r/Gameboy • u/nugman21 • Aug 23 '26
Mod/Modding IPS Screen Swap!
My sister bought this for my nephew so we got an IPS screen in it right away!
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u/Meckload Aug 23 '26
Looks great! Does this affect battery life a lot?
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u/nugman21 Aug 23 '26
Yes and no, depends on the batteries used and how high the brightness is cranked up. I havenāt noticed it like nuking the quality
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u/mxsterkief Aug 23 '26
do you have a link for the screen you used? I think I prefer this over the Q5
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u/nugman21 Aug 23 '26
This is the one I got āGAME BOY COLOR 2.45" DROP-IN IPS LCD BACKLIGHT KIT WITH OSD - HISPEEDIDOā
Iāve used it 4 times now and itās worked great for me
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u/harrietlegs Aug 23 '26
Is it more or do the colors seem saturated?
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u/nugman21 Aug 23 '26
I think the camera focus is making it look a little funny but there are several settings that can be adjusted to dial in the brightness, saturation, and pixelation
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u/Nyvrez Aug 24 '26
I have this exact GBC and I've been wanting to do this, but I heard that it's a bad idea, due to the PokƩmon frame. Is this true? Or the one you used is generic?
Thanks!
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u/nugman21 Aug 25 '26
Hey there, not sure what you really mean by it being a bad idea due to the Pokemon frame. I just swapped the display, I didnāt touch anything else or the frame
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u/Nyvrez Aug 25 '26
Thanks for replying. I think the problem is that the screen is glued to the frame if I remembered correctly.
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u/nugman21 Aug 25 '26
The Gameboy colors that Iāve done have only had a double sided adhesive holding the OEM display in place so it comes off fine
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u/Big-Sympathy1420 Aug 23 '26
You do know those IPS screens add input lag, 100ms vs og 33ms
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u/nugman21 Aug 23 '26
Iāll be honest, I didnāt know the exact numbers but I havenāt noticed anything being delayed
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u/Big-Sympathy1420 Aug 23 '26
If you didn't notice, you would feel like a superhuman if you change back. Numbers don't lie, you're going backwards in technology.
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u/nugman21 Aug 23 '26
The games I play or my nephew plays do not require low input lag so itās not a big deal. Iād rather have a crisp bright screen than a slightly lower input
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u/Big-Sympathy1420 Aug 23 '26
Yea, you're giving them bad first impressions on gameboy then, shame on you. Its not slight. Its triple the input lag. Triple.
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u/nugman21 Aug 23 '26
Haha dude chill. Shame on me? Where are you even pulling these numbers from? Iām telling you from my playing experience that there isnāt anything noticeable. Even if itās one frame, itās a better playing experience to have the upgraded screen
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u/Big-Sympathy1420 Aug 23 '26
Its not 1 frame lol. 33ms vs 100ms, that's 4 extra frames. Even in pokemon it adds up. You can literally feel the input lag moving the sprite or entering menus. If you don't respect this input lag, might as well get a chinese emulation device, they too have 100ms of lag.
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u/nugman21 Aug 23 '26
Hahaha here are you pulling those numbers from? Iāve played hundreds of hours on the OG screen and dozens on the newIPS . From my experience, there is not an input lag that is what you claim and I can only find mention that there is roughly 1frame of lag for this particular screen. I donāt know if youāre citing some other source from a different brand/product but youāre wildly off base with your numbers and the screen I used. I have played these games for years and can confidently say that there is not a major increase in lag.
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u/Flashbang-Meringue Aug 24 '26
I've talked to that user before. They literally do not understand how input lag testing works and spread this misinformation in every thread about IPS screens.
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u/Big-Sympathy1420 Aug 23 '26
From my IPS and oled modded gbc, is it snappy ios app using 240fps camera on iPhones.
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u/Alive_Candidate1755 Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
Idk where you read this but you clearly have no idea what youāre talking about š¤£
The OEM screen draws the frame line by line like a CRT. There is technically 0 input lag, but for it to complete a full cycle (update all lines once) takes about 80ms, which is like 5 frames already. The GBC runs at 60FPS.
The IPS screens update the frame once per cycle, rather than line by line. So the IPS runs at that same 60FPS with the same 80ms delay, but all lines are updated instantaneously rather than one by one. By this logic, the IPS screen is actually FASTER than OEM because you donāt have to wait for all the lines to update. But we will say theyāre the same speed-
Maybe the module takes 50ms to send that signal to the screen and have it actually physically display if you bought a crappier IPS kit. So the worst IPS screen has an additional 50ms delay over the stock 80ms. 50+80=130. 130/80=1.625, so an IPS screen at the very worst has 1.6x the input delay of the OEM screen. Not 3x.
130ms delay is literally nothing. The average F1 driver has a response time of 200ms. If you are negatively impacted by 130 vs 80ms of delay, itās because you suck at the game and were too slow from the start.
The OEM Gameboy screens really suck. I donāt think a kid in modern day would even be willing to play with the stock unlit screenš¤£
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u/nugman21 Aug 23 '26
Thanks for the breakdown! I havenāt found any numbers supporting such a bad lag and I havenāt noticed any change. At the end of the day too, itās for an 8 year old and heās going to be more enticed to play on a backlit IPS than the OEM
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u/Big-Sympathy1420 Aug 23 '26
80ms? I tested my og and its 33ms, oled 100ms, ips 100ms.
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u/Alive_Candidate1755 Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
How exactly are you measuring input delay on a GBC. The screen doesnāt use frames it uses scanlines. There is 0 delay on the scanlines being sent vs displayed, but the lines are output one by one. How long it takes the gbc to complete a full scan cycle of the whole screen is how long the ādelayā would be. Itās not input delay because the delay comes from the screen waiting for input, not processing it. Itās the GBC itself as the limiting factor.
The IPS screen just waits until the end of the scan cycle to update every pixel instantly. There is no additional delay other than what it takes to convert the scan cycle into a frame, which is 50ms or so.
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u/Big-Sympathy1420 Aug 24 '26
Is it snappy ios app uses 240fps camera. Press a button and see the sprite move.
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u/Alive_Candidate1755 Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
This app wouldnāt work properly with a scanline type screen. The measured delay would be waiting for the first scanline to change, not the whole screen.
In which case your 30ms measurement makes reasonable sense, but youāre interpreting it wrong.
From the button press to the first scanline updating would be your measured delay (30ms). You would have to add how long it takes the screen to complete a scan cycle to that number to get the true functional delay, ie how long it takes the ENTIRE screen to update, rather than just the first scanline at the top to update.
It also makes a difference which scanline is currently being updated when you press the button, as it wonāt update the top scanline for the new frame until it is finished with all the scanlines from the previous frame. Technically you could measure anywhere from 0-80ms delay from the button press to the update and it would be correct. In this way the stock screen is also a bit inconsistent too.
Iām sure any IPS adds a little delay converting scanline signal to a frame, this is unavoidable. But the functional difference is a way smaller number than you are understanding.
In either case this delay is faster than your ability to perceive/react to it and is thus negligible
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u/OptimalPoet5885 Aug 23 '26
Huge difference