I would probably put a picture of the screen's board on Atari Age or Reddit with the bit of information you have. Because if the Atari Age guys could figure out what PCB was used for the mock up of the Coleco chameleon then I'm sure someone can figure out what cell phone that screen came from.
I think the chip a cpld or a fpga. Where your thumb goes over at 3:38, i mean the solder pads, this could be a jtag connector. So maybe it can be found out and the seperate small chip near the large chip could be some sort of flash-chip storing the configuration for the fpga, if it is a fpga, and maybe can be read out.
Yeah, that was my read too. It looks like an FPGA and that is the only device that I can see being able to do the conversion quickly. The smaller chip is almost certainly the config flash for it too. With the work that was put into even hiding the main chip info, I would not be surprised if there was something setup to avoid just dumping the flash for analysis.
This will only stall time with the reverse eenginering. There is often a way around. just reverse eenginering the pinout it could tell what fpga is used and from there ... . You know the rest. When someone wants in, he gets in.
Yeah don't think there's much to it. Most likely an FPGA to keep up with the 60fps refresh rate. The LCD screen would also have to have a parallel interface, verses SPI which is slower. At the bottom could be a boost converter to up the voltage of the GBC battery to power the board and LCD backlight. Maybe that's why he's able to use a flat flex with less pins?
It's not using an FPGA, as an FPGA needs an extra chip to store the config data, and video conversion can be done by a robust CPLD anyway. Many CPLDs have protection built-in that prevents reading them if they're attempted to be read through JTAG, and I THINK some of them can wipe themselves completely if they're read, though I may be wrong on that.
If the screen is really an IPS screen, and if it really came from a 10 years old smartphone, it should be easy to track down what model it was, since there were not many phones with an IPS display back then. IPS screens got into phones in mass only after the iPhone 4.
Seriously I remember IPS on phones being rumoured about [before the iPhone] but the only device I know of that had an IPS display back then, before the iPhone, was some countertop weatherstation I had; and that thing was $300 pretty much _just_ because of its screen lol. A search on GSMArena US shows there's no such thing as an IPS phone from that era in the US.
Nicholas Chan That will still reveal only the LCD part number. The really interesting stuff is the configuration of the CPLD/FPGA chip. By reverse engineering the GBC's display interface (which most likely has been done) it should be relatively easy to interface any colour LCD to the GBC, or even add a HDMI output. I wish I'd knew more than the pure theory of how to do that.
That was really interesting. I want to see it more compared to the BennVenn mod. Side by side brightness, motion blur, etc. Don't let this be the last time we see/talk about this, there's more to say!
I just wanna say this is super cool you finally got your hands on one. I remember a few videos of this past year talking about this and you finally got your hands on it. Congrats!!
Would it be possible to use an oscilloscope to compare the signals being sent to the screen from the chip to the ones from the GB itself and then reverse engineer it? Perhaps that would also help narrow down the source of the screen further also?
Always possible, but probably more effective, to just reverse engineer (which probably has been done already) the transmitting part of the GBC, and then either find a part that translates it easily, does it natively, or make an FPGA that does it to the screen you want. The screen itself isn't a special part, it's really a common screen, just possibly that part itself was a badly chosen one (or maybe perfectly chosen size wise). There's also Black Berries that back in the day had 320x320 screens, that would mean less cutting for us modders, and it's definitely possible to do once the GBC's output has been reverse engineered (and it was. The BennVen's AGS 101 mod proves it)
It's just silly. It's extremely easy to find out what chip it is by looking at pinout, and eventually a decap. Problem is, code is flashed to the FPGA and is probably protected by lock-bits.
This is why you're one of my favorite channels man. Although this mystery has not been completely resolved, I must say this video did satiate my curiosity, at least for now. I'm hoping more information can be gathered from this, to eventually lead us to the perfect screen mod for our beloved Game Boy Colors.
He did a FPGA mod for the original Gameboy to connect it to a large computer screen. Then they made it into a huge Gameboy. I’d definitely be interested in a episode about the Color’s screen. :)
Amazing video man! And thank you Pokemon Professor for providing this. Really exciting to see how this develops and if in the future someone will be able to recreate a more mass produced version.
It actually exists (both resolutions), 320x288 is CIF resolution standard (I think Video CD uses it), and 320x320 square screens were used on some Palm and Black Berry devices if I recall.
