Any good GBA mods?

Lorelis-san · Post by **Lorelis-san** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 11:52 am

Does anyone know of any good GBAD(Game Boy Advance Dark, the old one with a non-backlit screen) mods? I've got one, and I'm thinking on what to do with it - Might see how to connect audio-visual data from the GBAD to a TV if anyone has any tuts for that

daguuy · Post by **daguuy** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:30 pm

Afterburner. Lighting up the screen is the best thing you can do to dark gameboys.

Lorelis-san · Post by **Lorelis-san** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:37 pm

I already got a SP, so I don't exactly need a backlight - might consider backlighting it though

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:50 pm

Overclock it. It has a 4.19mHz crystal with a 4x multiplier to make it 16.8mHz. So if you replace it with a 6 or 7mHz crystal, you would have a noticeable speed increase and still be playable, even have a switch to have normal or fast. Thats what I did to my GBC, except it was an 8mHz crystal to a 14mHz one, but I'm not 100% sure it'll work on a GBA.

Lorelis-san · Post by **Lorelis-san** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:56 pm

Ooohhhhh, can't find a definite crystal though on the GBAD's motherboard though so I can't overclock it without a risk.

Oh, and is the GBA to TV signal thing called a GBA transverter? That's what I'm interested in, and the whole reason I got this GBAD

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 1:06 pm

Lorelis-san wrote:Ooohhhhh, can't find a definite crystal though on the GBAD's motherboard though so I can't overclock it without a risk.

Oh, and is the GBA to TV signal thing called a GBA transverter? That's what I'm interested in, and the whole reason I got this GBAD

Yep, its a transverter. Check the news forum, bacteria used one to give his GBA a bigger screen, so you might be able to use some of his info.

The crystal is a little metal part about 1cm x .5cm on the side of the board with the processors. It says 4.19 and some other stuff.

And you could sell your GBA to me, I've been wanting to do a GBA and SP case mutation.

Lorelis-san · Post by **Lorelis-san** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 1:16 pm

Ahhhh, I see what part you mean - When looking at the processor side of the board, with the battery gap at the bottom, it's where the left of the cartslot would be if it was on top, and says on it
KDS 0148
4 . 1 9 4
Am I correct?

And I'd do a trade, PM me if you want to trade for the GBAD - it's missing the battery door though

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 1:21 pm

Lorelis-san wrote:Ahhhh, I see what part you mean - When looking at the processor side of the board, with the battery gap at the bottom, it's where the left of the cartslot would be if it was on top, and says on it
KDS 0148
4 . 1 9 4
Am I correct?

Yep, mine doesn't say exactly that, but parts can vary a bit.
I might have a trade lined up for a GBA, so I'll has to see how that works out first. I'll PM you when I find out.

Lorelis-san · Post by **Lorelis-san** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 1:40 pm

OK, I'll await your PM.

I guess I'll try and track down a transverter or any other GBAD>PAL/NTSC convertor in the meanwhile

Lorelis-san · Post by **Lorelis-san** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 2:23 pm

Sorry 'bout the double post, but I've decided what GBA-related mods I'll try.

Overclocking with switch
TV outputs implemented
Possibly a Boktai cart solar-sensor controlling pot
Possibly an afterburner if I can't get the TV outs implemented

Oh, and does anyone have pinouts for the crystal? I'll need them for OCing

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:42 pm

Lorelis-san wrote:Oh, and does anyone have pinouts for the crystal? I'll need them for OCing

Theres just the two sides, they don't matter which way they are. You pretty much have to just snap the original crystal off, the one on my GBC broke when I did that, but it was plastic, GBA's is metal.

Afterburner isn't the only frontlight for GBA, a couple people here have put anti-glare film on their screen and put LEDs in front of the screen and had similar results to Afterburner.

And my trade for a GBA worked out, so I don't need one anymore. I think I'll end up OC'ing it and doing the cheap frontlight mod.

sglider2 · Post by **sglider2** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 6:02 pm

hackaday.com ...they have a few gba hacks

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:01 pm

Hi,

Overclocking the GBA is fine in an idea, but probably little point. All commercial and homebrew games for the GBA (especially commercial) are designed to run full speed on a standard GBA, so overclocking one will not give extra performance, but would be more likely to increase heat or have some other adverse effect.

Afterburner - tried this years ago, results ok but disappointing - image is not smooth, each pixel looks blocky - the LED mod looks far more clever.

Without wanting to sound my own trumpet, please look at my BigBoy Advance project in "News" on this forum: http://benheck.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=19038
You not only get a brightly lit screen, but a big screen and larger buttons, as well as far better audio!

If you have any questions about this project, please post on that thread and I will reply. This is a very good mod in my view as it makes the GBA far better to play and more immersive, and the controls work well too!

The old GBA units are very cheap to buy, I got a spare one recently for about Â£12 inc P+P from E-bay. In the UK you can buy from GameStation for about Â£15 too. Get an M3 flashcard with either SD card or mini SD card (see my thread for details as to its advantages).

hailrazer · Post by **hailrazer** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 7:05 am

vskid wrote:
Afterburner isn't the only frontlight for GBA, a couple people here have put anti-glare film on their screen and put LEDs in front of the screen and had similar results to Afterburner.

Do you have a link to this led mod ? I searched and couldn't find any.

I used to mod the Gba with the afterburner kit and I tried Leds with antiglare and other parts and it just doesn't work. See you need a light guide which is a pielce of plastic with angled cuts to distribute the light across the screen properly.

Putting Leds in will just light the sides and not the middle.

So if it could have been done properly I'd like to see how I messed up

Lorelis-san · Post by **Lorelis-san** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:54 am

I guess that rules out all the mods then, since overclocking would be useless, afterburner is not that good, LED lighting would be too hard, and case modding would make it useless for me to get a e-reader

I might mod in a TV out circuit though, so let's dedicate this topic to info on that now, please