Front-lighting a Gameboy Color
I remember having to literally play gameboy games by moon light on road trips when I was kid. If only I had some cheap tech from 2017… and some basic technical know how…
If, like me, you have your gameboy color and you want to make it a little more bad ass, it’s actually not very hard to do. If you’re already decent at soldering, it will be a breeze.
How to Modify your Gameboy Color:
Before we get too into this, I should say that I will be doing further modifications to this front-light. It’s a really nice front-light, but it’s actually a little too bright for me. Expect a follow up post within a few weeks!
You will need some basic stuff, such as solder, a soldering iron, small screwdrivers, and a dremel (or some other easy way to cut into plastic). You will also need some special items: propriety Nintendo screwdrivers (which you can find linked here), and the front-light itself (which you can find linked here).
side note: That’s only $21.00, which isn’t that bad. Especially if you’ll use that propriety screwdriver set for future projects (as I will with my SNES).
This is the only time you will need those propriety screwdrivers… they use normal screws for the PCB and internal components… thanks Nintendo…
Remove the ribbon cable and PCB:
Like most ribbon cable attachments, the ribbon cable attachment can be unlocked and removed cleanly. There are also 3 normal screws that should be removed from the lower white portion of the PCB.
Remove the Dot Matrix Display:
You will have to use some force for this, but be gentle. You will have to pry the corners that are closest to the buttons out and then remove the screen out from that direction. DO NOT pull the ribbon cable or remove this with only your fingers.
Size the front-light and cut with the dremel:
Like in the picture above, you will want to place your front-light module to see where you need to cut groves for the wires. Once you know where to cut, use your dremel to make the groves. Place the front-light module under the Dot Matrix:
Replace the PCB, reconnect the ribbon cable, and solder the positive and negative wires:
Once the PCB and ribbon cable have been reconnected, you should get ready to solder the wires. As demonstrated in the image below, the positive wire is connected to the top pin on the right side, and the negative wire is connected to the bottom pin on the left side:
Once you have soldered the wires to the pins, you’re good to go! Rebuild the gameboy and enjoy the new front-light.
If you have also lost the battery back to your gameboy color, you can 3D print another one with this file, though you may have to adjust the scale: Gameboy Back Cover 3D Print File.
If you want to know LITERALLY EVERYTHING about the gameboy color, check out Nintendo’s Gameboy Programming Manual. It’s a really fun resource if you want to know more about the software and hardware!
(one of my friends has a dial to overclock his, I may make a post about that some other time)