Game Boy Pocket fitted with backlit screen, one man's life now complete

You know what they say -- if you can't buy it, mod it. Michael "Bibin" Moffitt's backlighting job on this Game Boy Pocket is a case in point. Unwilling to shell out the dough for a Game Boy Light on eBay (but more than willing to destroy two old LCDs in pursuit of his mad dream), this guy removed the reflective layer and adhesive behind the handheld's display ("almost as hard as reasoning with a rabid PlayStation 3 fan," he writes) and built a backlight out of an LED, some perspex, and a diffusive layer. That's it -- now our man is playing Donkey Kong, in the dark, in all its monochromatic glory, and with no noticeable change in battery life. Hit the read link for plenty of naked GBP pics.

[zioncat @ Jan 2nd 2009 10:36AM]

Well that's really cool but I mean really what's the point besides saying you did it.

[GreezyG @ Jan 2nd 2009 10:48AM]

You must be young :P
I just turned 30 and remember trying to play on my gameboy at night with a flashlight pinned between my head and shoulder. I was like 10 or 11. He has just fulfilled one of my boyhood wishes :P.

[noyp @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:05AM]

I remember when I got a Gameboy Color as a gift when I was 5. It was the most fun thing I've ever gotten. I played it for hours at a time. Just wished it had a backlight so I could've played in the car.

[Black Fiend @ Jan 2nd 2009 1:20PM]

I remember my first Gameboy and game...twas purple and the game was Pokemon Blue...I just read somewhere that chronic neck pain was common in the 20's age group....mostly due to trying to find different ways to hold a flashlight while playing.

Pokemon

[Chuckles McGee @ Jan 2nd 2009 3:39PM]

@GreezyG

I mean, Nintendo already sort of fulfilled your boyhood wish many years ago with the Gameboy SP---no heap of AA/AAA batteries to deal with either.

[Knee to the Groin @ Jan 2nd 2009 8:27PM]

There is NOTHING like monochrome Zelda, ah, name changed to "THIEF" for stealing from the shop...

[aaron @ Jan 3rd 2009 12:08AM]

lol there is no other point.

anyways, this isn't that great...
i modded a calculator in 4th grade to have a backlight....in class.
lol that was...7 years ago!

(peel the reflector off, cut a whole in the case back, put on overhead projector :D )

another cool thing back then was to reverse the second layer that could peel off. It was the polarity filter, and by cutting it in half and rotating it, then sticking it back on, you could make the calculator screen look black with clear numbers.
It was überawesome back then. too bad I couldn't afford a gameboy in 4th grade.

[P Sin @ Jan 2nd 2009 10:36AM]

I remember when the GBA came out (and before the SP), this was my favorite mod to do. It made playing on the GBA so much better! I assume this is probably a similar setup.

BTW the backlight mod in the GBA killed the battery life. I wonder if it does the same here.

[konshuss @ Jan 2nd 2009 10:52AM]

well wonder no longer my over-sighted friend, take a gander at the last line in the article.

[TareX @ Jan 3rd 2009 2:03AM]

Boosterboy? Anyone? Was I the only one who had it?

It was basically a big shell for the Gameboy. It had 2 loud sound blasters, a magnifying glass for the screen, and lots of light under that magnifying glass. It also has a Nub on top of the directional pad. Made fatalities a piece of cake.

[Metkis @ Jan 3rd 2009 2:55AM]

I had that Booster thing! Wow, I totally forgot about that!

[w00t w00t Legin! @ Jan 2nd 2009 10:38AM]

But tilting the system to find a usable angle was half the fun :(

[chispito @ Jan 2nd 2009 1:39PM]

Perhaps you can convince you kids that it built character, too.

[tekdroid @ Jan 2nd 2009 7:25PM]

chispito, playing on your gameboy outdoors instead of complaining that you can't see your current back-lit screen outdoors can be considered character-building :) Gamers in the outdoors.

[ryan @ Jan 2nd 2009 10:41AM]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Gameboy-Light-Golden-Edition-1-game_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ139971QQihZ005QQitemZ150317988154QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVWQQsalenotsupported

...

[Uncontrol @ Jan 2nd 2009 10:49AM]

i'd honestly never heard of this until just now

[T Hom @ Jan 2nd 2009 10:58AM]

Why again did you post this link?

[ryan @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:22AM]

@T Hom

Because for 75 bucks shipped he could have just bought the damn thing.

[acme @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:35AM]

http://www.google.com/search?q=gameboy+light&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

[Graham @ Jan 2nd 2009 10:44AM]

Kudos for doing something Nintendo should have been doing in the first place.

[Peter @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:13AM]

They did, in Japan, it's called the GAMEBOY LIGHT.

[Jorvay @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:17AM]

Really? You're criticizing a decission nintendo made 20 years ago? A decission that kept this thing down in the $100 range so I could afford it when I was a kid? A decission that saved considerable battery life in a machine that already ate through four AAs at a time?

I'd go on, but I'd rather pull out my original 1989 gameboy and play some tetris (no, I'm not kidding).

[Richard Lai @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:24AM]

@Jorvay: decision

[Jorvay @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:32AM]

Dammit. Why do I always do that? For years that extra s has haunted my spelling of decision. I try to correct it but it just keeps coming back. Thanks for the extra kick Richard.

[required @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:02PM]

they did: http://www.computercloset.org/GameBoyLightBox.jpg

[VitalyTheUnknown @ Jan 2nd 2009 10:47AM]

Have fun & enjoy the process.

