Really impressive backlighting - can’t see any bleed or unevenness! Great contrast too.
I don’t think I’d be able to live without the pixel grid though - really like how the GB and GB Pocket have this very smooth soft look to them which makes the pixel art dissolve into something more (even the text in Link’s Awakening looks like it was made with more than just a few pixels because of this). But it looks like a perfect solution if you like your pixel art extra crisp!
I bought Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 on Wii U VC last night after remembering that the rerelease included access to all 38 e-Reader card levels and items (including the 22 Japan-exclusive ones, some of which were event exclusives) in World e!
From the credits on Mobygames the new levels had one map director (who was from R&D 1 and director of Mario Clash) and two map designers (one who worked on Yoshi’s Island and directed NSMB, the other who directed Mario Maker 2) so it seems to be in good hands. Looking forward to getting stuck in later today.
I love those levels. I actually paid someone from Gamefaqs way back in the day to print me out homemade cards to gain access to the Japan-exclusive levels so was able to experience them on real GBA hardware using a real e-Reader. I was so pumped to scan them.
The only level I don’t have is the Walmart exclusive card. It was super pricey on eBay. I wonder if the price has gone down since then…
I’d love to have a Wii U just to play these levels. Hoping they come to Switch in some way. The recent rumors about Nintendo releasing a bevy of back catalog Mario games on Switch has me excited that something like this could happen eventually.
Game Boy Pocket IPS screen on the way with a screen that “Perfectly mimics the spacing between pixels in early LCDS. Almost the same picture.”
I think I’ll do this mod if it does in fact have the same grid look.
Yeah that’s my only regret with the GBA v2 screen it would be amazing if they could add an LCD grid feature, it just looks slightly off without it.
I also love the form factor of the pocket - it was my first Game Boy!
It does look off, like raw emulation. I need that grid!
This screen will purportedly get you 3 hours with an OG cart, not too bad. I wonder if it can be used in a DMG with some sort of shell cut.
Here I am still playing on my front-lit NES edition GBA SP. Rolling through Minish Cap right now randomly. It’s still amazing.
Kinstones are my favorite mechanic from the game.
I always wanted one of them, I thought it looked so cool but couldn’t justify it at the time as I’d only recently bought an og GBA and was totally annoyed that they brought out the SP so soon after !
Nice to see things going in this direction. I have an IPS v2 GBA and a 101 screen mod in a GBA, and I much prefer the grid in the 101.
If this something like this comes to the DMG/GBC, I’ll be all over it.
Are you guys still buying GBA carts? Seems like such a jackpot on eBay.
there are a shitload of fake carts now, which pushed me away from collecting. have been considering a CIB japanese GBA collection, though, since those boxes are lovely.
I was going to say I bought something recently but after checking my last gb/gbc/gba pick up off ebay was late 2018. 
Prices seem way, way up. Otherwise the situation seems pretty similar – if I filter to canada only and aim at ones with some wear it seems like a sure way to get something legit.
you can definitely avoid it, but it makes browsing more frustrating than fun, and that’s an aspect of collecting I actually enjoy. It’s part of the catharsis. Getting tons of fake carts in my ebay feed (even limited to the US) just makes me want to unfollow them and not think about it than hunt down legit copies.
They are! I still have Rhythm Tengoku from many years ago thanks to buzz it was getting on GAF.
Yeah, when I started resuming GBA game collecting/playing four years ago I was shocked by the number of fakes floating around. Heck a copy of Mr Driller Ace I bought turned out to be a fake, despite the game being Japan-only, but luckily the seller gave me a refund. From then on I decided to just import all my Japan region games.
For now it seems the only way to determine a legit cart, other than demand circuit-board images, is to look for the two-digit embossed stamp Nintendo’s cartridge factory prints onto the labels. You can find it on GB, GBC, Virtual Boy and GBA game carts. Normally I ask the seller to hold the cartridge up to the light and take a photo of it. They probably think I’m weird.
Haven’t come across any bootlegs that have recreated this feature yet!
Years ago in the early 2000s I bought a Oracle of Ages cart off ebay, had no clue till a few years later when my game save was already gone, and I opened it up that I discovered it was a fake. Granted I didn’t know back then that fake GB/C carts where a thing. I haven’t bought a GB/C/A or DS/3DS cart off ebay since then.
At this point I have to wonder what percentage of the GB/C/A carts that are floating around in the market are fakes. I would not be surprised if it was in the double digit percentages.
i actually think it’s a fairly low number in circulation, but the ones that are being sold more aggressively, so single carts end up taking up a relatively high market share.
Took the Bit Generations carts out of their boxes for separate storage - forgot they were a different hue to regular GBA carts!
I wonder if there’s a comprehensive list of stuff like this. I remember the Pokémon and Famicom Mini carts being different.
NES carts too if I recall correctly.
