GBA mods

well the GBA is a fairly good system, but nintendo should have thought of a few more things.
main things are back lighting, why in the holy hell does nintendo not think a gameboy needs a back light. a few games a a bitch to see, like doom and wolf:wario land was a bitch too. also 2 more buttons would have been nice as well as a bit bigger screen.
other things like better processor, more ram and GPU, support for true 3d. would have made the system very bad ass, and it was very possible.

so i have a few questions, one my LCD display protection plate(big clear plastic plate over the LCD) is scratched up in a few areas. i think it is lower quality comapred to the covers of the first and second gameboy models, i never had those scratched and they saw abuse. I want to know how i can remove these scrathes, they are not deep or big. what tool can fix this.
next is a sort of lighting MOD, now i aint gonna try and back light it, if i could i would. one thought is a top mounted and shielded light. a flashlight bulb could be the easyest but not the best looking or power friendly. next is a cold cathode bulb. these are becoming popular in the consumer market. these bulbs make alot of light for the size, my old laptop display had 2 side by side that were 4 mm thinkess. however the trick would be finding one that was about the width on the GBA screen, and a low voltage. the power for this is perhaps made too easy. the plug or link slot powers other so called bulb lights very well and i am sure would have little to no trouble with my idea. shielding the bulb is another trick, i play on useing a thin peice of sheet metal and the material used in the back part of LCD panels(great for reflecting light) i am sure a good strong glue would work well.

well i want to know where i could get such parts, mainly the bulb. and the price.
also have other projects been done before? if so give me a link. if in when i start this i will make a site with instructions

http://www.tritonlabs.com/ (used to be portablemonopoly.com)

i just found a link about a kit that cost about $35 that lets u add lighting to the GBA. however being a person who is into electronics i think i can do better cheaper(not i am not going for looks, but a working prototype) I will have to see what kind of LED lights i can find, i didnt think about them due to the fact most LED's emmit color or poor light at low voltage. still i like the idea of useing the cold cathode bulb.

Those features are all good and nice you know but they made it the way it is for a reason : cost.

mmnpsrsoskl said:

Those features are all good and nice you know but they made it the way it is for a reason : cost.

Well, I would have gladly paid a bit more to get internal light and higher quality screen.

IMO the GBA should have had 4 buttons, start, select, two right and left triggers, a light and a bigger screen.

now can i get help with removing scratches from the screen?

DooMer 4ever said:

Well, I would have gladly paid a bit more to get internal light and higher quality screen.

Yes same, but I was talking about all the features Seph was talking about. :)

bigbadgangsta said:

IMO the GBA should have had 4 buttons, start, select, two right and left triggers, a light and a bigger screen.

It does have start and select :P

And it only had what features it has now to keep it not complicated and bulky. It would have been way bigger with all that stuff, which would have been nice, but not essential. Well the light is.

Sephiroth said:

now can i get help with removing scratches from the screen?

Yes, I do too. Mine has 2 big ass scratches across the bottom right of the screen, and then along the casing near the top of the speaker. It's borked.

I don't think there is any way to remove the scratches :( The only way would be to change the screen and I don't think it's possible either.

Look at this:

http://www.gbaprojects.com/SashimiX/ScreenVinyl.htm

It might actually work if you don't have scratches yet...

EDIT: heh, I found out they sell something like that too:

http://www.eagb.net/gameboy/p_news108.htm

Sticky plastic coverings are just trouble.

It's very very hard to place a cover just right over the plastic part and more importantly not leave air bubbles trapped under it.

a good buffer should do the trick, my scratches are not deep and only make the screen look like it is always dirty.

i have made a way to do it well, works with plexy glass. first get a high powered drill(lots of RPM's) and find an abrasive fabric, not too abrasive. i used denium and then a sock. wrap it around some ceter device to hold it. then buff out the scratches. it removed many from the GBA screen in a short time, without adding any