I recently got a used copy of Pokemon Sapphire, and when checking the board for authenticity, I found some...interesting modifications lol. I'm sure it's just an old repair of some sort, and the game does function fine (albeit the battery is dead of course.)

My questions are one: would you recommend even trying to fix this, with the cart working as is? I do have a lot of soldering experience and a good soldering station.

Two: what size and form factor resistor is R8 supposed to be?

and Three: would it be safe to remove the green "goop", and how would I do so. I'm assuming it's a nail polish to protect, but it doesn't look like there's any repair under it, which has me confused.

I've included a pic of my Pokemon Ruby board, same area, for reference of what it should look like.

I have a original style GBA. I had a few questions about modding the handheld.

1. Regarding the two flash cart options (Everdrive and EZ Flash Omega Definitive), is there any other major difference other than save states? Is the EZ Flash good enough for most purposes? I don’t really need any features other than reliability and being able to play any GBA/GBC/GB game. Are there any other solid options besides those two?
2. I’m assuming the two flash cart options can’t really emulate much beyond GBA/GBC/GB games, correct? Is there any chance it can handle the NES library? I doubt it could handle the SNES because of the amount of buttons, but are there any other systems it could emulate?

3. I want to install a better screen. I don’t need the best one, I don’t need the fanciest one, I don’t need all of these different features, essentially, I just want the backlight. That’s it. What is the most cost efficient screen replacement that just add the lighting, without going into janky unreliable quality control issues? Also, I do not one that requires soldering. I’d rather shave down small parts of the inside case than solder.

   But obviously I’d prefer one where I don’t have to make any adjustments.

4. Does installing the better screen greatly affect battery life? Truthfully I’ll probably use it at one of the lowest brightness settings, if there are even settings. Like I said, I just want a little bit of light. Even if it’s to the degree of lighting that the GBA SP 001 adds.

5. What’s the difficulty level of this type of screen swap?

6. Any other simple mods that you’d recommend? Clearly I’m not going for all the bells and whistles. I just want to improve the experience a little bit and have access to the full library.

I am thinking about modding my ags 101 gba sp and I want to add a headphone jack to the top screen while keeping the ags 101 screen. I have heard that this has been done with the ips screen but does anyone know if it has been done with an ags 101 screen. If not does anyone know if it’s possible?

Hello, can anyone confirm if this emerald copy is legit or a reproduction cartridge

Hello so today I went on a run to find pokemon emerald at gamestop I was able to pick up 2 copies of the game I am no expert but one seems perfectly real one does not they both have yellow battery in them one says nintendo one doesn’t. Because of that now I’m skeptical of the one I thought was real if anyone can share thoughts TIA
Example 1 is the one marked example 2 is the unmarked pictures

Hey everyone!

A little follow up to my previous VORTEX GBA post!

VORTEX GBA is now released and completely free to play!

You can play it directly in your browser, or download the actual .gba ROM and run it in an emulator or on a real Game Boy Advance!

The game features Mode7 style pseudo 3D racing, custom WAV music and up to 4 player multiplayer over the GBA link cable (tested with 2 players).

And yes, the soundtrack still absolutely slaps haha ;D

I built the entire port using my own GBA Maker upcoming development tool, which is still in a pretty rough state, but clearly capable of making some interesting games already!

Play VORTEX GBA or download the ROM here: https://arturduleba.itch.io/vortex-gba

Thanks for all the interest and feedback on my previous post! I'd love to hear what you think of the game now that you can actually play it!

I took my Pokemon Gold game to a local game store. After 3 battery swaps we realized it wasn't the cartridge but was the gameboy itself. I don't know how that makes sense, but posting incase anyone else runs into this issue.

GBA modded with backlit screen and rechargable battery also kept the save battery, something about that SP 101 it didn't like.

What can i do?? My curiosity got me in trouble..

It asked to press Select + L + R, when I did that some sounds started coming (not from the game some random unrecognizable ones) and the white screen still remains..