Either Way I love this type of stuff. The mystery in on itself is what fascinates me. Someone will figure out all the stuff to it and it will be amazing to see.
Lee Fallat preferably a solution where it doesn't require cutting up any part of my gameboy color. I could buy a 3rd party non-OEM shell but than whats the point. I want my offical Atomic Purple GBC to be back lite.
You should send this thing to Ben Heck to reverse engineer the signals and such. If anyone can do that, Ben Heck can do that. Hes also a nintendo fan for sure.
Xenethra Benn is absolutely irritated with -Kyle- Collin ever since his diy on the backlit gameboy lmao. Nevertheless, I'm sure he'd be way interested in seeing this in person.
“The markings on the chips are gone. This is always done by someone who doesn’t want someone to do reverse engineering.” Laughs in modern lcd drop in kit.
finally you get it! i was following it from the beginning. i think this is one of the best mods, i dont like the 101 mod because the gbc screen mode is smaller than the original, this ips fits exactly
it's difficult to imagine something like that would be that easily to produce, the guy wouldn't ended up in the hospital for long working hours to fulfill the initial orders, and he protecting the chips is his way to protect his future incomes and stability to go by but hospitalisation isn't something you can predict also the maker of this he might be better laying down, imagine his identity get revealed and how many will start contacting him for the info, he will not rest so easily
it is more profitable to them just made a few ocasionaly, this is not thar hard to build well,at least i think it by the componnents that i can identify on it
the hard part is obviously the code inside the chips, thats the only reason behind to burn in the serials and codes on top to make it a little harder to people to find the right parts and way to read into them (i'm not completely sure of how this is made) but may be the first step to make it harder for other people to copy the whole thing
well,the problem is not the cirquit ,in it the cirquit is aparently an atmega64A the arduino mega processor which means it is one of the easyest chips to find in the world,the problem is the code . i think since you have the datasheet of the original gameboy color screen you can take all the serial and use them to virtually recreate the image,this method works in other components,like i2c cirquits,so it is hard to recreate,but not such as looks like
Taht blackberry had a TFT panel, which would have been noticed on the video, Also the resolution does not match 320x240 against the 480x320 that is used on this handheld. He says is IPS, probably because the website says so and viewing angles. My theory is that the screen is not TFT, nor IPS, is OLED and it belongs to one of the 5 phones between 2001 and 2010 with OLED screens and a resolution of 480x320. Samsung I7500 Galaxy, HTC Legend, Samsung M900 Moment, Samsung T939 Behold 2 and Samsung I6500U Galaxy.
I'm glad that BennVenn has designed an adapter ribbon cable for the existing AGS-101 replacement screen to work in a GBC; partly because it makes the process of backlighting the system easier but mostly because it means shady things like this whole debacle likely won't happen again.
This is turning into some sort of manufacturing legend- a search for the perfect GBC display. I'm certain someone is capable of designing a backlit GBC display that can be run just off the ribbon cable adapter, like the AGS-101 screens.
The only phones with IPS screens between 2001 and 2010 were the Iphone 4 and 3 models of LG optimus. The 3 models of LG had a resolution of 480x800. He doesn't really know if the screen is IPS, he probably thinks it is because of viewing angles. But what if I tell you that the screen is OLED. There are 5 phones with OLED screens between 2001 to 2010 with a resolution of 480x320. Samsung I7500 Galaxy, HTC Legend, Samsung M900 Moment, Samsung T939 Behold 2 and Samsung I6500U Galaxy.
This is exactly i had planned to do. Video translation chip can be just FPGA or any fast MCU, it's not hard to do. I even have 470x320 display bought, but it is slightly bigger and just won't fit. So i went for another projects. Screen i got is 3.2' 480x320, smaller should fit well.
Great video, I enjoy your tears downs a lot. Good music in the background, nice light levels (almost seems like natural light), and a relaxed calm nature to your voice makes tear downs interesting and educational. As for this game boy Mod... The Good: a lot of work was put into it and it is not something that should be mocked or to be a shamed of. Its a good stepping stone for a new project that the seller might be working on. I hope they take what they leaned and forge a something even cooler. The Bad: Its not as affordable or even awesome as any other option available. You can play these GBC on a GBA-SP and get the same results. On top of the mod you have stated in your video about using a GBA-SP screen in a modded Game Boy Color case. The Ugly: For me I rather figure out how to get the best signal out my Game Boy Player, via Gamecube, and play my game boy games on my big TV. We all know how big that problem is. I find its more comfortable and I drive a lot and don't have much time to play "games on the go."
