Some notes on restoring consoles.

Modding, Restoration

Game Boy Colors – refurbed and modded

I struck gold with this next batch of GBCs…

This yellow one is a little different from the others, for reasons you’ll see later. The lot consists of one purple, one clear, and one Mystery Yellow unit. Let’s get them open.

They’re definitely well-loved, that’s for sure.. check out the state of the stickers on the purple one!

The clear and purple units both have bad speakers. Ugh. Time to order spares. Fast forward some time here, and:

We’re going to use the guts of the clear unit as the base for a heavily modded GBC. Let’s get a new shell:

Oof. I’ll be in my bunk. Let’s get that board cleaned so the buttons behave:

Better. Board looks great after an isopropyl brushdown!

We’re also going to fit a new IPS screen, shown here with the controller board. Let’s do the thing! Let’s also replace the speaker while we’re at it.

And let’s check the finished product:

Goddamn that’s BRIGHT. Let’s check a game!

Nice. And we can’t forget the stickers…

Do not call that number expecting to talk to me.

With the modified unit done, I focused on the others – the purple and the Mystery Yellow unit – and got those ready. The yellow one’s plastic lens was too far gone to salvage which really sucked. The replacement tempered glass lens does look pretty damn sweet though.

Surprise, it’s Pokémon! I was torn between giving it speaker and screen upgrades or keeping it as stock as possible for authenticity. Stock mostly won out and it does look great, if a teensy bit scuffed. I’m happy with that!

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