[HN Gopher] Adding a hinge to a Game Boy that God never intended
___________________________________________________________________
Adding a hinge to a Game Boy that God never intended
Author : spansoa
Score : 556 points
Date : 2022-11-15 18:16 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (posts.decontextualize.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (posts.decontextualize.com)
| exmadscientist wrote:
| > I quickly discovered I'd accidentally put the footprint for my
| FPC connector on backwards:
|
| That's how you tell the professionals from the novices! The
| professionals only get it wrong once. Per connector, of course.
| The novices can get it wrong up to five times, which is really
| impressive! (The novice in question may or may not have been me.)
| smrtinsert wrote:
| Gorgeous, but I'm throwing money at my monitor and nothing is
| happening.
| [deleted]
| 1letterunixname wrote:
| An intended one: Super Game Boy is an adapter cart for the SNES
| that has a GB CPU (Sharp LR35902 - 8080-like) inside.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Game_Boy
| anthk wrote:
| Z80 like.
| Felger wrote:
| I'm always amazed and impressed by the amount of effort and
| energy needed for those ultimately "useless" (said not in a
| sarcastic way) personnal projects... I personnaly absolutely
| can't muster so much efforts for almost anything. And sooo would
| love to be able to...
|
| Documenting being a major drag.
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| As someone who can't even solder, it's fun! Messing with my
| gameboy color, N64, and Dreamcast, and made me more comfortable
| screwing around with electronics. Been learning slowly but
| surely!
| otikik wrote:
| Wow a labor of love for sure.
|
| Obviously we need a hinged Nintendo Switch now.
| AussieWog93 wrote:
| If the author's here, please note that the embedded pictures in
| the article are huge! Felt like I was on dial-up again, waiting
| for them to load on 2.4g WiFi.
| eisbaw wrote:
| Samsung Gameboy.
|
| Hopefully this doesn't have builtin ads ;)
| mamurphy wrote:
| The "That's it!" at the end gave me a nice chuckle. Fun article,
| quite involved it seems.
| jansan wrote:
| Just to confirm that I understand this correctly, that clear case
| is really 3D printed? I don't follow 3D printing too closely, but
| I did not think that something like this would be possible.
| [deleted]
| rkangel wrote:
| Some people have talked about SLA. We have a Project MJP at
| work (https://www.3dsystems.com/3d-printers/plastic). It uses
| UV cured resins for its printing, it also prints in wax for the
| support structures, so you can just melt them away with an oil
| bath afterwards.
|
| The quality of the results is excellent - you can print some
| really fine detailed parts. The downside is cost (print and the
| materials) and the fact that the materials involved are pretty
| nasty - they come with some _major_ warnings about causing
| infertility and cancer just for coming into contact.
| 1MachineElf wrote:
| I did not think so either, although, SLA is the one method I'd
| guess, if I had to, just going by the main picture. SLA is
| indeed the process they used, but what really surprised me was
| that it's offered as a 3D printing service from JLPCB and
| PCBWay.
| echeese wrote:
| I don't get how they got it so clear and without support
| marks.
| kube-system wrote:
| Did some searching because I was impressed with the quality
| as well, and I think they may technically be using polyjet
| instead of SLA.
| javawizard wrote:
| Yeah this is definitely an SLA print. SLA is capable of
| amazing quality with respect to both dimensional tolerances
| and overall appearance of finished product.
|
| I've been on the fence about getting one. This post might be
| the thing that pushes me over the edge.
|
| HN readers: what SLA printers do you recommend?
| skykooler wrote:
| I have an Epax 3D and I've been pretty satisfied with it,
| although it does have a pretty small build area.
| [deleted]
| johnwalkr wrote:
| We had a form labs printer at work and while the resolution
| was great, it was very messy to deal with, parts were
| brittle, curing took a long time, support structure was
| annoying to remove (and very time consuming to remove
| traces of), and over weeks or months most parts with any
| significant feature longer in one dimension warped. I don't
| think anyone used it once as soon as we got an FDM printer.
| javawizard wrote:
| > and over weeks or months most parts with any
| significant feature longer in one dimension warped
|
| That's alarming. How bad are we talking about, like
| millimeters or fractions thereof?
|
| I really, really like the appearance of the case from TFA
| and would love to build similar enclosures for my
| projects, but if that comes at the expense of noticeable
| long term dimensional instability, no thanks.
| johnwalkr wrote:
| In a 10cm part, could get someone 3mm of warping
| perpendicular to the longest dimension. Admittedly, this
| can be mitigated by adding ribs and being careful about
| curing, but between this, messiness and brittleness, it
| was just fussy compared to FDM printing.
|
| This was already five years ago so I wouldn't discount
| the technology altogether, I would just check for the
| printer and material you're interested in.
| BoorishBears wrote:
| I have an SLA printer (Prusa SL1) and rarely use it
|
| Unless you get an industrial printer, dimensional accuracy
| gets messy with SLA. Slicers can try and compensate, but
| you end up having to work around warping
|
| For organic shapes like figures I'm sure it's great, but as
| someone who prints functional items 99% of the time I'd
| rather tune an FDM printer than fight with my messy SLA
| machine
| javawizard wrote:
| Good to know. How bad exactly would you say accuracy is?
| Are we talking about a few hundreds of micrometers or a
| millimeter or more?