I believe there is a mod similar to this for the original Game Boy, and I would not be surprised if someone made one for the GBC. It’s from BennVenn, but it’s not really the same. He did do a video on a prototype he made with a color TFT LCD, but it was hacked together with I believe a regular FPGA and the aspect ratio was off. If you could handle a bit of input lag, you could technically convert the screen signal to SPI or I2C and feed it into a generic Raspberry Pi or Arduino screen.
Here's my problem with the whole backlit GBC thing; if the original GBC formfactor is sought after, why hasn't anyone made aftermarket shells which perfectly fit an AGS-101 screen on top? That would be the real successful product right there since it wouldn't require any snipping or cutting of the rear.
Its still surprises me that some factory out of china hasnt mass produced small LCD screens for the retro handheld market that can easily be retro fitted to handheld systems
Has there been any follow up since the posting of this video? The comments section brought up some really good points and suggestions and am curious to know more
Looks very similar in size and layout to some of the 3.5inch lcd displays made for the Raspberry Pi 3 model b, maybe they both used the same lcd component to build upon?
Maybe you should put forward a bounty for people to figure out the exact specifics of the mod. Even though we don't know what the chip is or the screen I bet money someone out there could figure this out, especially as a group.
I was told last year that he did end up in the hospital, but the exact cause is unknown. I don't think he produced these full-time, but rather as a hobby/side business, so his health issues were likely unrelated.
This guy is a laier, the dude who sell this GBC on eBay is the same on Taobao, and he wants to be mystery man because is an asshole, what is hte problem to tell the people how he did the mod? he wants to be a stupid "legend" or he wants to create mystery to sell again this consoles at a higher price, and that screen looks like a Xperia Play screen :/
He already get payd, but why "the mystery..." if he dont want to tell everyone how this is done, is because he is going to sell again the console moded, and don't want more competition like BennVenn, that is more cheaper and easy mod...and have the same quality of image.
I think the screen is from a palm device of some sort! i have dissasembeled multiple phone like the tréo line and it looks identical! its a guess but it could be the answer
hey man, i have an idea of whats has been made in it: this chip that you said it has been the mark remove is probly an atmega64A it is the same cirquit that power up the arduino mega, and the other components that i has identified are simply arduino power controll and screen module integration,in other words it can be easily cloned since we know the gameboy original screen pinout,it is almost the same method used into raspberry pi screens, it recives the digital/analogic signal from the original screen ,ignoring the useless data,some screens has more pinout than the cirquit realy need,it can be the case of the gameboy color,but i dont realy know. some projects take the rca video to digital using a similar cirquit. sorry by the bad english,but i think at last i could say this little about the eletronics that i know to maybe give an idea to someone try to make another equal,because this cirquit uses only common things in eletronics basics, like arduino tft 3.2 monitor and wires, ti can be made and can be made in open source and open hardware by anyone that have acess to the gameboy screen pinout and a few programming skills
Great video Colin, you answered every question you possibly could have. Is that a comparison with a LOCA frontlight at 5:57? Side-by-side, the LOCA frontlight looks pretty good.
Some of my guesses. Sony Ericsson p910 Htc tytn 100 lg voyager Plenty of palm and nokia touch based phones too or slideouts or whatever. Hard to narrow down. We dont know jack for specs. What is exact pixel count for entire screen, and exact measurements with and without borders of display and housing. Eitherway you need that custom chip too so doesnt really matter hell...
Well... This is a bummer, I hope either a warehouse with those screens pops on, a replacement screen appears or someone reverse engineers that chip, because I'll say this is the best quality a GBC can get
just like i suspected, an FPGA and a random IPS display. Scratching chips is EVIL tho D: hand it to someone for reverse engineering it, it might be best if someone did it from scratch and used a more common IPS panel..
Hey Colin! Incredible. I hadn't even heard of these. I've seem, however, some supposedly already modded GBA with the ags 101 screen on Aliexpress. I wanted to get one, but my country's duty fees are a tad too much... Would you mind taking a look if yoy see this comment? Cheers.
