A suggestion to anyone in the GBA "mod" business

[Hanafuda]

Been watching the GBA mod and luxury market for a while now. GBA Consolizers, custom shells, metal shells, laminated IPS screens, rechargeable usb-c battery mods, Analogue Pocket, etc. Nobody really makes what I want. Consolizer glues you to a TV, but all the handhelds are made for children's hands, and children's eyes. My childhood was a long time ago (way before the GBA) but I still love some of the games.

What I wish someone would make is a "shell" into which you would install the original GBA mobo, but is not the form factor of the GBA. Larger controller-with-wings adult egos, and with a larger, lighted, glass-topped laminated screen. Resolution still 240x160 with a 'pixel grid' look, just much bigger. The screen would have to be above the controller area, so unless it is made as a clamshell I understand it wouldn't be the most portable. But it would be the best. Li-ion rechargeable, USB-C of course.

Better adult ergonomics, and a top-notch display about twice the size. It's not too much to ask for. They could call it the Game-man kit, or something.

 

[hippy dave]

Nice idea! I would guess it might not have enough mass market appeal to justify the R&D and manufacture run, but maybe that's something you could do market research, survey etc for, if you really wanted to convince a manufacturer.

The other option would be to go bespoke, either offer to pay one of those modders who makes custom handheld versions of consoles, or learn the necessary tech and do it yourself. Either way you would struggle to find an existing screen of the right resolution/aspect ratio and the desired size, but maybe you could find something that's a convenient multiple of the resolution.

 

[Hanafuda]

Nice idea!

Thanks. The suggestion is for a kit, not a finished product, so I dunno I think it would sell at funnyplaying and etc if someone made it. As for DIY, I found where someone with some skills has had this idea ... not exactly what I'm proposing since I couldn't care less if it "looks like" a GBA. I just care that the innards are real, the hold is comfy for grown up hands, and the screen is BIG and accurate.

 

[Jayro]

I have very large hands, and find the GBA SP Unhinged comfortable to use. But my clamshell SP is still my daily driver. I think there might be a mod that uses a screen from a DSi XL, but it still uses the 1:1 GBA resotution. Nobody makes the screen you're wanting. You're better off with a SteamDeck with those kinds of demands. (Ergonomics, 2x sized-screen)

 

[Hanafuda]

I have very large hands, and find the GBA SP Unhinged comfortable to use. But my clamshell SP is still my daily driver. I think there might be a mod that uses a screen from a DSi XL, but it still uses the 1:1 GBA resotution. Nobody makes the screen you're wanting. You're better off with a SteamDeck with those kinds of demands. (Ergonomics, 2x sized-screen)

I know a screen exactly like I want doesn't exist, but neither did the ones being sold at Funnyplaying and etc. now, until there was a demand or them. It 99.9% sure won't happen, but it could happen if enough people wanted it.

As for Steamdeck, I'm not interested in an emulation option. The FPGA stuff with Analogue and MiSTer would be ok, but I just thought a portable unit using real GBA hardware but with improved ergos and display would be better, and cheaper if you already have a donor GBA mobo. In fact I'd be fine with the Pocket if Analogue had made GBA it's primary goal. I may still end up buying one, but probably not. From what I've seen GBA looks great on Pocket, but they didn't go overboard with making it look like an enlarged version of the original display, like they did with GB/GBC.

I have a DSi XL. The screen is great. The fact it cannot play GBA natively, especially when previous DS consoles could, really sucks. If open_agb_firm were possible on the DSi, I never would've thought of this or made this thread. It is possible on 3DS XL of course, but at original resolution displays GBA slightly smaller than actual GBA's.

 

[Hanafuda]

Hmmm ....

 

[pennealpomodoro]

Thanks. The suggestion is for a kit, not a finished product, so I dunno I think it would sell at funnyplaying and etc if someone made it. As for DIY, I found where someone with some skills has had this idea ... not exactly what I'm proposing since I couldn't care less if it "looks like" a GBA. I just care that the innards are real, the hold is comfy for grown up hands, and the screen is BIG and accurate.

Nice mod, really hope to see more of it in the future. Bigger screens are always good.

 

[Hanafuda]

For now I've decided to keep it simple and just overhaul an old GBA with a laminated ITA. As shown in the post above, funnyplaying already has the tech and an LCD spec exists (DSi XL) which would at least make for a substantially larger and still very authentic looking screen. Somebody just needs to make a case to accommodate it.

 

[hippy dave]

For now I've decided to keep it simple and just overhaul an old GBA with a laminated ITA.

Well worth doing. I did my ITA mod before there was a laminated option, but I love the ITA screen, bright and visible and no ghosting and looks authentic in terms of colours and pixel grid.

 

[_Snow_]

This is a brilliant idea. I have big hands, but still am ok playing my GBA SP. Still, I feel that there is a market for this. My fingers do get sore sometimes when I'm playing an intense game. A larger and more comfortable form factor for our giant man hands is preferable to me too sometimes. I would still prefer the clamshell design. However, it would be a bit less portable and more cumbersome. Those of us interested should collaborate and design a GBA XL or GBA SPXL. Design the new case. Get a set of mold injection plates machined and find an outfit to produce the cases. Some 3d printing and mold injection companies will machine the plates themselves. You can either buy the set of plates from them or let them keep the plates, and continue to order cases/parts as needed. For other parts like buttons or hinge components and screws, could just use what's already being produced by other companies. If the button placement for the larger case is too close together - as in if an original PCB was being used, perhaps there could be room for an overlay PCB that could be soldered onto the motherboard, that's simply a wider button placement and or it also accomodates larger buttons. The GBA screen is 2.9 inches. Here is an example of a 4 inch 480x320 IPS screen that would work as a larger replacement: https://www.tindie.com/products/hwlevel/40-480x320-ips-screen-for-raspberry-pi/ That's a 38% larger screen.

 

[Hanafuda]

This is a brilliant idea.

I still think so too, but I have since modded my old GBA with a FP laminated ITA and it is glorious. My hands have acclimated to the size, but in games with intense action it eventually fatigues the heck out of my thumbs at the base joint.

Because FP's hardware will work with the DSi XL screen (see above), and I personally favor the ITA/original pixel grid look, the shortest path to a commercial "XL" GBA mod kit would be for FP to design a larger shell and somehow come up with a source for DSi XL - spec screens. It's China ... if they can do it for regular DSi screens*, they can do it for DSi XL. The biggest problem would be that with the position of the buttons on the GBA mobo, there's not enough space for the bigger screen in the middle. The console would have to be like what's done with phones, with a 'controller' lower half and the screen above, just all encased in one shell. Just dreamin', but it could be done, and with existing tech.

* That's what their laminated screens for GBA are built using.

 

[_Snow_]

So you could do the same thing as suggested with the SP idea - a button pcb overlay over the regular pcb to set button placement wider to accommodate screen. The larger screen would also be above the pcb. The case would end up being perhaps 5mm thicker would be my guess. This too would look cool. The gba pcb has also been reverse engineered, so it might be possible to have a custom pcb made. At that point though, it would pretty much be a whole new gba model.