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Gameboy Advanced: The Quest For Color (Outside)
zenintrude writes: "Unfulfilled by Nintendo's current offering of GBA colors? Why not buy a Blank Slate (formerly known as 'Arctic') GBA, and dye it your favorite shade? If nothing else, it will pass the time until Portable Monopoly is back fighting the good fight." It seems that question ("Why not?") is not rhetorical -- if four bottles of RIT dye don't do the trick, maybe nature never intended it to be. I will wait until Gameboys are given away with cereal before I try such a thing.
Yes, but the real reason of owning one is to look at the screen. The color outside makes no difference. Playing the games is what matters. The thing is not a fashion statement.
Game Boy Advance people. And for future reference it's Gamecube, not Gamecubed.
You are pretty offensive. You are also wrong.
From the Rit dye faq:
Can I use Rit to dye materials other than fabrics?
Rit dyes can also be used to color wood, paper, plastics, canvas shoes, and many craft materials.
I think a product like Plaid's Paint for Plastic (here) would probably work pretty well on a gameboy. RIT works fine on nylon, but it's not going to be able to do a decent job on hard plastics.
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Poke O's, Gotta eat'em all (=
Let me guess... you're one of those dumb-ass types that has never actually played Pokemon and didn't know it was an RPG based on the Mother/Earthbound game engine (next to FF series in RPG quality).
Oh, and on your GeForce 1 comment... so if I create a 1 billion poly representation of a turd and give you the ability to spin it on the screen for points... according to your argument, it would be the one of the best games on the market.
What a dumb ass... just shut your crack hole and spare us your ignorance!
No kidding! What an idiot.
...
Am I the only one who ever put together a model car and painted it? You can get a great finish. If you want, you can go multicolor, clear coat,
-Kevin (still shaking my head)
Theres plenty available around here... Course we can still get Q3A in the tin box at stores around here....
On an even more general GBA note - putting an external light onto the machine will sap the batteries and then everyone will complain about poor battery life, but at least they'll be able to see their screens without the benefit of sunlight.
Are Interact, Mad Catz, etc. yet more examples of enthusiasm misguided?
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I thought the same thing, markers could possibly do the job well. The thing is, you need the plastic to be *very* frosted, or it will look like crap. Markers leave many streaks and are in general pretty bad at leaving a uniform coating. Frosted plastic could make up for this somewhat, but the difference would still be noticeable.
± 29 dB
When is somebody gonna get Linux running on these things, so we can have a Beowulf cluster that's "All the colors of the Rainbow?"
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"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
I saw the Fuchsia version at Walmart yesterday. They are rediculously UGLY!
Wep, the GBA looks like a small GameGear - but my one's got a transluscent-blue Apple-style case - far more stylish :-) - here (ireland), anyway, they've got colour coordinated battery-packs, maglights, etc - and yo just know that there's rich-kids who just gotta have all the different colours... (transluscent blue, white, transluscent pink, purple, dark blue are the one's I've seen on sale.)
Actually, the different clours are genuinely useful, if you're playing multiplayer games regularly with the GBA - much less chance of walking off with the wrong GBA...
GBA is 16MHz ARM, combined with what's basically a miniaturised SNES gfx chip. It also includes a complete gameboy-colour-on-chip for backward compatibility...
It was never a good idea to put any gameboy in the back pocket of your jeans - the LCD screens tended to crack if you had a fat ass and/or tight pants...
Choice of masters is not freedom.
s/Wep/Yep/
I have no idea what "Wep" means, but it should mean something. Try saying it aloud - "Wep!". It makes a great exclamation....
Choice of masters is not freedom.
Why not use a high-quality automotive paint? Slick that puppy right up! What made him think black dye would do the trick?