[Grendel Pr1me @ Jan 2nd 2009 10:52AM]

I think the sign just above the Gameboy in that picture personifies this guy's life. ;)

Just kidding about that. I would have loved this when it came out. My parents, after much research and wisdom, realized there was no stopping me from playing it late at night, so they got me a Game Gear instead because it had a screen I could play on in the dark.

[Deckard @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:05AM]

Now all he has to do is invent a time machine and go back to 1995 so he can show someone who cares.

[Jonny C. @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:11AM]

I think the old TV and the outdated G3 Tower in the background balance this spotlight on old technology quite well :-).

[Backlin @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:39AM]

NO!!!

I was going to say something about that.

[Sonictrend @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:14AM]

Nintendo DID do this with a Japan release only pocket version. Although the screen was an ugly green blue color. Good clean job though.

[Daniel @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:14AM]

the big n should of cought up with the times back then. the game gear and sega nomad both had baclights and where more fun to play. oh i miss the good old sega days. Flame shield on.

[chefgon_ign @ Jan 2nd 2009 1:19PM]

My immediate reaction was to flame you in some kind of outdated Game Gear vs Game Boy console war. Ah, that really brings me back.

[k0ugs @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:20AM]

I have always wanted to do this to my ti-89

[Boarderwoot @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:23AM]

I remember the good ole' days. Back when life was simple and two buttons and a d-pad ruled my wold.

[NewZero @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:24AM]

Hmmm... looks more like Dr. Mario than Donkey Kong.

[Mr. Ford @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:39AM]

Way to go Engadget. You found a way to slip in an insult to Sony fans in a Nintendo post. I surprised that you didn't find a way to make it about the iPhone as well by saying something like, "He wouldn't have to go through the trouble if he had purchased the glorious iPhone. At least he wasn't one of those dumb asses who bought a PSP."

[Yevon @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:52AM]

Dude, it was a quote... Engadget technically insulted no one.

But PS3 fans are kinda douche-y.

[Mr. Ford @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:54AM]

Not as bad as Summer's Eve fans.

[dvsbstrd @ Jan 2nd 2009 11:59AM]

*groan*

[Yevon @ Jan 2nd 2009 5:52PM]

I see what you did there.

[Mr. Ford @ Jan 2nd 2009 6:19PM]

I need to learn to read good-er. My blind rage at a PS3 insult impaired my judgement.

[Michael @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:17PM]

That actually looks front-lit to me as opposed to back-lit. I did this a long time ago when I had a GBA: http://www.gideontech.com/content/articles/174/1

Though I never really did care for how it made the colors washed out when compared to a backlit LCD.

[steve @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:33PM]

oooo it makes me wish i could find my old gameboy pocket. all i have to play tetris on now is my old brick or my advanced since my color has been lost for as long as my pocket....stupid NDS phatty not playing my old games

[blindspot @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:47PM]

what about worm lights! the lights that went into the link cable port and you could bend them and twist them in any way you'd like so you could see your screen. they worked like a charm i lived off them, i think i may still have one...
and not just for the pocket, but for the gameboy color and the gameboy advance.

[Tim Brazer @ Jan 2nd 2009 1:44PM]

Those worm lights were awesome. Haha! They were so easy to break though.

[antgeth @ Jan 2nd 2009 2:34PM]

sure, i had one of those, but man, the reflection was horrid, bouncing off of the shiny plastic. i ended up having to do as much maneuvering with the position of the worm light as i did with the position of the screen during the day.

@all saying he could have just gotten a gameboy light; sure, but i'm sure this cost him a fraction of what it would have cost, and this is so much more fun to do anyway.

i say kudos.

[oulittlebit2002 @ Jan 2nd 2009 1:55PM]

Kudos to those that have heard of the Gameboy Light. Though it wasn't release stateside, you'd think an avid Gameboy fan would know about it...

[Mercury @ Jan 2nd 2009 2:30PM]

This is hardly the first time this kind of thing has been done. People have been doing backlight mods to GBs for a long time.

[FILA @ Jan 2nd 2009 2:44PM]

Now see this is cool, but for me id want the original GBA with a backlight. Now I know that one company I think it was called After burner made a kit to replace your GBA screen with a backlit one but it required you to drimmel away some of the plastic casing in order for it to fit properly, im not up for that, if it was easier Id do it. Id probably still play with my GBA, that one in my opinion was the best gameboy ever, it was so comfortable, the best design they ever came out with. It fit perfectly in hands, and even thou the DS is shaped landscape, its still straight edge without curves. the Gameboy micro is cool thou, heard that screen is brighter and clearer then the DS screen, i actually think i saw that when it came out, I dont want to buy it thou, I dotn even know if you can find them anymore for a good price, but since theres no new GBA games and never will be theres no point to buy it. To bad they didnt release it earlier on and not after the DS launced. But I guess that generation is over now, and it sucks. I still think thou Nintendo will come out with another Gameboy line down the road, a long ways from now. Once the whole DS thing is over. But it doesnt really matter, just make a handheld with gamecube graphics and I'll be set. Not thrilled about the DSi, and still undecided about buying one at launch, but Im hoping and thinking its gonna be like the last installment right before the new DS2 comes out. Its gonna be like the micro, milk the DS line all you can take peoples money but have the next handheld ready in a couple months, packing the camera, the DSware and all that shit but make the next handheld better graphics, wider screens, but keep the shiny coating on it. The DSi doesnt have the shiny coat which I hate, its gonna be that mat shit you feel when you open your DS. Wow I got way off topic, but I couldnt stop when I got started.