From what I've seen around the internet, usually the replacement cases from China don't come with rubbers. So using the original rubbers in this is probably a way to maximize profit.
I have gotten 2 of these cases, one from ebay and one from Amazon. Both for Raspberry Pi powered systems. Both cases came with all rubber components. This is the blue one I got from Amazon, comes with rubber pads. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08C51R25B/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
@@truealchiemist Here you go: www.amazon.com/Replacement-Housing-Nintendo-Gameboy-Advance/dp/B07FQQL4VK/ Shell, buttons, screws, screen lens, back sticker and no membranes. $5 cheaper.
I was actually quite intrigued about this, because around here getting a used GBA will go for more than the listed Aliexpress one, but after seeing those scratched up contacts.. yeah probably better to save up a bit and invest more in individual replacement parts.
@@Deathtosquishy in my experience the tracking normally doesn’t work, so if the 3 months buyer protection wears out before receiving it, they normally provide a refund
@@Deathtosquishy actually the extreme shipping times are often an issue with the service in your country. The packages arrive at your countries airport but since the postal service earns nothing when delivering these they just leave them there for a month before it gets processed. There are some more high priority packages that basically arrive in your country the same day but get delivered from there within a week while normal China post stuff just gets ignored for sometimes multiple month.
3:37 I'm not sure if it's universal, but in the scale modelling world those parts are called flash, where plastic has spilled over the edge of the mould, and also seam/split lines which are basically the same thing but smaller and along the entire/most of the length rather than being little isolated parts. Extreme flash can sometimes leave you with little thin sheets of plastic sticking off the edges
When you find magnetic bits on the speaker, normally it can be traced back to the audio capacitors, chances are they are starting to wear out, which then causes oxidation on the magnetic part. You can try cleaning the speaker with isopropyl alcohol, or swap the speaker, but without replacing the Caps even a new replacement speaker may start to oxidize.
"you can find them for maybe 20 pounds" *shows eBay listing for Japan*. Yeah, if you don't count shipping or import taxes :D Mate, I'm sure you've found some pretty cheap doing some effort scouting eBay for a while, but finding ones at 40 is a pretty good "Buy Now" price in 2020 if you take into account really cheap shipping (as AliExpress has).
i bought a used GBC on ebay £25 plus about £5 shipping. was in good working order. only problem was that developed, was the common sound issue with GBC's the caps.
@@stevensimpson3252 That's a nice find, too bad about the sound. I had 2 GBA's in my watchlist that went for about 25-30 (I picked up one of them), in between a sea of 40+ ones. They're there but they're certainly not the most prevalent and there's usually a compromise (eg. something stupid you'll have to fix or replace, like a battery cover or speaker). The other GB's (various models) I managed to pick up this month, were between 35 and 45 (not counting shipping) and I got lucky they were all in excellent shape.
@@rembrandx was the same lovely canary yellow colour, just like my original, which had battery leak corrosion, and which i couldnt find. so bought another on ebay. worked when it arrived, but gave it a bit of a clean inside and out with IPA and soap n water for the respective parts...just as Elliot does in many of his videos. Even the screen was in good condition, no scratches, obviously, aside from usual wear and signs of age.
Man, I've bought mine for ten bucks and got three games on top on it back then... To be fair, the screen was scratched to hell and the buttons hardly worked anymore, but a new lense and some chrome polish to remove the oxidation (those pads were beyond isopropanols capabilities) did the trick. Thing looked great when I was done. Speaking of lenses, are glass lenses worth it? The one I used is plastic and there's a dull spot that has always bothered me.
You take a little of a gamble, normally they are ok, they have some use marks as they are mostly refurbished, I've bought one and still works fine after a year.
Can confirm that they are terrible, the Chinese shells for DS lites are absolutely garbage, and many times you get mix mashed top and bottom screens meaning you get 2 colour tones, top could be more blued and the bottom could be yellow. I bought one and I regret it
You had the Worm Light then. White LEDs were just hitting the market, and this was an early example of a white LED. It plugged into the link port, drawing power from the system. The GBA output lower voltage through the link port, and it was less effective on the GBA than the GBC.
we all had to get really good at holding our game boys at *just* the right angle where the screens caught the light from the lamp/sun/whatever without getting too bad of a screen glare
If they take the time to use new parts and clean most of the old ones, I'd say these Game boy's will sell pretty well. Personally, I prefer one where you can actually play in the Dark
If alcohol doesn't do the job, use a pensil eraser, if that doesn't work, use vinegar to remove some oxidation, then resolder/tin the pads. Never ever scratch the thing!!!
