Game Boy Advance RGB LCD Project

JohnHegarty writes: "Ever wanted a large backlit screen for the GBA, or even watching it on a 28" TV? Here is a project to use a GBA on a PlayStation screen." Another example of the lengths people will go to to mock the term "pocket sized."

Comments

Playing it in the dark...

[Mr_Silver]

For those of you who can't afford to go to this length, the Afterburner backlight upgrade is now shipping.

It does invalidate your warranty, but the pictures on this page show you how impressive it is. Those of you with a PPC will know what the lighting is like.

It claims to get 10 hours gameplay with the light on, which isn't bad in the slightest.

Re:Playing it in the dark...

[kstumpf]

I installed an afterburner last week. They are quite impressive. The installation is not difficult, if you TAKE YOUR TIME and RESEARCH the process in advance. You really have to plan out several of the steps beyond what the directions tell you. In fact, after reviewing the instructions and the info on the web, I went with a totally different approach to installation then the directions suggested.

The best tips are to use scotch tape to peel off the backing on the AR film and light surface. You don't want ANY fingerprints. Also be sure to use canned air to blow dust off everything prior to mounting it.

Applying the AR film was easy with a trick I found. Do NOT remove the backing yet. Use tape to peel off a very small part of the backing on the sticky side. Position it right on the edge. Use a long piece of tape and stick it to the remaining part of the backing. Then slide the black card along the surface while pulling the tape to peel the backing. Do that in one quick motion and you get a perfect, dust/bubble free application.

Very interesting

[fabiolrs]

GBA = $100
TV = $75
Adapter = $200
Total = $375

PS2 = $200
TV = $75
Total = $275

i really dont get it! :)) isnt a GBA meant to be portable? My 29" screen isnt exactly what I call portable device... :))

(prices not exactly the same on real life)

Re:Playstation screen?

[filth grinder]

You probably should have went ahead and LOOKED at the article. The "playstation screen" is refering to the portable ps1 that sony is putting out. It's basically a ps1 with a small LCD attached. Retailed for around $150 USD. It's a pretty neat setup. The articles talks about hooking a GBA up to that, and using that's TV outs to up hook to a TV. But the playstation screen, does indeed refer to the portable ps1 LCD.

You're all missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

As usual, no one on slashdot reads the article - just the buzzline

He gave up on the 20 in screen, the resolution looks terrible on that size.

What amazed me was the brightness of the interact lcd compared to the GBA screen. Nintendo must have spent 20 cents on that screen, its truely worthless. I'm betting people will go this route to improve their display - I've seen a mod someone is selling that installs a very bright light in their GBA. I still think the first pre-order hasn't been completed yet, tells you something about demand for a better screen. Nintendo really screwed up on the screen.

Good games, baaad platform.

[Bonker]

The GBA games I've seen are about on par with SNES and Sega-genesis era system requirements. These include platform games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, and Super Mario World, IMHO some of the best video games ever produced.

In fact, since the days of 16bit processing, games have not expanded in playability as fast as they have expanded in terms of special effects, graphic capabilities and system usage.

Despite the fact that you can now play Sonic in a glorious 3d world on the Nintendo Game Cube, the playability and enjoyment factor just isn't the same as the old side-scrolling platform Sonic games. Sonic 2 and 3 on Genesis are incredible, infinitely playable games. I fire up a Genesis emulator about once a month and play them through again just for kicks. I occasionally find something new when I play.

Since this is the kind of game best suited for the GBA and the people at Nintendo and Sega *do* understand the difference between 'playable' and 'dazzling', it's not surprising that they've chosen this platform to 'ressurect' some of these older sprite-based game engines.

That said, it's a shame that they didn't include RGB or composit out on the GBA, because the size of the GBA's display just doesn't do these kinds of games justice. It's true that they don't have particle and polygon-based graphics. It's also true that the games are playable on a small screen albeit with lots of lighting. What Ninentdo seems to have missed is that the first time we played these games, we did so on larger displays. The games are just more enjoyable if you don't have to squint against the glare of a halogen spotlight to see them.

I, for one, would like to see every handheld in the future ship with either a RBG or Composite video out plug so that you can play the game on a TV or a 'portable' LCD screen. The fact that people feel the need to mod the game to make it more enjoyable means that Nintendo hasn't don their job.

