Current Events > I modded my Game Boy Advance SP

(+) Yeah! (+)

New IPS screen, shell and buttons.



Pretty easy to do. Only complaint is that the shell and buttons are much cheaper than the original, but it looks great. Screen quality is way better too.

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nice

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SP is my favorite handheld. Nice work.

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_BIueMonk posted...

nice

thanks :)

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

pokemon emerald, mr driller 2 and puyo pop fever. any recommendations on some cool gba games?

MedeaLysistrata posted...

SP is my favorite handheld. Nice work.

thanks! its pretty easy to do. doesn't require soldering either unless you want to add brightness settings.

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I reshelled my AGS-101 about 6 months ago or so. Will probably do an IPS mod on my original SP.

Did you have to trim the shell? That's the only thing that makes me nervous

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Unspecified_NPC posted...

I reshelled my AGS-101 about 6 months ago or so. Will probably do an IPS mod on my original SP.

Did you have to trim the shell? That's the only thing that makes me nervous

for the IPS mod, you do. but i took the lazy way out and bought one that was pre-cut. you can find them on ebay, retromodding.com or funnyplaying.com. nintendo never made an official shell for the SP that was transparent, so I had to go aftermarket on that.

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Awesome. I replaced my GB Color and GBA's shell and screen before but I've avoided clamshell systems.

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Nice job, it looks really good.

pojr posted...

any recommendations on some cool gba games?

Mario Golf: Advance Tour (AKA the best Mario sports game) and any of the Fire Emblem games
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Blue_Target posted...

Awesome. I replaced my GB Color and GBA's shell and screen before but I've avoided clamshell systems.

i don't blame you. the hinge part was by far the most difficult part for me. i actually broke a small piece off one side of the hinge when i was taking it apart, but fortunately it still works fine, and you can't tell when it's reassembled.

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Calwings posted...

Nice job, it looks really good.

Mario Golf: Advance Tour (AKA the best Mario sports game) and any of the Fire Emblem games

thanks! mario golf eh? not the mario game i expected. why is golf the best? never would expect a golf game to be the best.

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pojr posted...

thanks! mario golf eh? not the mario game i expected. why is golf the best? never would expect a golf game to be the best.

There's a little bit of my personal bias involved (I do love golf games in general) but that particular Mario sports game has the best single-player aspect of any Mario sports game that I've ever played. It's practically a full-fledged RPG, just with golf as the primary gameplay mechanic.

- You play through several different courses, in both tournaments and in match play against the club champions, and there's harder "star" versions of the courses that you can unlock for an extra challenge.

- You can fully customize your character's shot style (power, height, hook, control, spin, etc.) and unlock new clubs to customize it even further.

- You can do all of the above again in doubles golf to add to the replay value even further, including customizing your CPU partner that you alternate shots with. Sometimes the AI kinda brainfarts and makes a bad shot, but they can also amaze you with a great one out of nowhere.

- You can also play a few different mini-games that put a twist on normal golf (like using a slot machine to determine what kinds of clubs you can use each hole, or needing to hit the ball through certain "gates" while still making par) and are a lot of fun.

There's even more stuff you can do on the side (especially if you happen to also have Toadstool Tour for the Gamecube and a GC/GBA link cable) but just the story itself is really fun to play through and there's so many different ways to play it. I've probably played through the singles story like 20 times and the doubles story another 10 on top of that, using different character builds almost every time, and it's always fun. And all of this great gameplay depth and customization comes without sacrificing the spirit of the Mario franchise, because it still keeps the same colorful aesthetic and the core gameplay is very much "easy to pick up but hard to master" like a lot of Mario spin-off titles.

If you just don't like golf in particular, the Mario Tennis game on GBA is also a lot of fun for a lot of the same reasons. The gameplay variety is a bit lower though, because every golf course is totally unique while tennis courts are standardized and only barely differ based on the surface.
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Calwings posted...

pojr posted...

thanks! mario golf eh? not the mario game i expected. why is golf the best? never would expect a golf game to be the best.

There's a little bit of my personal bias involved (I do love golf games in general) but that particular Mario sports game has the best single-player aspect of any Mario sports game that I've ever played. It's practically a full-fledged RPG, just with golf as the primary gameplay mechanic.

- You play through several different courses, in both tournaments and in match play against the club champions, and there's harder "star" versions of the courses that you can unlock for an extra challenge.

- You can fully customize your character's shot style (power, height, hook, control, spin, etc.) and unlock new clubs to customize it even further.

- You can do all of the above again in doubles golf to add to the replay value even further, including customizing your CPU partner that you alternate shots with. Sometimes the AI kinda brainfarts and makes a bad shot, but they can also amaze you with a great one out of nowhere.

- You can also play a few different mini-games that put a twist on normal golf (like using a slot machine to determine what kinds of clubs you can use each hole, or needing to hit the ball through certain "gates" while still making par) and are a lot of fun.

There's even more stuff you can do on the side (especially if you happen to also have Toadstool Tour for the Gamecube and a GC/GBA link cable) but just the story itself is really fun to play through and there's so many different ways to play it. I've probably played through the singles story like 20 times and the doubles story another 10 on top of that, using different character builds almost every time, and it's always fun. And all of this great gameplay depth and customization comes without sacrificing the spirit of the Mario franchise, because it still keeps the same colorful aesthetic and the core gameplay is very much "easy to pick up but hard to master" like a lot of Mario spin-off titles.

If you just don't like golf in particular, the Mario Tennis game on GBA is also a lot of fun for a lot of the same reasons. The gameplay variety is a bit lower though, because every golf course is totally unique while tennis courts are standardized and only barely differ based on the surface.

Just letting you know I'm playing it right now, and I am surprised so far. So much backstory to this lol. Didn't expect that on a golf game. I'm still at the beginning though.
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