So the other day when I was cleaning out my workstation in the garage I noticed I had this Gameboy Color motherboard lying around. Neat I thought, and ordered myself some FunnyPlaying components. I grabbed their RetroPixel laminated IPS LCD as well as the custom shell that goes with it. I topped it up with a fresh pair of buttons and a crispy new speaker. All of this landed me with a bill of around 60 bucks, which I think is reasonable. The rubber membranes I already had spares, but those would have cost me an additional 2 dollars.
After two weeks all the parts arrived, so last night I snuck into the garage, blasted More Balls to Picasso by Bruce Dickinson and got straight to work.
First thing first, I had to check so that the screen actually worked. For this I simply plugged it in and shoved in some fresh AA and lo and behold, the screen lit up with the classic logo. Then I took the insulation film that came with the screen and adhered it to the metal plate so that it wouldn't touch any contacts and risk shorting them out.
I then took a pair of flushcutters and trimmed down the cartridge connector pins, to make place for the new screen. FunnyPlaying included another film to cover these pins, but since the adhesion wasn't that great I opted instead for using regular old kapton tape.
The next step was to fit the screen into the case, which meant peeling off some 3M tape and sliding it in. Once the screen was in place, I soldered the backlight power and two wires going to the START and SELECT button for the OSD menu. On the screen ribbon cable there was also a touch sensor I taped to the case with the included double sided tape.
After soldering the speaker and putting the buttons in place, I screwed the case together and finally marvelled at my wonderful creation. A few adjustments in the menu later, and I love how the pixels just pop!
Looking at my old IPS enhanced Gameboy Color side by side, you can clearly see how improved the new one is. Not only is it brighter, but larger too!
Some final thoughts: FunnyPlaying has some high quality products that are well worth their price. This LCD was easy to install without the need to adjust the panel in the screen window, and the buttons feel great!
The only beef I have with my build is that the case has a Retropixel branding instead of Nintendo, and there's a slight bleedthrough of the backlight from bottom corners of the screen lens.
But other than that, I love my new Boy.