This Does Not Compute I'm not a big fan of posting links, but I guess this is it: High Quality Game Console for Nintndo Gameboy Advance GBA Console Backlit AGS-101 with light s.aliexpress.com/aYnuU32y?fromSns=Copy to Clipboard (from AliExpress Android) You are probably right though. It might just be a normal GBA with an ags101 screen. For some reason I just felt it could be something else. Anyhow, thanks for the reply! Cheers.
This Does Not Compute Oh! Btw, have you seen that handheld console that looks like a Revo K101 but cheaper? I've seem mixed responses on that one. Some people say those play actual cartridges like the revo, others say they don't. Such a headache.
My Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 had a screen of about the same size and resolution, but that wasn't a mid 2000s phone, more like 2011 I think. It was a touch screen IPS panel and could very well be the same size seen in there, since that was a very small phone. But I'm guessing this one must not be a touch screen right? EDIT: My bad, that was a TFT LCD not IPS. So can't be the same screen.
How interesting!
I would probably put a picture of the screen's board on Atari Age or Reddit with the bit of information you have. Because if the Atari Age guys could figure out what PCB was used for the mock up of the Coleco chameleon then I'm sure someone can figure out what cell phone that screen came from.
I think the chip a cpld or a fpga. Where your thumb goes over at 3:38, i mean the solder pads, this could be a jtag connector. So maybe it can be found out and the seperate small chip near the large chip could be some sort of flash-chip storing the configuration for the fpga, if it is a fpga, and maybe can be read out.
Yeah, that was my read too. It looks like an FPGA and that is the only device that I can see being able to do the conversion quickly. The smaller chip is almost certainly the config flash for it too. With the work that was put into even hiding the main chip info, I would not be surprised if there was something setup to avoid just dumping the flash for analysis.
This will only stall time with the reverse eenginering. There is often a way around. just reverse eenginering the pinout it could tell what fpga is used and from there ... . You know the rest. When someone wants in, he gets in.
Yeah don't think there's much to it. Most likely an FPGA to keep up with the 60fps refresh rate. The LCD screen would also have to have a parallel interface, verses SPI which is slower. At the bottom could be a boost converter to up the voltage of the GBC battery to power the board and LCD backlight. Maybe that's why he's able to use a flat flex with less pins?
It's not using an FPGA, as an FPGA needs an extra chip to store the config data, and video conversion can be done by a robust CPLD anyway. Many CPLDs have protection built-in that prevents reading them if they're attempted to be read through JTAG, and I THINK some of them can wipe themselves completely if they're read, though I may be wrong on that.
There are also FPGAs with integrated memory. but i saw an extra chip near by the fpga/cpld, so i guessed it could be memory chip.
I knew it!!! Larger screen with a shifted image. Very nice and very peculiar.
why didn't u say so :-p
If the screen is really an IPS screen, and if it really came from a 10 years old smartphone, it should be easy to track down what model it was, since there were not many phones with an IPS display back then. IPS screens got into phones in mass only after the iPhone 4.
AttilaSVK and I wondered that IPS screens were used that commonly. 🤔
Seriously I remember IPS on phones being rumoured about [before the iPhone] but the only device I know of that had an IPS display back then, before the iPhone, was some countertop weatherstation I had; and that thing was $300 pretty much _just_ because of its screen lol. A search on GSMArena US shows there's no such thing as an IPS phone from that era in the US.
Yi so maybe it's right that? Haha that would be so funny if it actually is!
Or maybe Colin could try seperating the LCD from the PCB board and read the serial/part number on the back? 😁
Nicholas Chan That will still reveal only the LCD part number. The really interesting stuff is the configuration of the CPLD/FPGA chip. By reverse engineering the GBC's display interface (which most likely has been done) it should be relatively easy to interface any colour LCD to the GBC, or even add a HDMI output. I wish I'd knew more than the pure theory of how to do that.
This gameboy looks like it's from an alternate timeline where the bennvenn cable doesn't exist and someone else ended up making the adapter.
Joes2silly s t e i n s g a t e
That was really interesting. I want to see it more compared to the BennVenn mod. Side by side brightness, motion blur, etc. Don't let this be the last time we see/talk about this, there's more to say!
I just wanna say this is super cool you finally got your hands on one. I remember a few videos of this past year talking about this and you finally got your hands on it. Congrats!!
Would it be possible to use an oscilloscope to compare the signals being sent to the screen from the chip to the ones from the GB itself and then reverse engineer it? Perhaps that would also help narrow down the source of the screen further also?
