Anyone still rocking the non-backlit Game Boys?

[gbpxl]

I have a black GB Pocket that I haven't touched in months. The ghosting effect on the screen is distracting and it can be annoying to find a good angle to view the screen. Still there is something special about playing on those antiquated devices, flaws and all. So props to anyone who still uses them and the original carts.

Would be cool if someone made an ergonomic and wieldy attachment to put over the GB, Pocket, Color, and GBA just to make the games more playable. Hyperkin need not apply for the task. Retro-Bit?

[Aussie2B]

I still use the original carts, but I use them in my GBA SP. I still have an original Game Boy, a two different colors of the GB Pocket, three different colors of the GBC, and an original GBA, but there's little point in using any of them anymore. But I was using them up until around 2005. I even took a GB Pocket with me to kill time on breaks during my jury duty back in the 00s, so even at that point I was sticking out like a sore thumb. And now it's the SP that makes me look stuck in the past.

[YoshiM]

I still have a glacier GBA that has its original screen but I don't have great lighting in the house to play it. I am tempted to get a backlit replacement screen but at the same time I like it being unmodded.

[gbpxl]

I still have a glacier GBA that has its original screen but I don't have great lighting in the house to play it. I am tempted to get a backlit replacement screen but at the same time I like it being unmodded.

I had a glacier one when I first got it, June 2001. My brother had a white one. Really loved the color schemes on those Game Boys. And yeah I feel the same way about not modding them. I feel like thats what the SP and the Player are for. Nintendo really f***ed up by not putting a backlight on it but in a way I feel it's part of the charm/nostalgia

[Edmond Dantes]

I have a purple GBA. For awhile I had an SP but for some reason it stopped powering on.... and then I put its screen into my purple GBA using tools I found online and well... its a model that normally isn't backlit, but I fixed that.

It's still the portable I use most often. I wish I could do a similar mod for my Neo-Geo Pocket Color.

EDIT: Actually I probably would've done the mod even if the SP hadn't gone bust.... one issue I had with the SP was it was uncomfortable to hold. The vanilla GBA did not have that problem, at least for my hands.

[YoshiM]

I had a glacier one when I first got it, June 2001. My brother had a white one. Really loved the color schemes on those Game Boys. And yeah I feel the same way about not modding them. I feel like thats what the SP and the Player are for. Nintendo really f***ed up by not putting a backlight on it but in a way I feel it's part of the charm/nostalgia

True, but nostalgia ia a funny thing. We can be nostalgic about something that had something negative about it but that doesn't mean we have to deal it. I'm nostalgic for my 1979 Chevy Monza- the bucket seats, great stereo system and the memories that went with it. However I wouldn't want to drive it again: bent frame, front piece held on with duct tape, lazy headlight, vehicle shook at 60 MPH, etc.

I have a front lit modded GBA which I built using a beat up GBA SP screen and a beat up GBA. The Glacier I might keep pristine for collectiblity's sake but I probably won't play it. I also have DS Lites I could us to play GBA games too.

[Greg2600]

My GBA is modded for the backlight, as is my Lynx, Game Gear, and soon Neo Geo PC, and probably a GBC too. My eyesight is fine, but you get used to seeing everything you use lit up, and it's tough. The original Game Boy I can still see fine, but any kind of color systems NEEDS to be lit up.

[kupomogli]

I still have my original Game Boy(the plastic covering is missing, I think this is common) and I still have my original GBA, plus I have the Game Boy Player on the Gamecube, however I don't use these devices to play the games. I instead just keep all the games in boxes and emulate it on my PC or PSP.

[DeputyMoniker]

I've been thinking about picking up an original model for a while. Never gotten around to it, though. The Analogue Pocket is coming this year, for about $200. Looks pretty sweet. I'd still like to have an original, though.

[Gameguy]

I haven't really played my Gameboy games in ages but I still have my old systems to play them on, including the Gameboy Pocket. I think I still have an original Gameboy but I haven't really tried to keep these as they tend to fail easily with the ribbon cables, a bit ironic as these were long considered to be near indestructible.

[YoshiM]

I haven't really played my Gameboy games in ages but I still have my old systems to play them on, including the Gameboy Pocket. I think I still have an original Gameboy but I haven't really tried to keep these as they tend to fail easily with the ribbon cables, a bit ironic as these were long considered to be near indestructible.

Nintendo Power had an article about a soldier who brought his Game Boy with him when he went on tour in Operation Desert Storm. The barracks he and others resided in got bombed, torching a lit of items including the Game Boy and games he had. He sent it in to Nintendo hoping it could be repaired. It looked like a lost cause: D pad and buttons melted, screen damaged, case warped with bits of motherboard showing, etc. The techs put new batteries and Tetris in for kicks and the sucker powered up! You could see the game, use Start and Select and there was sound!

Nintendo sent him a new Game Boy and have the bombed one displayed in their New York location.

