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FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
As many of you know , about a year ago , a guy called Adam Curtis , started to make a back light for the GBA. About a year on , and it's reality ! And how gooder reality it is !
I recieved mine on wednesday morning , because im only 14 , i had to go to school , so i installed it that night.
It comes in a small package , wrapped in a bubble wrap envelope.
The instructions are all published like real published book and each part of the kit is well constructed and easy to install.
INSTALLATION :
So I start out by taking apart my GBA with the tri head screw driver that I got with it (from liksang) , which took all of 2 minutes.
Next I follow the easy instructions , and start to CUT my gameboy ! yep you heard me right , CUT my beloved gameboy.
I mark out the bit I have to cut it out , and do it , which took me about 20 odd minutes to get it right (im a bit of a perfectionist) so that the light would fit into it.
Luckily the bit that you have to cut out is where the black gameboy advance logo is , so when you put the screen back on you cant see the damage , phew !
Now I have to put some reflective film on the lcd screen , which stops the light from reflecting … this is when the problems start :(
I determine which side of the film is sticky , line it up with screen , get the black plastic card that is provided , and lift up the corner of the “release film” , my heart sinks when a tiny bit of the glue layer lifts off , and im left with a corner with smudged up glue on it … DAM ! ..and … it’s visible from the outside ! But I can’t change that now , so I carry on.
The non reflective layer , goes on perfectly without any bubbles or anything underneath it … nice.
Now I have to solder … uh oh ;) In the past I have ruined things by soldering for too long , but I’ve learnt from my mistakes and .. start to solder. I have to put the black and red wires onto the ribbon cable coming from the afterburner (the light), which surprisingly is very easy , and goes off without a hitch ! wahoo !
For the next hour or so , I’m fiddling about inside my gameboy (and out) fitting a resistor to a very small terminal thingy ( like fitting a switch to your gamecube) that also surprisingly goes very very well , and I get it right first time ! Now the real problems start, problems that almost make me give up…
I could finish it now , and just have the light inside without a switch on the outside to change the brightness. I thought it would be pretty easy , and cool to have this brightness switch so I go for it … oh what a terrible mistake it was.
To start with I have to make 4 small holes on the right hand side of the gameboy (on the back , below the r button). To do this I use my soldering iron , and then flatten them out with my screw driver.
All going well to far, then I put the brightness dial on , and I notice a problem , I made the holes to far up , so soldering is hard.
To cut a long story short , I try and try to solder the wires to these 2 (the other 2 prongs were used for mounting only) very close together prongs , and succeed, when I try to put the GBA back to together the wires get caught on the game cartridge bit , where you put in the games , and they snap. This happens twice on the second time , I am so demoralised , that I just forget the dial , and finish it without it. I can go back and fit it later if I want to.
OVERALL:
The overall result , is probably the best add on I have ever bought ! I can see my screen , AT LAST !
I can actually look directly at the screen without having to tilt it towards the light. And most of all, I can see it perfectly at night, and the graphics and the whole game in general looks excellent, and I can honestly say they look better with the light.
I may have made it sound as if it was a nightmare to install, but it really wasn’t. The hardest part was having to cut out bits of plastic from the casing, and fitting that switch (but that could have been easy if I had put it in the right place, I could have made new holes , but I thought it might look messy) .
All in all , for £30 , it’s well worth the money , it will enhance your games playing by infinite amounts (unless of course you break your gameboy in the process of installing it , but it seems very hard to actually break it). The only problem with it is , that the light is SO bright , that after a while of playing in pitch darkness it does hurt your eyes a bit , but that’s what happens with most bright lights. And of course , you wont be able to play during lessons , that you have to watch boring videos, and they turn off the lights , because the gameboy turns into a light itself , it’s just that bright.
RATING : 10/10 !
SUPERB
As many of you know , about a year ago , a guy called Adam Curtis , started to make a back light for the GBA. About a year on , and it's reality ! And how gooder reality it is !
I recieved mine on wednesday morning , because im only 14 , i had to go to school , so i installed it that night.
