Lighting options for Neo Geo Pocket Color?

[c0ldb33r]

I absolutely adore my NGPC. The screen is absolutely fantastic. The screen works perfectly even in low light conditions. BUT what if I want to play in a dark room? Are there any front or back lighting options?

[Phyeir]

I'm sure there's interior mods that can be done, but I know that they made a Worm Light for the system.

[A Black Falcon]

I loved my GBC Worm Light, used it for years until it finally broke (not the light itself, it's the thing snapped off near the base -- the inevitable result of using it with the GBA too, which required me to rotate the light around... and then back for GBC. Eventually it weakened it too much and it broke. ). I'm sure the NGPC one is just as good.

There are also interior mod options, though, or were, like the original GBA Afterburner mod.

[Jimid2]

I love my NGPCs too! The pocket fighting games on the NGPC are the best portable fighters around except maybe on the PSP or with Neo Geo emulation on the GP2X, but both those systems have less-than-perfect D-pads... The D-pad on the NGPC is probably the best digital controller for a portable system ever devised, imho...

Anyway, I had MashMods do up a frontlit NGPC for me a couple years ago... You can see his web page about the mod here: http://www.mash-mods.com/products/Fr...Pocket%20Color The pictures show the results pretty well, but I have to admit I was kind of disappointed in the final result - sure, I can play the system in the dark, but the colors are very washed out when using the frontlight as the only source of illumination, and the band of "unlit" screen at the top and bottom where the frontlighting mask don't cover the larger NGPC LCD can be a little irritating; basically you can play the games in the dark, but they don't look nearly as good as they otherwise do... In fact, I don't think I've actually turned on my frontlit unit in six months, though I have a couple other units around here that I use all the time... I used to have one of the "snake lites" for the NGPC that I picked up off Ebay, but those things don't work any better for the Neo Geo Pocket than they do for the Gameboy, and they have the same draining effect on battery life: not recommended.... In truth, I've given up and just make sure I have decent lighting around when I play my NGPCs - I love to take one camping with me with copies of Girl Fighters and SNK vs. Capcom!

[Vectorman0]

Mash Mods is the only person that does them at the time being, as far as I know.

On top of what everyone else has mentioned thus far, you can use the frontlight from a GBA SP1 (not the second brighter revision) and install it in a NGPC using Xian Xi's guide: http://home.cogeco.ca/%7Elogicdustbi...For%20NGPC.pdf

[c0ldb33r]

Thanks for the input so far guys. To be honest I'd like to avoid doing any hardware modifications myself, so the GBA SP1 route may be out. My modding skills barely extend beyond changing the colour of a power LED.

Has anyone else gotten mashmods to do the work? If so, did it turn out better than Jimid2's experiences? Also, how expensive was it and how fast did they do it?

[smork]

On top of what everyone else has mentioned thus far, you can use the frontlight from a GBA SP1 (not the second brighter revision) and install it in a NGPC using Xian Xi's guide: http://home.cogeco.ca/%7Elogicdustbi...For%20NGPC.pdf

I plan on giving this a try next weekend. I picked up the parts I need this weekend so it should be a fun project!

I don't know of any other lighting options other than what has been mentioned....

[Vectorman0]

I don't know of any other lighting options other than what has been mentioned....

That reminds me. There is a Blaze Light Magnifier that should be avoided at all costs. It breaks so easily that even just trying to place it on your NGPC might result in it breaking, rendering it useless without rigging it up somehow with super glue or something. Also on top of the Nyko Worm Light, there is the Madcow Sun Light that runs solely off the link port power. I can't comment on this one because I have not tried it.