[Aussie2B]

I've seen that Game Boy on a few occasions. It's pretty neat. They keep it running all day.

That said, my own original Game Boy, which never went through much any abuse, had a row of pixels die as of the last time I turned it on (which was probably 10+ years ago). I wonder if any additional rows have gone kaput since.

[Gameguy]

Nintendo Power had an article about a soldier who brought his Game Boy with him when he went on tour in Operation Desert Storm. The barracks he and others resided in got bombed, torching a lit of items including the Game Boy and games he had. He sent it in to Nintendo hoping it could be repaired. It looked like a lost cause: D pad and buttons melted, screen damaged, case warped with bits of motherboard showing, etc. The techs put new batteries and Tetris in for kicks and the sucker powered up! You could see the game, use Start and Select and there was sound!

Nintendo sent him a new Game Boy and have the bombed one displayed in their New York location.
I remember hearing about that, it's partly what I was thinking of when I wrote that. Overall it's a durable system.


I've seen that Game Boy on a few occasions. It's pretty neat. They keep it running all day.

That said, my own original Game Boy, which never went through much any abuse, had a row of pixels die as of the last time I turned it on (which was probably 10+ years ago). I wonder if any additional rows have gone kaput since.
The dead pixels is the issue I was referring to. The ribbon cable is glued instead of soldered and as the glue fails the contact between the parts fails which causes the rows that don't light up. It can be reglued but you need special adhesive and it's difficult to do. If the cable would have been soldered instead of glued I'd say the console would be one of the most reliable consoles ever produced, but instead they mostly all fail because of this specific issue.

[YoshiM]

The dead pixels is the issue I was referring to. The ribbon cable is glued instead of soldered and as the glue fails the contact between the parts fails which causes the rows that don't light up. It can be reglued but you need special adhesive and it's difficult to do. If the cable would have been soldered instead of glued I'd say the console would be one of the most reliable consoles ever produced, but instead they mostly all fail because of this specific issue.

I wonder if anyone has come up with a way to put in a slide-like plug, not unlike what's seen in modern handhelds. I wonder how much bulk that would add?

[gbpxl]

I tried playing the Pocket just now. very hard to play. i dont know if its the button layout or just the buttons themselves but just not very comfortable. the game is easy enough to see but the ghosting is a problem on the DMG/Pocket/Light models and I believe that is fixed on the Color, which I havent played since I was a kid. Would love to get my hands on a teal one though since thats the color of the one I had as a kid

[Aussie2B]

Ghosting is a lot better on the Pocket than the original model, but yeah, GBC is another step up.

[gbpxl]

So is there any reason to play any model of Game Boy released prior to the AGS-101 besides nostalgia? The link cable works with the SP models from what I remember. The only thing I don't think works with the SP is the little infrared link thing on the GBC but I thought that was just used on lieu of the physical cable. Doesn't every GB/GBC/GBA game from every region work on the AGS-101? The only advantage I see with the older systems is that the cartridges don't protude out like they do on the SP

[jb143]

So is there any reason to play any model of Game Boy released prior to the AGS-101 besides nostalgia? The link cable works with the SP models from what I remember. The only thing I don't think works with the SP is the little infrared link thing on the GBC but I thought that was just used on lieu of the physical cable. Doesn't every GB/GBC/GBA game from every region work on the AGS-101? The only advantage I see with the older systems is that the cartridges don't protude out like they do on the SP
Kirby Tilt N Tumble?

[Aussie2B]

There are some reasons, but not a lot. People can have different preferences on form factor and how the buttons feel on different models. The SP lacks a headphone jack (short of getting a separate accessory). Some GBC games run differently on a black and white GB versus the GBC and GBA. For example, in the RPG Star Ocean: Blue Sphere, there's a building that's totally inaccessible on a GBC or GBA, but if you pop the game into a black or white GB or a Super Game Boy, you can enter and get some secret bonus stuff.

[YoshiM]

So is there any reason to play any model of Game Boy released prior to the AGS-101 besides nostalgia? The link cable works with the SP models from what I remember. The only thing I don't think works with the SP is the little infrared link thing on the GBC but I thought that was just used on lieu of the physical cable. Doesn't every GB/GBC/GBA game from every region work on the AGS-101? The only advantage I see with the older systems is that the cartridges don't protude out like they do on the SP

Boktai has a solar sensor, so I'm wondering if your hands would cover it when you played on an SP.

[LimpBizkit]

yupyup

[Roganjohn]

i still play my original gameboy from time to time, there's a nice part in my house at a certain time of day when the light is just right ;)

[kupomogli]

I still have my original GB and my Arctic White GBA, most comfortable portable ever. I haven't touched them in yea... over a decade. If I play anything portable now it's usually on my PSP. Even when it's a PSP game I no longer use the UMDs themselves.

[Rickstilwell1]

I have a third party accessory for Game Boy Pocket called Light Madness which is basically a magnifier with a battery operated light. It's interesting but I prefer just playing a system like that under a bright lamp.