@@ParabolicLabsthere’s many collectors that wish and will rally and protest and lobby against such things being recreated so they can keep their investments
None of you claiming they can be remade are thinking about that they literally can't, because that's copyright infringement. Nintendo would pit up a stink as that's intellectual property of them. That's why the only way to emulate these chips is being done by FPGAs. (read end comment)
@@M1n1malisttechnically everything here is copyright infringement. They have the rights to the connectors, plastic molds everything. But they don't care about hardware this old. Only the software which they can re-release as ports/remakes. They won't ever re-release the actual hardware.
Oh man, Tito you totally beat me to it! I'm about halfway through a very similar project and looks like I now have some SERIOUS competition for the best Gameboy out there. Keep up the good work man!
I've been watching the GBA modding scene grow over many years but it's astonishing that someone has even made brand new motherboards with extra features!
i love it, my only concern is that, since they made a new motherboard, why not include a second speaker? there are a tons of smaller ones that sounds good, and there's enough space on the left side anyway.. i would love a gba with stereo sound
As somebody that loathes the side-panned mono speakers of most old portables (and even several smartphones nowadays), I absolutely agree - I'm astonished at the fact that a stereo GBA mod is something no major modder has considered selling
Because then they’d have to start making a second series of shells in every single color variant that they already make that had a grill for the second speaker. Which is double the cost for a board that they don’t know if loads of people will buy or not. Everyone can likely swap a shell, not everyone can desolder and resolder 1” chips.
Exactly, even folks like me with vast electronics experience rather have a pre-assembled kit with a small FPGA or CPLD... My GBA is an older one with no backlight.
Big time agree; when FP makes a kit for Advance like the GBC I will be all in. I don't have the parts to donate; if I had corroded Advances maybe this would make sense, but I would more readily buy net new
I think that, the way technology is evolving, an FPGA for the GBA (or an FPGBA, hah!) is a matter of when, not if. We just need to wait until a good soul releases it lol
Well, I have seen broken GBAs with the cpu and ram intact, the "broken" bits are other important stuff like the board or a massive amount of other components that would classify the GBA as "junk" , this kit is definitely a game changer, this would revive those ones I saw across the years. I am definitely tempted to pick up a few GBAs to try. Excellent video, and keep up the good work!!!
I did this mod recently, and it's become my favorite modded GameBoy. I think the biggest sell is that the audio is suuuper clean. My earbuds (ER4XR) are super sensitive to hissing and I couldn't use them *at all* with the original GBA motherboard. This upgraded motherboard has zero hissing whatsoever.
I wish FunnyPlaying would do a version of the board with no LEDs. If I bought one, I'd turn them off and then put it in a non-clear case. I'd rather not pay for them, and rather not have them potentially turn back on and drain the battery.
You can just turn them off and the board remembers your settings. I leave mine off most of the time and it's not really an issue. Also removing the LEDs woukd only save them like $1-$2 in production cost, doesn't really make sense to produce a separate board without LEDs.
I wish they would make it take three buttons to activate the LEDs because those of us who like to play platformers like Donkey Kong Country have issues with this because we hold the B button to run and then tap A to jump which sets off the LED settings.
I’d definitely be up for that. The micro is definitely underserved with regard to mods and parts. I still haven’t tried those replacement metal shells yet
@@MachoNachoProductionsthe tolerances on all the ones I have tried is pretty bad. I would love a new brass or aluminum shell maybe with a full glass face plate
I bought this last year when it came out. This mod taught me how to solder. I hated soldering, and was hopelessly bad at it. I wanted one of these so bad that I decided to conquer my soldering woes once and for all. While waiting for the parts I practiced desoldering and soldering on a broken PC motherboard. When the time came to build the GBA, it worked first try! Now that I know how to solder I've gone down the rabbit hole of countless other projects that I was previously unable to do. Btw, this mod was so fun I built 4 of them, sold 3, and kept one for myself. I built the first one by removing the chipset from my dead GBA (after trying literally everything to save it), and the other 3 I just ordered the donar chipsets from HHL.
Just ripped the big capacitor pad on a very good condition og gba recently, so kinda bummed I have to fix it or get it fixed now. This video reminded me that funnyplaying makes gba boards now, so while I might not have a near perfect oem gba anymore, I still have this really cool alternative to save the gba in future. Great video as always, tito.