Personally, I'd recommend FlexProducts' Chromaflair colorshifting paint, with a polypropylene/urethane primer to soften the plastic a bit first.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
RIT is a decent product, but for plastics, there is some other kind of dye that was around 10 years ago used for RC car wheels. You'd mix this stuff in water, but your plain-old white nylon plastic RC car wheels in overnight, and it would dye the plastic very nicely. Anyone remember what this stuff was? Sounds like that's what you would want to use for plastics.
--- witty signature
If you go to a big auto parts store, you should be able to find one of 2 products that will work perfectly for this:
1. A bottle of black dye with a sponge applicator on top. It's used for restoring faded black plastic on car bumpers and other crap. Make sure it's the dye, and not just the Armor All type stuff that makes it shine. This is harder to find than the next product, but you should be able to find it on carparts.com or something.
2. Go to the spray paint section. Near the paint section, you should be able to find what looks like cans of spray paint, but is for Vinyl tops on cars, plastic pieces, and possibly even carpet. Depending on the brand, some of it is actually dye, not paint. I don't have the brand name handy, but I used it to dye a beige plastic front of a computer case to charcoal gray, and it looks absolutely perfect. It doesn't scrape off unless you take a chunk of plastic with it.
Maybe he should have done some research before just going out and buying RIT dye.
Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
(I tend to agree, a water-based dye doesn't seem like the right tool for the job; maybe someone else's comment has a good solution. Pun intended.)
The linked page also spelled "otter" wrong. Although I didn't know anyone was making casings for otters.
Hmm... those food colorings are dye dissolved in alcohol. Although the dye is used on organic materials (food), if the dye dissolves in alcohol then it may be carried into the surface of an alcohol-dissolvable plastic. Alcohol might work better on plastic...depending upon the plastic.
Does this mean I'll be able to tie-dye my GBA?
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
Ah, they named it that so the sequel to Game Boy Advance could be called Game Boy Advance A Little Further.
Zorn
/ is the root of
I guess I should've mentioned that I have a very low threshold for acceptable. Guess it's that punk rock sensibility.
RIT Dye isn't really all that good on anything besides fabrics. According to his description of the dye (powdered, all purpose, concentrated), it sounds like the same stuff I have. From the package: "Not recommended for 100% polyester, 100% acrylic or fabrics with special finishes, rubber backing..." I mean, if it's not expected to work on polyester, I don't know what kinda results are expected on injection molded plastic. I dyed a pair of shorts tonight and they turned out fine, a little variegated in shade of black but still totally fine, but these were 100% cotton. There was a patch made out of tightly wound colored cotton thread which did not dye, so consider that. As for another post, which said spray paint, you have to be really careful about that. Spray paint can really easy warp plastics like this, even the kind that are supposed to be used on models (Testor, etc). The whole thing sounds a little stupid to me, if I were trying to do the same thing I'd just buy a few sharpies and color the whole thing in by hand.
But the Worm light relies on the system for power. Wouldn't a backlit display draw about the same about of power?
Aren't backlit displays a bit better about power consumption than they used to be?
According to portablemonopoly.com, lighting accessories are selling at almost a 1:1 ratio with the GBA. Something's not right.
I have a GBA (probably going to sell it) and the screen is way too dark, IMHO. I would rather have a backlit display with an on/off switch and sacrifice some battery life.
What if the Hokey-Pokey really is what it's all about?
I see a lot of criticism here for the fact that Slashdot posted this article, since the guy is obviously an idiot. Nobody has pointed out why this happened. For once, it's not a case of Slashdot posting an article that should never have seen the light of day. The category is "humor" - no other warantee-violating customization of proprietary hardware is categorized as humor. The editor's comments clearly are mocking the person who attempted to dye his GBA. The article itself is so preposterous that the person is either obviously an idiot, or has written this as a piece of fiction. (for the purpose of a troll, but the meaning of "troll" has been perverted on Slashdot so much that I wonder if anyone still knows what it means). He found it impossible to open up an unusually shaped screw!
There is still room for humor in our lives. I apologize for spoiling a joke by explaining why it is a joke.