Woah i've never been this early before. Thanks for the content! I have loved learning all about gameboys and fixing them as I only really knew computer hardware.
I have a GBA SP with backlit screen and a fake Pikachu shell from Aliexpress. The shell is a bit low quality but looks good enough and sometimes the speaker doesn't work unless I LIGHTLY bang the console against something soft, which is amusing. 50$ is 50$, I'm pleased enough with the purchase. Funnily enough I bought it because for the life of me I cannot find my original GBA SP... Also depending on the seller, the customer service can be pretty good. I contacted mine because of the sound issue and he gave me an option to give me back 20$ so I can repair it myself if I want to or send the unit back for him to fix. I chose the former.
I guess now I know who to blame for buying out those gameboy lots from Yahoo Japan Auctions. Shame really these undergo shoddy refurbishing so you have to refurbish them once again. BTW if someone was interested in those you can upgrade to Aliexpress Standard Shipping for about 4 EUR so you probably won't end up waiting for it so long as Elliot did.
Off topic - great to see most (I missed some of it) of your competition judging with Joey Does Tech. Must've been a tough decision. Congrats to the winners. Merry Christmas Elliot, Emily and Diesel!
I'm kinda surprised the shell looked decently authentic (Judging from the "Start" & "Select" fonts and the Nintendo logo on top) instead of being something from a defective mold with different fonts.
People love to complain and whine about, but the truth is, this is mostly fine for a GBA. Shame about the board not being quite clean enough, but other than that, it's completely fine.
Yeah, the average consumer on seeing a cheap "refurb" is going to expect a screen without scratches, buttons that work, and a clean outer shell. Seems like this delivered on that. Nobody is expecting museum quality for $50.
And here, right next to Germany (in Czech Republic) we don't even have a gameboys to buy and if, it's like 100 euros so this is why I am here thinking about buying one from aliexpress (because it's even cheaper than buying from UK for 30 pounds + 20 pounds shipping + tax)
They used a little sandpaper to reveal more steel as the contacts are covered in a microfilm when 'refurbished'.... and rather than dissolve it, they opted for sandpaper. Monsterous but not unheard of.
Thanks Retro for exposing Aliexpress. I'm so sick and tired of shoddy companies cutting corners and ripping people out of their hard earned money. They should be forced to refund everyone who has purchased a 'Refurbished' gameboy due to misrepresentation. It would be good if you could do this for a few more companies so your viewers can get a balanced view.
I liked your take on something different the other day. Maybe do a Super Gameboy thing with fighters with multiple controllers and Wario Blast with four players with the multi tap. Some good titles are Animaniacs for music, Donkey Kong for Color, Space Invaders for Arcade and Namco Gallery series or even a crap one like Disney's Hercules would be neat. Great work. Thanks.
54 Dollars is actually a pretty good price in switzerland. Most people here think their old dirty GBAs are worth gold or something. So if you intent to mod it anyways one form aliexpress would actually be less expensive.
Omg, I would be very angry if I paid that price, open it up and the contacts are scratched like that. If it works, most people won't open it up and never know about it until something doesn't work. So yeah, just buy a used one and refurbish it yourself is the best advice.
Aliexpress used to be good up until 2 or 3 years ago - gone downhill rapidly since then with fake tracking numbers, literally 3 + months to receive goods (if at all) , really poor shipping/product protection , not sending the product for up to 10 days after order/payment , can not open a dispute for a refund until the 90 day buyer protection has ended. I could go on and on - I no longer use Aliexpress as the negatives out way the positives.
hack on some mechanical keyboard switches to a gameboy. i recommend kailh choc switches since they are low profile. I like the sound of kailh choc jades.
You can't find game boys at that price here (10-20 pounds) here they are sell at the aliexpress price or higher, so it's a good option. I've bought things there before and my purchases has been protected, and get half or full refund if there's a problem with the product.