Izzie would probably be easier to just do what benvenn is doing and use an FPGA or similar to translate signals.
Always possible, but probably more effective, to just reverse engineer (which probably has been done already) the transmitting part of the GBC, and then either find a part that translates it easily, does it natively, or make an FPGA that does it to the screen you want.
The screen itself isn't a special part, it's really a common screen, just possibly that part itself was a badly chosen one (or maybe perfectly chosen size wise).
There's also Black Berries that back in the day had 320x320 screens, that would mean less cutting for us modders, and it's definitely possible to do once the GBC's output has been reverse engineered (and it was. The BennVen's AGS 101 mod proves it)
It's a real shame all of the part labels were scratched off. Rather impressive custom PCB, I'd say.
It's just silly. It's extremely easy to find out what chip it is by looking at pinout, and eventually a decap. Problem is, code is flashed to the FPGA and is probably protected by lock-bits.
Finally the show continues. Damn! How long I waited to know how the story goes on! More exciting than most modern TV shows.
Holy cow! I was freaking out when I first saw this gameboy and when I saw this video in my feed I was just as happy thank you so much!
This is why you're one of my favorite channels man. Although this mystery has not been completely resolved, I must say this video did satiate my curiosity, at least for now. I'm hoping more information can be gathered from this, to eventually lead us to the perfect screen mod for our beloved Game Boy Colors.
Maybe you should get in touch with someone like Ben Heck to reverse engineer this thing
The Chip is probably just a custom programmed FPGA anyway. Might be a Xilinx Spartan or so.
He did a FPGA mod for the original Gameboy to connect it to a large computer screen. Then they made it into a huge Gameboy. I’d definitely be interested in a episode about the Color’s screen. :)
Amazing video man! And thank you Pokemon Professor for providing this. Really exciting to see how this develops and if in the future someone will be able to recreate a more mass produced version.
Clever! I kind of suspected a larger display since 320x288 is not a regular aspect ratio. But I was expecting 320x320 if those exist.
Sypran they do, see the Palm Treo phones.
It actually exists (both resolutions), 320x288 is CIF resolution standard (I think Video CD uses it), and 320x320 square screens were used on some Palm and Black Berry devices if I recall.
Either Way I love this type of stuff. The mystery in on itself is what fascinates me. Someone will figure out all the stuff to it and it will be amazing to see.
Someday, a good replacement Display will be found. Some...day...
Quite honestly, BennVenn's solution is good. In fact any solution involving just displaying the image on a part of a display is fine.
Lee Fallat I'm talking about a solution that is safeand easy to do for beginners.
And doesn't damage the GameBoyColor
Lee Fallat preferably a solution where it doesn't require cutting up any part of my gameboy color. I could buy a 3rd party non-OEM shell but than whats the point. I want my offical Atomic Purple GBC to be back lite.
@@haleman1704 Boy do I have news for you
I like the idea that old smartphone screens ending up in a gameboy color, looks nice!
You should send this thing to Ben Heck to reverse engineer the signals and such. If anyone can do that, Ben Heck can do that. Hes also a nintendo fan for sure.
Gcole6 Pretty sure they're talking Ben Heck the youtuber
D Clems I just wrote that in my comment and scrolled down to see you saying the same thing :)
When it comes to Gameboy line of consoles BennVenn is better to go to imo.
Xenethra Benn is absolutely irritated with -Kyle- Collin ever since his diy on the backlit gameboy lmao. Nevertheless, I'm sure he'd be way interested in seeing this in person.
Kyle as in Kyle's Awesome Life? I got the opposite impression since he posted that video to Reddit himself.
“The markings on the chips are gone. This is always done by someone who doesn’t want someone to do reverse engineering.”