@@ChewyChicken589 ye, i had 3 seperate dead GBAs, and all of them just needed the big one replaced. it was very frustrating to fix as my first soldering project
- Game Boy Advance used $70 - Motherboard Replacement $63 - Advance Laminated 3.0 IPS Kit $60 - USB-C Rechargeable Battery mod $42 - Advance Laminated Ready Shells $15 - Metal Buttons $31 - Silicone membranes $4 - Shipping fees $10 - Customs fees ... (We will imagine that we have the technical tools to desolder the circuits) -> Total around $300
Buy everything from funnyplaying for lower cost. Also I buy GBAs often for like $25-$35, just need to buy junk consoles especially since all you are doing is stealing the CPU and RAM. For my last build the breakdown was more like this: GBA: $25 New motherboard: $49 IPS screen: $45 Shell: $9.90 Buttons: $3.90 Membranes: $1.90 Battery: $29.90 Total cost: $164.60. You can even lower this cost more by buying different parts on Aliexpress from hispeedido or cloud game store. True the metal buttons woukd add more cost, but really you can get chrome electroplated ones on Ali for like $4.
Buy everything from funnyplaying for lower cost. Also I buy GBAs often for like $25-$35, just need to buy junk consoles especially since all you are doing is stealing the CPU and RAM. For my last build the breakdown was more like this: GBA: $25 New motherboard: $49 IPS screen: $45 Shell: $9.90 Buttons: $3.90 Membranes: $1.90 Battery: $29.90 Total cost: $164.60. You can even lower this cost more by buying different parts on Aliexpress from hispeedido or cloud game store. True the metal buttons woukd add more cost, but really you can get chrome electroplated ones on Ali for like $4.
if i made a handheld or even a console and saw people doing this 20 odd years later i would be so proud of the people behind it, its clear alot of work and care goes into keeping tech alive and its just awsome :D
Hey man, recently had my eyes opened to GB modding and upgrading, your vids have been so fun and informative to watch. I've recently found my old GBC in storage, and seeing these videos has me thinking if it'd be possible to re-shell any kind of GBA into a GBC shell, with modifications of course. Thanks for the awesome content, and keep up the amazing work.
Price, Tito. You need to make it a point to more actively consider price as a pro or a con in your pros and cons list more regularly. Price-to-quality is usually the biggest factor in whether people will get a thing or not.
Watching you put in the shoulder buttons so easily makes mad lol. Because when I did a shell swap on my original GBA it took me 4 hrs, because the shoulder buttons kept popping out
I'd love to see basically what you guys are doing woth the ThickBoy SP. Give us more space and add stuff. Though, with the USB charging already being possible and the AUX port already being there, I'm not sure what else would need to be added besides wireless charging.
I wish you showed in a bit more detail how you got solder onto the pins. Did you add a bit of solder to the soldering iron tip and then spread? or a bit of solder to the first pin? when soldering each of the chips to the new board. Thank you for the rest of the details in this video and all of your videos.
For me, the shape of the first Game Boy Advance is the best. It's a shame that this mod mainly looks like a Christmas tree. However, a much bigger screen and stereo speakers would have been beneficial for fans like me.
I love the shape of the first Gameboy Advance especially it's default indigo color. Nothing says 2001 to me like a rectangular indigo GBA, and an Indigo GameCube.
Looks fantastic, seeing all the legs of a chip soldered fresh is always so satisfying, great job. HOw is the D-pad, that was always my problem with the OG GBA, it just felt mushy.
Best way to start in the weekend! Thanks for the excellent videos you keep providing Tito ! The gba looks stunning - maybe I'll give it a try. Would be my first chip transfer and I am very curious how I handle it 😁
Every few years I go back to my Gameboy advanced stuff and get addicted for a few months. I modded my own backlit gba back when ppl were still soldering them. I actually play it with a point of pride now that I actually learned to solder just for the project 😅
All this needs to be just right is two upgraded speakers in stereo, I would mind the speakers with extra thickness with their own larger encloser's to give the GBA better audio, 2 3watt speakers and 2 0.5 watt tweeters would do the job nicely.
Just want to say that after building a funnyplaying gameboy color, I was eager to do this GBA build but had no soldering experience up to this point. Watching this video gave me the courage to learn the skill and give it a shot - took some time and patience, but I was able to get it done even being brand new to this. For anyone watching this and thinking they need to get a hot air gun and all this expensive equipment, I did it with a chip-quick kit, a pinecil usb soldering iron, the flux from Tito's amazon link, a small roll of lead free solder and a small roll of solder braid. Took about 3 hours to remove the old chips, clean up the pins and remove the chip quick alloy, and resolder to the new mother board and clean up my bridges. Still waiting on the screen to come in stock, but I plugged in the battery to test it - it turned on, you could hear the sound, the LEDs lit up, and if I plug a cartridge into the slot, you can hear the game starting. Can't wait for the screens to get in so I can finish the build!
