Game Gear ballers post here

HeavyMachineGoob

HeavyMachineGoob

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FilthyRear said:
How easy????

TELL ME???

I may have done that on the sound board
Click to expand...

The mainboard of the Game Gear is relatively straight forward, just be careful when lifting the cap legs. Be sure to clean up the board with rubbing alcohol or something before adding new caps.

The sound board is a different beast entirely. It uses actual SMD capacitors like on a PC Engine Duo and it's VERY easy to rip pads and traces. More likely, the caps will have leaked and eaten solder pads so you'll have to do trace repair anyway. As you remove caps, clean the board with alcohol, try to reflow any corroded solder pads best you can, then add the new cap. You can definitely use radial through-hole caps on the sound board, you'll just have to arrange them so that they don't get in the way of cables or RF shielding.
 
GohanX

GohanX

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If you're going to play Sonic use the SMS versions instead. They aren't zoomed in.
 
GohanX

GohanX

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Chaos and Triple Trouble are the only ones I can play on the gg, you just can't see shit in the first two, although 1 is more playable than two.
 
lions3

lions3

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Recapped last night. Other than the audio caps it wasn't too bad.

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StalkS

StalkS

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Tidy work. Gives you a nice sense of achievement when it all works out!!
 
HeavyMachineGoob

HeavyMachineGoob

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Does this count as baller?

Game Gear VA1 with backlight from a Nintendo DSi screen.
(the mainboard was recapped by the previous owner of this system, I did the sound board myself)

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GohanX

GohanX

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I would say that's ballin pretty hard, I didn't know you could do that. How does it compare to the LED backlight replacement?

I pulled my LED GG back out the other night, played a little sonic... then decided I'd rather play it emulated on my GBA. That Game Gear has a lot of vertical streaking, I think something isn't quite right.
 
HeavyMachineGoob

HeavyMachineGoob

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The DSi backlight is very even and uniform, looks quite nice. The main benefit is an increase in battery life, I've heard upwards of 10 hours. I haven't had the time to really test that yet though. I've played it on and off for the past couple weeks and am still on one set of batteries.

Vertical streaking? Might be the LEDs, or could just be the screen. The Game Gear LCD just seems to have vertical ghosting. It's there even with fresh new caps. It does get a lot worse when the caps start failing though.

I did the DSi backlight install using instructions here:

http://www.smspower.org/forums/15519-TheNewImprovedGameGearLEDBacklightMod

The guide is for a VA0 Game Gear, I couldn't find a reliable voltage source higher than 5v in my VA1 Game Gear. Also, he didn't mention the DSi screen readily falls apart when you remove the LCD, so you'll have to add tape to hold the polarizing films inside the metal/plastic frame.
 
GohanX

GohanX

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Yeah, I bought mine off ebay with the LED mod done and fresh caps, but I don't have any idea if he actually used good quality caps. I don't recall my old Game Gears having this issue but it could be that you just couldn't tell.
 
lions3

lions3

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HeavyMachineGun said:
The DSi backlight is very even and uniform, looks quite nice. The main benefit is an increase in battery life, I've heard upwards of 10 hours. I haven't had the time to really test that yet though. I've played it on and off for the past couple weeks and am still on one set of batteries.

Vertical streaking? Might be the LEDs, or could just be the screen. The Game Gear LCD just seems to have vertical ghosting. It's there even with fresh new caps. It does get a lot worse when the caps start failing though.

I did the DSi backlight install using instructions here:

http://www.smspower.org/forums/15519-TheNewImprovedGameGearLEDBacklightMod

The guide is for a VA0 Game Gear, I couldn't find a reliable voltage source higher than 5v in my VA1 Game Gear. Also, he didn't mention the DSi screen readily falls apart when you remove the LCD, so you'll have to add tape to hold the polarizing films inside the metal/plastic frame.
Click to expand...

Yeah, now that i've recapped my VA1 i'm thinking a new screen would be nice. The McWill screens look really good but a little $$ for a GG. Maybe this DSi screen mod might do the trick instead.
 
HeavyMachineGoob

HeavyMachineGoob

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It's only the backlight from a DSi. It's a better than the LEDs in that it lights very evenly, at least making the screen easier to see and greatly saves on battery life. The LCD screen is still old though.
 
