Nintendo sold almost 120 million Game Boy consoles, crushing direct competitors that offered superior technology. However, not even the Japanese giant (with its appetite for specifications on the brink of obsolescence) could use a CRT screen in the original model. Only one person is capable of creating such a configuration, and as you might imagine, it's James from the James Channel. Yes, the angle grinder is back.
The original Game Boy's LCD screen is... horrible. Yes, nostalgia can hit hard, but the blurring and the lack of backlight are not acceptable conditions these days. The best option for enthusiasts looking to restore their consoles is to purchase a kit that includes a modern LCD screen and all the necessary hardware to adapt it to the old connector.
In fact, some packages are so advanced that they include alternative shells (making room for larger LCD modules), additional buttons, and secondary commands to calibrate the screen. However, James from the James Channel does not operate that way. We all remember his Nintendo PlayStation and the hack that allowed him to replace Game Boy batteries with lemons. What's his plan this time? Install a CRT screen.
Game Boy + CRT = Game Man
The most important question: Where did he get such a compact CRT screen? The answer is AliExpress, a land of horrors and wonders alike. Apparently, the platform is selling new old stock of screens previously destined for intercoms. In other words, they are not recent, but they have never been used.
The first challenge is to get the CRT screen to receive a signal from the Game Boy, and this is only possible with a modern conversion kit that has compatible TV-out. The second is to power the CRT screen with the correct voltage (12v, using the Game Boy's 6v with a step-up), and figure out its documentation. The third is to automate the TV-out mode command, and here he got help from a friend to program an ESP8266 using Arduino code.
He then ended up burning the Game Boy processor, which he replaced with the chip from a Super Game Boy cartridge. And the best/worst part at the end... improvising a solution to contain all the hardware. His angle grinder came to the rescue to cut the shells (plural), and the gamepad's PCB. He also had to reroute several cables, but the last hero of the video was his glue gun.
And the console works... exactly 2 minutes and 5 seconds, thanks to the power of four AA batteries. Now I need someone to repeat this project with custom PCBs, a 3D printed shell, and better batteries.