Absolutely love the original Game Boy Advance form factor, another great video! For me personally though since I have a steam deck there's really no point in ever doing something like this anymore.
Your video on the funny playing GBC kit inspired me to build my own custom one, if I had a GBA and the soldering skills I would definitely be trying this out also. I love how clear and easy to follow your videos are!
I still have my original clear purple GBA (which is now more of a frosted white with a very faint hint of purple), and it's still working fine. The only things I might change/mod at some point are a backlit screen and a battery pack (because chewing through normal batteries is bad and running on Ni-MH cells is annoying with the constantly flickering power LED...). Replacements boards are nice to keep old devices running, but as others said, I find the RGBlingbling totally unnecessary... (Oh, and thanks Tito, I just pulled my GBA out of a cupboard and checked if my old FFTA save is still alive. It is(!) and reminded me that 130+ hours of my youth went into that game xD
The single greatest thing about all these projects is the ability to save otherwise dead systems as you said at the beginning. Brilliant stuff from our always amazing community.
At this point now I'm imagining a Game Boy advanced SP circuit board that uses the same chips from a Game Boy advanced and then a Game Boy advanced circuit board that uses SP chips lol
Nice. A lot of this kits play the "preservation" card, but there's almost always a "but". "Oh, you can preserve your old console, but we left out this original functionality, too bad if you wanna use it". This one doesn't sacrifice anything. And I'm glad that there's an option to turn off the LEDs. All this blinking lights make it look like a cheap toy, in my opinion. I wish every RGB component had the option to turn off the LEDs. I don't need my GPU, my fans or my controller to glow.
You forgot to mention that it doesn't support the traditional sleep mode that some games included and instead implements a button combination to enable and disable a hardware sleep mode.
I would love to see a behind-the-scenes about how you do the product shot flyarounds during the intro (not the turntable identity part but like, the bit at 0:40)
idk the upgraded audio feels a littel too saturated, or maybe it's just an effect of recording the audio through a microphone and actually sounds crisp and clear irl
Is it possible to pass the digital audio to some sort of bridge/bluetooth transmitter? That is the one missing upgrade, to play while listening to sound over a Bluetooth headset.
Would be cool if someone made this mobo with EZ-Flash Omega chips built in and MicroSD slot. Saving cartridge slot to keep using original cartridges and devices, like GB Camera, wireless modules, etc.
If they could figure out how to make space on the PCB to put a controls cheat sheet in silk screen or etched copper, that'd be a good addition. Wouldn't help anyone with an opaque case, but would be a nice extra bonus for the transparent shells. Might also help them make even more transparent shell sales.
Saying this looks awesome is an understatement, this is magnificent. After all these years with all these mods, I am gonna have to make one of these gems.
What are you preserving if you just have an all brand new gameboy? Its like that mind game, how many boards do you have to replace on the ship, before its no longer the old ship, but a whole new ship? This is basically just a brand new modern gameboy.
Surprised there isnt an LED mode that changes the LED brightness based on the game's sound. The audio is too loud, it blows out the sound but that could also be because of the speaker not being able to handle it.
How is the audio quality over the headphone jack on these? The original motherboard/audio circuit has a lot of EMI noise (especially when you add an IPS screen into the mix) - it makes for a very poor audio experience over headphones. Does this new motherboard clean that up at all? None of the other audio mods (helder flex etc) seem to do anything to improve matters on the original audio circuit.
Why don’t they offer a pre-chipped option for those that don’t solder? Maybe an option as well without RGB bling. I can’t see that not being distracting as well as taking away from longer battery time.
While the difficulty might be seen as a con the alternative is a damaged GBA sitting around doing nothing. I've had a GBA sitting in my parts bin for 5 years. Select and Start are corroded beyond repair, this board and its chips are doing nothing but getting older. I see no reason not to try this mod myself because what have I got to lose? This damaged GBA isn't getting use now but if I can pull this off it will. And if I can't, what have I really lost?