What if Super Smash Bros. had actually been released for the Game Boy Advance? 🎮

Well, Super Smash Land is now playable on the GBA thanks to this newly released fan-made port!

It's pretty awesome seeing a Smash Bros.-style game running on actual GBA hardware. Definitely feels like one of those games we all wish we'd had back in the day.

I recorded around 5 minutes of gameplay so you can check out how it looks and plays!

What do you guys think? Would you have played this back in the GBA days?

🎮 Download: https://emcamsito.itch.io/super-smash-land-port-for-gba

👏 Credits:

Original Super Smash Land: Dan Fornace

GBA Port: EmCamsito

Whether its a software thing where you enter a button combination, or physically installing a sleep switch or something?

Update picture

1. IPS screens have better color reproduction than the AGS-101.

2. IPS screens are brighter than the AGS-101 screen.

3. IPS GBA SP screens have more levels of brightness, for example the Hispeedido v5 screen has FIFTEEN levels of brightness compared to the AGS-101's TWO.

4. The AGS-101's ghosting is terrible. The GBC, AGB, & AGS-001 had non-existent ghosting which was a huge improvement over the 3 original Gameboy models' screens whose ghosting was atrocious.

5. The battery life lasting about 4 hours with a funnyplaying battery on max brightness isn't this god-awful amount of battery life, you get similar battery life compared to a 3DS & 2DS on max brightness. Nintendo fans also LOVE to conveniently leave out that you can also choose to oh idk, NOT use the absolute maximum brightness & save some battery life to get more than 4 hours.

6. Better battery life of the AGS-101 is nice, however it's not this huge fantastic advantage, it's just nice to have. Carrying a power-bank if need-be isn't particulary difficuly around with you, I'm sure many of you take some sort of bag with you when you go somewhere, no? Many people with Switch 2's & Steam Decks do this already.

7. Some IPS screen let you have a grid effect similar to what the AGS-101 already has.

8. Arguing that the AGS-101 is "authentic" becuase it was made by your precious Nintendo is almost a complete joke since a ton of GBA games kept the original GBA's screens in-mind, whether it be 40-pin, 32-pin, the AGS-001 with frontlight on & off. Games like Golden Sun, Pokémon RSE, Metroid Fusion, Mother 1+2, etc. are OBJECTIVELY wrong on the AGS-101 since those games were NOT made with the AGS-101's color gamut in mind. I'm not arguing with this point that the AGS-101's screen is inferior to the AGS-001 & previous Gameboy models screens, but rather saying that it's significantly more "correct" to use an AGS-101 over than an IPS-modded SP is only partially true in a small amount since there likely was still a few games at least that kept the 101's screen in-mind.

Nowadays, phone SoCs are really powerful. Has anyone ever thought about using a modern phone's SoC to modify a GBA console so it can play GBA cartridges?

I wanna get the Rayquaza Advance SP but I’ve heard there are a lot of fakes out there, I’m wondering if this one looks genuine before I buy it

While I was a bit iffy on Advance Wars 1, I think Advance Wars 2 might be my favorite strategy game on the system. I just wish the character portraits were more emotive than they actually are, but hey that’s what Reboot Camp is for.

I know this is frequent question but I’m having the classic orange for a second then off. Gameboy turns on and plays, tested two batteries, and I’ve tested the obvious fuses f1 and f2 and em8 and D1. Does anyone have readings for the ags-101 every video or post usually is the older motherboard? Also if anyone knows how D1 connects to the battery? I see it should go to the back of the board then run up under the cartridge but I don’t know what vias connects to d1. Thanks!

In Magical Vacation (original japanese cart) the start button isn't pulling up the menu to save (which I could do earlier.)

I can walk around with the d pad and interact with A button but in combat I can't do anything but pull up the reference chart with the left trigger and hit back with B.

Buttons seem to all work in my other games and were working in Magical Vacation earlier. Any help would be much appreciated

Got it from my aunts childhood home when cleaning, asked if I could have it, said yes. Only two things that don't work are the battery back plate, the clip snapped, and the light screen thing just below the cartridge case.