Might be worthy to note that the eBay prices of gameboys on UK or US ebay or in Japan not necessarily reflect the pricing that people in less prosperous countries would get, with lesser local retrotech markets, and high shipping prices if ordering from US, UK or Japan, which is rather unfortunate. This is where aliexpress sellers probably target for, instead of EU, UK, Japan, or US.
I have been buying lots of handhelds from aliexpress lately. The family pocket 3000 is a great addition to my collection and would highly recomend it. This looks great
I would love to see more of these kinds of videos, just to see the atrocious mess they make of the consoles, however I wouldn't want you wasting a bunch of money on them, although I would like to see if you can a) build a gameboy (any make or model, whatever is easiest) from parts bought on Aliexpress/eBay/Wish/what have you preferably all loose parts where possible, and, b) make a really nice modded gameboy (again, any make or model.) Using the cheapest stuff you can find on the same websites.
Such a shame to think how many pcb's they've damaged by scratching up the button contacts like this. So unnecessary! those contacts will oxidize way faster now most the copper has been removed :(
Motherboards from AliExpress have been pretty bad in my experience. For example, I bought a Game Boy Pocket motherboard and it had the same issues (scratched contacts and covered in filth).
I can forgive not cleaning the board, and I can even forgive the old membranes. But holy cow, scratching the shit out of the button contact pads is just madness. Big yikes.
I bought my DsLite on Aliexpress. The diagonals of the D-pad don't work properly, the L and R buttons are hard to register but otherwise it's fine. I never checked the inside of it but it might be dirty. It really depends on the Aliexpress seller! (I wish i knew how to fix the diagonals, it's really annoying)
Hey buddy can we get an aftermarket batteries videos for the SP? There's a lot of stuff out there and as you've plenty experience I would trust your word on the subject. Cheers!!
I would be curious to see what they did to the other Gameboy types such as a DMG. Are you going to make a video on your second channel of cleaning these poor Gameboys?
hey elliot, i found a really interesting cassette player called the cassette boy color. it's not too expensive and since you like gameboys and cassette players, it's right up your alley. im kinda interested in buying one haha. they're about $100 USD plus shipping on ebay for a few listings and the original DMG color is $269 USD. would be super cool if you could get one a post a video.
No. Now they cost $58.99 and it's normal to increase a price step by step for these things. I bought a DS Lite shell a month ago for $9.58 and now I bought a second one from the same store link for $10.02. People see videos like this and they'll buy it anyway even if it's few dollars more (because there isn't other choice or competition) and that's a win for that store.
the chinese replacement shells for everything before the GBA SP seem to be really high quality (I've bought one for a GBC with a destroyed case so I could give it to a friend but... not broken, and one for a GBA, which I'm probably gonna get another one for and replace, maybe pick up one of the backlight mods that are easy to install). the moulding of those cases looks great in general.
i find it's better to potentially just buy a game boy with no housing (there are some on ali and ebay sold, actually) and the chinese housing, and try to get away with using the original buttons and screws.
i rather have a scratched up original shell then cheaply made new ones tbh. i just like authenticity a lot and think its a bit of history that people take away by reshelling their gameboys
Most likely just cheap steel wool. No care at all taken- just a cheap replacement shell and the minimal amount taken to make it "work". Would imagine someone is getting paid pennies to do this in a dark factory somewhere.
Ewaste is where this machine has come from. There are hundreds of thousands of recovery electronics places in China. The seller has just bought these for maybe $1 per kilo of e-waste. Fixed or just ‘put it together to just work’ and sell it for a profit...
My local retro store has refurbished gba for 50 bucks. ID rather give them my money get something quality in return and not have to wait outrageous ship times.
That was seriously disgusting, just because I don’t know what that GBA went through. But a $50 USD that’s a decent price but I can get one $60 from a nearby shop that I can trust. Doesn’t seem worth it given that you had to wait months for it. If I had better tooling skills maybe I’d take the chance but I spent well over $100 getting one cleaned up and modded with back light panel. This is probably too much trouble for my time. Cool video still, I wasn’t aware of these.
I ordered a refurbished DMG for $30 around 5 years ago. After two months I asked for, then received a refund. Six months after that, 8 months total! I received it! Twasnt very bad but the case was horrible. No clue why I ended up getting it anyway.