And that’s the reason I sold my 101 SP, original gba mods got so good it makes no sense to keep the other ones… the retroid flip also makes gba games look really good and that’s made me play most games there
I'd love to see a version of this reverse engineered motherboard that already includes the rechargeable battery board. Yeah, the shell would have to be slightly different to accommodate that, but this one already is, since you don't need to cut it to insert the brand new screen. It makes no sense to build a MODERN GBA and stay stuck in the past using AA batteries.
The only mod I can think of that I'd like to see added on to help modernize it is a bluetooth chip that's somehow soldered on to switch from the speaker to wireless headphones. For when you're traveling and not looking to bother others, but don't have corded headphones on hand.
Man, your GBA looks killer! 🤩 The only thing stopping me is the soldering. I know how to solder and do it regularly, but my hands shake like an earthquake doing about 8 on the scale of Richter... I cannot see myself soldering these tiny pins to the board. 😭 Thinking about it... I love my FPGBC! I would absolutely love to see a Funnyplaying FPGBA kit! 😎
Now we just need someone to make those chips.
I don't think so... it has never been the case. FPGA is the only solution everyone uses to "mimic" the old chip architecture.
@@ParabolicLabsthere’s many collectors that wish and will rally and protest and lobby against such things being recreated so they can keep their investments
@@kanesmith8271 Modders are not moronic collectors, someone gets their hands on the BP's, theyre getting remade at some point.
None of you claiming they can be remade are thinking about that they literally can't, because that's copyright infringement. Nintendo would pit up a stink as that's intellectual property of them. That's why the only way to emulate these chips is being done by FPGAs. (read end comment)
@@M1n1malisttechnically everything here is copyright infringement. They have the rights to the connectors, plastic molds everything. But they don't care about hardware this old. Only the software which they can re-release as ports/remakes. They won't ever re-release the actual hardware.
After 21, years 3 generation of handheld console, 8 different machines, and 1 ips screen upgrade and 1 rebuild. I finally finish Metroid fusion.
Same Here 😂
Next step: manufacture our own Nintendo CPU and RAM chips... Somehow...?
fpga hardware emulate it all.
Like the funny playing fpga GBC
This is great! I have a board that I ripped a few pads off of by accident. Now I can salvage the chips and rebuild that GBA
Nice! Another game boy saved 🙏
Oh man, Tito you totally beat me to it! I'm about halfway through a very similar project and looks like I now have some SERIOUS competition for the best Gameboy out there. Keep up the good work man!
You gonna make a wooden gba aren’t you 😂
atleast tito doesn't clickbait his titles lol
Watch him overclock it with a custom water cooled aluminum back.
Sounds like the speaker is distorting at that volume.
i think this is caused more by the air vents than the actual driver.
The gba audio was bad to begin with, its just more obvious when its louder
I've been watching the GBA modding scene grow over many years but it's astonishing that someone has even made brand new motherboards with extra features!
i love it, my only concern is that, since they made a new motherboard, why not include a second speaker? there are a tons of smaller ones that sounds good, and there's enough space on the left side anyway.. i would love a gba with stereo sound
As somebody that loathes the side-panned mono speakers of most old portables (and even several smartphones nowadays), I absolutely agree - I'm astonished at the fact that a stereo GBA mod is something no major modder has considered selling
Because then they’d have to start making a second series of shells in every single color variant that they already make that had a grill for the second speaker. Which is double the cost for a board that they don’t know if loads of people will buy or not. Everyone can likely swap a shell, not everyone can desolder and resolder 1” chips.
I agree, but I wonder what they would do with the Start and Select buttons. They'd need to stay put.
I really love your videos. They’re so detailed. Hoping to build a Gameboy like this one one day. Thanks for sharing
ohw man, I wish this was a fgpa like the gbc kit.
Exactly, even folks like me with vast electronics experience rather have a pre-assembled kit with a small FPGA or CPLD... My GBA is an older one with no backlight.
All that's left is a (hypothetical) replacement FP-GBA botherboard
Big time agree; when FP makes a kit for Advance like the GBC I will be all in. I don't have the parts to donate; if I had corroded Advances maybe this would make sense, but I would more readily buy net new
I think that, the way technology is evolving, an FPGA for the GBA (or an FPGBA, hah!) is a matter of when, not if. We just need to wait until a good soul releases it lol
It's not portable, but the MiSTer FPGA has a pretty solid GBA core.
Well, I have seen broken GBAs with the cpu and ram intact, the "broken" bits are other important stuff like the board or a massive amount of other components that would classify the GBA as "junk" , this kit is definitely a game changer, this would revive those ones I saw across the years.