No no no, titanium! That's what's needed!
I quite enjoyed this page, because unlike most of the pages out there describing customization etc. etc. , this is going really badly.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
You can't just put your gameboy in a tub of dye and change it to your favourite color. ....course, no one will heed my warnings, OSDN will be filled with cries of agony as one gameboy after another is destroyed in this quest for new colors.
BUT, I have also done this with my mobile phone cover (Nokia 3210), and the daily wear and tear are beginning to show, as the paint is peeling of in the most touched areas.
My point being, it is most likely very possible to do a tremendous hack-job on a GBA, but be sure to get some paint that really binds to plastic, as your daily use could wear the paint off, which would make an excellent modification look really cheap.
But, if and when I get a GBA, i'll be sure to look into this type of modding, mostly because its fun to own a unique looking device, instead of a generic looking one. After all, lots'a people make casemods for their PC cases, which does nothing but enchance the look with see-through plexiglass plates and LEDs. (Granted, some put extra fans in, which ofcourse helps airflow, but mainly people casemod just for the hell of it, and to impress their friends :-)
Maybe there IS room for MSFT in the game market!
Karma: Bored. (Thinking about resurrecting the "Anyone else is an imposter" joke.)
Rit Dye is manufactured and guaranteed primarily for tinting and dyeing washable textile fabrics. It is, however, effective for coloring many types of vinyl or plastic articles, such as jewelry (simulated pearls), buttons, rivets, and eyeglass frames, etc.
So there you go. But there are definitely paints much better suited to the task.
Karma: Bored. (Thinking about resurrecting the "Anyone else is an imposter" joke.)
You don't dye plastic, you paint it. He needs to go to a plastic supply house and talk to them. They can sell him a light solvent to soften the material, and then they can make him a jar of custom paint matched to any shade he wants. For a few extra dollars they will sell you a aerosol attachment so you can spray the paint.
probably not, hell, NetBSD doesn't even run on it (ARM7TDMI), and NetBSD appears to have a goal of running on every platform with an MMU.
Want some indy electronic (and other) music?
This sig intentionally left blank.
I saw a U.K. service that would chrome N64s for about $100; I've also seen some packaged chrome ones recently; could you do that with a GBA?
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
Paint's answer to duct tape.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
I've never come across this RIT dye, I imagine it's pretty similar to Dylon powdered dye. That stuff's great for turning your old jeans funny colours.
The GBA case is far more likely to be polystyrene or (if it's really posh) ABS. Decent car body paint takes really well on these surfaces. I've sprayed loads of different cases, games etc. using just plain ordinary aerosol cans, and it works perfectly well.
You've got to be careful though. Test the spray on a bit you won't see, just in case it reacts. And remember to remove CD and floppy bezels if you're spraying a computer, and do them seperately. Don't get paint in the drives!
Oh, and use primer first...
Take the RIT Dye, GBA, and FIRED clay mold (go to an arts and crafts store) put the GBA peices in the mold (with the inside peices there to keep it's parameters/stop it from warping)
Boil the RIT dye solution (Make it a little heavier since you're not dying cloth. Put as much as you can in there. Drop the GBA in the dye, and boil it for an hour or two. Pull it out, let it cool, and it should dye without shrinking.
Course, a REAL MAN would make a PLASTER MOLD of the GBA, inside and out, and pick up the stuff you need to make one out of CARBON FIBER, or FIBERGLASS/Resin. A friend of mine converted a streetbike for enduro racing and did just that. It came out green, and black (thread/fiber yarn) zigzagged. it ROCKED!!
krystal_blade
It will be easy to motivate our fellow man; there is hardly anything people treasure more than not being annihilated.
...but don't you think the GBA looks really like the Sega Game Gear (I own one, didn't turn it on in ages tough) but just slightly flatter and in white. Oh, well probably the technology is much different (Sega Game Gear was a Z80 IIRC).
