Gaming Turning a broken DS into a GBA (GBA Macro)

[skrck]

So I was looking for a picture of the back of a NDS (for a completely unrelated thing) and came across this.

Someone is taking broken nintendo DS and transforming them into GBAs. Some even go as far as to remove the X and Y buttons. I even found tutorials on how to do it, but it got me curious.

How expensive would it be to do all this? And is it cheaper to just fix your broken nintendo DS by reattaching the screen?

 

[FAST6191]

Cheaper? Possibly depending upon what is broken (if the ribbon is still good and you just need to do a shell replacement or something vs having a lot more broken) and what you intend to do for the mod/if you count time in things, you also end up with something useful for DS games and GBA games.

Cost. Depends what you already have. For the most part the main external component people need to source is a resistor to trick the DS into thinking the top screen is still there, and most people probably have some broken devices around the place that will yield that (if not resistors are not expensive or the sort of thing you have to order from afar/specialist suppliers). Relocating speakers can be harder if you want them in there (some just for headphones all the way, or rig something to them). The LED in the hole is a new one (and might even double up as a resistor, though I do recommend people always use a resistor with LEDs to limit current)).