I am definitely tempted to pick up a few GBAs to try.
Excellent video, and keep up the good work!!!
I did this mod recently, and it's become my favorite modded GameBoy. I think the biggest sell is that the audio is suuuper clean. My earbuds (ER4XR) are super sensitive to hissing and I couldn't use them *at all* with the original GBA motherboard. This upgraded motherboard has zero hissing whatsoever.
Always up for more GB videos.
These console mods are mind blowing it never gets old
I wish FunnyPlaying would do a version of the board with no LEDs. If I bought one, I'd turn them off and then put it in a non-clear case. I'd rather not pay for them, and rather not have them potentially turn back on and drain the battery.
Couldn’t you just find the power point for them and unsolder? Should be a fairly simple and fast job if somebody finds the correct spot on the PCB
You can just turn them off and the board remembers your settings. I leave mine off most of the time and it's not really an issue. Also removing the LEDs woukd only save them like $1-$2 in production cost, doesn't really make sense to produce a separate board without LEDs.
lol how much do you think those LEDs add to the price exactly?
I wish they would make it take three buttons to activate the LEDs because those of us who like to play platformers like Donkey Kong Country have issues with this because we hold the B button to run and then tap A to jump which sets off the LED settings.
The board is already very inexpensive. It was on sale for $50 a few weeks ago
Only one model is still left aside. Still wishing someone would start making good aluminum shells and parts for the Micro
I’d definitely be up for that. The micro is definitely underserved with regard to mods and parts. I still haven’t tried those replacement metal shells yet
It’s hard to even find decent quality non-OEM faceplates too :(
Just need to put a micro screen in a gba sp, then you can have the smaller screen, plus all the nice shells and such available for the sp :)
When we finally get an FPGBA console that isn't Analogue's I hope they also make a micro one
@@MachoNachoProductionsthe tolerances on all the ones I have tried is pretty bad. I would love a new brass or aluminum shell maybe with a full glass face plate
I bought this last year when it came out. This mod taught me how to solder. I hated soldering, and was hopelessly bad at it. I wanted one of these so bad that I decided to conquer my soldering woes once and for all. While waiting for the parts I practiced desoldering and soldering on a broken PC motherboard. When the time came to build the GBA, it worked first try! Now that I know how to solder I've gone down the rabbit hole of countless other projects that I was previously unable to do.
Btw, this mod was so fun I built 4 of them, sold 3, and kept one for myself.
I built the first one by removing the chipset from my dead GBA (after trying literally everything to save it), and the other 3 I just ordered the donar chipsets from HHL.
Just ripped the big capacitor pad on a very good condition og gba recently, so kinda bummed I have to fix it or get it fixed now. This video reminded me that funnyplaying makes gba boards now, so while I might not have a near perfect oem gba anymore, I still have this really cool alternative to save the gba in future. Great video as always, tito.
Sorry to hear about your gba. thankfully we now we have the parts to repair them!
That big capacitor is a problem because I think they glue it down. You have to use a heat gun
@@ChewyChicken589 ye, i had 3 seperate dead GBAs, and all of them just needed the big one replaced. it was very frustrating to fix as my first soldering project
how about you give it to someone who actually knows their stuff to repair rather than killing it completely and takes it heart out?
@@user-yk1cw8im4h Thanks for your contribution, it was SO helpful.
- Game Boy Advance used $70
- Motherboard Replacement $63
- Advance Laminated 3.0 IPS Kit $60
- USB-C Rechargeable Battery mod $42
- Advance Laminated Ready Shells $15
- Metal Buttons $31
- Silicone membranes $4
- Shipping fees $10
- Customs fees ...
(We will imagine that we have the technical tools to desolder the circuits)
-> Total around $300
I'm going to mortgage my house and I'm coming back 😅
Thanks
Buy everything from funnyplaying for lower cost. Also I buy GBAs often for like $25-$35, just need to buy junk consoles especially since all you are doing is stealing the CPU and RAM.
For my last build the breakdown was more like this:
GBA: $25
New motherboard: $49
IPS screen: $45
Shell: $9.90
Buttons: $3.90
Membranes: $1.90
Battery: $29.90
Total cost: $164.60.
You can even lower this cost more by buying different parts on Aliexpress from hispeedido or cloud game store. True the metal buttons woukd add more cost, but really you can get chrome electroplated ones on Ali for like $4.
Buy everything from funnyplaying for lower cost. Also I buy GBAs often for like $25-$35, just need to buy junk consoles especially since all you are doing is stealing the CPU and RAM.