It comes in a small package , wrapped in a bubble wrap envelope.
The instructions are all published like real published book and each part of the kit is well constructed and easy to install.
INSTALLATION :
So I start out by taking apart my GBA with the tri head screw driver that I got with it (from liksang) , which took all of 2 minutes.
Next I follow the easy instructions , and start to CUT my gameboy ! yep you heard me right , CUT my beloved gameboy.
I mark out the bit I have to cut it out , and do it , which took me about 20 odd minutes to get it right (im a bit of a perfectionist) so that the light would fit into it.
Luckily the bit that you have to cut out is where the black gameboy advance logo is , so when you put the screen back on you cant see the damage , phew !
Now I have to put some reflective film on the lcd screen , which stops the light from reflecting … this is when the problems start :(
I determine which side of the film is sticky , line it up with screen , get the black plastic card that is provided , and lift up the corner of the “release film” , my heart sinks when a tiny bit of the glue layer lifts off , and im left with a corner with smudged up glue on it … DAM ! ..and … it’s visible from the outside ! But I can’t change that now , so I carry on.
The non reflective layer , goes on perfectly without any bubbles or anything underneath it … nice.
Now I have to solder … uh oh ;) In the past I have ruined things by soldering for too long , but I’ve learnt from my mistakes and .. start to solder. I have to put the black and red wires onto the ribbon cable coming from the afterburner (the light), which surprisingly is very easy , and goes off without a hitch ! wahoo !
For the next hour or so , I’m fiddling about inside my gameboy (and out) fitting a resistor to a very small terminal thingy ( like fitting a switch to your gamecube) that also surprisingly goes very very well , and I get it right first time ! Now the real problems start, problems that almost make me give up…
I could finish it now , and just have the light inside without a switch on the outside to change the brightness. I thought it would be pretty easy , and cool to have this brightness switch so I go for it … oh what a terrible mistake it was.
To start with I have to make 4 small holes on the right hand side of the gameboy (on the back , below the r button). To do this I use my soldering iron , and then flatten them out with my screw driver.
All going well to far, then I put the brightness dial on , and I notice a problem , I made the holes to far up , so soldering is hard.
To cut a long story short , I try and try to solder the wires to these 2 (the other 2 prongs were used for mounting only) very close together prongs , and succeed, when I try to put the GBA back to together the wires get caught on the game cartridge bit , where you put in the games , and they snap. This happens twice on the second time , I am so demoralised , that I just forget the dial , and finish it without it. I can go back and fit it later if I want to.
OVERALL:
The overall result , is probably the best add on I have ever bought ! I can see my screen , AT LAST !
I can actually look directly at the screen without having to tilt it towards the light. And most of all, I can see it perfectly at night, and the graphics and the whole game in general looks excellent, and I can honestly say they look better with the light.
I may have made it sound as if it was a nightmare to install, but it really wasn’t. The hardest part was having to cut out bits of plastic from the casing, and fitting that switch (but that could have been easy if I had put it in the right place, I could have made new holes , but I thought it might look messy) .
All in all , for £30 , it’s well worth the money , it will enhance your games playing by infinite amounts (unless of course you break your gameboy in the process of installing it , but it seems very hard to actually break it). The only problem with it is , that the light is SO bright , that after a while of playing in pitch darkness it does hurt your eyes a bit , but that’s what happens with most bright lights. And of course , you wont be able to play during lessons , that you have to watch boring videos, and they turn off the lights , because the gameboy turns into a light itself , it’s just that bright.
RATING : 10/10 !
SUPERB
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Microchips wrote:
> Well, I did it, and.................. it muffed. BIG TIME. It wasn't
> my fault ewither! my dad wanted to 'help' me, and together it got
> muffed. Luckily for me, it's my birthday on sunday, so I am ordering
> a black one with one already installed right form portablegamer.co.uk
> now.
>
> Ah well, at least I tried..... to keep my dad away!
