The Official Game Boy Thread

[newtmonkey]

Has anyone else compared a Game Boy Light with a Game Boy Pocket?

 

I know everyone probably just plays their GB games on a GBA, but I really prefer the form factor of the GB hardware line and don't like how GB games look backlit (I know I'm weird).

 

I LOVE the way the GB Light screen looks when illuminated, it just seems so right when playing original GB games versus a backlight or even Worm Light. However, I've found the contrast of the GB Light is noticeably worse than that of the GB Pocket. I feel like the GB Light, no matter how you adjust the dial, is either slightly too dark or slightly too light, and thus the screen loses detail, making it harder to see. Playing at night with the screen illuminated somewhat helps, but I find myself constantly adjusting the contrast dial.

 

Both the Light and Pocket suffer from vertical striping on parts of the screen with solid colors, but I find that it is much easier on the Pocket to decrease the contrast to a level where the striping is minimized but you still retain plenty of detail in the screen.

 

I thought that maybe my GB Light was defective or failing, so I ended up getting another one in much nicer condition. It seemed slightly better, but still noticeably worse than the Pocket.

 

ANYWAY, I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this, or if I just got two poor units in a row?

[Tanooki]

Not in hand but as much as possible with video, images and other owners comments. They're basically identical other than that wannabe timex indiglo style screen going on there and the ribbed back as it needed more power from AAs over AAAs. They more or less look and feel equally the same other than that almost DMG-esque throwback green hue to it.

 

I prefer using old style Gameboy too. I do have every model that came out in the states, some more than one as one maybe so nice it's kept in a box, and others just sit as I have better versions (original GBA vs a modded cobalt blue SP with a 101 panel.) Depends on the situation, preference and utility of the moment. Limited space? I'll throw the gb micro in my pocket. Maybe a slight bit more, the SP works, and so on. But at home, if I want to play an old game and not on the TV I'll pull out the handheld best suited so I have battery ready DMG GB, GBC, the SP and the Micro ready. Put up there is a glacier GBA and my only GBP too as it's a launch one in the box (but looking to get a backlit modded one anytime for use.)

 

That striping you speak of is a feature, not a defect, it's just how the panel worked. The GBL due blur some with that green light but it's a trade off, and it will make the contrast more finicky so you're not alone, a good reason, other than cheap Nintendo paint making them look like beat wrecks is why I don't own one and like I said I'd get a GBP with a backlight in it instead. I think the GBL and GBP use the same general style of LCD Nintendo cooked up as a replacement which gives a sharp dark contrasted clear image, but at a cost of those striping a bit, and while not like the DMG it still does blur a little bit over again the refresh rate of the panel. Nintendo didn't make a blur free GB until their GBC upgrade.

[Yoshi]

Greetings!

 

I've been adding a few more unique Game Boy games to my collection lately, like Mr. Do! or Rod Land (Euro), and a homebrew release of Super Mario Land 2 DX. I've also gotten a backlit DMG, which is pretty surreal to be able to play an original Game Boy in the dark.

[Rick Dangerous]

I got my original gameboy collection back from my uncle yesterday, who has had it for about 10 years and had fun with his kids with it. Missing the carrying case, which he said "dissolved" and a few manuals and game cases. Everything was dirty as hell but cleaned up nicely with a few lysol wipes.

 

Sending the Gameboy out for a complete restoration soon. So psyched to have this back and play some of these games again, most likely on my super gameboy. Here is what i'm having done to the gameboy:

 

-New caps

 

-Retrobright the case

 

-Backlight mod

 

-Bivert mod

 

-New Nintendo Customer Service Phone Number Sticker

 

-General cleaning

 

-Speaker upgrade (if one exists.)

 

Have owned this unit since 90-91 era so despite not being a special edition or anything, it has significant sentimental value to me.

 

Edited July 8, 2018 by travistouchdown

[80s_Atari_Guy]

Once you use a backlit, bivert-modded Gameboy DMG, it's hard to go back to the green non-backlit version. Although, you can get a green backlight, to give it that authentic look.

The pro-headphone mod is also a must, since it gives clearer sound, without any interference from the backlight.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Once you use a backlit, bivert-modded Gameboy DMG, it's hard to go back to the green non-backlit version. Although, you can get a green backlight, to give it that authentic look.

The pro-headphone mod is also a must, since it gives clearer sound, without any interference from the backlight.