For my last build the breakdown was more like this:
GBA: $25
New motherboard: $49
IPS screen: $45
Shell: $9.90
Buttons: $3.90
Membranes: $1.90
Battery: $29.90
Total cost: $164.60.
You can even lower this cost more by buying different parts on Aliexpress from hispeedido or cloud game store. True the metal buttons woukd add more cost, but really you can get chrome electroplated ones on Ali for like $4.
Yikes. Changing the motherboard makes absolutely no sense and is just sinful. 1) too expensive 2) stock motherboard never dies
if i made a handheld or even a console and saw people doing this 20 odd years later i would be so proud of the people behind it, its clear alot of work and care goes into keeping tech alive and its just awsome :D
Hey man, recently had my eyes opened to GB modding and upgrading, your vids have been so fun and informative to watch. I've recently found my old GBC in storage, and seeing these videos has me thinking if it'd be possible to re-shell any kind of GBA into a GBC shell, with modifications of course. Thanks for the awesome content, and keep up the amazing work.
Dude I love your content so much its inspired me to make my own handhelds. Thank-you so much
Thank you 🙏That makes me so happy to hear!
Price, Tito. You need to make it a point to more actively consider price as a pro or a con in your pros and cons list more regularly. Price-to-quality is usually the biggest factor in whether people will get a thing or not.
Exactly, thank you
Watching you put in the shoulder buttons so easily makes mad lol. Because when I did a shell swap on my original GBA it took me 4 hrs, because the shoulder buttons kept popping out
I'd love to see basically what you guys are doing woth the ThickBoy SP. Give us more space and add stuff. Though, with the USB charging already being possible and the AUX port already being there, I'm not sure what else would need to be added besides wireless charging.
It'd have been cool if they could figure out a way to make the LEDs match what's going on the screen (like those ambient backlights for TV's).
I wish you showed in a bit more detail how you got solder onto the pins. Did you add a bit of solder to the soldering iron tip and then spread? or a bit of solder to the first pin? when soldering each of the chips to the new board. Thank you for the rest of the details in this video and all of your videos.
For me, the shape of the first Game Boy Advance is the best. It's a shame that this mod mainly looks like a Christmas tree. However, a much bigger screen and stereo speakers would have been beneficial for fans like me.
I love the shape of the first Gameboy Advance especially it's default indigo color. Nothing says 2001 to me like a rectangular indigo GBA, and an Indigo GameCube.
Kids these days want RGB in everything.
Why complain about LEDs when you can just turn them off?
@@hornymonk23 The led on this Game Boy Advance is like putting a red nose on the Mona Lisa.
@@mindustrial The Game Boy Advance is too serious to be used by kids... I'm joking, of course.
Looks fantastic, seeing all the legs of a chip soldered fresh is always so satisfying, great job. HOw is the D-pad, that was always my problem with the OG GBA, it just felt mushy.
I remember the OG-gba being more comfortable, but the SP was hands down more responsive!
Best way to start in the weekend! Thanks for the excellent videos you keep providing Tito !
The gba looks stunning - maybe I'll give it a try. Would be my first chip transfer and I am very curious how I handle it 😁
That makes me happy! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Every few years I go back to my Gameboy advanced stuff and get addicted for a few months. I modded my own backlit gba back when ppl were still soldering them. I actually play it with a point of pride now that I actually learned to solder just for the project 😅
All this needs to be just right is two upgraded speakers in stereo, I would mind the speakers with extra thickness with their own larger encloser's to give the GBA better audio, 2 3watt speakers and 2 0.5 watt tweeters would do the job nicely.
Just want to say that after building a funnyplaying gameboy color, I was eager to do this GBA build but had no soldering experience up to this point.
Watching this video gave me the courage to learn the skill and give it a shot - took some time and patience, but I was able to get it done even being brand new to this.
For anyone watching this and thinking they need to get a hot air gun and all this expensive equipment, I did it with a chip-quick kit, a pinecil usb soldering iron, the flux from Tito's amazon link, a small roll of lead free solder and a small roll of solder braid. Took about 3 hours to remove the old chips, clean up the pins and remove the chip quick alloy, and resolder to the new mother board and clean up my bridges.
Still waiting on the screen to come in stock, but I plugged in the battery to test it - it turned on, you could hear the sound, the LEDs lit up, and if I plug a cartridge into the slot, you can hear the game starting. Can't wait for the screens to get in so I can finish the build!
so much advancement in these new PCBs, it's crazy!
