Buying a Game Boy Color.. "Refurb/New Screen" worth it?
Yep, looking to grab a GBC (for the purpose of play), and I am seeing a lot of auctions/listings touting "restored," "refurbished," or "new screen." Anyone have much experience with refurbs like this?
I'm not super familiar with any GB/GBC hardware issues that have cropped up since the systems were contemporary. If there's even a slightly good reason for paying the extra bucks, I'd like to pay the extra bucks.
I'm not super familiar with any GB/GBC hardware issues that have cropped up since the systems were contemporary. If there's even a slightly good reason for paying the extra bucks, I'd like to pay the extra bucks.
Comments
Buy a working one and treat yourself to a fancy new case and swap it yourself
most likely they arent new screens just new lenses over the screens.
Buy a working one and treat yourself to a fancy new case and swap it yourself
Oh god, this was supposed to be a quick, impulse buy, and now I'm looking at custom shells.
Maybe I'll pull myself out of the rabbit hole and end up with a nice, regular Teal.
And, yeah, it does seem sellers like to use "screen" as if it were synonymous with "screen lens."
It may be worth your while to get a front light modded one at least. I haven't picked one up yet myself, but damn the stock one can be difficult to play in bad lighting
Ah! After looking around a bit, this may be more what I would want!!!
I'm pretty up on console mods, but I wasn't really aware there was all this stuff (custom shells, buttons, light mods) going on with the GBC.
I have a pretty big knowledge gap for portables, especially 1999-2003ish.
Maybe I just assumed people that wanted to play GB carts would largely prefer a GBA SP?
It may be worth your while to get a front light modded one at least. I haven't picked one up yet myself, but damn the stock one can be difficult to play in bad lighting
Ah! After looking around a bit, this may be more what I would want!!!
I'm pretty up on console mods, but I wasn't really aware there was all this stuff (custom shells, buttons, light mods) going on with the GBC.
I have a pretty big knowledge gap for portables, especially 1999-2003ish.
Maybe I just assumed people that wanted to play GB carts would largely prefer a GBA SP?
Hit the nail on the head. Best option is a GBA SP, both a frontlit GBC or a frontlit GBA will cost more.
If you just want a GBC to play, find an ok condition one that works fine with a ok or beat/scratched screen and replace it with a glass one. Glass screens are very nice and are only around $5-$10 depending on where they are from.
I'm not sure you can even get a new GBC screen because no one makes tiny square screens anymore. I thought that was a big reason we might never see a true backlit GBC replacement display. The glass screen covers are a pretty nice $5 upgrade though.
Is that accurate?. If so, how recently?
It wasn't that long ago that GCW Zero (and numerous other competing handhelds) were brought to market with small 320 x 240 displays.
So I suppose it is reasonable to believe that 320 x 240 is the minimum available resolution for those tiny screens (which obviously exceeds GB/GBC resolution, and likely can't be made to be compatible)
I just want some real hardware in great condition to do it on, and I don't really see any reason to choose any previous hardware over the SP.
Crappier speaker (I think) than the DMG? Shorter playtime between battery recharge/replacement than a DMG or GBC? YMMV on the form factor? I think the quality and brightness of the screen supersedes any of the cons. (I'm strictly talking about on-the-go playing.)
AGS-101 with a new shell and lens seems like the way to do it.
The only portables I really had experience with when they were contemporary are the Game Boy and DS (though I did end up playing a ton of GBA games post-DS launch). This topic actually inspired me into doing a lot of reading about the hardware variations of the Game Boy line as well as look into a lot of the neat stuff people have done of the years with various replacement parts and mods. Pretty cool stuff.
- decent battery life
- be able to play Gameboy Color games
- lit screen
It didn't take long for me to find the GBA SP, and they were dirt cheap, so I got one, but wasn't that satisfied with the screen. Then I read about the GBA SP with the backlit screen (AGS-101) and found one in rough shape on eBay, bought a new shell and now I got the best Gameboy!
The best would have been a Nintendo DS that could also play Gameboy games, not just GBA, but it didn't happen...