Guys, please help me solve the mystery of this old Game Boy.
Some back story (read first):
I bought the thing for 10 Euros. It looks brand new, the unit anyway, but doesn't play any games. I tried a few cartridges that work on my other Game Boy, cleaned the pins, cleaned the cartridge slot, but still nothing. When I switch it on, the Nintendo logo drops down and the chime plays but then the screen goes blank! After a couple of tries I noticed how, when it goes blank, the green hue of the LCD slightly changes to a lighter tone. It's almost unnoticeable but looks as though the screen is turning off. The light indicator still works but the buttons do nothing and the game is obviously not running as there is no sound.
Then, of course, I decided to take the thing apart and wow, it looks very different from a regular Game Boy. My first thought was that maybe it was a clone of some sort but the housing and the box look very legit. The parts inside the unit however, look... shoddy. When I took it apart, the cables connecting the speaker to the circuit board came off, so I had to resolder them (probably just as bad as they were in the first place). Anyway, I couldn't see anything wrong with the unit, and by see I literally mean that I did nothing more than take a very good look at the insides.
The box says "FOR SALE AND USE IN SINGAPORE ONLY" but as far as I know the original Game Boy was not region locked. So I doubt that's the problem.
Got any ideas what the issue might be or why the console looks so different inside? Were Nintendo just like "whatever" and decided to give permission to some factory in Singapore to build the units? I don't know how important the Singaporean video game market was for Nintendo.
Check it out:
Some back story (read first):
I bought the thing for 10 Euros. It looks brand new, the unit anyway, but doesn't play any games. I tried a few cartridges that work on my other Game Boy, cleaned the pins, cleaned the cartridge slot, but still nothing. When I switch it on, the Nintendo logo drops down and the chime plays but then the screen goes blank! After a couple of tries I noticed how, when it goes blank, the green hue of the LCD slightly changes to a lighter tone. It's almost unnoticeable but looks as though the screen is turning off. The light indicator still works but the buttons do nothing and the game is obviously not running as there is no sound.
Then, of course, I decided to take the thing apart and wow, it looks very different from a regular Game Boy. My first thought was that maybe it was a clone of some sort but the housing and the box look very legit. The parts inside the unit however, look... shoddy. When I took it apart, the cables connecting the speaker to the circuit board came off, so I had to resolder them (probably just as bad as they were in the first place). Anyway, I couldn't see anything wrong with the unit, and by see I literally mean that I did nothing more than take a very good look at the insides.
The box says "FOR SALE AND USE IN SINGAPORE ONLY" but as far as I know the original Game Boy was not region locked. So I doubt that's the problem.
Got any ideas what the issue might be or why the console looks so different inside? Were Nintendo just like "whatever" and decided to give permission to some factory in Singapore to build the units? I don't know how important the Singaporean video game market was for Nintendo.
Check it out: