Hey everyone! Here is a breakdown of all the prices for the different kits I've looked at (Not including tax or shipping): McWill V2: $114.99 RetroKAI Magic Screen: $100.84 RetroSix CleanScreem: $71.07 BennVenn IPS: $69.00
Great video as always! A few things to improve the install of this kit - *Don't remove the fuses, they will center the LCD perfectly and lock it in tight. *A list of alternate solder points will be released in the coming days. This gives a much faster, neater and easier install. *We're waiting on our VA4 and VA5 consoles, we'll be adding support for them as soon as we get them. *Scanlines are available in 2x scaling mode - just set it before you change into the mode. *In 2x horizontal scan - if you enlarge the viewing window (metal file, razor etc), you'll get full uncropped, shimmer free horizontal viewing. It's not for everyone but we have made it an option if you're good with hand tools. Regarding an ez-install ribbon/pcb/etc... We feel if you are able to recap these consoles - and most of them we've seen here have had terrible corrosion/cap leakage - Soldering a dozen wires shouldn't be too much of a challenge. We appreciate some modders prefer a ribbon style install and we'll release one in the coming months. The feedback in our discord on some of these other ribbon/flex pcb based kits is that it can be more time consuming trying to fault find a bridged, dry or misaligned solder joint with these kits than the time it saved. This is not always the case but is valuable info for the development of ours. We'll try to improve upon that. Thanks for your hard work and comparing between the other leading kits!
Thank you for all the great tips! I didn’t know that about the scan lines, thank you for clarifying! There’s a lot of great information here. Pinning this comment.
You nailed it about the ribbon cable, always more time consuming, specially if you don't have a microscope. I prefer individual wire install. I've been fixing and modding console since the early 90s. Awesome video btw, nacho.
@BennVennElectronics I love that you listen, thank you. I would love the option to choose wire or ribbon, I myself would like to have the ribbon option as I am not at that skill level for the small capacitors and small wires yet (that, and I like the cleaner install), but feel capable of a ribbon like Tito reviewed in the previous screen mod. By saying you plan to make that an option down the line, you literally just sold me on waiting for yours. And I hope you have Tito here do an update video with it :D Any plans for some kind of A/V output and controller port in the future?
@@bennvennelectronics Awesome, and makes sense. HDMI would be convenient, but overkill. A composite/HDMI adapter is easy enough to get if needed. Controller? or would that be a spoiler?
I hope everyone enjoyed the video! I forgot to mention that this kit is only confirmed to work on 1Asic and 2Asic consoles (VA0 & VA1). Cheers! (If you’re enjoyed the video give it a like and share it with your friends and the retro community, you all rock!)
It's frustrating that the integer scaling either cuts off the image or is way too small. I think I'll wait for the improved screen, even if it's more expensive. As for the rats nest of wiring, if that remains on the V2 then I'm either creating my own PCBs or skipping it altogether. I want to use a clear case if I can and I want it to look good.
Yeah, IPS is in-plane switching and refers specifically to the viewing angle improvement compared to a non-IPS TFT screen. TFT is thin film transistor (active matrix) on modern screens and TN is twisted nematic (passive matrix, blurry) on the original screen. Then of course you have the backlights - LED (light emitting diode) on the modern screens and CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamp) on the original screen, though the original screen can also be changed to be LED-backlit which is what I'll be having done.
@@RWL2012 Right, although TN isn't necessarily passive matrix and blurry. It refers to the arrangement of the crystals. It's also used on many modern high refresh rate gaming LCDs. There were many types of TN displays, monochrome and colour ones, passive and active ones. The Game Gear had a CSTN screen iirc, which is passive matrix. When active matrix / TFT became the standard, TN was still the most popular type of LCD along with several types of VA and later IPS (which also comes in several manufacturer specific flavours).
Retrosix really upped the game with those flex cables, the last install I did of one of those only took about 30 minutes. I have two of these kits on the way from Australia though, looking forward to seing the results.
@@sethkrumm3302 yeah it looks off in this video but it isn’t actually any different. We all use the same screens and if good quality all from the same factory so colors won’t be any different. Interesting to see though and actually have others show exactly the opposite where our screen is far brighter and more colourful compared to the others. But that is all down to the screen not the driver boards so they should all be the same if you put the same screen into each driver board
Looks great Tito, thanks for putting up the comparisons between this and the Retrosix and Retrokai. Really helps as I do not have either of them, only the McWill. And thanks for the shoutout!
I had to remove the gasket because it was putting too much pressure on the display was causing white spots. If your keeping the original shell then you'll probably need to cut 2 metal tabs off the back static shield.
I think I would gravitate towards RetroSix's mod. It also looks the most color accurate. However, since all of these are coming out I would also wait to see what's next. As soon as McWill released his mod we all knew there was going to be a surge. lol
I’ll take the “rats nest” (as some refer to it) of wires than a flex cable. At the end of the day, once buttoned up, you can’t see them anyway. With the number of fine solder points, fault finding and back tracking is much, much easier. As for the install procedure - blame me on that one. Ben basically threw me an early prototype and said “Here, install this” and off I went.
I’m sure this opinion will change once this kit has a flex cable. Also it’s over 30 minutes to do wire install and 30 seconds for flex kit. Then grab your multimeter on resistance mode and touch each end of each connection point on the flex cable to read zero ohms. If confirms it’s all good. If not you fix. Certainly is not even close to the time of a wire install even if you had to reinstall a few 4 times. Entire process takes less than 5 minutes to install and confirm. Vs 30 minutes of wiring and then confirming wiring if there are issues
Well how about that, I went to see if there'd been any news on a Game Gear screen with proper scaling and I see this video went up an hour ago! V1 of this mod doesn't interest me because I find pixel shimmering just too distracting, but V2 sounds like it could FINALLY be what I've been looking for. Ultra high resolutions were always going to be a requirement for proper scaling when trying to replicate a screen that didn't use square pixels like the Game Gear, so I'm happy to hear it's finally getting active attention.
Hey all. I've got a BennVenn kit installed on my GG. It looks great. However, I have a problem I wonder if anyone else is running into. When I use a regular retail cartridge, the system works great. If I use a Everdrive GG X7, I get all kinds of interference on the screen (lines, warble, shimmer, etc.). I have an unmodded GG (just recapped) and the Everdrive doesn't cause screen issues on that one. For reference, the one with BennVenn screen also has a USBC clean power mod and in a new retrosix case.
Waiting for the v2 kit to become available on these (unless perhaps NX Labs releases a GGRGB board first). I will keep myself busy in the meantime with a Bennvenn Lynx II kit and a Nomad triple bypass + RGBDRV... right after I finish my SMS2 FM expansion mod. So many great modern classic console mods, so little time. ☺
Display colors look better, I'll admit. I still gotta go Clean Screen due to video out (which is AWESOME on a CRT) and easier installation (only need sloppy wires for the VGA out, nothing else).
Thanks for this great video, I already replace de LCD of one of my GameGear with the retrosix screen, and I was a little disappointed : when you have a fast scrolling you can see like a wave on the image, and the scanlines are horizontal.. not vertical ! I bought another GG to test the retrokai LCD, but with your video, now I hesitate with the bennvenn ^^ The installation with wires bothers me a bit. I find that it's not clean. Did you do an autonomy test between the 3 ?
Outstanding Tito, you come through again. I want to see this with the wire free solution........ hope you review that when BennVenn releases that... I will be waiting to do my GG till then now.
IPS burns through way more battery than the clean screen. Retro six clean screen colors also are more closely matched to the original screen. Clear winner IMO.
I've been waiting for someone to do the test for us. We sure as hell are not allowed to brag about it, but I really want to see them power draws against our kit :)
So awesome to see the GG getting so many cool mods. I really wish someone would create an IPS integer scale screen replacement for the Nomad. The softness of current composite mods are good and all. Until you see rgb then they look to fuzzy.
I'm getting an LCDDRV (RGB) screen fitted to my Nomad, even though RGBDRV is out there somewhere. The way I see it is it's still an improvement over the original screen, but I'm not going to keep "upgrading" to every better screen that comes out!
I was really hoping this LCD wouldn't suffer from the scaling issues every other one does. I get that no one is making LCDs with the right scale but I hope something without that issue can be figured out by someone.
I know console hardware mods are kind of a niche community/interest, but this channel is criminally underrated. Between the video quality, your enthusiasm for the mod community, and just your overall attitude is such an absolute treat, sir. Please keep up the good work.
I'm hoping to be more impressed by the version 2. The only thing I like about the original GG screen is that it displays the image like a CRT does, giving the illusion of more texture. A screen with more pixels will be able to better replicate that so I'm looking forward to seeing it.
Great video, and you inspired me to mod a GameGear with a cracked LCD. I installed the RetroSix cleanscreen in my GameGear which is supposed to be easy with the provided ribbon cable kit. I actually found it really hard because it required soldering to a few very tiny resistors that immediately came loose when I touched it and it was a headache fixing this. The Bennvenn kit looks like it’s more wires, but the soldering locations are a lot less prone to error. It’s a great kit once installed, but I don’t like the non integer scaled image (which most kits right now have), and I’ll wait for the Bennvenn V2 kit and hope it’ll look even better :-)
Are retrosix lenses flat? I prefer the original GG lens, which is curved. I like the curved lens and original screen and illumination, because it look exactly like a little CRT tv, which is a key part of the GG's appearance for me.
Hey Tito, how amazing is it that we now have four kits available for the GameGear! This kit from BennVenn looks very crisp and the colours seem to be more vibrant. I like the cost but the biggest issue is availability; I wouldn’t be replacing my RetroKai mod but it’s good to have another option. Will you be testing energy usage now that you have all these to compare? It would be cool to see this as an additional data point if you don’t have either. On a side note, what about the shell itself, I have the original shell and the d-pad squeaks a little when using it, how does the buttons feel on your GGs? Cheers man!
The Tuner disables the VDU in the Game Gear and talks direct to the LCD using a 3rd protocol. We didn't code support for the Tuner in this kit. Given the Tuner down scales, then the GG upscales, the further scaling of these TFT/IPS kits would further distort the image. I don't think it would be all that practical or usable which is why it hasn't been implemented in other kits either
@@bennvennelectronics Ah, well that answers that, then! I assumed there was a technical reason why it wouldn't work. TV Tuner support is something I'd pay extra for, but I fully understand that I am in the minority.
There are many practical uses of the tuner. I made a video of my “plug and play” TV transmitter which connects to the VGA port of my mcwillized GG, and I could broadcast the live gameplay to GGs with the Tuner cart. But the audiences’ experience is crappy with the blurry GG screen. The other use case is FPV, I have a drone with a micro TV transmitter and it is cool to view the FPV from a GG, just for the kicks of it!
Oh man. Looks like a game changer. I still need to repair 3 Game Gear systems first, but I may consider this in the future. Maybe another year or two before I even get the repairs started.
Just watched all your screen reviews for this console. I’ll definitely be buying the clean screen from retrosix. I may even do a custom shell, buttons, and power & sound boards.
The way you were saying tft panels and ips panels. It’s a slight missed opportunity to explain the difference between them both and why one should pick one above the other
Retrosix in the comparison you made looks a little darker than the others but it may be that you had the wrong brightness when you filmed that, the one I have doesn't seem to be that dark it is very colorfull especially when I have all the brightness on...
Yep also our screen refreshes faster as its TFT and can be driven faster than this particular screens IPS variant from what I found. Could be shutter roll or exposure issue also with filming. Photos show our screen is usually the brightest/colorful of them all. Glad it's not just us thinking "our screens don't look anything like that" lol
I really need to get me a game gear soon. Thanks for another great mod. Am i noticing even better pcb board and soldiering shots than usual? What camera or lens do you use to get those tight shots? top quality Tito!
For real, working on a Game Gear isnt't that bad... until its time to solder onto the pins. Any kit, that should be one of the biggest things that they need to tackle. Soldering to those, cleanly, and no bridging is mind numbing 😆😆
FYI : The cream color GG shell, turquoise buttons and gray screen cover, are all parts that were in the extremely limited edition for sega employees, GG-WHITE console. Super awesome to be able to make your own GG-WHITE wannabe ! Because these are astronomically expensive
Where did you get the color combination for the replacement buttons? I don't see the option to get them in blue/mint/gray anywhere. Did you buy three different color packs (or two and reuse the power button) to make it match the OEM white GG?
I think BennVenn has a few employees now, but I like how you refer to him only :P I have an early Game Boy Color prebuild he did in June 2017, with an AGS-101 screen. As for the Game Gear, while mine gets recapped it will be getting an LED backlight on the original screen - would've been nice to see that in the comparison as well.
@@MachoNachoProductions yeah, supposedly about 8 hours and no "halo effect", but obviously with the limitations of the original screen itself. thanks for the reply :)
Just a heads up, BennVenn is Australia based but all his prices are in USD, so for those in Australia are getting the ugly end of the stick since the exchange rates fluctuate and will end up costing you more and him getting the profits.
We buy Panels, PCB's, Assembly, Shipping and components all in USD. It makes absolute ZERO sense to sell in AUD since our dollar fluctuates as you say. We'd be adjusting our prices daily which isn't realistic. As for profits, we make the lowest profit on any kit out there. Appreciate your time to comment on our business though!
Is this tested? I highly doubt it. The board has a Xilinx chip, 2 RAM, and worse a low dropout regulator (highly inefficient). RetroKai straight up lie on their power figures (say stock console is 3W when its 2W) and their kit is 1.6W when its 2.6W. McWill is 3W. CleanScreen is 1.1W, by far the lowest power on the market and the only way it will get lower is less RAM chips. Not sure how Benns does but presume it will be the same as the others and well above 2W. Macho Nacho should do power draw video across all of them that would be a cool video. Should be done with and without a TFT/IPS screen installed as 50% of the power comes from screen backlight that has nothing to do with the driver boards power draws.
RetroSix According to Benvenn it has 10 hours of battery life, I installed a new set of energizer max power batteries after completing the mod and am already at 4 hours of play time. The brightness wheel is down from 12 o’clock to 2 o’clock (still quite bright). I will continue to time this until the batteries are dead and report back with an exact time. Meanwhile my mcwill modded game gear only lasts a little over 2 hours using the same batteries and at a similar brightness. Now I have not tried or used the CleanScreen, so I cannot attest to the battery life of that screen mod.
@@RetroSix We didn't copy the McWill design like the others have. We use an extremely low power Lattice FPGA designed for mobile devices, we use a single SRAM video buffer vs the two every other kit seems to need. Maybe you're confusing products or developers?
@@bennvennelectronics that’s cool. But the FPGA is the least power hungry thing on the new designs including ours and Chinese. At 10 milliwatt. RAM is 110mW and screen is 90% of the power draw. It’s easier enough to test instead of vague messages just test the wattage of a modded console with your screen in at lowest and brightest settings and quote it on the product page like all others. Sounds like you have better power efficiency than McWill but probably only as good as RetroKai. I’m afraid while the LDO is in your design all your power saving efforts are down the toilet. Chuck on a switching reg that will help. Either way not knocking you your screen looks good just try and add more clarity to your claims so people don’t hate on you
@@RetroSix nothing vague about it, our runtimes are public and reproduceable. Gamegear's consumption varies a great deal between models, amp board fitted, power supply module condition and model, stray electrolyte on the PCB, all kinds of things. Would be far too easy to skew the results in such a test. We'd rather see an independent 3rd party compare kits on their bench supply and not each vendor publishing a figure using whichever gear and testing criteria they choose. It's not how its done in industry, and we should expect no different here. We have good reason to use a LDO linear reg over a switching reg but that comes down to engineering decisions and many years of experience.
that v2 is the only upgrade i'll conisdder/want. still need to finish my DSI xl game gear back light mod from like a million years ago. won't fix ghosting but improves quality notably with original lcd. finally got omse hands with a fully stock GG and good god it's kind of bad. BTW that v2 kit is basically how the Analog Pocket works.
I’d say sonic chaos and space invaders since those were the games I played the most when I was younger. The game gear was one of my first consoles. Cheers!
Is there still a donation section for used game gear? Found one for $14 and I don't think I'll spend more money to save it. It did turn on for a bit then turned off. So it sorta works. 🤭
These are some of the best mod tutorials on the net. I do have a big problem with this one video. Please remove the diagram at 5:24 because after pin 9 it is wrong. Well made but the pin count is off.
I just bought original Sega GG, working unit with original display. The resolution and scanlines on the original are great! These modded displays looks the same as you would play it on CRT screen through emulator, sorta. And I just cannot get into it. I cannot get that original feeling. It look a little bit cold. I want display with native resolution :-( ...I also bought a few retro PC laptops and 640x480 smaller screen look much better than 800x600 with different DPI (dots per inch). Smaller screen and lower dots per inch does make it look more cute, more old, more original, more like the game graphic designers and game testers design it and more like my memories. You know, otherwise I could play Sega GG through emulator on Nintendo 3DS. I tried to compare it and F1 game seems to be boring, even I turn on LCD ghosting feature in the emulator for GG, it look cold & boring. Missing the fun and retro feel. So the only option for me would be native resolution (why they cannot make it?) or perfect integer scaling with vertical scanlines and no scaling issues (LCD ghosting and lower colours like Retrosix mod is something that looks good though). Any advice for me, please?
For now. VA4/5 compatible kits coming soon (not sure what kind of changes need to be made, but it is in the works). I have a VA5 but can't use it but I do have a VA1 so I'll be doing the MOD on that one.
Double check your connections for D0,D1,D2,D3. If you need further help pop into the BennVenn discord. I believe there's a link to it in the video description
@@bennvennelectronics we already support IPS and have a video on our channel showing it’s not as bright, vibrant or noticeably different either way. But is more power hungry. TFT is used in gaming monitors for its fast reaction time and is better refresh than IPS.
@@bennvennelectronics The BenVenn screen is more expensive in every way than our kit and is confusing some people. $69.99 USD without shipping or tax. Ours is $49.99 USD for board and screen in 10s or $61.72 for one offs. No matter how you add it up it’s way more expensive
@@RetroSixIt isn't exactly comparing apples with apples here, we are not selling a TFT kit, we are selling an IPS kit which outperforms TFT panels, as seen in this and any number of other review videos. As of right now, checking out in your store with your full kit is asking for USD$72.61 plus shipping. Our full kit was $60 for the first batch (Still available) and will be $69 from batch #2. But again, ours is not a TFT kit. It is an IPS kit. Not the same thing
@@RetroSix as far as your IPS being not as bright, vibrant and 'fragile', you are not driving the panel correctly, or you are using a poor quality IPS panel. If we use our TFT code on an IPS panel we too get a dull image. If you drive it correctly, you get what we provide. Bright, vibrant, crisp, deep blacks, amazing viewing angle, very low power consumption
@@MachoNachoProductions your videos are top notch, but maybe in this case the screen is so bright and you had the gg in a very dark room, so much that your lights on the gg body were not enough
Great video! I wouldn't advice to attempt this mod unless you're a skilled pro. I've successfully done gb and gba mods, as well as the recapping of my gg, however when trying to install this screen I ruined my device :-(
I don't really care about VGA output. What we REALLY want is RGB output! Composite would be great too if at all possible! If the RGB signal uses Composite for Sync then it should be able to offer Composite output using that same pin am I right?
@@RetroSix I thought VGA ran at a different KHz rate from RGB? Pretty sure it has to be converted doesn't it? Also what is CleanScreen? No idea what that term means, never heard it before.
@@RetroSix Am pretty sure VGA is a different signal type from RGB. I was specifically referring to VGA outut, not a DB15 connector which is the proper technical term for the connector type that most associate w a VGA signal. Am just saying that I would greatly prefer an actual RGB signal output from these screen mods, that'd be awesome.
@@RetroSix Ah, very nice then! So this will be the version 2 of this screen that you're referring to correct? Do you plan to advertise it as having RGB support or just VGA?
Been waiting on an IPS for my old GG but if he's coming out with a new version already I'm waiting on that one to see what features it has compared to the price of this one. About time the GG is finally getting better aftermarket support. I have actually been thinking of picking up a GBA just because they seem to have better support. I picked up my GG up back in the day because I didn't like the puke green GB screens even tho I never really cared for sega.
Hey everyone! Here is a breakdown of all the prices for the different kits I've looked at (Not including tax or shipping):
McWill V2: $114.99
RetroKAI Magic Screen: $100.84
RetroSix CleanScreem: $71.07
BennVenn IPS: $69.00
thy are nuys..$$$$$
Great video as always!
A few things to improve the install of this kit -
*Don't remove the fuses, they will center the LCD perfectly and lock it in tight.
*A list of alternate solder points will be released in the coming days. This gives a much faster, neater and easier install.
*We're waiting on our VA4 and VA5 consoles, we'll be adding support for them as soon as we get them.
*Scanlines are available in 2x scaling mode - just set it before you change into the mode.
*In 2x horizontal scan - if you enlarge the viewing window (metal file, razor etc), you'll get full uncropped, shimmer free horizontal viewing. It's not for everyone but we have made it an option if you're good with hand tools.
Regarding an ez-install ribbon/pcb/etc... We feel if you are able to recap these consoles - and most of them we've seen here have had terrible corrosion/cap leakage - Soldering a dozen wires shouldn't be too much of a challenge. We appreciate some modders prefer a ribbon style install and we'll release one in the coming months. The feedback in our discord on some of these other ribbon/flex pcb based kits is that it can be more time consuming trying to fault find a bridged, dry or misaligned solder joint with these kits than the time it saved. This is not always the case but is valuable info for the development of ours. We'll try to improve upon that.
Thanks for your hard work and comparing between the other leading kits!
Thank you for all the great tips! I didn’t know that about the scan lines, thank you for clarifying! There’s a lot of great information here. Pinning this comment.
You nailed it about the ribbon cable, always more time consuming, specially if you don't have a microscope. I prefer individual wire install. I've been fixing and modding console since the early 90s. Awesome video btw, nacho.
@BennVennElectronics I love that you listen, thank you. I would love the option to choose wire or ribbon, I myself would like to have the ribbon option as I am not at that skill level for the small capacitors and small wires yet (that, and I like the cleaner install), but feel capable of a ribbon like Tito reviewed in the previous screen mod. By saying you plan to make that an option down the line, you literally just sold me on waiting for yours. And I hope you have Tito here do an update video with it :D
Any plans for some kind of A/V output and controller port in the future?
@@Ronin7477 we're playing with HDMI out but for cost effectiveness I think we'll be going with Composite out (A/V) for V2, when it happens.
@@bennvennelectronics Awesome, and makes sense. HDMI would be convenient, but overkill. A composite/HDMI adapter is easy enough to get if needed.
Controller? or would that be a spoiler?
I hope everyone enjoyed the video! I forgot to mention that this kit is only confirmed to work on 1Asic and 2Asic consoles (VA0 & VA1). Cheers!
(If you’re enjoyed the video give it a like and share it with your friends and the retro community, you all rock!)
It's frustrating that the integer scaling either cuts off the image or is way too small. I think I'll wait for the improved screen, even if it's more expensive. As for the rats nest of wiring, if that remains on the V2 then I'm either creating my own PCBs or skipping it altogether. I want to use a clear case if I can and I want it to look good.
It would be great to see more companies start to incorporate flex cables in there mods. Cheers Ardent!
Even an LED replacement for the fluorescent tube would drastically improve the system.
If we one day will see an oled mod for the gamegear, it will definitely blow all other lcd screen mods miles out of the water.
Did you mean TN when you said TFT? An IPS screen uses TFT technology as well.
Na we got the Team Fortress Two screen
Yeah, IPS is in-plane switching and refers specifically to the viewing angle improvement compared to a non-IPS TFT screen. TFT is thin film transistor (active matrix) on modern screens and TN is twisted nematic (passive matrix, blurry) on the original screen.
Then of course you have the backlights - LED (light emitting diode) on the modern screens and CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamp) on the original screen, though the original screen can also be changed to be LED-backlit which is what I'll be having done.
@@RWL2012 Right, although TN isn't necessarily passive matrix and blurry. It refers to the arrangement of the crystals. It's also used on many modern high refresh rate gaming LCDs. There were many types of TN displays, monochrome and colour ones, passive and active ones. The Game Gear had a CSTN screen iirc, which is passive matrix. When active matrix / TFT became the standard, TN was still the most popular type of LCD along with several types of VA and later IPS (which also comes in several manufacturer specific flavours).
@@knortn oh, I didn't realise it was that complicated! thanks for the correction
How is it playing sms games? With official carts?
Retrosix really upped the game with those flex cables, the last install I did of one of those only took about 30 minutes. I have two of these kits on the way from Australia though, looking forward to seing the results.
True! I love how mods are now utilizing flex cables for easier and cleaner installs. Cheers!
It's a shame the colors are wrong, otherwise it would be perfect
@@sethkrumm3302 yeah it looks off in this video but it isn’t actually any different. We all use the same screens and if good quality all from the same factory so colors won’t be any different. Interesting to see though and actually have others show exactly the opposite where our screen is far brighter and more colourful compared to the others. But that is all down to the screen not the driver boards so they should all be the same if you put the same screen into each driver board
@@RetroSix Certainly NOT the same screen as the others and the driver board can make a huge difference to the image quality
@@RetroSix Is the Master System game incompatibility going to be addressed?
You're getting quite the Game Gear collection now mate!
Looks great Tito, thanks for putting up the comparisons between this and the Retrosix and Retrokai. Really helps as I do not have either of them, only the McWill.
And thanks for the shoutout!
I had to remove the gasket because it was putting too much pressure on the display was causing white spots.
If your keeping the original shell then you'll probably need to cut 2 metal tabs off the back static shield.
I think I would gravitate towards RetroSix's mod. It also looks the most color accurate. However, since all of these are coming out I would also wait to see what's next. As soon as McWill released his mod we all knew there was going to be a surge. lol
Yeah, I’m wondering if we’ll see a shift to more game gear mods. There’s some cool stuff on the horizon! Cheers!
V2 integer scaling, you've got my attention there. Can't wait to see it!
Me too! Should be good!
I’ll take the “rats nest” (as some refer to it) of wires than a flex cable. At the end of the day, once buttoned up, you can’t see them anyway. With the number of fine solder points, fault finding and back tracking is much, much easier.
As for the install procedure - blame me on that one. Ben basically threw me an early prototype and said “Here, install this” and off I went.
I’m sure this opinion will change once this kit has a flex cable. Also it’s over 30 minutes to do wire install and 30 seconds for flex kit. Then grab your multimeter on resistance mode and touch each end of each connection point on the flex cable to read zero ohms. If confirms it’s all good. If not you fix. Certainly is not even close to the time of a wire install even if you had to reinstall a few 4 times. Entire process takes less than 5 minutes to install and confirm. Vs 30 minutes of wiring and then confirming wiring if there are issues
Well how about that, I went to see if there'd been any news on a Game Gear screen with proper scaling and I see this video went up an hour ago!
V1 of this mod doesn't interest me because I find pixel shimmering just too distracting, but V2 sounds like it could FINALLY be what I've been looking for. Ultra high resolutions were always going to be a requirement for proper scaling when trying to replicate a screen that didn't use square pixels like the Game Gear, so I'm happy to hear it's finally getting active attention.
It would be an amazing upgrade! Can’t wait to see his V2 when it comes out. Cheers!
Very cool man! I like how you keep up with the tech and do multiple screen kit replacements across various handhelds
Great Video as always and it was great to see the comparison between the different screens and always impartial, love it :)
Thanks buddy! My goal is to be as impartial as possible. Cheers my dude!
This is clearly the best engineered of all the screen mods we've seen so far. Simple, effective, and cheap.
Hey all. I've got a BennVenn kit installed on my GG. It looks great. However, I have a problem I wonder if anyone else is running into. When I use a regular retail cartridge, the system works great. If I use a Everdrive GG X7, I get all kinds of interference on the screen (lines, warble, shimmer, etc.). I have an unmodded GG (just recapped) and the Everdrive doesn't cause screen issues on that one. For reference, the one with BennVenn screen also has a USBC clean power mod and in a new retrosix case.
Waiting for the v2 kit to become available on these (unless perhaps NX Labs releases a GGRGB board first). I will keep myself busy in the meantime with a Bennvenn Lynx II kit and a Nomad triple bypass + RGBDRV... right after I finish my SMS2 FM expansion mod.
So many great modern classic console mods, so little time. ☺
Display colors look better, I'll admit. I still gotta go Clean Screen due to video out (which is AWESOME on a CRT) and easier installation (only need sloppy wires for the VGA out, nothing else).
True! The clean screen has a lot going for it! Cheers!
14:33 The Wanderer! My old nemesis!
Now I await one for the Nomad, too!
That would be awesome!!
This channel is criminally undersubscribed.
Nobody makes installation tutorials clearer and simpler.
Thank you Luca! It took a lot of practice, but I finally feel fairly comfortable doing these mods. Cheers!
Thanks for this great video, I already replace de LCD of one of my GameGear with the retrosix screen, and I was a little disappointed : when you have a fast scrolling you can see like a wave on the image, and the scanlines are horizontal.. not vertical !
I bought another GG to test the retrokai LCD, but with your video, now I hesitate with the bennvenn ^^
The installation with wires bothers me a bit. I find that it's not clean.
Did you do an autonomy test between the 3 ?
I have a McWill on one GG. After this review I think ima go RetroSix for 2 of them and then a BennVenn for my last GG. Great video!
I’m getting this screen put on mine. I’m so excited to receive it soon!
Outstanding Tito, you come through again. I want to see this with the wire free solution........ hope you review that when BennVenn releases that... I will be waiting to do my GG till then now.
A week ago I bought one in a garage sale and it worked but when I got to my house to prepare it to modify it I died I was very abused
classic old dead caps issue :(
its so weird seeing the game gear in a cream colour, good weird though!
The cream is pretty nice! Goes well with the pastel teal buttons
It’s the normal look for me as I had a white GameGear as a child! 😅 I love all the new case options we have now.
Great video but you should do the battery test as well. BennVenn tested it at just over 12 hours on nominal usage. Worth testing that in the wild.
I was definitely thinking of doing it! Cheers Troy!
Yeah I noticed your batteries were on the way out during the video hehe
IPS burns through way more battery than the clean screen. Retro six clean screen colors also are more closely matched to the original screen. Clear winner IMO.
I'm surprised that nobody has thought to make a cable and guide that just presses into place over the old lcd contacts.
Random question. How is the battery life comparison between all the different screens?
I've been waiting for someone to do the test for us. We sure as hell are not allowed to brag about it, but I really want to see them power draws against our kit :)
Whats crazy is the cpu isn't even 4mhz lmao. Just recapped mine its amazing how good that 30 year old speaker sounds.
That's amazing bud, I wish you could do mine.
So awesome to see the GG getting so many cool mods. I really wish someone would create an IPS integer scale screen replacement for the Nomad. The softness of current composite mods are good and all. Until you see rgb then they look to fuzzy.
BennVenn is also working on a NOMAD screen as well. I believe it's next up for development.
That would be amazing. I’m hoping we see something for nomads too. Cheers!
I'm getting an LCDDRV (RGB) screen fitted to my Nomad, even though RGBDRV is out there somewhere. The way I see it is it's still an improvement over the original screen, but I'm not going to keep "upgrading" to every better screen that comes out!
I was really hoping this LCD wouldn't suffer from the scaling issues every other one does. I get that no one is making LCDs with the right scale but I hope something without that issue can be figured out by someone.
The V2 screen will take care of that from my understanding. We just won't see it for a little while due to the parts shortages.
Hopefully his next kit solves the scaling issues. Fingers crossed!
I know console hardware mods are kind of a niche community/interest, but this channel is criminally underrated. Between the video quality, your enthusiasm for the mod community, and just your overall attitude is such an absolute treat, sir. Please keep up the good work.
Thank you Gabe! That really means a lot to me! It’s people like you and this community that make it worth it. Cheers buddy!
@@MachoNachoProductions no problem, buddy. Keep up the good work. You’ve inspired me to start my own Game Gear project!
I'm hoping to be more impressed by the version 2. The only thing I like about the original GG screen is that it displays the image like a CRT does, giving the illusion of more texture. A screen with more pixels will be able to better replicate that so I'm looking forward to seeing it.
Great video, and you inspired me to mod a GameGear with a cracked LCD. I installed the RetroSix cleanscreen in my GameGear which is supposed to be easy with the provided ribbon cable kit. I actually found it really hard because it required soldering to a few very tiny resistors that immediately came loose when I touched it and it was a headache fixing this. The Bennvenn kit looks like it’s more wires, but the soldering locations are a lot less prone to error. It’s a great kit once installed, but I don’t like the non integer scaled image (which most kits right now have), and I’ll wait for the Bennvenn V2 kit and hope it’ll look even better :-)
Retrosix FTW, way easier less cables!
The RetroSix has a fantastic package! It’s a great mod!
❤️
I just pre- ordered one! I can’t wait to get it installed!
I think you’ll really like it! It’s a great kit! Cheers!
Are retrosix lenses flat? I prefer the original GG lens, which is curved. I like the curved lens and original screen and illumination, because it look exactly like a little CRT tv, which is a key part of the GG's appearance for me.
Hey Tito, how amazing is it that we now have four kits available for the GameGear! This kit from BennVenn looks very crisp and the colours seem to be more vibrant. I like the cost but the biggest issue is availability; I wouldn’t be replacing my RetroKai mod but it’s good to have another option. Will you be testing energy usage now that you have all these to compare? It would be cool to see this as an additional data point if you don’t have either.
On a side note, what about the shell itself, I have the original shell and the d-pad squeaks a little when using it, how does the buttons feel on your GGs?
Cheers man!
Buttons feel good overall! I will def think about doing a battery test for sure. I think a lot of people will be interested in that. Cheers Jesus!
Does anyone know if the TV Tuner works with this screen? It doesn't work on my Mcwill modded GG
That’s a great question! I’m not sure. I have a tuner but it needs to be recapped. Potential future video!
The Tuner disables the VDU in the Game Gear and talks direct to the LCD using a 3rd protocol. We didn't code support for the Tuner in this kit. Given the Tuner down scales, then the GG upscales, the further scaling of these TFT/IPS kits would further distort the image. I don't think it would be all that practical or usable which is why it hasn't been implemented in other kits either
@@bennvennelectronics Ah, well that answers that, then! I assumed there was a technical reason why it wouldn't work.
TV Tuner support is something I'd pay extra for, but I fully understand that I am in the minority.
@@ugh.idontwanna we'll try add it into the V2 - if the image quality is acceptable.
There are many practical uses of the tuner. I made a video of my “plug and play” TV transmitter which connects to the VGA port of my mcwillized GG, and I could broadcast the live gameplay to GGs with the Tuner cart. But the audiences’ experience is crappy with the blurry GG screen. The other use case is FPV, I have a drone with a micro TV transmitter and it is cool to view the FPV from a GG, just for the kicks of it!
Oh man. Looks like a game changer. I still need to repair 3 Game Gear systems first, but I may consider this in the future. Maybe another year or two before I even get the repairs started.
old video but great stuff as always from you Tito! What's is your personal opinion GG Benn Venn vs Analogue pocket?
Just watched all your screen reviews for this console. I’ll definitely be buying the clean screen from retrosix. I may even do a custom shell, buttons, and power & sound boards.
The way you were saying tft panels and ips panels. It’s a slight missed opportunity to explain the difference between them both and why one should pick one above the other
All of the wires can fit up through the cartridge riser pins.
Makes for some very short wire runs.
Retrosix in the comparison you made looks a little darker than the others but it may be that you had the wrong brightness when you filmed that, the one I have doesn't seem to be that dark it is very colorfull especially when I have all the brightness on...
Yep also our screen refreshes faster as its TFT and can be driven faster than this particular screens IPS variant from what I found. Could be shutter roll or exposure issue also with filming. Photos show our screen is usually the brightest/colorful of them all. Glad it's not just us thinking "our screens don't look anything like that" lol
I really need to get me a game gear soon. Thanks for another great mod. Am i noticing even better pcb board and soldiering shots than usual? What camera or lens do you use to get those tight shots? top quality Tito!