I've built three GBAs with the replacement motherboard so far. It's such a nice upgrade. Great video covering the process!
Great video as always Tito! Love your color selection, very Samus color scheme!!
12:20 turn it off
that's what i wanted to hear. i hate that blinking light shit so god damn much
Absolutely love the original Game Boy Advance form factor, another great video!
For me personally though since I have a steam deck there's really no point in ever doing something like this anymore.
I think there was only one thing missing: Bluetooth.
I'm from Brazil! Big Fan!!
Your video on the funny playing GBC kit inspired me to build my own custom one, if I had a GBA and the soldering skills I would definitely be trying this out also. I love how clear and easy to follow your videos are!
Tack!
Thank you!! 🙏
It's so pretty and shiny and I wanna snuggle it
For over $200 altogether I'd have liked it to be FGPA to be honest but it's a promising start.
that system is so clean man omg
Looks great!
Don’t forget to put the copper cooling on the battery 😊
I still have my original clear purple GBA (which is now more of a frosted white with a very faint hint of purple), and it's still working fine. The only things I might change/mod at some point are a backlit screen and a battery pack (because chewing through normal batteries is bad and running on Ni-MH cells is annoying with the constantly flickering power LED...). Replacements boards are nice to keep old devices running, but as others said, I find the RGBlingbling totally unnecessary...
(Oh, and thanks Tito, I just pulled my GBA out of a cupboard and checked if my old FFTA save is still alive. It is(!) and reminded me that 130+ hours of my youth went into that game xD
The single greatest thing about all these projects is the ability to save otherwise dead systems as you said at the beginning. Brilliant stuff from our always amazing community.
At this point now I'm imagining a Game Boy advanced SP circuit board that uses the same chips from a Game Boy advanced and then a Game Boy advanced circuit board that uses SP chips lol
Nice one, Tito. The metal buttons are pretty cool😎 It crazy how far they went with the adjustments you can do to the leds😮👍🏻✨️✨️✨️
Nice. A lot of this kits play the "preservation" card, but there's almost always a "but". "Oh, you can preserve your old console, but we left out this original functionality, too bad if you wanna use it". This one doesn't sacrifice anything.
And I'm glad that there's an option to turn off the LEDs. All this blinking lights make it look like a cheap toy, in my opinion. I wish every RGB component had the option to turn off the LEDs. I don't need my GPU, my fans or my controller to glow.
6:35 Thank GOODNESS you cleaned off the flux. Kinda triggers me how seemingly no one ever does it.
You forgot to mention that it doesn't support the traditional sleep mode that some games included and instead implements a button combination to enable and disable a hardware sleep mode.
Thanks for the link to that pickup tool!
You’re welcome!
I love getting notified of a new video from you Tito. They are always interesting and entertaining. Keep up the good work!
So happy you’re enjoying the channel 🙏 thank you for the kind words!!
Great video! I hope Funny Playing will release a no solder FPGA GBA like they did with the GBC.
I would love to see a behind-the-scenes about how you do the product shot flyarounds during the intro (not the turntable identity part but like, the bit at 0:40)
That audio at 14 47 with upgraded amp was sickening to listen to
Awesome my dude you have come such a long way ;)
idk the upgraded audio feels a littel too saturated, or maybe it's just an effect of recording the audio through a microphone and actually sounds crisp and clear irl
Is it possible to pass the digital audio to some sort of bridge/bluetooth transmitter? That is the one missing upgrade, to play while listening to sound over a Bluetooth headset.
The LED customization instructions are something that I would end up keeping in the battery compartment,,,
That’s a really good idea. They’re definitely not easy to remember 😅
I've got a Super Nintendo that's forgotten how to scale and rotate properly. You think soldering the pins of the video chip would help relieve that?
14:38 - Yeah, louder but sounds horrifying...
Would be cool if someone made this mobo with EZ-Flash Omega chips built in and MicroSD slot. Saving cartridge slot to keep using original cartridges and devices, like GB Camera, wireless modules, etc.
If they could figure out how to make space on the PCB to put a controls cheat sheet in silk screen or etched copper, that'd be a good addition. Wouldn't help anyone with an opaque case, but would be a nice extra bonus for the transparent shells. Might also help them make even more transparent shell sales.
I think you forgot the heatsink for the USBC charging.
Such an incredible move forward for GBA preservation! And $60 is a great deal for replacing an irreparable GBA motherboard. Great highlight, Tito.