I'll second that, though I should add that if you plan to ever play your Game Boy outdoors again do not get it biverted. A biverted screen looks great under dim artificial lighting, but the moment you take it outdoors or try to play it anywhere with bright lighting the screen will totally wash out. For that reason when I backlight Game Boy systems I never bivert them. The pixels won't be quite as sharp as if they were biverted but it's still a huge step up from the stock unlit screen and makes the system look and play great in any lighting environment.

[Tanooki]

I got my original gameboy collection back from my uncle yesterday, who has had it for about 10 years and had fun with his kids with it. Missing the carrying case, which he said "dissolved" and a few manuals and game cases. Everything was dirty as hell but cleaned up nicely with a few lysol wipes.

 

Sending the Gameboy out for a complete restoration soon. So psyched to have this back and play some of these games again, most likely on my super gameboy.

 

Well going all out but still basically staying stock, I admire that move externally. I kept going over in my mind over bivert but I didn't feel comfortable doing it, didn't want to pay to have it done either on that kind of screen basically. That led me to looking at the GB Pocket and it can get that done too and it works nicely, but then I found myself not liking the lack of a GBC solution other that that chinese piece of trash on the market that sucks batteries when off as fast as on. That's a great collection, and I'm not buying the dissolved either. They lost them or loaned it out and they lost them. I had a jerk ex-friend do that back in 1986 with my Balloon Fight CIB cart, got it back game only after months of fighting.

 

Once you use a backlit, bivert-modded Gameboy DMG, it's hard to go back to the green non-backlit version. Although, you can get a green backlight, to give it that authentic look.

The pro-headphone mod is also a must, since it gives clearer sound, without any interference from the backlight.

I can see the merit in it, but I decided ultimately for me it was more important to play the stock GB angle for the pre-color only stuff and I went to an extreme when an opportunity hit I could not just say no to at all.

 

I'll second that, though I should add that if you plan to ever play your Game Boy outdoors again do not get it biverted. A biverted screen looks great under dim artificial lighting, but the moment you take it outdoors or try to play it anywhere with bright lighting the screen will totally wash out. For that reason when I backlight Game Boy systems I never bivert them. The pixels won't be quite as sharp as if they were biverted but it's still a huge step up from the stock unlit screen and makes the system look and play great in any lighting environment.

That was ultimately a huge reason I backed off bivert and looked just into backlight before my path went another way. Bivert is great, unless you have it in a lit space, then the brighter the crappier it gets, and sun equals death to playability entirely. I wasn't on board paying to cripple my favorite handheld. The slight loss of sharpness isn't worth having a crap screen that won't work except in shadow or night.

 

 

But I forgot this thread even existed, feel bad about that. I'm sure some of you probably saw it but since it's a response to these posts it's a repeat. A few weeks ago as I teetered on getting a backlight GB Pocket dumb luck on facebook struck and for nearly the same cost I fulfilled a 20 year old desire to own the Game Boy family and did it. For just $80 I got a Game Boy Light, silver model, and other than a few speckles of paint rubbed kind of thin on the battery cover ribbing it's 100% with a scratch free and non-burned screen/lens on it too. Just like the backlight solution people do now for the GB/GBP when lit it loses a little clarity, but with it off, it's as sharp as the GB Pocket though it seems to refresh a little nicer. Shame it never came here, but with it out 6mo before the GBC it was doomed to death.

 

See for yourself. I keep this safely inside of a Nintendo black leather pouch made for GBP(L)/GBC sized systems, top flap has red thread (Nintendo) embroidered into it.

[80s_Atari_Guy]

I guess the sunlight reverses what the bivert mod does.

 

I prefer it because I mostly play handhelds at night, I rarely play them in the day. I found at night, with both a white backlight, and a bivert mod, the screen looks pin-sharp.

I guess, with all handheld screens, change isn't for everyone. I know a few who don't like the McWill mod for both the Lynx and the Gamegear. I believe their reasons is that they lose that "Retro" look, even though you can add scanlines to the McWill screen.

On my Gamegear, I had it re-capped by someone. I then ordered a white LED backlight kit, to replace the awful tube light. This made the original screen look so much better, and the backlight is a lot more evenly distributed.

 

I'm now wondering if it's worth doing the AGS 101 screen replacement for my GBA SP Tribal ?

Edited July 8, 2018 by 80s_Atari_Guy

[pacman000]

That Game Boy Light looks beautiful; I love the bumpy battery pack.

[Tanooki]

Yeah they ribbed that Game Boy Light battery cover for your pleasure.