Re:Good games, baaad platform.

[Transient0]

-------QUOTE-------
The fact that people feel the need to mod the game to make it more enjoyable means that Nintendo hasn't done their job.
-------END QUOTE----

In this case, yes. the mod is something that everyone can appreciate. it is something that if it's cost had been integrated at Nintendo rather than having to be produced independently and installed haphazardlly would probably have only added about five dollars to the unit price(i'm talking about the Afterburner here, not the PSOne screen). I can't think of anyone(not a single person) who has seen a gameboy with and without the afterburner that wouldn't have been willing to pony up the extra five for that feature when they bought it.

That hardly applies to all mods though. Ever since the video game generation grew up into hackers and consoles started to appeal to adults, there have been techies that will take any excuse to poke around inside the machines.

If somebody takes the trouble to install a burner and a larger hard-drive in their X-Box, that doesn't mean that microsoft hasn't done their job, even if every other X-Box owner thinks it's pretty cool. The cost and other issues of making that mod standard(or even an official option) would simply outweigh the benefit to the users(and the company).

Even if a system is ever "perfect"(is the exact balance of what most people want and what they're willing to spend), there will be countless geeks who mod it just on principle.

Sega was never planning to market a beowulf cluster of Linux Dreamcasts, nor should they have.

Backlid + TV already done (and cheaper)

[GweeDo]

Want your GBA backlit?
go here
Want to play your GBA on a TV (cause we all know that 240x160 looks great on a 27 inch TV!) then go here (or here if you are in a PAL region).

So you can pay about 80 bux for the TV adapter and 35 for the backlight on a REAL GBA LCD...or build this ugly contraption...your choice

Re:Playstation screen?

[Your_Mom]

Honestly, this mod would kill pretty much all battery life in the GBA.

Well, I also ran into this problem. so to combat this you may want to check out my Gameboy Advanced Backpack Diesel Generator Mod.

Author's Comments and Clarifications

[Kon-Seen]

Hi guys, I'm glad my project made it to Slashdot.org. I should clarify a couple of things. The Innovation GBA adapter did already output the S-Video, composite video, and preamplified stereo sound, so you could go out and buy one now and play the GBA games on your TV. What I did was, I tapped the recently discovered RGB video leads and fed the signals to the PSOne LCD which uses them to drive the display. I am glad that in times when a back/front light is needed to make the games on the GBA more enjoyable, people are making their own solutions for this shortcoming. I have already got a few e-mails that I had inspired people to get out their soldering irons and do some work, even if it's not in this area. Expect a big update on the site later today. Also, I will be wrapping up the development on this project today so a video should follow shortly. Thanks to those that appreciate the work that went into this and for the record the final cost on this project is about $250. Kon

Re: Use intelligence before posting DUMB answer.

[AtariDatacenter]

Well, I brought up two points. First was wondering if the PSOne would work well in handling the RGB signals from an arcade monitor. The second was a reference to a portable JAMMA design.

Your response was "Something like that already exists dude." Kinda, yes, no, not really at all.

I don't believe anyone is packaging an LCD display, using RGB input, for arcade PCBs. Yes, you could use "a box which has RCA out's to the TV" (otherwise known as an RGB->NTSC converter which you'd find as part of the wiring in a supergun) to do an svideo or composite video out. But that wasn't the point. The point was using the RGB signal and not having to go through the circuity (such as JROK's RGB to NTSC converter) to do the trick.

You'd be direct driving a display with RGB inputs, and not messing the video signal with conversions. And the PSOne appears to have the correct horizontal scan rate in order to work with arcade PCBs.

To address the subject line, use your wisdom and intellect before applying google to get DUMB answers.

Back to the issue of portability, that'd be one less mess of circuits to deal with (rgb->ntsc converter) and you could integrate a display into a supergun quite easier than arcade pcb -> converter -> LCD NTSC display (which would probably end up with a really bad picture because of all the conversion).

Re:Playstation screen?

[moonbender]

Well, there certainly is irony in faaaz saying an AC is not getting a joke while not seeing that that AC is quite obviously joking himself. That said, maybe faaaz is joking too, who knows.