I have a dream! (and a theory) for a mod.

So I would like to mod a gameboy with a modern (big & backlit) screen. I know that's next to impossible. However I have a theory, and would like to solicit opinions.

(please keep in mind that I am a layman, in regards to technical jargon

I can't hook a modern screen to a device like a GB as the original screen has special programming for the GB's hardware.

But consoles from Atari 2600 to Gamecube, all are good candidates for modding because of the audio/video out jacks.

However, I recall the Watara supervision had a TV connector gizmo, so I thought In the case of the SV, could a person mod it, with the TV adaptor to a modern screen? And if so, Could a Gameboy be rigged with a custom TV adaptor, and then modded????


thoughts??

 

These are essentially the same idea, the second is just more convoluted. Figuring out the display signal logic and converting it to suit another screen (TV or otherwise) is a difficult task. There's just no getting around that.

If you're dead set on a nice screen in that old gameboy case and want a feasible project, put the guts of an AGB-101 (the backlit GBA SP) in there. There'd be a fair bit of rewiring and modding involved and it'd probably look pretty ugly, but it'll take you a lot less time than the digital logic and engineering classes you'd need to do what you're suggesting.

 

SNES has the super game boy

and the game cube has the game boy player

take your pick

 

Well, I wrote gameboy really for the sake of simplicity. I have a few handhelds I'd like to do this to, starting with a Timetop Gameking.


Odds of this happening? 1:100 ???

AHHHHH!

I Thought this idea was solid gold!

 

What do you mean?

 

Almost nothing he says makes sense.

this will only work if you already have a source of TV out for your handheld. Otherwise obviously you're back to square one, i.e. you have a custom video signal and need to convert it to something else.

 

if you have a super Nintendo there is a device called a super game boy
it allows you to play your original game boy games on your tv doesn't support game boy color nor advance

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Super_Game_Boy


if you have a game cube then there is a similar device called the game boy player
it allows you to also play your game boy game boy color and game boy advance games on a tv through he game cube

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Game_Boy_Player

take your pick

 

So you're going to fit a Gamecube and a Gameboy Player inside a monochrome Gameboy? Do you stop to think at all before you start typing?

 

the point was the project is already done by Nintendo NO modding necessary

its called picking the low hanging fruit

 

No, no, the Gameboy was just an example. (i.e. I'm quite aware of the super gameboy

 

oh i see your more interested in modding handhelds that are obscure or didn't have an adapter to have a composite out

well i saw one mode recently that added s-video to a game gear

ill see if i can dig it up


ide like to see the mod done with an atari linx

 

Hmmmm.... Please share if you can find it.

 

ive got 2 links for you

the first one contains info about all the different options for tv out on the game gear

the second one has a rather nice tv out detailed mod


http://gamegear.isgreat.org/accessories/accessories.html#technical

http://www.freewebs.com/vgmods/gamegearmodifications.htm

 

This (the OP's dream) is a very common wish.

When handhelds are based on consoles that were connected to the TV, then they can usually be hacked with either a direct TV output of either RGB signals or composite video. Sometimes a circuit board needs to be designed by somebody which people can then use to make these video signals usable. As is the case of the Gamegear which is essentially just a Master system (for sake of simplification).

When a system has been designed only as a handheld, then the images that they create aren't based on television signals and timings. therefore the system are usually designed to output directly to a specific LCD screen with it's own timings and resoloution which doesn't have to be anything like a TV.

The best hope for taking handhelds like Lynx, Gameboy, Game.com, neogeo pocket and Wonderswan is for somebody that designs LCD screen driver circuitry or understands it enough to either come up with some circuitry that interprets these non standard signals and transcodes them to TV ready signals. This I believe has been done for the gameboy at least.

What I'd like to see (as this method is beyond your normal "modder" who replaces green LEDs with blue ones) is for modern LCD screens to be comissioned and manufactured to be compatible with the old consoles, but using modern technology. Although I understand electronics, I do not know enough about how LCDs are constructed to know if this is really possible. However - of course, the biggest reason this won't happen is that it would require a very large number to be produced as the expense of a small run would be unafordable.
Imagine however a world where you canactually see your Lynx screen in all light sources and from a much better range of viewing angles.

 

i look at it this way as long as there is a RGB signial witch there always is
it can be intercepted before being sent to the LCD in the first place


but getting the signal out and converted and if it require's a circuit to do doing it at a affordable cost is another matter altogether

and will take so much time even if it was done to every hand held ever it will still be just relegated to hobbyists and diyers

because theres just not enough demand to make it profitable

 

You don't know what you're talking about. The vast majority of handhelds don't have an analogue RGB phase that can be tapped (why would they? They're digital systems with dedicated digital screens). That's what makes this so difficult.

 

umm digital LCDs didn't exist until the mid 90's
and even then they were expensive as fuck a game boy screen alone if digital would of been in the high hundrids if not thousands im talking about the color one mind you B&W diagtial LCDs are just silly and pointless

most handhelds have a proprietary analog system because it was CHEEP

you can always find a analog video signal in pretty much every consumer level device that used video of some kind before 2000

in fact the fist digital video connecter on a affordable consumer level im aware of is DVI witch didn't hit the scene until 1999

and the digital video that was around in the 70's and 80's was on the broadcast level yah not cheep or easy enough

the sony D-1 was the first consumer level digital video hardware 1986

the analog signal is there its just a matter of finding it in small consumer devices

 

LVDS had been around before DVI, was used in many-a-laptop and Sun used them for their ungodly-expensive-but-cool-as-hell-TFTs. (Look for the 1600SW, such a great thing, and it came in "klingon grey" - how cool is that?)

There were a few graphics cards with LVDS outputs, but they were mostly used (in a proprietary modified form) on laptop mainboards. The reason being, that the circuitry for converting the video signal from analog to digital didn't have to sit in th upper half of the case together with the lcd panel.

But since laptops were extremely expensive in the early 90s, prices for digital screen connections didn't matter that much. I mean, look at the Thinkpad 701cs - still one extremely sexy piece of machinery, but fully decked out that thing retailed for almost 10.000 german Mark at that time, about 5000 Euros in todays money.

 

I couldn't make up quotes like this.

Even if what you're saying was true (it isn't in most cases for gaming handhelds) you'd still need to convert the proprietary colour system, deal with resolution, refresh, sync etc. It's not like you just grab RGB off a circuit trace and suddenly bam! there it is on your TV.

With regards to digital video signals, digital RGB was common on many early computers. It didn't start with DVI, honest.

 

Intresting thread but I can't see why this is in the rare and obscure board? :S There are more suitable places for it for example the hacks and mods board...