Oh, why the change of size: I always thought that the form of the original Gameboy was used to easily put it in the back pocket of your jeans.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
There is a company in the Radio Control Car industry called Litespeed products. I can't find a web site for them, but any hobby dealer, and possibly Tower Hobbies could get the stuff for you. Aside from making a cool set of low loss battery connectors, they had a product called Dylon. It was made in a number of colors, and produced good results with white nylon parts, such as those used in Associated Electrics' products, at least untill the mid 90's. Dylon was used on styrene parts, but the colors tended to be much more faint. Red dye produced light pink styrene parts.
I think the real issue here isn't the poor choice of coloring method so much as the fact that the poor sucker put plastic (that they were obviously unfamiliar with) in warm water overnight).
From the last posting: "The worst part is that I wasn't careful, and warped the plastic."
Of course, there's also the issue of using nail polish remover to attempt to clear up DYE blotches!
Anyway, I think we all know that real men use duct tape for all their stylization needs, and I know a hardware store that sells in over 50 different colors. Stupid idea? At least it won't warp the actual casing.
I guess you could just use spray or car paint, but wouldn't that take the fun out of it?.... I mean, ya don't even get to melt anything!
Or, if you want to see a picture of it (or, even more unlikely, ORDER it), check out the dreaded beast from Redmond (not Microsoft!) in all it's splendor...
All I know about Bush is I had a good job when Clinton was president.
I agree.. that color is nasty. I keep hoping Nintendo will do a solid black version, or atleast a "Smoke" version like their clear-black N64 they released eons ago..
All I know about Bush is I had a good job when Clinton was president.
If anything Nintendo has proven recently, they're all about the color choices. Granted, most of their choices aren't ones many sane people would buy, but hey, they're there. Testament to this is the 6+ colors available for the Gameboy Color, or the variety of N64 colors (and, for Pokemon crazies, shapes) available.
Plus, don't forget, Nintendo has released other colors (metallic hues, as I understand it, that change color as you tilt it in the light) as special Pokemon editions in Japan (just do a search on eBay for "Gameboy Advance Pokemon", you're sure to turn up some hits with pictures). And then there's the Fuchsia version that's out/about to come out (clear pinkish color).
Just be patient, is what I'm saying, it's in Nintendo's nature to release more colors.
Oh, and we can never forget this beast of the dark side... yech
All I know about Bush is I had a good job when Clinton was president.
he could have bought a $5 skin. MadCatz (and maybe a few others) make em in all kinds of colors and textures. Ive seen them at Best Buy.
I bought one of these a few weeks ago. Best five bucks I ever spent on the GBA. It overlays a joystick on the rocker button and big fat knobby extensions over the A/B buttons, so somebody with fingers bigger than a ten-year-old's can actually play the damn thing.
The processing power is strong, the graphics are better than the GG so i'd also have to disagree, but i thought that at first before i bought it -Raelz
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After seeing this, I'm scared. For a long time I've wanted to *paint* (not dye) the outer two panels on the cover of my PowerBook G3 (glossy primary red). After seeing a moron do it wrong, someone mind producing a clear and definitive guide to doing it right?
This from the same guy who uses the word "Links" (the game) and "Links" interchangeably.
/.
Did he really think dye would work? Why would anyone think of dye for anything other than fabric?
Although, this hello kitty gameboy on his site looks "super" cool!
Please, no more Geocities links on
"I'll just chip in a bit for RedHat: I actually have that installed on my university machine." - Linus, '95
is it just me, or does everyone complain about the GBA too much? if you like it, buy it; otherwise fuck off. Can't you people find more important things to worry about?
They're just petitioning to nintendo to get the features that they want(and IMO, badly needed) onto the GBA. They're not calling the DOJ to go after them.
Got Freedom?
Thinking?
Do you think this will affect his warranty? ;)
What about a tie-dyed
Dude where's my GBA?