Laughs in modern lcd drop in kit.
finally you get it! i was following it from the beginning. i think this is one of the best mods, i dont like the 101 mod because the gbc screen mode is smaller than the original, this ips fits exactly
Pokemon Professor is the real deal
Arrgh. The ever illusive GBC backlight mod foils us again. Never give up the search.
it's difficult to imagine something like that would be that easily to produce, the guy wouldn't ended up in the hospital for long working hours to fulfill the initial orders, and he protecting the chips is his way to protect his future incomes and stability to go by but hospitalisation isn't something you can predict
also the maker of this he might be better laying down, imagine his identity get revealed and how many will start contacting him for the info, he will not rest so easily
He went to the hospital because of the product used to burn the chips labels
it is more profitable to them just made a few ocasionaly, this is not thar hard to build well,at least i think it by the componnents that i can identify on it
the hard part is obviously the code inside the chips, thats the only reason behind to burn in the serials and codes on top to make it a little harder to people to find the right parts and way to read into them (i'm not completely sure of how this is made) but may be the first step to make it harder for other people to copy the whole thing
Actually, except if he created his own chips, burning the label can make the process a little harder.
well,the problem is not the cirquit ,in it the cirquit is aparently an atmega64A the arduino mega processor which means it is one of the easyest chips to find in the world,the problem is the code .
i think since you have the datasheet of the original gameboy color screen you can take all the serial and use them to virtually recreate the image,this method works in other components,like i2c cirquits,so it is hard to recreate,but not such as looks like
The screen belongs to a blackberry 9300 I Believe seen them look like that.
Taht blackberry had a TFT panel, which would have been noticed on the video, Also the resolution does not match 320x240 against the 480x320 that is used on this handheld. He says is IPS, probably because the website says so and viewing angles.
My theory is that the screen is not TFT, nor IPS, is OLED and it belongs to one of the 5 phones between 2001 and 2010 with OLED screens and a resolution of 480x320.
Samsung I7500 Galaxy, HTC Legend, Samsung M900 Moment, Samsung T939 Behold 2 and Samsung I6500U Galaxy.
@@CalaTec The screen is exactly 3.0 inch, not 3.2, so these don't qualify.
I'm here from 2019 and now we have Freckle Shack from Benn Venn!
I'm glad that BennVenn has designed an adapter ribbon cable for the existing AGS-101 replacement screen to work in a GBC; partly because it makes the process of backlighting the system easier but mostly because it means shady things like this whole debacle likely won't happen again.
So mysterious! That's an interesting piece of engineering, I really hope you can do a followup in the future if more information comes out.
This is turning into some sort of manufacturing legend- a search for the perfect GBC display. I'm certain someone is capable of designing a backlit GBC display that can be run just off the ribbon cable adapter, like the AGS-101 screens.
The only phones with IPS screens between 2001 and 2010 were the Iphone 4 and 3 models of LG optimus. The 3 models of LG had a resolution of 480x800.
He doesn't really know if the screen is IPS, he probably thinks it is because of viewing angles. But what if I tell you that the screen is OLED. There are 5 phones with OLED screens between 2001 to 2010 with a resolution of 480x320.
Samsung I7500 Galaxy, HTC Legend, Samsung M900 Moment, Samsung T939 Behold 2 and Samsung I6500U Galaxy.
I am sad but still happy to have it well on the search again for a great screen
It’s awesome that you got one. Great video! I’m definitely envious!
GB Color looks perfect with an IPS display
Now I need OLED
OMG i wait for that many years! Thx Collin
This is exactly i had planned to do. Video translation chip can be just FPGA or any fast MCU, it's not hard to do.
I even have 470x320 display bought, but it is slightly bigger and just won't fit. So i went for another projects.
Screen i got is 3.2' 480x320, smaller should fit well.
And now we all have them!
Tech Heads! Assemble! We must decipher this board!
Great video, I enjoy your tears downs a lot. Good music in the background, nice light levels (almost seems like natural light), and a relaxed calm nature to your voice makes tear downs interesting and educational.
As for this game boy Mod...
The Good: a lot of work was put into it and it is not something that should be mocked or to be a shamed of. Its a good stepping stone for a new project that the seller might be working on. I hope they take what they leaned and forge a something even cooler.
The Bad: Its not as affordable or even awesome as any other option available. You can play these GBC on a GBA-SP and get the same results. On top of the mod you have stated in your video about using a GBA-SP screen in a modded Game Boy Color case.
The Ugly: For me I rather figure out how to get the best signal out my Game Boy Player, via Gamecube, and play my game boy games on my big TV. We all know how big that problem is. I find its more comfortable and I drive a lot and don't have much time to play "games on the go."
this is the follow up i've been waiting for
Oh shit, that's hilarious! I actually see my reddit posts! Rock on Colin.
I believe there is a mod similar to this for the original Game Boy, and I would not be surprised if someone made one for the GBC.