CZroe

CZroe

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Don't know how I ended up with as many as I have ended up with:
ISvk3PSl.jpg

There are two in the three cases and even more elsewhere. Probably should've dropped my Master Gear Converter in the shot.

I thought I ordered enough cap kits to have spares when I was preparing to refurb a few but it turns out it wasn't narly enough.
 
xsq

xsq

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lions3 said:
The McWill screens look really good but a little $$ for a GG.
Click to expand...
yeah, that's the only thing holding me back as well... kind of strange to have a system where consoles and games are (relatively) cheap and then shell out for a mod kit like that... you can get VGA and RGB out with the McWill set as well, that's pretty cool... but I need to save my money anyway, so meh.
 
lions3

lions3

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Picked up a broken DSi today. Guess we'll see if it's an easy mod or not.
 
lions3

lions3

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HeavyMachineGun said:
It's only the backlight from a DSi. It's a better than the LEDs in that it lights very evenly, at least making the screen easier to see and greatly saves on battery life. The LCD screen is still old though.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing that tutorial. There's some confusing stuff in it though. What's that yellow pcb over the new backlight? What fuse is he talking about for the red and black wire from the backlight? Also the photos show a few other random wires on the pcb. Are they related to the mod.

Anyway guess I'll order that DC-DC step up and get this puppy under way.

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HeavyMachineGoob

HeavyMachineGoob

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lions3 said:
Thanks for sharing that tutorial. There's some confusing stuff in it though. What's that yellow pcb over the new backlight? What fuse is he talking about for the red and black wire from the backlight? Also the photos show a few other random wires on the pcb. Are they related to the mod.

Anyway guess I'll order that DC-DC step up and get this puppy under way.
Click to expand...

The install is relatively simple.

1) Prep the Game Gear by removing the old backlight parts.
2) Prep the DSi backlight by disassembling it, removing the LCD and taping the polarizing films and plastic/metal case together.
3) Trim the screw post above the screen so the DSi backlight can fit, optionally you can shave the PCB under the cart slot for a neater fit.
4) Wire up the DC-DC converter by connecting both grounds (- side) to the Game Gear, voltage in to a 5v or higher source somewhere on the Game Gear PCB and voltage out to the backlight ribbon cable, also need to hook up ground for the backlight as well, preferably in its own location.
5) Adjust the DC-DC converter so it's near 15.3v. I recommend powering it with USB first and test with a volt meter just so it's not accidentally set too high.

The yellow PCB is a Game Gear TV board from viletim.

The fuse is optional, it's there just for electrical security.

The only wires really needed are to supply voltage and ground to the DC-DC converter and DSi backlight. The other wires are probably for the GGTV board.

Oh yeah, you'll want to put in the DSi backlight "upside down", meaning the ribbon cable should be in the upper-right corner, facing the sound board cable. Otherwise the backlight won't illuminate the whole screen.
 
Last edited:
Syn

Syn

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xsq said:
yeah, that's the only thing holding me back as well... kind of strange to have a system where consoles and games are (relatively) cheap and then shell out for a mod kit like that... you can get VGA and RGB out with the McWill set as well, that's pretty cool... but I need to save my money anyway, so meh.
Click to expand...

The vga was the deal maker for me. Add controller ports, two modded md controllers & a gg Everdrive or Master Gear and you've got a GG/MS powerhouse!

One of my sets accepts vga and I'm really glad I paid the extra.

Now wtf to do with 100 plus gg games. VT wanted them a couple years ago but now who knows.
 
lions3

lions3

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DSi backlight mod complete. Thanks HeavyMachineGun. The lighting seems more uniform now and hopefully the battery lasts much longer now that I'm using LED lights.

9201237275dd3b32ea8178f414469fd2.jpg

973bbfd64ce29c6811c0d87c873a96fa.jpg


The screen pic isn't the best. Too much random light reflections in my office.
 
xsq

xsq

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yeah, that looks super clean but it's super mean ;)
 
Syn

Syn

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That does look sweet, great job.

The more options the better! Whatever breathes life into this little marvel :)
 
G

ginoscope

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Had a day off yesterday from work and decided to finally cap my game gear. The system had been working fine with good audio and picture but I figure I would do it anyway as preventive maintenance. Turned out fine it's really loud after the cap job.

The DSi mod looks very interesting and so does the GGTV board from viletim. From what I read about the GGTV mod it would be nice just to tv out the game gear if the need arises.
 
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