Maybe this dude will do the same to an M$ Xbox. I wouldn't mind seeing that.
You can buy face masks for your Gameboy Advance. I'm not sure if they come in black, but I've seen chrome, blue and grey.
No, I think he meant this.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
..."Advanced" be "Advance"? Just wondering, as I can not find any title like that on the linked page.
---
"The universe is a womb for the genesis of gods."
But honestly, I've spent over $300 in Game Boy Advance merchandise in the past 2 weeks (one import, one US and 3 games). Do I really want to risk this?
I ask a simple question and it gets rated as "troll" and "overrated"? Guys, get a grip. That kind of obnoxious moderation destroys slashdot.
I mean...wow...perceptive...
Portable Monopoly?
You mean this?
It does bear a striking resemblance to GBA, don't you think?
sigh
Friends don't let friends buy Rit dye.
Who pays for this stuff. Yeah I got $99 to throw away on a Gameboy I'm going to destory and how about another $400-500 on an iPaq to take apart. I enjoy lessons learned from these experiences, but some people must have done much better than I during the dot-com boom..
Although, I must admit I broke my Gameboy's screen about 14 years ago taking it apart, so I guess I shouldn't be pointing any fingers...
"Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos." -Homer Simpson
Speaking of Tommy Hilfiger and Gameboys...
Click here to bid on the fusion of the two...
The Paris runways didn't see that coming ^_^
- colin
See the underlined text? Here... I'll point it out to you:
"buy a Blank Slate"
Stop this world, I wanna get off...
- colin
Ken Soto (the creator of the now infamous GBA color mod) posted the omega results of his ill-fated experiment on a message board today (and conveniently forgot to add any update about it on his site).
:/
/. readers are psychic!!!
Result post #1:
KenSoto
Posts: 806
Registered: Apr 01
Date Posted: 6:33am
*cue the fallen soldier trumpet/horn music*
Well, I can tell you this - I was successful in dying my GBA's case... but that's about it. May my GBA's poor sacrifice soul rest in peace.
Actually it's not that I got impatient and upped the heat - the front piece of the GBA wasn't completely clean to begin with, I guess, so what happened was that there were streaks that appeared on the front shell of the GBA. I tried cleaning it and then re-dyeing the case, but I think the excessive amount of time in the hot water eventually warped it. It wasn't severly warped - it looks good, but it's warped just a little bit too much and THERE in lies the problem.
As of now, I have put the GBA back together again - COMPLETELY back together again, though unfortunately I won't be able to put up any screenshots of it until I get home later on this evening. My wife and I stayed up pretty late reassembling that thing, and I passed out before my head even hit the pillow.
So was the project successful? Yes and no. Yes- in that, the GBA was dyed completely black. The dye took hold, and it looks pretty damn good. It's almost exactly like Mpolle's mock up and I say, "almost" because a little of the dye came off when we were toying with the front shell piece in hot water. But a GBA shell CAN be dyed - Zap's experience proved that already, but now it's official.
No- in that the GBA's shell was warped. The back shell (with the battery compartment) couldn't have come out better. it's a sleek and shiny black, and looks like it's factory quality. The battery case is perfectly dyed and says, "GameBoy Advance" on it still - it's breath taking. The front on the other hand went through so much dyeing, I think that's what did the whole project in. First it was bent in the middle forward so that it wouldn't line up with the back case. Ok, so what we did was heat up the front plastic shell in hot water, match it up once it was flexible, and voila, everything's fixed, right? Wrong.
