Game Boy Color laminated IPS mod
Over the years I have accumulated quite a collection of Game Boys ranging from the original DMG to Game Boy Advance and DS Lite, there was one that was missing: The Game Boy Color. Although the GBA can play Game Boy Color games, the resolution of the screen is higher than that of the GBC: 240x160 vs 160x144. Since the image is not scaled when playing a GB/GBC game on a GBA, only part of the screen is used and thus results in a smaller image. The GBC’s screen is already a bit smaller than that of a DMG (2.3 inches vs 2.5 inches). I decided that I wanted a Game Boy Color and add an IPS screen to it, period.
I picked an atomic purple GBC on Marktplaats for 50 euro and decided it was a decent price. It looked incredibly clean: the screen was impeccable, the case was flawless and the stickers on the back looked transplanted. I decided that this must have been a reshell, fair enough.
I tried it out a bit, but oof, it’s so dim and the contrast is so bad! 🙈 Anyway, that’s the whole point of this project! For the screen I wanted something that’s larger than the original and preferably laminated. Funnyplaying has this laminated IPS LCD kit, that looks great.
The thing with laminated screens is that you will most likely need a shell that is made for the screen, as modifying an existing shell is tricky and time consuming, plus you might ruin the screen if there is too much pressure on a certain area. I went with an atomic purple shell and some nice purple membranes and buttons.
Funnyplaying doesn’t provide proper instructions, so the instruction video by Hand Held Legend was very helpful.
Disassembly and assembling everything was pretty easy. I did trim the pins of the cartridge slot with my flush cutter, which I don’t like doing, but it makes sense.
It turned on right away and even the already attached touch sensor works just fine! The on-screen display is useful and the glowing “Game Boy Color” logo, which you can change the color of, is a nice touch. I configured it to match the case and buttons: purple. 💜
The only problem is that it wouldn’t read any cartridge when it was fully assembled, but it would read one without the back half on. I figured there was too much pressure somewhere or maybe I was short circuiting something. I put some isolation between the PCB and the flex cable to make sure nothing was shorting and tightened the screws just a little less. That was all that was needed to make it work flawlessly.
The screen is really glorious! Just look at it! What I also like is that there is hardly any humming noise coming from the system, even with the IPS mod. It must have a much better power regulator than the DMG.
I should have modded a GBC years ago, but I never owned or even played one so it just didn’t resonate. It’s a great device!