Hey there Retro future! I brought a Gameboy Advance SP off of eBay for AU$140 with a case to put games and the SP in, and a charger. However there is some sort of orange stuff on the screen I have never seen before. Is the screen wearing out?
lmfao yesterday I was watching a video in 0.25 speed in order to catch a perfect screenshot and forgot about it, so this video started at that speed and Elliott sounded massively drunk lmao
Hi Elliot do you know about the pokemon mini? I think you would love how game boy like it is and its also cartridge based. Have a gander at it when you can :3. I would love to see a video about it in any of your channels. Cheers
This video was released early to my Patrons: patreon.com/theretrofuture
Oh thats why there are comment two days ago
What time is the livestream my good sir?
Around 8pm UK time
@@TheRetroFuture thank you
Agreed
"That's disgusting" *puts the membrane back*
i see some likes comin
*rub his chin with the same hand* that’s what concerned me more
409 like 😂
From what I've seen around the internet, usually the replacement cases from China don't come with rubbers. So using the original rubbers in this is probably a way to maximize profit.
Replacing just parts instead of everything is a way of maximizing profit. I think elliot was expecting too much out of this one.
I have gotten 2 of these cases, one from ebay and one from Amazon. Both for Raspberry Pi powered systems. Both cases came with all rubber components.
This is the blue one I got from Amazon, comes with rubber pads.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08C51R25B/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
@@truealchiemist Well, the case without rubbers is $5 cheaper.
@@AmartharDrakestone Strange, I don't see a link anywhere to back dat up.
What else does it not come with?
@@truealchiemist Here you go: www.amazon.com/Replacement-Housing-Nintendo-Gameboy-Advance/dp/B07FQQL4VK/
Shell, buttons, screws, screen lens, back sticker and no membranes. $5 cheaper.
My guess - they scratched the contacts with wire wool. That'd explain the metal fragments....
Good eye.
You missed the chance to call it the AliBoy lol
Alicrap.
saudi arabia taking notes.
AliBoy Express
Was always curious about these. Yes, definitely try getting a refurbished gbc/gbp/dmg to see if you have the same luck!
I was actually quite intrigued about this, because around here getting a used GBA will go for more than the listed Aliexpress one, but after seeing those scratched up contacts.. yeah probably better to save up a bit and invest more in individual replacement parts.
Also dealing with aliexpress is kind of a nightmare. Shipping times are insane. Customer service is non existent.
@@Deathtosquishy in my experience the tracking normally doesn’t work, so if the 3 months buyer protection wears out before receiving it, they normally provide a refund
Lol right and I waited 3 month for something that still hasnt arrived.
@@Deathtosquishy actually the extreme shipping times are often an issue with the service in your country. The packages arrive at your countries airport but since the postal service earns nothing when delivering these they just leave them there for a month before it gets processed. There are some more high priority packages that basically arrive in your country the same day but get delivered from there within a week while normal China post stuff just gets ignored for sometimes multiple month.
@@KiinaSu now that I believe. I don't understand it though. All it takes is a little effort and a little care for your fellow beings!
$50!?! I should totally check aliexpress sometime. I was actually watching an Elliot coll video when this came out
Clearly this is a sign that I'm staying up too late since I'm watching this 8 minutes after is was released and I'm in australia ,oof
OOF!
I saw it launch, but I just went to bed when I saw the time!
"10 yawn"
Oh yes, that famous Chinese currency 😂😂
I made a joke about this too but mine got nery a like ☹️
@@Alexander_l322 I see you, I hear you, and your joke is valid
@@cool_sword thank you that means something to me.
@@Alexander_l322 do not worry, I'm on your side, too
@@z.e.l7412 thank you 😊
I would love to see you check a “refurbished” Gameboy SP, and see how Aliexpress butchers it!
Probably better then dkoldies.
3:37 I'm not sure if it's universal, but in the scale modelling world those parts are called flash, where plastic has spilled over the edge of the mould, and also seam/split lines which are basically the same thing but smaller and along the entire/most of the length rather than being little isolated parts. Extreme flash can sometimes leave you with little thin sheets of plastic sticking off the edges
I’m so exited to see what happens next!
It’s absolutely disgraceful.
I come from the future and its rank to say the least.
@@TheRetroFuture lol
@@TheRetroFuture, I’m afraid that the stream on your other channel crashed.
