The dream of every Gameboy lover only becomes reality an old Gameboy with a iluminated display…. |
In the early years the PukePals tried to illuminate a DMG (serial number abbreviation from GB). But we had just have a few green LEDs that were as bright as fireflies. Result: 2 bright dots at the edge of the display, .. so the LightBoy and similar attachments had to serve (but they were also awesome).
Later an afterburner mod (made for the GBA at the time) was raped and installed in the GB: Result: lines visible above the display, very annoying .. unusable.
In 2010 I found mods on the Internet, where a white reflective backlight module together with a polarizing film is clamped behind the GB display and thus illuminates the display. I will briefly explain the steps (I have therefore also “borrowed” the photos for the first steps, I hope the originator does not mind). In a further line I then perfected the whole thing with a trick called Bi-Inverter Mod
Part 1: Illuminate the Display
What do you need ?
- PukePals Projects Basic Survival Package: soldering iron, cables, solder and mouth full of teeth
- A Gameboy (suprise !!)
- a 5x5cm Background Light Kit
- a polarisation foil
- sharp knife
All in all, it doesn’t look bad for the GB’s ancient zero-contrast display. Buuuuuut that’s not the end. An awesome guy has discovered that you can invert the display signal of the GB with electronics. And afterwards you can invert the whole thing back with the polarization film. .. Hmm ok and what’s the point? . Simply inverting with the polarization film creates a strong increase in contrast due to the blocking of the ambient light. An inverted screen is not fun while playing and therefore you need a little electronics to invert the display itself. Result: Killer awesome illuminated picture.
With my foil, there was also a nice blue effect that was caused by the polarization film.
Part 2: Bi-Invert
What do you need:
- A multi inverter HC7404 or similar. I prefer the SMD variant, the normal one is usually used on the Internet because no one wants/can solder this 😈
- Something sharp to completely fuck up a ladder track
So the end product is impressive. A clean, evenly illuminated GB with a slight blue cast and rich contrast. It’s really fun to play with !!