Hacking Ordered my first Gameboy ever!

[ChrisNeeds2Help]

I just recently ordered this here gameboy pocket as a project to finish in time for school. It was about $21 flat with shipping and taxes so I think its a pretty good deal. I'm here to ask... Is there a rechargeable battery pack for Game boy pockets? And what about backlight mods and how much would that cost. Oh and I need to buy games for it, I know I'm buying tetris and donkey kong land 2 when i fix it up ,what other games should I get? Thanks in advance and if y'all have any advice let me know!

UPDATE: IT JUST SHIPPED AND I SHOULD GET IT BEFORE THE 17TH!

 

[SaberLilly]

who hurt this poor defenseless gameboy? Who hurt him?!
In all seriousness, check out retromodding and handheld legends, while they don't have rechargeable battery packs they do have everything else, LCD mods, replacement shells, screen lenses, basically everything you need except the actual motherboard.
As for rechargeable battery mods you could probably adapt a gameboy color battery mod to fit this

Here's an example of said mod with some stuff you'll need.

 

[zfreeman]

Wireless charging. Charge at any time using a regular wireless charger (including those that come with your phones) and even reverse charge the console from your phone if it supports reverse wireless charge. That means you can charge your GBP while you are out, using your phone battery.
https://handheldlegend.com/products/cleanjuice-air-wireless-battery-pack-for-game-boy-pocket

 

[Sicklyboy]

$21 is a steal with how prices have been trending over the past two years.

How much money are you trying to put into it? That really determines what you're looking to buy. If you want to use the original screen you need to VERY CAREFULLY remove the polarizing film from the front and back of the LCD, probably, as it's burnt on one side. This process fucking sucks, I've tried it, and ruined one screen in the process. Replacement original GBP screens are difficult to come by, and they're all pulled from consoles at this point, no new-old-stock or aftermarket alternatives.

If that's the route you want to go, which I really, really can't recommend in 2021, you're looking at this for the screen.
2x of https://handheldlegend.com/collections/game-boy-pocket-mgb/products/polarization-film (I believe you need 2)
1x of https://handheldlegend.com/collecti...ucts/game-boy-backlight-v3?variant=4515813315 (multiple color options available)
Optional, 1x of https://handheldlegend.com/collecti...ket-bivert-module-mini?variant=16058480885803. If you're going through the effort of doing that kind of screen upgrade the bivert mod is easy enough to tack on top.

You want to ball out on that thing?
IPS conversion kit - https://handheldlegend.com/collecti...cket-ips-lcd-backlight?variant=31741225238662 (STRONGLY RECOMMENDED)
(note, do not use a bivert mod with this, unnecessary and will invert all of your colors)
Tempered glass lens, multiple colors/designs - https://handheldlegend.com/collecti...oy-pocket-glass-screen?variant=34823816937606
Audio amp, unnecessary, does make it considerably louder but also disappointingly makes it mono from the single speaker instead of stereo. https://handheldlegend.com/collecti...h-speaker-for-game-boy?variant=31485692248198
New power regulator https://handheldlegend.com/collecti...t-cleanpower-regulator?variant=39408079143046
New power switch if yours is damages https://handheldlegend.com/collecti...universal-power-switch?variant=39431120683142
Recap kit in case you feel it's needed https://handheldlegend.com/collecti...capcitor-kit-console-5?variant=39248179495046
Rechargable battery and wireless charging https://handheldlegend.com/collecti...ck-for-game-boy-pocket?variant=39436346425478
New speaker https://handheldlegend.com/collecti...ducts/game-boy-speaker?variant=31485741301894

The site also sells replacement shells, buttons, membranes, battery doors, rear stickers, battery contacts, and tons of other bits and bobs to make your restoration as fresh as possible https://handheldlegend.com/collections/game-boy-pocket-mgb

Not shilling they're just one of my favorite sites to order from for restorations like this. There's plenty of other options out there for some of this stuff like Retrosix, Castlemania games, console5, and a bunch other I'm forgetting.

Edit - the "ball out" build is what I'm doing to both of my Pockets that I have. One may get a fresh case, one will likely stay original. And I think I'm doing the IPS conversion to one and the slightly cheaper TFT conversion to the other.

Edit 2 - Oh and for games, if you're looking for a flash cart the EZFlash Jr is probably your most economical option. I have one and it works quite well. https://www.ezflash.cn/product/ezflash-junior/ https://www.ezflash.cn/dealers/ If you're looking to save a few bucks you can buy them on AliExpress but they are likely clones and if you try to update the firmware on them you'll likely brick it. There is an Everdrive for the GC/GBC but they're so unnecessarily expensive for, in my opinion, little to no benefit over the EZFlash.