When you find magnetic bits on the speaker, normally it can be traced back to the audio capacitors, chances are they are starting to wear out, which then causes oxidation on the magnetic part. You can try cleaning the speaker with isopropyl alcohol, or swap the speaker, but without replacing the Caps even a new replacement speaker may start to oxidize.
"you can find them for maybe 20 pounds" *shows eBay listing for Japan*. Yeah, if you don't count shipping or import taxes :D
Mate, I'm sure you've found some pretty cheap doing some effort scouting eBay for a while, but finding ones at 40 is a pretty good "Buy Now" price in 2020 if you take into account really cheap shipping (as AliExpress has).
Cheapest on US eBay right now is $60 and that's original and used, not refurbished.
i bought a used GBC on ebay £25 plus about £5 shipping. was in good working order. only problem was that developed, was the common sound issue with GBC's the caps.
@@stevensimpson3252 That's a nice find, too bad about the sound. I had 2 GBA's in my watchlist that went for about 25-30 (I picked up one of them), in between a sea of 40+ ones. They're there but they're certainly not the most prevalent and there's usually a compromise (eg. something stupid you'll have to fix or replace, like a battery cover or speaker). The other GB's (various models) I managed to pick up this month, were between 35 and 45 (not counting shipping) and I got lucky they were all in excellent shape.
@@rembrandx was the same lovely canary yellow colour, just like my original, which had battery leak corrosion, and which i couldnt find. so bought another on ebay. worked when it arrived, but gave it a bit of a clean inside and out with IPA and soap n water for the respective parts...just as Elliot does in many of his videos. Even the screen was in good condition, no scratches, obviously, aside from usual wear and signs of age.
Man, I've bought mine for ten bucks and got three games on top on it back then...
To be fair, the screen was scratched to hell and the buttons hardly worked anymore, but a new lense and some chrome polish to remove the oxidation (those pads were beyond isopropanols capabilities) did the trick. Thing looked great when I was done.
Speaking of lenses, are glass lenses worth it? The one I used is plastic and there's a dull spot that has always bothered me.
Next video: Refurbishing a "Refurbished" Game Boy from Aliexpress.
I've seen some nintendo Ds lites in Aliexpress as well. I wonder if they are even worse than this...
You take a little of a gamble, normally they are ok, they have some use marks as they are mostly refurbished, I've bought one and still works fine after a year.
a.aliexpress.com/_mLdu4Qt
Like, one of these?
Can confirm that they are terrible, the Chinese shells for DS lites are absolutely garbage, and many times you get mix mashed top and bottom screens meaning you get 2 colour tones, top could be more blued and the bottom could be yellow. I bought one and I regret it
3:38 I think what you’re referring to is called “flash” when the plastic starts to leaks out of the seam of the mold during the injection process
Chinese factory worker: the pads aren't working.
Manager that doesn't know anything about electronics:
ScrATcH THeM
3:37 those are called ''flashing/flashings''
I always wonder how people could play without backlight back then
When I first got my GBA back in march I didn't got my IPS screen right away so I had to...it was doable but I never want to go back haha
I still have the one I bought new then I can tell you how. We had no other choice.
There was a little worm light I remember using as a kid that attached to it lol. It's no wonder my eyes are so bad now.
You had the Worm Light then. White LEDs were just hitting the market, and this was an early example of a white LED. It plugged into the link port, drawing power from the system. The GBA output lower voltage through the link port, and it was less effective on the GBA than the GBC.
we all had to get really good at holding our game boys at *just* the right angle where the screens caught the light from the lamp/sun/whatever without getting too bad of a screen glare
If they take the time to use new parts and clean most of the old ones, I'd say these Game boy's will sell pretty well. Personally, I prefer one where you can actually play in the Dark
If alcohol doesn't do the job, use a pensil eraser, if that doesn't work, use vinegar to remove some oxidation, then resolder/tin the pads. Never ever scratch the thing!!!
Perfect video! Cleaning the Ali Express Gameboy Advance! Actually make it look nice XD
Sad to see that happen to a perfectly good GBA board
How did you comment 2 days ago????
@@vocationalview953they're a member
Don’t mind me, just doing my part by helping Retro with the algorithm...
Same :)
I will now say something unpopular, to further the conversation: Mince Pies always disappointed me, because I expected them to contain beef mince.