 

80s Atari Guy - Fair enough, I go between both enough, usually have some form of light but not direct enough I prefer a lit panel in either situation. I wish I could understand why people would hate the McWill setup other than I've read the aspect ratio of the pixels could be off a bit. There's just no reason to put up with such a shitty blurry glowing poor refresh battery sucking nightmare those old color handhelds like the Nomad, GG, Lynx and PC Engine GT(TE) had as they're goddamned awful. That panel alone is why I still don't have a GT because I can't do the work myself to put a non-garbage screen in one and having it done by someone else gets into the $300 and up club.

 

The last GG I had was a blue one which had the usual problems, so I had what you're talking about done and was able to source a kit well below market out of sheer luck. It had like 2 or 4 white LED lights in a strip inside of a repurposed old original Sega LCD frame and the light distribution on it was fantastic while not compromising the screen, yet removing that unsteady annoying blue glow. A nice bonus perk was like 2-3x the battery life as the internal CFL in there sucked.

 

I wouldn't bother really with your tribal, they're harder to come by I'd just leave it be unless you have some personal attachment to it to do that. You could just easily stuff the panel into a repop of another color, special pattern, or even NES style frame. Another choice I once did which is awesome since you can run off the rack AA batteries is the 101 in a GBA. All the comfort of a game pad with the 101 quality and a regular power source.

[high voltage]

 

 

Love Lady Sia, good platformer, and it's a girl (I just love females in video games, well, and otherwise too)

Edited July 9, 2018 by high voltage

[80s_Atari_Guy]

 

 

The last GG I had was a blue one which had the usual problems, so I had what you're talking about done and was able to source a kit well below market out of sheer luck. It had like 2 or 4 white LED lights in a strip inside of a repurposed old original Sega LCD frame and the light distribution on it was fantastic while not compromising the screen, yet removing that unsteady annoying blue glow. A nice bonus perk was like 2-3x the battery life as the internal CFL in there sucked

 

Yeah, that is what I am looking forward to. The seller claimed to almost triple his battery life from around 2 hours, to about 5+ hours.

 

 

 

I wouldn't bother really with your tribal, they're harder to come by I'd just leave it be unless you have some personal attachment to it to do that. You could just easily stuff the panel into a repop of another color, special pattern, or even NES style frame. Another choice I once did which is awesome since you can run off the rack AA batteries is the 101 in a GBA. All the comfort of a game pad with the 101 quality and a regular power source.

 

I do worry about ruining it by making a mistake. I think the hardest part is getting it to fit inside that plastic frame, I see some do make slight modifications to the frame to make it fit. My Tribal is in nice condition, and it's rare to find one without any scratches to the main body, or screen. I think it would be best to buy a old battered one, replace the screen, and get a new case.

 

Just to edit.

Here is my Tribal, and my newly purchased EZ Flash Omega.

 

Edited July 9, 2018 by 80s_Atari_Guy

[NE146]

So I broke down and bought the new GB Everdrive X7 even though I had the older Gameboy Everdrive.. I couldn't resist the save states feature, and the fast ROM loading is icing on the cake. Anyway.. really digging the Save States.. I finally beat Castlevania Adventure using a real Gameboy after what.. 30 years?

[Tanooki]

Well that tribal one should be left as it is then as it's in great shape. I had stupidly considered doing that to my NES SP which other than an oddly scuffed up battery door is spotless, and instead I put it in a plastic box on display but still easily used if I want.

 

On the SP front I have that, then a 101 stuffed into a cobalt blue (which is complete in the box) and recently I got for $25 a beat to hell Pearl Blue 101 as my beater for general use. I did the same with the micro, spotless Famicom US model and then a good shape but visibly used black frame/silver plate micro for carry around too since they're like damage magnets. The GB Pocket a week ago I got a killer deal on one (blue) almost perfect for $25 too with 10 games and the games I kept one, gave a couple to my kid, the rest I'll sell to get out of it even. Again the pattern of a keeper and a beater as my original GBP is a launch day one spotless in the clear box. I have the same again with the GB (DMG) a complete spotless boxed one, then one with some slight lens/body minor wear I use to play with too. All my gameboy systems other than the GB Light and a glacier style GBA have a redundant user backup.