Edit 3 - Game suggestions in general, from personal preference - Gen 1 and Gen 2 Pokemon (Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver (Crystal is GBC only)), Pokemon Trading Card Game (hasn't aged particularly well but was fun in the 90s lol), Super Mario Land 1, 2, 3 (3 is Wario Land 1), the Game & Watch collections are great for quick minigames. Donkey Kong ('94, not Donkey Kong Land) for the Gameboy is a PHENOMENAL game, can't recommend it enough.

 

[SaberLilly]

nice post, this is going to help me out too as i have a yellow 1st revision i need to fix.

 

[PinkCelebi]

I'll be the odd one out and recommend you to not mod the system at all. Not at the moment, anyways. Just grab a non-burnt OEM screen (or replace the polarizer yourself) and a worm light.

Why?


TL;DW: The Pocket is a DMG shrunken down using early 90's technology. Remember how the DMG used 6 double A's? Now imagine the DMG running off 2 triple A's. That's basically what a Pocket is. As such, the overhead is very small. The console just barely runs off those batteries, and the power supply is meant to work with alkaline batteries (non-rechargable). NiMH batteries work ok but not great, and LiOn batteries are a complete crapshoot. The console can run simple games like Tetris fine, but heavier games like Pokemon G/S/C, it does not like it and (even unmodded), can kill your save file.

Adding in a backlight kit makes that overhead even slimmer, and adding in a LiPo battery mod doesn't solve the issue with the archaic power supply design. They're all band-aids to the symptoms, not an actual fix.

Wouldn't recommend RetroSix's stuff. Not only does R6 steal the modding community's collaborative work while marketing like they made it from scratch (but that's a separate issue), they just don't know how to make battery mods. The CleanJuice AGB 1.0 didn't have a low power warning when mods before it did. The 1.1 had sleazy marketing that claimed higher capacity while saying the competitor's mods had a lower capacity, but when tested, the CJ had a much lower capacity than advertised while the competitor actually had a higher capacity than the CJ. And now, the 1.3 units have a defect where your battery drains even if you weren't using it. R6 was alerted to this issue months ago, but there are still recent reviews of how the mod has battery drain. Dude can't even be bothered to desolder the problem transistor and resistor and puts the responsibility on the customer to do so.

Not to mention, batteries are not meant to take much heat. But if you want to charge the Pocket Air battery, you need to do so wirelessly, through a thick plastic shell. And the CleanJuice mods get very toasty when charging just with a cable, imagine how hot it'll get when charging wirelessly.

On the bright side, I hear new mods are on the horizon to solve the issues of the Pocket. So if you can, sit tight and wait.

 

[ChrisNeeds2Help]

Ok so major update: i need help, the battery contacts are garbage and stupid corrodied and broke off. I got a soldering kit and the gameboy today. I think i might keep it original but if i do mod it Ill have a ez flash jr on it. Thx so far for being in this with me guys/girls!

To help out with this restoration/cpr on this gbp ,please recommend/point me in the right direction if possible, please help with the financial activity in all this by donating a good $1(+) at $phrogpoop69 on cashapp(<super professional cashtag)

 

[ChrisNeeds2Help]

Woke up next to this work in progress lol

 

[ChrisNeeds2Help]

Guys no fucking way, I got it working with a small ass rechargeable battery!!! Has no lcd on rn, currently waiting on buying a new one but fuck it works!!!

 

[sodoguy]

I think you can fix the screen, I've seen Elliot from The Retro Future do it at least a couple of times with screens that looked like that, but you need to peel a layer off and clean it.

 

[SaberLilly]

yeah that is the polarizer film, that's a filter layer that actually makes the image appear, but there's another big black splotch that looks like the screen itself is deteriorating. I have one suffering the same issue along the upper right edge of the screen.

 

[BlazeMasterBM]

sounds like a great deal

 

[ChrisNeeds2Help]

Kind of a depressing update to a dead thread/post but I ended up losing that gameboy and all that I did to it was for nothing. However I finally bought a working gbp for around $40 and I got a few games I bought for it like Tetris and super Mario land. So it has a happy ending after all

 

[StimedHydra]

When you are modding is is helpful to get broken-screen deals as yours, kudos and good luck
If you had only the flaring in the screen without being ruined I would suggest venturing into replacing the polarizer, maybe you can learn some stuff and resell the screen for 10 bucks