@Pourvase It’s funny when something goes full circle, and you end up loving it
@Pourvase not this time, I wasn’t. You’re close though if you wanna try again :D
Ah, every video needs an algorithm thread.
Woah i've never been this early before. Thanks for the content! I have loved learning all about gameboys and fixing them as I only really knew computer hardware.
"SOMEONE'S BEEN IN HERE!!!" - DankPods
To be fair, it is "refurbished".
But yeah, Frank would NOT be happy!
Could've found a better one at Cashies 😂
“Time to open up this nugget and see what it holds”
nugget boy
*opens the case* give up the treasures...
please crank up the aperture on your cameras. It would be nice if everything was in focus when you move it closer or further from the camera. Cheers!
I have a GBA SP with backlit screen and a fake Pikachu shell from Aliexpress. The shell is a bit low quality but looks good enough and sometimes the speaker doesn't work unless I LIGHTLY bang the console against something soft, which is amusing. 50$ is 50$, I'm pleased enough with the purchase. Funnily enough I bought it because for the life of me I cannot find my original GBA SP...
Also depending on the seller, the customer service can be pretty good. I contacted mine because of the sound issue and he gave me an option to give me back 20$ so I can repair it myself if I want to or send the unit back for him to fix. I chose the former.
I guess now I know who to blame for buying out those gameboy lots from Yahoo Japan Auctions. Shame really these undergo shoddy refurbishing so you have to refurbish them once again.
BTW if someone was interested in those you can upgrade to Aliexpress Standard Shipping for about 4 EUR so you probably won't end up waiting for it so long as Elliot did.
Off topic - great to see most (I missed some of it) of your competition judging with Joey Does Tech. Must've been a tough decision. Congrats to the winners.
Merry Christmas Elliot, Emily and Diesel!
3:35 The word for that is "flashing" - the stringy bits of plastic that have seeped out in the seams of a mold.
I'm kinda surprised the shell looked decently authentic (Judging from the "Start" & "Select" fonts and the Nintendo logo on top) instead of being something from a defective mold with different fonts.
People love to complain and whine about, but the truth is, this is mostly fine for a GBA. Shame about the board not being quite clean enough, but other than that, it's completely fine.
Yeah, the average consumer on seeing a cheap "refurb" is going to expect a screen without scratches, buttons that work, and a clean outer shell. Seems like this delivered on that.
Nobody is expecting museum quality for $50.
If I was given that GBA, I think I'd be perfectly fine with it. It does work, and that's good enough for someone like me. ^^
Here in Germany a gba is around 50€ with lot of scatches etc 😫
Bin auch schon länger auf der Suche! :(
@@moskbarto9436 Wenn du was weißt, gern melden. :)
And here, right next to Germany (in Czech Republic) we don't even have a gameboys to buy and if, it's like 100 euros so this is why I am here thinking about buying one from aliexpress (because it's even cheaper than buying from UK for 30 pounds + 20 pounds shipping + tax)
This is crazy! super cheap too for a gba!
They used a little sandpaper to reveal more steel as the contacts are covered in a microfilm when 'refurbished'.... and rather than dissolve it, they opted for sandpaper.
Monsterous but not unheard of.
Thanks Retro for exposing Aliexpress. I'm so sick and tired of shoddy companies cutting corners and ripping people out of their hard earned money. They should be forced to refund everyone who has purchased a 'Refurbished' gameboy due to misrepresentation. It would be good if you could do this for a few more companies so your viewers can get a balanced view.
I liked your take on something different the other day. Maybe do a Super Gameboy thing with fighters with multiple controllers and Wario Blast with four players with the multi tap. Some good titles are Animaniacs for music, Donkey Kong for Color, Space Invaders for Arcade and Namco Gallery series or even a crap one like Disney's Hercules would be neat. Great work. Thanks.
54 Dollars is actually a pretty good price in switzerland. Most people here think their old dirty GBAs are worth gold or something. So if you intent to mod it anyways one form aliexpress would actually be less expensive.
Bought my GBA on a trip to Thailand back in the day so the box and the color are a nice blast from the past.
That's quite good, i bought one from someone that has seen water and had to replace all the switches(gba sp).
Funnyplaying shells are really good quality, as close to original as I think you'd find.