>
> ;)
i am SO sorry for you ;( , what happened ? did you burn out something ?
what did your dad say ? did you take a picture of the look on his face ?
Did you swear at him ? Did you have a butterfly kind of feeling in your stomach thats made you feel sick ? Is your dad saying sorry every five minutes ? will you ever trsut a solderin giron again?
anyway , when you get your backlit gba , have fun with it , and dont let your dad touch it. Happy birthday for sunday.
> Well, I did it, and.................. it muffed. BIG TIME. It wasn't
> my fault ewither! my dad wanted to 'help' me, and together it got
> muffed. Luckily for me, it's my birthday on sunday, so I am ordering
> a black one with one already installed right form portablegamer.co.uk
> now.
>
> Ah well, at least I tried..... to keep my dad away!
>
> ;)
i am SO sorry for you ;( , what happened ? did you burn out something ?
what did your dad say ? did you take a picture of the look on his face ?
Did you swear at him ? Did you have a butterfly kind of feeling in your stomach thats made you feel sick ? Is your dad saying sorry every five minutes ? will you ever trsut a solderin giron again?
anyway , when you get your backlit gba , have fun with it , and dont let your dad touch it. Happy birthday for sunday.
Lik-sang.com sell orange GBA's with an afterburner already installed- they are just temporarily unavailable last time I checked.
:)
:)
Microchips wrote:
> Well, I did it, and.................. it muffed. BIG TIME. It wasn't
> my fault ewither! my dad wanted to 'help' me, and together it got
> muffed. Luckily for me, it's my birthday on sunday, so I am ordering
> a black one with one already installed right form portablegamer.co.uk
> now.
>
> Ah well, at least I tried..... to keep my dad away!
>
> ;)
Now that is a shame, oh well better luck next time.
> Well, I did it, and.................. it muffed. BIG TIME. It wasn't
> my fault ewither! my dad wanted to 'help' me, and together it got
> muffed. Luckily for me, it's my birthday on sunday, so I am ordering
> a black one with one already installed right form portablegamer.co.uk
> now.
>
> Ah well, at least I tried..... to keep my dad away!
>
> ;)
Now that is a shame, oh well better luck next time.
Microchips wrote:
> Well, I did it, and.................. it muffed. BIG TIME. It wasn't
> my fault ewither! my dad wanted to 'help' me, and together it got
> muffed. Luckily for me, it's my birthday on sunday, so I am ordering
> a black one with one already installed right form portablegamer.co.uk
> now.
>
> Ah well, at least I tried..... to keep my dad away!
>
> ;)
What a waste of money you must have spent £60 already still its the reason i might get a ready made one ;0)
> Well, I did it, and.................. it muffed. BIG TIME. It wasn't
> my fault ewither! my dad wanted to 'help' me, and together it got
> muffed. Luckily for me, it's my birthday on sunday, so I am ordering
> a black one with one already installed right form portablegamer.co.uk
> now.
>
> Ah well, at least I tried..... to keep my dad away!
>
> ;)
What a waste of money you must have spent £60 already still its the reason i might get a ready made one ;0)
Well, I did it, and.................. it muffed. BIG TIME. It wasn't my fault ewither! my dad wanted to 'help' me, and together it got muffed. Luckily for me, it's my birthday on sunday, so I am ordering a black one with one already installed right form portablegamer.co.uk now.
Ah well, at least I tried..... to keep my dad away!
;)
Ah well, at least I tried..... to keep my dad away!
;)
see through purple , what about you ?
What colour GBA do you have indian dude? You could always fill the holes.
anyways, it's easy to fit as there is already half of it done for you (the Strap fitting hole) which is cool. Should be quite easy. (I hope!)
:D
anyways, it's easy to fit as there is already half of it done for you (the Strap fitting hole) which is cool. Should be quite easy. (I hope!)
:D
very neat indeed ! i saw the one down the page , that was placed by the battery cover , but that looks extremely good , i wish i had looked on there before going with the standard placing ;(
oh well , i can always move it.
oh well , i can always move it.
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