 

 

Great buy on the Omega there, totally blows the everdrive's usefulness away really. It's on par with the X7 but has 3 bonuses. A DSLite shell for 1:1 fit, a GBA shell for 1:1 fit (ED sticks out like a big toe due to bad design), and it costs 1/2 the price of the ED too. Previous models of the EZ were junk or just short, the previous model to the Omega still relied on a battery for save data, but the Omega chip saves and the battery is only for the RTC function in Pokemon titles. The Omega also allows for drag and drop not only of anything Gameboy but other systems too since it has multiple emulators on board or easily added for 1 click (in GBA) game selection and use. It's a fantastic tool.

[NE146]

Great buy on the Omega there, totally blows the everdrive's usefulness away really. It's on par with the X7 but has 3 bonuses.

Assuming you mean X5 for an apples to apples comparison. There is no GBA Everdrive X7 (yet). There is however a Gameboy Everdrive X7, which confuses sometimes.

 

The Omega also allows for drag and drop not only of anything Gameboy but other systems too since it has multiple emulators on board or easily added for 1 click (in GBA) game selection and use. It's a fantastic tool.

For Gameboy / GBC games it's still just using Goomba though right (i.e. same as GBA Everdrive X5).? That's my other assumption..

Edited July 9, 2018 by NE146

[80s_Atari_Guy]

Yeah, I couldn't believe the price of the Omega. I also didn't know it plays NES, GB, and GBC games. I guess, like you said, there is a software emulator built in.

So easy to use, just press a shoulder button and up pops a nice menu. Great support for multiple sizes and speeds of micro sdcards. Incredibly fast loading, and the save-states to the sdcard is another bonus. Love it.

 

And I love the NES themed SP. I might just end up getting a battered SP and a new NES case for it.

[Rick Dangerous]

Guess I will skip the Bivert mod then. Haven't heard from my mod guy yet so may have to see who else out there would be willing to do a full resto on it.

 

Definitely picking up an everdrive soon, Gameboy X7!

[Tanooki]

I typo'd off the calc pad on the laptop, yeah I know there is no X7 other than for the old GB. I don't recall exactly if the Omega is using goomba/goomba color but I'm pretty sure it would have to so it could natively boot old 8bit games on the 32bit GBA. As I said, they have emulators built in, basically from the various individual each had a base .GBA (.gb, .gbc, .gg, etc) ROM with the emulator and in the old EZF4 days you would run an app making a file up to the system reading capability CAP loaded with ROMS appended to that file. With the Omega you just toss whatever update of the emulator you can find, the latest I think is 2014 from dwedit's website - http://www.dwedit.org/gba/goombacolor.php There may be a more updated one as a post recently said it wasn't dead but I have no time to dig. Just take that zip, remove the goomba,gba file and stuff it in the emulator pile on your card that exists as it's newer and you're good. Throw games on there for GB and GBC as you would GBA games and they just run from the EZOmega menu.

 

Despite not owning one still for some dumbassed reason I have been keeping up to date and eyeballing the latest releases of emulators I'd use and for updates that maybe newer than what it has already. You can confirm that puzzle as i lack it. Now I thnk PCE Advance works too, so you could throw CD/SCD ISOs on there or HuCards in the thing like anything else and they'll fire up -- Bonk or Dracula X, Gunhed or Ys Book 1+2, pick your poison. Same with PocketNES, SMSAdvance(which is GG too) and I think there's a Coleco one as well.

 

 

 

80's Atari Guy got it there -- it's really pick and play other than maybe updating your emulator if their version is older. I've had the EZ4 models up until they went to a black cart and started actually trying not using flimsy plastic and halfassed parts and loaders so the Omega and it's 2 predecessors I researched a lot but never got as I was being a snooty GBA purist and felt it could distract me too, but I'm over that, just need to pull the trigger. I need to add it to my happy family of everdrives (GB, NES, SNES) and retrohq (NGPC) kits. Even the black friday or random luck prices on the everdrive are more than the omega and with its physical hang ups I detest as it keeps it from fitting in all my SPs and Micro nicely so waiting on some once a year sale would be pointless.

[80s_Atari_Guy]

Tanooki, if you have any questions about the Omega, or want me to test anything, just let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.

 

I own a real PC Engine, and a Turbo EverDrive v2. Not sure if the Everdrive plays CD ISOs, haven't got that far, yet. I also have too many. N64, NES, SNES, Megadrive, Gameboy. They're all older models, though. Can never have enough Everdrives, SDCard solutions, Floppy drive emulators.

[Tanooki]

Well I don't know of anything, at least GBA intended that will fail on it outside of maybe that Wario and Yoshi tilt sensor titles. Emulators should work as well as they're coded from when I had the EZ4 less than a decade ago.