Ah, the sweet heady days when 40ish pounds was expensive for a gba. 😂😂
Omg, I would be very angry if I paid that price, open it up and the contacts are scratched like that. If it works, most people won't open it up and never know about it until something doesn't work.
So yeah, just buy a used one and refurbish it yourself is the best advice.
Watching this in 2024 has got me raging over the fact I didn't buy a gameboy advance in 2020
Maybe the 2DS XL isn't considered retro yet. But could you look into the floppy screen hinges? I wish I could make it a little firmer.
The burrs are called flash, btw. Or rather it's where they did a poor job of trying to get rid of flash and left behind a jagged mess.
Aliexpress used to be good up until 2 or 3 years ago - gone downhill rapidly since then with fake tracking numbers, literally 3 + months to receive goods (if at all) , really poor shipping/product protection , not sending the product for up to 10 days after order/payment , can not open a dispute for a refund until the 90 day buyer protection has ended.
I could go on and on - I no longer use Aliexpress as the negatives out way the positives.
hack on some mechanical keyboard switches to a gameboy.
i recommend kailh choc switches since they are low profile. I like the sound of kailh choc jades.
You can't find game boys at that price here (10-20 pounds) here they are sell at the aliexpress price or higher, so it's a good option. I've bought things there before and my purchases has been protected, and get half or full refund if there's a problem with the product.
Might be worthy to note that the eBay prices of gameboys on UK or US ebay or in Japan not necessarily reflect the pricing that people in less prosperous countries would get, with lesser local retrotech markets, and high shipping prices if ordering from US, UK or Japan, which is rather unfortunate. This is where aliexpress sellers probably target for, instead of EU, UK, Japan, or US.
I have been buying lots of handhelds from aliexpress lately. The family pocket 3000 is a great addition to my collection and would highly recomend it. This looks great
Awesome vid! Thank you for posting. Yes, please buy some more units. To see if this is how they do business. Thank you so much for the video.
I would love to see more of these kinds of videos, just to see the atrocious mess they make of the consoles, however I wouldn't want you wasting a bunch of money on them, although I would like to see if you can a) build a gameboy (any make or model, whatever is easiest) from parts bought on Aliexpress/eBay/Wish/what have you preferably all loose parts where possible, and, b) make a really nice modded gameboy (again, any make or model.) Using the cheapest stuff you can find on the same websites.
Try different GameBoys just to see ir they're poorly handled like that One, please. Greetings from Portugal, and a Merry Christmas!
Yes! If you could find a Game Boy Micro, that would be so cool!
Such a shame to think how many pcb's they've damaged by scratching up the button contacts like this. So unnecessary! those contacts will oxidize way faster now most the copper has been removed :(
So happy your channel is doing well
Me sees gbas being cheap in a 2 year old video immediately goes to ebay and gets disappointed from prices.
If they ever do a modern TV series of Adrian Mole, this guy should play him.
the stringy bits, or burrs, found on molded plastic pieces is known as "flash"
Motherboards from AliExpress have been pretty bad in my experience. For example, I bought a Game Boy Pocket motherboard and it had the same issues (scratched contacts and covered in filth).
I can forgive not cleaning the board, and I can even forgive the old membranes. But holy cow, scratching the shit out of the button contact pads is just madness. Big yikes.
I once ordered a "restored" Gameboy with a new shell from Ebay, so I know exactly what stringy bits of plastic you're talking about
I think they used "bombril" to clean the metal button contacts. This would explain the metal scraps on the speaker
the injection moulding defects you mentioned are called 'flashes'.
I bought my DsLite on Aliexpress. The diagonals of the D-pad don't work properly, the L and R buttons are hard to register but otherwise it's fine. I never checked the inside of it but it might be dirty. It really depends on the Aliexpress seller! (I wish i knew how to fix the diagonals, it's really annoying)
Hey buddy can we get an aftermarket batteries videos for the SP? There's a lot of stuff out there and as you've plenty experience I would trust your word on the subject. Cheers!!
The term you're looking for (for the stringy bits of plastic) is flashing!
