Game Boy Color mod idea

benol · Post by **benol** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 8:15 pm

That's an awesome idea! I will do that!

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 9:26 pm

On my BigBoy Advance project, you will see the pinouts for both types of the tv-out mobo for the GBA. It would be worth checking out! If you need any advice, let me know.

benol · Post by **benol** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 9:34 pm

Okay! Will do!

I think for a controller I will use a PS1 controller (The kind before the DualShock) and spray paint it black to match the case. Then I will change the buttons to say which button on the GBA they control.

Is there a way to make 3 different buttons act as the same button? It would be awesome if triangle, circle, L1, L2, R1, and R2 all acted as L and R. (Triangle, L1, and L2 being L, and Circle, R1, and R2 being R)

Also, how could I make it wall power capable? I'm deportabalizing.

Finally, which brand of NSTC TV output card is the best? How much does it cost? Where can I get it?

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 9:59 pm

benol wrote:Okay! Will do!

I think for a controller I will use a PS1 controller (The kind before the DualShock) and spray paint it black to match the case. Then I will change the buttons to say which button on the GBA they control.

Is there a way to make 3 different buttons act as the same button? It would be awesome if triangle, circle, L1, L2, R1, and R2 all acted as L and R. (Triangle, L1, and L2 being L, and Circle, R1, and R2 being R)

Also, how could I make it wall power capable? I'm deportabalizing.

Finally, which brand of NSTC TV output card is the best? How much does it cost? Where can I get it?

Not sure how you'd make the PS1 controller work, seeing as it has a specific IC for running with the PlayStation, it wouldn't interface with the GBA. You could always rebuild all the guts, replacing them with simple relay pads or tact switches, and run wires from each button through a cable that would plug into the GBA's controller IC or soldered to the pads. It's really the only way I see that working.

As for the buttons, that's easy; just tie all the switches to one common line, so when any of them is pressed, it completes the circuit.

For the wall power, also easy. The GBA operates on 2 AA batteries, so 3 volts. I dunno how many amps it draws, you'll have to check. All you need to do, then, is wire up a plug and find a PSU that outputs 3v DC at however many amps the GBA takes. However, if you wanna be lazy, you could always just buy the GBA original power pak that makes it run off of an AC adapter for $6. Less hassle, and it'd probably be about the same price as doing it yourself.

CTFan

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:23 pm

You really need to look at my BigBoy Advance project for getting the system going.

For some reason, there appear to be two common connections on the GBA, although one of them doesn't make the buttons work when connected to them (see Nintendo 64 Advance).

Design it so one button does one function, otherwise more buttons=messy. If you need to have multiple buttons working on one button press (eg M3 Flashcard for menu), see my Nintendo 64 Advance project - homemade buttons.

The GBA draws very little amperage, especially if the screen is removed (you will be using a different screen of course).

Powered by wall plug - use the one for the screen you use (eg PSone screen, use PSone PSU), and a step-down regulator or car adapter to divert 3v into the GBA, keeping one power source; or do what I did and just have 2 x AA's to run the GBA mobo - should last for many months before needing changing.

See my topics...lots of info there...

benol · Post by **benol** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:34 pm

I'm not using a screen, just composite plugs. It's going to be a TV console.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 2:28 am

Oh, ok; that's not really a project then. You just buy a tv-out adapter for the GBA, open the GBA, plug the cable from the adapter into it, um, put the screws back in and job done. The tv-out adapter comes with a mains plug (needs higher voltage) and compartment for the two AA batteries for the GBA. These gadgets are meant to be easy to install as they are for the masses. No removing mobos, fiddly soldering, dremeling off parts or rewiring.

It is very unlikely that you could get the GBA working via another controller - remember the pain in the butt issues I had when some of my wires from my GBA met with those in an N64 controller - buttons didn't work! (trust me, I know - that's why I had to make homemade buttons on my project). If you want to have separate buttons, you need to make independent lines to them, eg rip apart a controller, hack off the mobo to control the buttons and D-pad, solder connections to them and make it into a case. If you only intend to plug into your tv there seems little point in doing this, you may as well just use the GBA as gamepad (in which case, really easy job - see first paragraph).

You will be disappointed with the quality of the large majority of games on your large tv; the resolution on the GBA is very low, most games were made in low resolution to save memory/didn't have to, so images tend to look very blocky indeed - you get away with it on a PSone screen as the screen is about 4x the GBA size roughly, so ok.

Go on, do a proper mod, incorporating screen, controls and case - you will thank yourself in the long run!!

benol · Post by **benol** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 6:18 am

No, I don't want to do that. I was planning on a case anyways, with a top loading cart slot.

I know there was something a while back that was a project where a guy put a PSone screen on his GBA and hooked a SNES controller up to it. Why can't I do that? Will I have to replace the internal wiring of the controller with tact switches? That shouldn't be too hard.

EDIT: If the GBA looks so bad on the TV, then why was tthe Game Boy Player made?

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 7:34 am

benol wrote:No, I don't want to do that. I was planning on a case anyways, with a top loading cart slot.

I know there was something a while back that was a project where a guy put a PSone screen on his GBA and hooked a SNES controller up to it. Why can't I do that? Will I have to replace the internal wiring of the controller with tact switches? That shouldn't be too hard.

EDIT: If the GBA looks so bad on the TV, then why was tthe Game Boy Player made?

I tried to relocate the cart slot on the GBA and it ended up frying a cart. Be careful.

In your last post you said "I'm not using a screen, just composite plugs. It's going to be a TV console", that indicated you didn't want to incorporate a screen into the case...

You could use a SNES controller if you want, but you may need to dremel out the system guts as it uses a data cable (as with the majority of controllers) rather than separate contacts to each button. I think the only controllers which don't do this are the Megadrive and NeoGeo ones. You could solder wires to the SNES traces and run those wires into the GBA, that would work fine - you won't need tact switches therefore.

I know the GBA looks bad on a tv screen, I originally bought the GBA Transverter to use on my tv; the only game I tried (I tried quite a few) which looked ok was Advance Wars; the others looked very blocky indeed. When you play GBA games on a smaller screen (eg PSone screen) you can still see a bit of blockness but it is fine. Why was the GameBoy Player made - have a guess, perhaps because there was a market - they tried to persuade people who had a GBA and GameCube to buy this add-on for games like Zelda Wind Waker, for "extra features in game". Companies do this sometimes, release a product which isn't as good as it should be, and they blame the game programmers for not producing games in higher resolution - yes, they did this with the adapter - I read the reviews! It was well documented years ago, when the tv adapter was reviewed, that the reason for games looking blocky was that game developers only had to produce games for the GBA native resolution of 240x160. I don't think Duke 3D on the GBA even achieved that. If a programmer made a game designed for higher resolution but showed on the GBA fine, then when seen on a tv the image would be better.

For example, if a game is programmed to be 240 x 160 and your tv is 648 x 486 (NTSC) then 1 pixel on your GBA takes 9 pixels on your tv (3x3). If the resolution of the GBA game is 320 x 240 (showing 240 x 160 on the GBA of course), then 1 pixel on the GBA would take 4 on the tv (2x2), giving a far better picture.