Reliable place to buy Afterburner?

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 3:10 pm

Well, the GBA is hardware backwards compatible to the GB, so it's not really that surprising, but it would be kind of cool to do...

tysonDS · Post by **tysonDS** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 5:47 pm

Although I have modified 2 GBA's for lighting, one with an internal SP light guide, and one with a custom made 3x white led link slot light.

I've decided to save myself the trouble in future, and have purchased 2 x Halo Lights (internal Lens light with filter) from:

http://www.goldenshop.com.hk/AI-trad/aitrad.htm

Plus, they're only $26 bucks usd

Once I have received the order, I will let you guys know:

A) How good was the company and the order process
B) I'll take some pics of how good the lights look

Cheers

hailrazer · Post by **hailrazer** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 6:30 pm

tysonDS wrote:Although I have modified 2 GBA's for lighting, one with an internal SP light guide, and one with a custom made 3x white led link slot light.

I've decided to save myself the trouble in future, and have purchased 2 x Halo Lights (internal Lens light with filter) from:

http://www.goldenshop.com.hk/AI-trad/aitrad.htm

Plus, they're only $26 bucks usd

Once I have received the order, I will let you guys know:

A) How good was the company and the order process
B) I'll take some pics of how good the lights look

Cheers

My guess is you won't like it at all.

It uses a piece of rubbery silicon that sits against the screen that is meant to function as the piece of AR that the Afterburner had. But it is a piece of junk and doesn't make good contact with the screen and Halo light guide. So as a result you get nasty looking bubbles/high contrast spots.

I tried 4 or 5 of them as they came out with newer so called improved models and they were all crap.

I wound up buying a lot of the afterburner AR films and installing them first and then the Halo light guide without the silicon piece.

Here's a review from someone else that points out the same thing :
http://www.eagb.net/advance/hr39.html

tysonDS · Post by **tysonDS** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 7:15 pm

Thanks for your post Hailrazer, that is extremely useful information.

I have not sent payment yet, so have not finalized the order.

Is it even possible to get AR film anymore?

If I just had a few sheets of the stuff I could do plenty of my own LED mods.

It's also so terribly easy to scratch the buggers as well.. because of the grooves.

Edit: Man, you are so right! That silicon rubber makes it look like crap! At the moment I am using a scratched up SP Light guide, and even that looks better than the Halo.

But I have still not reached a light that I am happy with. The main problem being "washed out pixels".

I am going to try and find another SP, and this time use a sterile environment, LCD cleaner / blower and those fancy gloves.

Long live the original GBA!

tysonDS · Post by **tysonDS** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 8:14 pm

Can anyone please confirm this DS phat replacement top screen from Deal Extreme comes with the Front Light guide attached?

https://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3189

If that is the case, I would buy a few of these to light my GBA original.

Edit: Further to that, are all NDS Phat's Top Screens Front Lit? Or did they change mid generation. thanks

tysonDS · Post by **tysonDS** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 5:48 pm

Can anyone confirm they have front lit their GBA original with a Front light guide from a DS Phat?

I've been trying to buy SP's lately to gut out their front light guide, but SP's are still expensive!

People are selling their SP's on Ebay australia for like $60 - $70 bucks...

There is a website that sells just front light guides, mash mods I think, for $40us, but that seems so expensive.

DS Phat screens from Dealextreme are only $16 us with free postage.

hailrazer · Post by **hailrazer** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 6:23 pm

tysonDS wrote:Can anyone confirm they have front lit their GBA original with a Front light guide from a DS Phat?

I've been trying to buy SP's lately to gut out their front light guide, but SP's are still expensive!

People are selling their SP's on Ebay australia for like $60 - $70 bucks...

There is a website that sells just front light guides, mash mods I think, for $40us, but that seems so expensive.

DS Phat screens from Dealextreme are only $16 us with free postage.

ds phats didn't have a front-lit screen. They were backlit.

So those screens won't work.

palmertech · Post by **palmertech** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:56 pm

hailrazer wrote:
tysonDS wrote:Can anyone confirm they have front lit their GBA original with a Front light guide from a DS Phat?

I've been trying to buy SP's lately to gut out their front light guide, but SP's are still expensive!

People are selling their SP's on Ebay australia for like $60 - $70 bucks...

There is a website that sells just front light guides, mash mods I think, for $40us, but that seems so expensive.

DS Phat screens from Dealextreme are only $16 us with free postage.
ds phats didn't have a front-lit screen. They were backlit.

So those screens won't work.

Not 100% sure on this, but I think that some of the first gen ones were indeed frontlit. Older DS phats can be flashed with CFW to allow a way brighter screen, and the DS Lite brightness control, but the earlier ones cannot. Lemme try to find a link, it was a long time ago...

Mashmods makes a terrible quality afterburner clone, stay away.

Try finding a broken SP, they are way cheaper, and the light guide will still work.

hailrazer · Post by **hailrazer** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:58 pm

palmertech wrote: Not 100% sure on this, but I think that some of the first gen ones were indeed frontlit. Older DS phats can be flashed with CFW to allow a way brighter screen, and the DS Lite brightness control, but the earlier ones cannot. Lemme try to find a link, it was a long time ago...

Mashmods makes a terrible quality afterburner clone, stay away.

Try finding a broken SP, they are way cheaper, and the light guide will still work.

Nope they were always backlit. It was one of the selling features that made me pre-order one.

tysonDS · Post by **tysonDS** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 9:32 pm

^ So we're in agreement then, the best and most accessible way to light a Gameboy Advance now in 2008 is with an SP's Front light.

I have done this, and while it looks good, it doesn't look that great.

I have modified one of my DS Lite's to be single screen (bottom screen only) as a sort of, glorified GBA.

It would be cool to see someone actually then take the bottom of a DS Lite and wire it into a GBA like case with the extra comfy GBA controls.
This seems like a lot of effort tho to use that extra beautiful and bright DS lite screen.

All for the love of Final Fantasy Tactics GBA.

(Btw, I'm not crazy, I just hold the original GBA in higher regard than a DS)