It’s from BennVenn, but it’s not really the same.
He did do a video on a prototype he made with a color TFT LCD, but it was hacked together with I believe a regular FPGA and the aspect ratio was off.
If you could handle a bit of input lag, you could technically convert the screen signal to SPI or I2C and feed it into a generic Raspberry Pi or Arduino screen.
Here's my problem with the whole backlit GBC thing; if the original GBC formfactor is sought after, why hasn't anyone made aftermarket shells which perfectly fit an AGS-101 screen on top?
That would be the real successful product right there since it wouldn't require any snipping or cutting of the rear.
Its still surprises me that some factory out of china hasnt mass produced small LCD screens for the retro handheld market that can easily be retro fitted to handheld systems
You finally got one. I think its great. No need to used ags 101. Its running out stock.
I'm looking forward to when we get a decent backlit screen solution for the GBC, but is everyone forgetting we still need one for the NGPC too?
At least we're getting closer
Even if you managed to find out what controller is used. Figuring out how it's programmed is the real treat.
Has there been any follow up since the posting of this video? The comments section brought up some really good points and suggestions and am curious to know more
you're a pretty rad dude, keep up the good content my guy
Just wow!
I want one of these so badly!
Looks very similar in size and layout to some of the 3.5inch lcd displays made for the Raspberry Pi 3 model b, maybe they both used the same lcd component to build upon?
Great video, wonder when we get a mass produced Gameboy screen. Some day!
I would absolutely love to have one of these. I tried buying one but it was cancelled
The "secret" chip is probably just an FPGA. Scaling the video is /easy/ in FPGA-terms.
Petition to send this to Ben Heck so he can reverse engineer it. Great video!
Maybe you should put forward a bounty for people to figure out the exact specifics of the mod. Even though we don't know what the chip is or the screen I bet money someone out there could figure this out, especially as a group.
another great video man. one of my favorite channels
Great video! Just hand that GBC over to Ben Heck and let him dissect it :)
beautiful piece of hardware modded with love. i want one.
A dude *donated* this console!? Thanks man!
1:06 holy crap there goes my anxiety
Onde tu espirra tem um BR perdido hauahuahauaha
Duncan F. BR DOMINA
Ih, alá o Izzy. Nem sabia q ele tbm curtia esse canal. Show
Didn't this guy almost have to go to the hospital or something because he was trying to work so fast and hard on these?
So the legends say !
I was told last year that he did end up in the hospital, but the exact cause is unknown. I don't think he produced these full-time, but rather as a hobby/side business, so his health issues were likely unrelated.
This guy is a laier, the dude who sell this GBC on eBay is the same on Taobao, and he wants to be mystery man because is an asshole, what is hte problem to tell the people how he did the mod? he wants to be a stupid "legend" or he wants to create mystery to sell again this consoles at a higher price, and that screen looks like a Xperia Play screen :/
Uruguayan Style Yeah what an ass hole , the guy built everything custom and deserves the payment
He already get payd, but why "the mystery..." if he dont want to tell everyone how this is done, is because he is going to sell again the console moded, and don't want more competition like BennVenn, that is more cheaper and easy mod...and have the same quality of image.
I think the screen is from a palm device of some sort! i have dissasembeled multiple phone like the tréo line and it looks identical! its a guess but it could be the answer
Beautiful Colin, amazing work and amazing video - this is one for the ages ;)
hey man, i have an idea of whats has been made in it: this chip that you said it has been the mark remove is probly an atmega64A it is the same cirquit that power up the arduino mega, and the other components that i has identified are simply arduino power controll and screen module integration,in other words it can be easily cloned since we know the gameboy original screen pinout,it is almost the same method used into raspberry pi screens, it recives the digital/analogic signal from the original screen ,ignoring the useless data,some screens has more pinout than the cirquit realy need,it can be the case of the gameboy color,but i dont realy know. some projects take the rca video to digital using a similar cirquit. sorry by the bad english,but i think at last i could say this little about the eletronics that i know to maybe give an idea to someone try to make another equal,because this cirquit uses only common things in eletronics basics, like arduino tft 3.2 monitor and wires, ti can be made and can be made in open source and open hardware by anyone that have acess to the gameboy screen pinout and a few programming skills
That thing sure beats the GB Boy Colour..
Great video Colin, you answered every question you possibly could have. Is that a comparison with a LOCA frontlight at 5:57? Side-by-side, the LOCA frontlight looks pretty good.