 

Oh and the everdrive on TG can only handle HuCards, so that is a perk. On the go, or on GBPlayer using the Omega with PCEAdvance you can play PCE/TG ISOs. Years ago I had Drac X, Ys1+2, Gate of Thunder4in1 CD, and a couple other items stuffed on a card and it was awesome. Sure it's a little crushed due to resolution, but it didn't render things bad or unreadable either.

[NE146]

I finally beat GBC Dragons Lair!!! Even though I was pretty good at it back when it first came out devoting several hours to playing it.. I never finished it. But not thanks to the X7 & SAVE STATES.. I finally knocked that to-do out. I even finished Castlevania Adventure.. another one I could never beat legitimately.

 

Save States are the bomb man.. And yeah I could've done it in years past on emulators (PC, etc.) but once you start a game of GBC dragons lair on anything else.. it just looks like a hot mess and I couldn't bear putting in more than 10 seconds of play. It's much better to play it on their home, a GB/GBC/GBA-SP

[Tanooki]

Wow you did it?! I wish I had a strong short term or eidetic memory as I can't get through most the screens. Then again you did cheat, but still, no prompts is a real bitch. It's why I loved the Wii release as you could turn it into a timing game, not some huge asinine memorization routine. Save states would really help a lot, you could just clip each scene as it starts, and use button combo A to do it, B to reset it each death.

 

You're right, it's a great looking game, proper screen and aspect ratio intended. I actually found another copy of it a week or two back for $4 and I thought about rolling it, but it's so much a love and hate thing I kept it.

[NE146]

I was allright at Dragons Lair already.. you pick it up over 30 years of dabbling in the game. The Gameboy version has a lot of different (shortened) move sequences but the general gameplay is the same.

 

It's kind of forgotten now, but it was a pretty amazing thing at the time to have it ported over to a console like the Gameboy.. and if I recall this was slightly before Daphne and having it on the original Xbox, etc. was really a thing

[Video]

I don't really buy the whole "game boy color would have left game boy light doa" thing. Would the light have sold as well as the color? Probably not. But it WOULD have sold quiet well imo. I certainly would have bought one day one, had it been available. I may, or may not have gotten the color day one, but would have gotten it eventually. Those of us who are game boy fans certainly have no problem with b/w gaming. Color IS nice, but seeing the games is too, and mostly when I play a dmg game on color or advance, I play it in proper grey scale anyways (left + b on boot) and I certainly have FAR more dmg games than hybrid, or color only games.

 

I think it's far more likely that Nintendo didn't want the light stealing potential sales from the color. Of the nearly 200 games I have, only about 20 are color supportive, and a whole wopping 6 are color only.

[Tanooki]

My understanding was that the only shortened gameplay sequence on the GBC was the Smithy cut down to like 6 moves. The real cuts were the 2bit color, minimal death/regeneration animation sequences, almost no music, stuff like that. Back when that game popped up I had a couple friends I knew through the 90s who ended up working at Digital Eclipse and they explained it to me but I don't recall the conversation much at all as I was just blown away it even happened.

 

Video: I don't believe it either, but I don't think it would have made a good tactical move either as a full release. Perhaps something of limited scope as a side toy at best, but that still I think would have caused harm. Had it come out within the day or week the GBL did in Japan it would have given a 6mo period or so in the US. That in turn could have caused a lot of problems for Nintendo. Butthurt buyers angry at another system less than a year later. Angry buyers being confused if indiglo lighting was worth it, or having finally color on their gameboy and with some games that only work on it. It would have been Nintendo pulling a 32X/SCD fragmentation scam on themselves splitting their market with a nasty divisive move. Yes it would have been nice having an option, but you have to account for the lowest common denominator of moron who would cause them problems PR wise which in turn can damage sales.

 

For my GBC roster I have 24 hybrid/color only carts and exactly 12 (half) of them are COLOR only. I also have 38 GB original era games too. GB Light made a lot of sense to me over trying to get some butchered hamhanded lit up GB Color made as the GB Boy Color is a battery knifing pos. At their height I probably had at most 70 GB games at some rate at the same time (into the 100s over all time) and probably 40-50 GBC titles as it didn't last that long and had a lot of filler garbage and licensed trash in its short life.

 

I'd have far more but I have the Everdrive GB so it kind of curbed my GB/GBC buying a lot.

 

Everything I have down to the 8bit systems and accessories too:

http://tanooki.byethost16.com/gameboy.html

http://tanooki.byethost16.com/gameboycolor.html