Love that this stuff exists because I’m getting sick of my Analogue Pocket’s horrible dpad.
Where are any mother bkard upgrades? Bluetooth wirless audio, wireless charging, hdmi out?
Are you familiar with the thought experiment the Ship of Theseus in the field of identity metaphysics?
truth be told I was never that big of a fan of the feel of orginal gba mushy buttons dont feel good to me but this, this is nice
I wonder if they can make the leds match what's displayed on the screen, kinda like those ambient lighting for TVs
That would actually be pretty awesome
Love when I get a notification for one of your new videos 💪.... Awesome
Can't wait for an N64 motherboard like this. Might be the easiest way to get HDMI output without hurting the shell
0:34 HOW DID YOU DO THAT SPINNING INTO OMG
the new sound amp is really good for modern, more sensitive headphones. I get so much noise on the GBC and GBA
Saying this looks awesome is an understatement, this is magnificent.
After all these years with all these mods, I am gonna have to make one of these gems.
What are you preserving if you just have an all brand new gameboy? Its like that mind game, how many boards do you have to replace on the ship, before its no longer the old ship, but a whole new ship? This is basically just a brand new modern gameboy.
The CPU/ brain of the original game boy was saved, so it’s like giving it a shiny new ass like Bender the robot than replacing it as a whole system
To be honest I was first worried this was a full emu build, but glad I was proven wrong. Thanks for the chill video. *cheers*
Surprised there isnt an LED mode that changes the LED brightness based on the game's sound.
The audio is too loud, it blows out the sound but that could also be because of the speaker not being able to handle it.
How is the audio quality over the headphone jack on these? The original motherboard/audio circuit has a lot of EMI noise (especially when you add an IPS screen into the mix) - it makes for a very poor audio experience over headphones. Does this new motherboard clean that up at all? None of the other audio mods (helder flex etc) seem to do anything to improve matters on the original audio circuit.
More please. Have you thought about modding a DS XL? Might be fun to show how thats done.
Why don’t they offer a pre-chipped option for those that don’t solder? Maybe an option as well without RGB bling. I can’t see that not being distracting as well as taking away from longer battery time.
While the difficulty might be seen as a con the alternative is a damaged GBA sitting around doing nothing. I've had a GBA sitting in my parts bin for 5 years. Select and Start are corroded beyond repair, this board and its chips are doing nothing but getting older. I see no reason not to try this mod myself because what have I got to lose? This damaged GBA isn't getting use now but if I can pull this off it will. And if I can't, what have I really lost?
That's gorgeous. We're so close to an fpgba. I will buy it the moment they're available.
And that’s the reason I sold my 101 SP, original gba mods got so good it makes no sense to keep the other ones… the retroid flip also makes gba games look really good and that’s made me play most games there
I'd love to see a version of this reverse engineered motherboard that already includes the rechargeable battery board. Yeah, the shell would have to be slightly different to accommodate that, but this one already is, since you don't need to cut it to insert the brand new screen. It makes no sense to build a MODERN GBA and stay stuck in the past using AA batteries.
I still miss the original squishy L and R, i don't like the micro buttons feel and complex repaiability :/ other than that, great pcb!
The only mod I can think of that I'd like to see added on to help modernize it is a bluetooth chip that's somehow soldered on to switch from the speaker to wireless headphones. For when you're traveling and not looking to bother others, but don't have corded headphones on hand.
The production on these videos is off the scale.
Dude always makes soldering look easy. When I do it it does not go this way even with lots of flux.
Missed opportunity to do screen space coloring with the leds
The content I didn’t know I needed
I really wish there were replacement GBA SP motherboards, especially because I just ruined my current one by accident.
Man, your GBA looks killer! 🤩
The only thing stopping me is the soldering. I know how to solder and do it regularly, but my hands shake like an earthquake doing about 8 on the scale of Richter... I cannot see myself soldering these tiny pins to the board. 😭
Thinking about it... I love my FPGBC! I would absolutely love to see a Funnyplaying FPGBA kit! 😎
I’m hoping they make one next. Will be a game changer!
But is Theseus’ ship truly the same after all the parts have been replaced?
Can't wait for the FPGA GBA
👍The intro 360 degree look is sick 🔥
If Funnyplaying can make a mostly populated board for the GBC in a DMG form factor I'd buy that in a second.
They should make the side pieces of the case in aluminum as well, just to match the rest of the buttons. It would really round out the build nicely