Yep, that's a standard frontlight on the GBC.
I hope to God someone can make a screen this good for the GBA and without needing to solder, just an adapter and thats it.
Well that's a bummer, seems BenVenns is the best option.
I love my benvenn GBC. Hard to build haha but worth it. When I first saw the tao GBC I was so excited, but it was a let down.
Some of my guesses.
Sony Ericsson p910
Htc tytn 100
lg voyager
Plenty of palm and nokia touch based phones too or slideouts or whatever. Hard to narrow down. We dont know jack for specs. What is exact pixel count for entire screen, and exact measurements with and without borders of display and housing.
Eitherway you need that custom chip too so doesnt really matter hell...
It looks so good!
Possibly a black berry screen? The size and ratio point to a pda style phone.
Great video like all ways !!
I hear you can find backlight screens for any GB console now, just gotta know where to look!
Well... This is a bummer, I hope either a warehouse with those screens pops on, a replacement screen appears or someone reverse engineers that chip, because I'll say this is the best quality a GBC can get
I'll just wait for Nintendo to make a GBC classic edition
you can go to （华强北）Shenzhen China ， show them the PCB and screen. They will figure out for u if you can place an order for 500.
I guess it's probably a FPGA chip... if it is, you could program the chip to double the pixels and make it work just like this in any other screen.
The clear purple GBC that has the frontlight mod, is that button from the GBA SP to turn the light on and off? If so, how can I simply install that?
So hyped to watch this
It looks just like a Nintendo Ds lite
Top panel
just like i suspected, an FPGA and a random IPS display.
Scratching chips is EVIL tho D:
hand it to someone for reverse engineering it, it might be best if someone did it from scratch and used a more common IPS panel..
Arguing with work mate about this today that can't get back light for gameboy colour 😂😂 strange you make a video about it today!
Hey Colin! Incredible. I hadn't even heard of these.
I've seem, however, some supposedly already modded GBA with the ags 101 screen on Aliexpress. I wanted to get one, but my country's duty fees are a tad too much...
Would you mind taking a look if yoy see this comment?
Cheers.
You mean the GB Boy? Wrong aspect ratio.
Ruben Nope. They are supposedly GBA with an ags 101 screen.
But, Idk...they look too good to be true.
There are quite a few places to buy pre-modded GBA's with 101 screens at this point; the mod has been around for a few years now.
This Does Not Compute I'm not a big fan of posting links, but I guess this is it:
High Quality Game Console for Nintndo Gameboy Advance GBA Console Backlit AGS-101 with light
s.aliexpress.com/aYnuU32y?fromSns=Copy to Clipboard
(from AliExpress Android)
You are probably right though. It might just be a normal GBA with an ags101 screen. For some reason I just felt it could be something else.
Anyhow, thanks for the reply! Cheers.
This Does Not Compute Oh! Btw, have you seen that handheld console that looks like a Revo K101 but cheaper? I've seem mixed responses on that one. Some people say those play actual cartridges like the revo, others say they don't.
Such a headache.
Thank you funny playing and master retrosix. Jokes on you that make that hahaha
The thumbnail. God, I remember hearing about someone giving SML2 a color palette
Yeah it looks awesome, they did a good job.
this looks pretty cool, I'm surprised the Bennvenns isn't sold out as well but does it have the same double pixel feature like the Taobao?
No it runs the GBC mode like gameboy advance SP does
Finally some closure
Nice first I have heard of these.
Cool video but think I will stick to my GBA SP (AGS-101) :D
hellll yesss i love gameboy vids
My Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 had a screen of about the same size and resolution, but that wasn't a mid 2000s phone, more like 2011 I think. It was a touch screen IPS panel and could very well be the same size seen in there, since that was a very small phone. But I'm guessing this one must not be a touch screen right?
EDIT: My bad, that was a TFT LCD not IPS. So can't be the same screen.
Time to send this to BennVenn @BennVenn
Disappointing news -_- I can't wait for the day when a beautiful screen like this is more readily available!!
I've heard jellybelly customs sells backlit gbc? Not sure what they use, if its an ags 101 or what
I prefeer the front light with loca glue mod, to me the ghostly screen is part of the GBC charm.
Great video.
I honestly couldnt care less about how this shit works tho, I just want one for myself at a reasonable price lol.