Thank you scruffy! I got a link to all the gear I use for my vids in the description. Cheers buddy!
I recently got one with 3 games and bad caps for $80, there's a fair few on eBay these days.
Awesome video as always thanks
Main issue with screen replacement mods for game gear is that they are incompatible with the TV tuner cartridge
I wonder if decent scaling on a high DPI display would lead to Master System games being playable? Definitely nice to have, Master Systems look pricy.
For real, working on a Game Gear isnt't that bad... until its time to solder onto the pins.
Any kit, that should be one of the biggest things that they need to tackle.
Soldering to those, cleanly, and no bridging is mind numbing 😆😆
FYI : The cream color GG shell, turquoise buttons and gray screen cover, are all parts that were in the extremely limited edition for sega employees, GG-WHITE console. Super awesome to be able to make your own GG-WHITE wannabe ! Because these are astronomically expensive
Will you be reviewing the Funnyplaying one?
YASSS This made my day thank you!!
You’re welcome!
Nice video, I keep doing mod with Retro Kai , easier and look beautiful
retroKai is great!
Where did you get the color combination for the replacement buttons? I don't see the option to get them in blue/mint/gray anywhere. Did you buy three different color packs (or two and reuse the power button) to make it match the OEM white GG?
I think BennVenn has a few employees now, but I like how you refer to him only :P I have an early Game Boy Color prebuild he did in June 2017, with an AGS-101 screen. As for the Game Gear, while mine gets recapped it will be getting an LED backlight on the original screen - would've been nice to see that in the comparison as well.
True. It would be interesting to see how the led backlight compares. I’m sure the biggest difference would be improved battery life.
@@MachoNachoProductions yeah, supposedly about 8 hours and no "halo effect", but obviously with the limitations of the original screen itself. thanks for the reply :)
Will this mod work along side Tim Worthington's Game Gear TV board mod?
Can you specify the size of the wires for needed this the nomad , and lynx mod?
How do you set the screen to default start on a scaling option of your choice so it’s always set to that scaling option when you turn the system on?
Just a heads up, BennVenn is Australia based but all his prices are in USD, so for those in Australia are getting the ugly end of the stick since the exchange rates fluctuate and will end up costing you more and him getting the profits.
We buy Panels, PCB's, Assembly, Shipping and components all in USD. It makes absolute ZERO sense to sell in AUD since our dollar fluctuates as you say. We'd be adjusting our prices daily which isn't realistic. As for profits, we make the lowest profit on any kit out there. Appreciate your time to comment on our business though!
You didn’t mention the best part of this mod, the battery life is 5 times that of the Mcwill. The console is now a portable as it was meant to be.
Is this tested? I highly doubt it. The board has a Xilinx chip, 2 RAM, and worse a low dropout regulator (highly inefficient). RetroKai straight up lie on their power figures (say stock console is 3W when its 2W) and their kit is 1.6W when its 2.6W. McWill is 3W. CleanScreen is 1.1W, by far the lowest power on the market and the only way it will get lower is less RAM chips. Not sure how Benns does but presume it will be the same as the others and well above 2W. Macho Nacho should do power draw video across all of them that would be a cool video. Should be done with and without a TFT/IPS screen installed as 50% of the power comes from screen backlight that has nothing to do with the driver boards power draws.
RetroSix
According to Benvenn it has 10 hours of battery life, I installed a new set of energizer max power batteries after completing the mod and am already at 4 hours of play time. The brightness wheel is down from 12 o’clock to 2 o’clock (still quite bright). I will continue to time this until the batteries are dead and report back with an exact time.
Meanwhile my mcwill modded game gear only lasts a little over 2 hours using the same batteries and at a similar brightness. Now I have not tried or used the CleanScreen, so I cannot attest to the battery life of that screen mod.
@@RetroSix We didn't copy the McWill design like the others have. We use an extremely low power Lattice FPGA designed for mobile devices, we use a single SRAM video buffer vs the two every other kit seems to need. Maybe you're confusing products or developers?
@@bennvennelectronics that’s cool. But the FPGA is the least power hungry thing on the new designs including ours and Chinese. At 10 milliwatt. RAM is 110mW and screen is 90% of the power draw. It’s easier enough to test instead of vague messages just test the wattage of a modded console with your screen in at lowest and brightest settings and quote it on the product page like all others. Sounds like you have better power efficiency than McWill but probably only as good as RetroKai. I’m afraid while the LDO is in your design all your power saving efforts are down the toilet. Chuck on a switching reg that will help. Either way not knocking you your screen looks good just try and add more clarity to your claims so people don’t hate on you
@@RetroSix nothing vague about it, our runtimes are public and reproduceable. Gamegear's consumption varies a great deal between models, amp board fitted, power supply module condition and model, stray electrolyte on the PCB, all kinds of things. Would be far too easy to skew the results in such a test. We'd rather see an independent 3rd party compare kits on their bench supply and not each vendor publishing a figure using whichever gear and testing criteria they choose. It's not how its done in industry, and we should expect no different here. We have good reason to use a LDO linear reg over a switching reg but that comes down to engineering decisions and many years of experience.
that v2 is the only upgrade i'll conisdder/want. still need to finish my DSI xl game gear back light mod from like a million years ago. won't fix ghosting but improves quality notably with original lcd. finally got omse hands with a fully stock GG and good god it's kind of bad. BTW that v2 kit is basically how the Analog Pocket works.
Tito I get that your a primary modding channel, but I'm curious what your fav Game Gear games are..
I’d say sonic chaos and space invaders since those were the games I played the most when I was younger. The game gear was one of my first consoles. Cheers!
To wait for the next version or run with this one...?
Is there still a donation section for used game gear? Found one for $14 and I don't think I'll spend more money to save it. It did turn on for a bit then turned off. So it sorta works. 🤭
Where can I buy a game gear upgraded with V2? thank you.
These are some of the best mod tutorials on the net.
I do have a big problem with this one video.
Please remove the diagram at 5:24 because after pin 9 it is wrong.
Well made but the pin count is off.
