Game Boy Color makes yourself a commonplace in DMG-01

When we checked in last time [The Poor Student Hobbyist], He just finished inserting the Game Boy Advance (GBA) SP motherboard into the iconic Game Boy DMG-01 body and equipped with an aftermarket IPS display. Unfortunately, after using the system for a few weeks, he encountered some problems that caused him to return to the drawing board.

This time, he used the internal structure of its successor Game Boy Color (GBC) to transform the classic Nintendo handheld. Obviously, this means that this new version cannot play any GBA games, but this was never actually the goal. This may seem obvious in hindsight, but due to their general similarity, it is much easier to install GBC hardware into the Game Boy shell in the end. Although we still don’t call it a “simple” exchange through any imagination…

Whether you want to follow in his footsteps to the happiness of portable games, or just want to replace life with his soldering iron, [The Poor Student Hobbyist] It has done an excellent job documenting this build. Although he warned that this article was not designed as a step-by-step guide, there is a lot of information for others who wish to make similar changes.

The construction involved removing most of the original Game Boy’s connectors and controls, such as the volume wheel, link port, and even the headphone jack, and transplanting them to a physically trimmed GBC motherboard. At a high level, it is no different from the trimmed Wii portable devices we have seen, but since GBC only uses two layers of PCB, it becomes easier.This also helps [The Poor Student Hobbyist] I used the aftermarket IPS display again, because it means that he can literally cut off the LCD driver part of the GBC motherboard. Of course, there are also some hardware additions, such as new audio amplifiers, power conditioning systems, lithium battery chargers and 2000 mAh batteries.

There are many wonderful details about this, so if you are interested in what makes the Game Boy and its successors, we strongly recommend that you take the time to read through this handheld hacking journey. His previous construction is also very worthy of careful study, even if it ended up being a bit clumsy in practice.