I would be curious to see what they did to the other Gameboy types such as a DMG. Are you going to make a video on your second channel of cleaning these poor Gameboys?
hey elliot, i found a really interesting cassette player called the cassette boy color. it's not too expensive and since you like gameboys and cassette players, it's right up your alley. im kinda interested in buying one haha. they're about $100 USD plus shipping on ebay for a few listings and the original DMG color is $269 USD. would be super cool if you could get one a post a video.
i wanna add that unfortunately it doesn't play games. it just looks like a small gameboy. but i wanted to know if its worth it or if it plays well.
the particles on the speaker were attracted by over time usage because there is no filter in the speaker place
buy at least one of each nintendo handheld console. personal preference would be DMG and GBC consoles.
I love your videos and content. But. Are you ever doing the DS nitro video Elliot?
Its probably increased because of brexit, i noticed the pounds value has dropped against other currencies by around 10% now compared to last year
No. Now they cost $58.99 and it's normal to increase a price step by step for these things. I bought a DS Lite shell a month ago for $9.58 and now I bought a second one from the same store link for $10.02. People see videos like this and they'll buy it anyway even if it's few dollars more (because there isn't other choice or competition) and that's a win for that store.
the chinese replacement shells for everything before the GBA SP seem to be really high quality (I've bought one for a GBC with a destroyed case so I could give it to a friend but... not broken, and one for a GBA, which I'm probably gonna get another one for and replace, maybe pick up one of the backlight mods that are easy to install). the moulding of those cases looks great in general.
i find it's better to potentially just buy a game boy with no housing (there are some on ali and ebay sold, actually) and the chinese housing, and try to get away with using the original buttons and screws.
I got my clear pink gba at a goodwill for $2 with a copy of the sims 2 in it for free lol. Just added a ips v2 mod and i love it to death.
i rather have a scratched up original shell then cheaply made new ones tbh. i just like authenticity a lot and think its a bit of history that people take away by reshelling their gameboys
Similar to the DS and 3DS that you can get on Aliexpress, definitely they are not perfect but they are far from being bad or unplayable imo
Most likely just cheap steel wool. No care at all taken- just a cheap replacement shell and the minimal amount taken to make it "work". Would imagine someone is getting paid pennies to do this in a dark factory somewhere.
I know the seller of that gba... They have other refurbished stuff, and it's pretty good quality.
Ewaste is where this machine has come from. There are hundreds of thousands of recovery electronics places in China. The seller has just bought these for maybe $1 per kilo of e-waste. Fixed or just ‘put it together to just work’ and sell it for a profit...
I got an aliexpress ad before this video, they might be onto you
i think it was worth the money
I’d love to see what they’ve done to other sps, dmgs, pockets, etc
How about checking out the Revo K101 plus? It supposedly plays gameboy advance original cartridges! Also available on AliExpress.
My local retro store has refurbished gba for 50 bucks. ID rather give them my money get something quality in return and not have to wait outrageous ship times.
The black stain may be the mold release agent from the machine that makes these. I see that kind of stain sometimes on cheaper PS and ABS model kits.
Got the same type of refurbished orange GBA about 5 years ago on eBay, looks like I need to take her apart and inspect the damage
That was seriously disgusting, just because I don’t know what that GBA went through.
But a $50 USD that’s a decent price but I can get one $60 from a nearby shop that I can trust.
Doesn’t seem worth it given that you had to wait months for it. If I had better tooling skills maybe I’d take the chance but I spent well over $100 getting one cleaned up and modded with back light panel. This is probably too much trouble for my time. Cool video still, I wasn’t aware of these.
I ordered a refurbished DMG for $30 around 5 years ago. After two months I asked for, then received a refund. Six months after that, 8 months total! I received it! Twasnt very bad but the case was horrible.
No clue why I ended up getting it anyway.
Hey there Retro future! I brought a Gameboy Advance SP off of eBay for AU$140 with a case to put games and the SP in, and a charger. However there is some sort of orange stuff on the screen I have never seen before. Is the screen wearing out?
lmfao yesterday I was watching a video in 0.25 speed in order to catch a perfect screenshot and forgot about it, so this video started at that speed and Elliott sounded massively drunk lmao
Aliexpress: It's refurbished!
The Retro Future: Are you challenging me?
Dang! Was there really an official orange GBA back in the early 2000's? I love it!🧡
11:09 probably used sandpaper on those contacts
Hi Elliot do you know about the pokemon mini? I think you would love how game boy like it is and its also cartridge based. Have a gander at it when you can :3. I would love to see a video about it in any of your channels. Cheers