I would like to see you do the ps2 modbo 5.0 install. By far the most tedious install i have done so far.
I just bought original Sega GG, working unit with original display. The resolution and scanlines on the original are great! These modded displays looks the same as you would play it on CRT screen through emulator, sorta. And I just cannot get into it. I cannot get that original feeling. It look a little bit cold. I want display with native resolution :-( ...I also bought a few retro PC laptops and 640x480 smaller screen look much better than 800x600 with different DPI (dots per inch). Smaller screen and lower dots per inch does make it look more cute, more old, more original, more like the game graphic designers and game testers design it and more like my memories. You know, otherwise I could play Sega GG through emulator on Nintendo 3DS. I tried to compare it and F1 game seems to be boring, even I turn on LCD ghosting feature in the emulator for GG, it look cold & boring. Missing the fun and retro feel. So the only option for me would be native resolution (why they cannot make it?) or perfect integer scaling with vertical scanlines and no scaling issues (LCD ghosting and lower colours like Retrosix mod is something that looks good though). Any advice for me, please?
Another 320x240 mod in seems. We really need 640x480 screens.
V2!!
@@bennvennelectronics Best news of the year. Really looking forward to it.
Is this only compatible with VA0 & VA1?
For now. VA4/5 compatible kits coming soon (not sure what kind of changes need to be made, but it is in the works). I have a VA5 but can't use it but I do have a VA1 so I'll be doing the MOD on that one.
At the moment, yes.
I got the same screen but the colors are all screwed up.
Double check your connections for D0,D1,D2,D3. If you need further help pop into the BennVenn discord. I believe there's a link to it in the video description
@@TheRetroChannel I double-checked everything and I think there is something wrong with that gamegear board. I'll have to try it on another gamegear.
$69.99 is cheaper than $44.99 now? Our kit with screen is $44.99 :)
IPS baby!!! Richer colors, brighter, lower power, robust, no flickering pixels or sync issues, and $69 is cheaper than your current store price.
@@bennvennelectronics we already support IPS and have a video on our channel showing it’s not as bright, vibrant or noticeably different either way. But is more power hungry. TFT is used in gaming monitors for its fast reaction time and is better refresh than IPS.
@@bennvennelectronics The BenVenn screen is more expensive in every way than our kit and is confusing some people. $69.99 USD without shipping or tax. Ours is $49.99 USD for board and screen in 10s or $61.72 for one offs. No matter how you add it up it’s way more expensive
@@RetroSixIt isn't exactly comparing apples with apples here, we are not selling a TFT kit, we are selling an IPS kit which outperforms TFT panels, as seen in this and any number of other review videos. As of right now, checking out in your store with your full kit is asking for USD$72.61 plus shipping. Our full kit was $60 for the first batch (Still available) and will be $69 from batch #2. But again, ours is not a TFT kit. It is an IPS kit. Not the same thing
@@RetroSix as far as your IPS being not as bright, vibrant and 'fragile', you are not driving the panel correctly, or you are using a poor quality IPS panel. If we use our TFT code on an IPS panel we too get a dull image. If you drive it correctly, you get what we provide. Bright, vibrant, crisp, deep blacks, amazing viewing angle, very low power consumption
I think ss a whole I would wait based upon the comparison shown. Game Geat screens seems to be lacking currently as compared to Nintendo handhelds.
Agree, I’m sure we will see more in the future!
Great video. Impressive production as always.
Thank you Taylor! Glad you enjoyed it! Cheers!
I can't find wire that thin :(
Which one is more easy
Does it work with version 4&5 motherboards?
Very soon! we're just waiting on our 4 & 5 systems to arrive and we'll reverse engineer them and add support.
@@bennvennelectronics saweeet
does tv turn also work?
How long do these mods last
Retrokai is the best 🇨🇵
Great video as always but it seems the shots of the screen were blowout.
Yeah, I need to improve my video capturing. They also appear more greening than in real life.
@@MachoNachoProductions your videos are top notch, but maybe in this case the screen is so bright and you had the gg in a very dark room, so much that your lights on the gg body were not enough
Unmodified looks the best, it has video smoothing
*Video smearing
Great video! I wouldn't advice to attempt this mod unless you're a skilled pro. I've successfully done gb and gba mods, as well as the recapping of my gg, however when trying to install this screen I ruined my device :-(
Maybe it really needs alot of cleaning
I don't really care about VGA output. What we REALLY want is RGB output! Composite would be great too if at all possible! If the RGB signal uses Composite for Sync then it should be able to offer Composite output using that same pin am I right?
VGA is RGB signal. You can wire direct to the CleanScreen RGB pads and Csync and connect to a frameister
@@RetroSix I thought VGA ran at a different KHz rate from RGB? Pretty sure it has to be converted doesn't it? Also what is CleanScreen? No idea what that term means, never heard it before.
@@RetroSix Am pretty sure VGA is a different signal type from RGB. I was specifically referring to VGA outut, not a DB15 connector which is the proper technical term for the connector type that most associate w a VGA signal. Am just saying that I would greatly prefer an actual RGB signal output from these screen mods, that'd be awesome.
@@skins4thewin CleanScreen is our Game Gear screen. And yes supports 15kHz RGBC. just wire it as mentioned to an RGB CSync scart cable
@@RetroSix Ah, very nice then! So this will be the version 2 of this screen that you're referring to correct? Do you plan to advertise it as having RGB support or just VGA?
We need a sub-board that can eliminate this cumbersome wiring!
Or get a RETROID. What I did!
Good
Good to be early!
🙏🤩amazing channel.
Any model works with this mod????
VA0 and VA1 - We're working on including Va4 and VA5 to the mix
@@bennvennelectronics you are a Genius!!! Another question I have a majesco model, is that one possible?
@@javiles2331 They're super hard to find over in Australia, if we ever find one, we'll add support
Been waiting on an IPS for my old GG but if he's coming out with a new version already I'm waiting on that one to see what features it has compared to the price of this one.
About time the GG is finally getting better aftermarket support. I have actually been thinking of picking up a GBA just because they seem to have better support. I picked up my GG up back in the day because I didn't like the puke green GB screens even tho I never really cared for sega.