Panasonic Q Gameboy Player (US version retrofit)

So after getting my Panasonic Q running again after replacing the DVD tray drive belt and DVD spindle magnet, I got to thinking about the Gameboy Player for the Panasonic Q. I had one with my "Q" but was stollen years ago along with a little over half of my video game collection. So I did a quick search and found them going for around $500-$700, yeah not happening, lol. I can already play many other consoles along with GBA on my "Q" since its modded with a Viper Extreme, but I still want to be able to play the physical GBA carts in my collection on my "Q". I have seen a couple links that say that the GameCube Gameboy Player is the same as the one for the Panasonic, but the housing of the accessory will not fit and not much other information is available regarding this.

Since I had my "Q" apart while fixing it I grabbed my GameCube's Gameboy Player and took it apart. I pulled out the Gameboy Player's internals and connected it to the Panasonic Q, it fit! I put a game in the slot of the Gameboy Player, put the Boot disc (US version) in the "Q", booted it up. The game started up so it looks like a 3D printed housing to retrofit it it to the "Q" might be in the works soon!

 

Nice mod. Too bad a big chunk of your collection got stolen, happened to me as well a few years back, someone stole all my games from way back from when I was a kid.

 

(I am French, and I use a translator and my few English skills).
I want to provide details about the Game Boy Player for the Panasonic Q.

I've got two Panasonic Q (I know this device very well to have repaired several). I was also looking for the Game Boy Player but it was very rare and expensive. I also did tests with the motherboard with a "normal" Game Boy Player, and I also found that it worked, and I thought that the motherboards of Game Boy Player "Q" and a normal Game Boy player had to be identical. I also had the idea to create a box to fit a normal Game Boy Player to the size of the Panasonic Q, but it seemed complicated (I don't have 3D printer).
However, I noticed that just plugging the motherboard of a normal GBP on the Panasonic Q, the cartridge port and LINK port seemed "quirky" from the edge of the console as you can see on this pic :




Finally, after years of research, I managed to buy a GBP for the Panasonic Q (GBPQ) MINT at a very very reasonable price (less than 300 €!). So, I had the idea to open it and compare it with a normal GBP. Results: the motherboards are not completely identical !! Nintendo has created a slightly different motherboard for the GBPQ! Some pics :




Once open, the motherboards look identical. Once disassembled completely, they seem once again identical. But in fact, no!
First of all, the denomination is not the same: the name for the classic GBP is "DOL-GBS-10" (this reference is identical on all GBP: as a reminder, GBP are "region-free", only the boot disc is zoned PAL / NTSC-U / NTSC-J), while the GBPQ has a reference only which is CFU0030-500010-00. However, look closely: the components on the motherboard are identical.

The difference is in the length of the GBPQ motherboard: after measuring, the GBPQ motherboard is larger by 9 mm (look at the difference between the edge of the card and the chip "CPU AGB A") :

(classic GBP motherboard)


(GBPQ motherboard)

Here is the GPQ motherboard attached to a Panasonic Q. LINK port stops at the front edge of the console (bad angle with my camera, sorry) :


And, a picture of the GBPQ shell with the motherboard of a classic GBP inside. As you can see, the LINK port is moved back (as well as the cartridge port, not visible in the photo) :


Conclusion: I think it's possible to create a GBP for the Panasonic Q with a 3D printer and a motherboard from a classic GBP, but a "re-adaptation" of the LINK port and the cartridge port will be necessary (advance them by 9 mm), if you want a result clean

[Fun fact: the GBPQ is compatible with a regular GameCube, but the result is very ugly]

 

Great post. Thank to both for all the information.

So you can relocate cartirdge and link connector or cut the PCB in the middle, between the two cpu and reconnect all the traces with longer wires. If Nintendo choose to not have longer data lines for the cartridge connector and between the parallel portand the GBS-DOL chip probably they have good reasons to do that.

A 3D enclosure would be great, even better if this can accomodate both version: the normal one for lazy people and a modded one.

This is also a possibile explanation also on why those Q GBP are so difficult to find: maybe they did a single production run and stopped but continued to manifacture the classic GBP.

 

I think it's easier to relocate the cartridge port and the LINK port instead of cutting out the PCB (which is double-sided!), and shifting the two L2 and L3 components that are in front of the cartridge port on a separate board (see photo). In any case, although this GBP is very rare, we really see that it was hastily released: they could make the effort to make a shell that would be inspired by the design of the Panasonic Q ...

 

The design, overall, it's not so bad. Maybe with something shiny on the front could be better

Probably the easiest solution is to print an enclosure with more space around the cartridge slot so you can easily grab the cart with the fingers.

 

That's how I was thinking of designing the replacement GB Player housing, taking into account for the cartridge and cartridge eject lever/slider mech.

 

Thanks Pad17 for the info you have added to this thread, so cool to see some activity around the Panasonic Q. As for the 9mm difference, I don't see any issues with the way the cart fits in the regular GB Player specially with a custom housing. Inserting and taking out the cartridge from the GB Player looks like it will be ok as in my pictures you can see that the GBA cart is about flush with the front edge of the Panasonic Q as is. I will be starting on the 3D designs of the housing soon, I have a different project in the works that I need to finish first to complete my custom Guitar and Bass set.... lol.