We tried putting in the front plastic screen (that says "GameBoy Advance" on the bottom" but it didn't fit anymore. Aye-yeeeee! Ok, so I was getting a little concerned at this point, but that part could be adjusted to fit. What I was worried about was the LCD screen fitting... and it didn't. The casing hadn't been shrunk, but rather bent in such a way that it didn't have space for the screen pieces anymore. So we heated up the case once again several times until we had it good enough for the LCD screen to fit back in. After that, we then attempted to put it back together. Surprisingly, all of the screws and metal plates fit back (though one metal plate was giving me some trouble). The buttons, however, weren't as good as they were originally. Because the front case took a tremendous warping, the select and start buttons didn't quite come out as much as they were supposed to. The B and A buttons were fixed perfectly, though, and so was the control pad. Then we screwed on the mother board (which was difficult because of the frontal warped part of the shell). Then we line up the grey side plastic pieces, screwed on the back shell, place the R & L buttons back in place (and they still clicked just like they always did), and finally screwed in the battery compartment. Problem was that two of the outter shell screws on the back (the very DEEP ones) wouldn't fit. I don't think it was aligned 100% because of the warped front part of the shell). The biggest problem was the power on/off switch. We tried lining it up with the little on/off switch in the GBA, but the plastic was warped so much, it didn't hold right... I knew right then that my GBA was basically dead. All the molding in the world probably couldn't get that fixed back right.
Still, we tried popping in some batteries and I guess the GBA was in the "on" position already because I heard the GameBoy's patented "Ding". So then I flipped up the GBA and turned it off, but right before it did, it had that Tetris "game over" noise and never turned back on again... when my wife and I heard that noise we were like, "Oh Sh!+". I think the on/off switch is out of alignment.
So now, my GBA is back together again, but for display purposes only. It looks great, but won't work... so this model will never see the light of day. So with this in mind, I say to you: Try it on a GameBoy Color or old Gameboy first before you try it on your pride and joy. The whole warping problem CAN be avoided, you just have to be EXTREMELY careful with the heat control. I never once raised the heat, but I should have turned it off and on every so often to keep it from getting too hot. I had the flame so low it blew out sometimes, but that was still too much for the case for a period of time that exceeds 2 hours.
This technique CAN work, it's just very difficult... I don't regret trying it. I just regret that I wasn't more careful, but oh well... next GBA, I'm gonna go with spray paint and see what happens there. -lol- At least then I know that all of the pieces will still FIT!
I don't know when I'll get to putting up all of the results and what I did on my page. My wife took pictures of everything, so you guys'll have that at least. The "stove top" dyeing method is definitely the most effective though.
When I get home I'll put up the pictures of my lifeless GBA. Looks good... looks great actually, it just doesn't work anymore. And if it doesn't work, well... kinda defeats the whole purpose.
Result post #2:
KenSoto
Posts: 806
Registered: Apr 01
Date Posted: 6:50am - Date Edited: 6:51am (1 edits total) Edited By: KenSoto
I killed a white boy! A white GAME boy Advance that is. -lol-
Yeah, my GBA is pretty much dead, but I was thinking about that hair dryer thing. Yeah, I guess there's nothin to lose if the GBA becomes completely unrecoverable, might as well try at them buttons and provide some pictures.
Interesting about that spray paint. This weekend, my friend and I were gonna look for some spray paint, but since the GBA is pretty much DEAD, I guess we'll be skippin that for right now. Next GBA, though, Spraypaint will be the way to go.
*yawn* I'm sooooooo tired, though. My wife and I were working together last night trying to put the GBA back together and it took a looong time, but that's 'cause the plastic was warped. Dounia's funny. She was like, "Look at our thread, it's still on page one! We're famous!"
MOS - I sure hope so. Come ooooon replacement shells.
All I can say is...
or just not dumb...
- colin
First off, games sharing the same engine don't nessisarily result in games of equal quality (i.e. Q3A & KISS).
Secondly, Mother/Earthbound and Pokemon's engines are completely different; the fact that Ness and Ash's sprites look similar has no baring. Mother/Earthbound uses a 3/4 isometric perspective, while Pokemon sports the RPG-standard top-down birds eye perspective. I won't even get into the battle engine differences. Confusing the two games is, well I used to think, impossible...
- colin
So young... so stupid...
- colin
...so why do I care about *this*?
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.