ExtremeRate shells are some of the best available despite not usually being suitable for IPS screens. The graphite version that I’ve been discussing in this article has a metallic look to it. However, like the motherboard itself in reality, it is not as solid as it looks. However, this is a video game console, it doesn’t have to be designed to survive a nuclear blast. The Game Boy Advance SP is iconic of it’s era. Happy Gaming.
BongoBongo123 is an avid Zelda fan who also likes the odd game of Smash. His interests in gaming are broad but he loves a good Metroidvania or action RPGs.