GBA Modding

In the early 2000s, my brother received a purple Game Boy Advance back when such things were all the rage. It fell into my possession some years ago, and I still own it. However, while it had held up fairly well for the most part, it was beginning to show its age. Several of the buttons had deteriorated to the point of no longer being desirable to use, and needed to be replaced. The screen, which even at the time I found frustrating to use, was well worn and difficult to view.

In 2022, I began doing research about the state of GBA modding, and found that hardware modifications had come a great deal. I began by wanting to simply replace the buttons that had become worn. But then of course, the new buttons wouldn't match the original shell, so I better get a new one. Oh, and the new shells were designed for screen modifications, and I had been wanting to replace it, so let's do that too. Oh, and while I'm doing that...

As you can see, it quickly snowballed, and I ended up replacing a great deal of the system. Currently, the motherboard, speaker, and cartridge slot are roughly the only original pieces remaining. Everything else has been swapped out for something flashier.

I was very pleased with the results. I did make a mistake wiring up the brightness controls for the new screen though, you're supposed to be able the brightness with a combination of buttons, but I think I got the wiring wrong; as is, the brightness goes up every time you press select. I think it's a simple fix, but I haven't bothered to do it.

A few months later, I also purchased a GBA Everdrive flash cart to play any game I wished on the system, completing its transition to the ultimate GBA.