| BoorishBears wrote:
| Tenths of a millimeter not much worse than FDM in
| vacuum... the problem is those tenths vary based on shape
| (even more than with FDM), and can be non-uniform across
| a surface (flat surfaces tend to end up warped pretty
| easily)
| [deleted]
| drewzero1 wrote:
| I've just been getting started with FDM printing since this
| summer, and after getting to know the limitations of my printer
| I'm even more amazed at the smoothness and resolution that some
| resin printers are getting. (I've even heard of people starting
| to print optical lenses[0], which I can hardly imagine.) You
| can really see the difference in resolution in the image with
| the different bottom shell!
|
| 0: https://www.cuddleburrito.com/blog/2015/10/13/3d-printing-
| vi...
| vintagedave wrote:
| > heard of people starting to print
|
| That article is dated 2015! If they could do that seven years
| ago, what is state of the art now?
| sdenton4 wrote:
| Note that the lenses do require extra work after the initial
| printing: "Finally, endless sanding and polishing created a
| clear-enough lens."
| drewzero1 wrote:
| I would have assumed some post-processing would be
| necessary to create a polished surface, but what really
| blows me away is that it's possible to make the entire
| interior void-free and consistently dense to create a
| transparent lens with no air bubbles or interior pockets. I
| can't even do that molding resin by hand.
| adamweld wrote:
| It's SLA resin printed by PCBWay.
|
| https://www.pcbway.com/rapid-prototyping/3d-printing/plastic...
| deergomoo wrote:
| I absolutely adore the Game Boy modding scene that's exploded in
| the last few years.
|
| Case overhauls like this or the Boxypixel slab pictured in the
| article, numerous backlit high-res IPS screen replacements, mods
| to improve sound, Li-ion battery packs with USB charging. And
| that's to say nothing of Analogue or the MiSTer project, creating
| full FPGA reimplementations of the hardware.
|
| It's a really cool example of what some very creative and
| passionate people can do with commodity technology. The only
| downside is it's actually becoming quite pricey to get original
| hardware.
| lapetitejort wrote:
| Retro Future on YouTube has made some similarly cursed builds,
| such as the original GBA but with a hinged screen for some
| reason, and double screen GBA SP (it shows the same image on
| two screens).
| city41 wrote:
| And can't forget his best one: the Long Boy
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zPehVx_J0M
| heywoodlh wrote:
| This was so fun to watch, thanks for the share
| doublepg23 wrote:
| Completely agree. It's a really cool scene and inspired me to
| collect some old Gameboys.
| derefr wrote:
| I love it too, though I wish that along with it there was
| renewed interest in Gameboy game development. There are GB
| game-jams, but more-often-than-not the results of those just
| languish in obscurity rather than seeing any community
| attention; and so there's no incentive to put any polish into
| these titles. (There's nobody trying to make anything like
| David Murray's Planet X3 for the GB scene.)
|
| I feel like something that would really kick such an ecosystem
| off, would be some sort of wi-fi-enabled GB/GBC flash-cart,
| which boots to Mario-Maker-like UX for downloading, playing,
| and reviewing (liking/disliking, making playlists of, etc)
| bite-sized GB/GBC experiences from a community-maintained cloud
| service; where the supply side of that cloud service would be
| easy upload integration with tools like GB Studio.
| hnlmorg wrote:
| There's loads of homebrew Gameboy games released each year.
| One of my friends reviews games and receives lots of new GB
| and GBA titles.
|
| You can also get GB carts that support SD card. I appreciate
| you're describing a more complete, end to end, UX but we can
| already do everything right up to inserting the SD card into
| the Gameboy cart. With Gameboy emulation as good as it is,
| you could do away with original hardware for 99% of players
| too (though for me, the joy of retro gaming is using the
| original hardware. But I'd never look down on anyone who
| preferred emulation).
| derefr wrote:
| I didn't say people don't make them. I said they aren't
| polished. And by that, I don't mean the gameplay!
|
| Rather, I mean that nobody's fabbing GB game carts,
| printing glossy color manuals for them, putting them in
| boxes, and shipping them to Kickstarter backers. Nobody's
| translating these games into 10 languages. Nobody's QA-
| testing the heck out of them to ensure they don't have any
| obscure edge-case bugs. Etc. (This was why I brought up
| Planet X3: it's an example of a modern retro-game that is
| polished in exactly this sense.)
|
| But a desire to go through all the effort to create
| polished modern GB games, is the sort of thing that
| requires _market demand_ -- a willingness to spend real
| money to _buy_ new GB games (whether digitally or
| physically.) No hobbyist game developer is going to spend a
| year on "things that aren't programming" to make a nice
| shippable product out of their game, if that isn't going to
| result in at least breaking even on their effort.
|
| And a prerequisite for that demand, is _public awareness_
| of the fact that modern GB games _are_ being created --
| and, more importantly, a public "brand" awareness for the
| people creating them!
|
| Indie game jams are great and all; but they don't create
| brand awareness. App Stores with "studios with most stars"
| views create brand awareness. Easily one-click
| accessibility of the games to allow them to be played on a
| PC (rather than on a portable with no video-capture
| support), to enable streamers and content-creators to play
| them on a whim, create brand awareness. Gamedev tooling
| that expects/requires a "publisher logo card" to be shown
| on boot, create brand awareness. Etc.
|
| Basically, think of "modern gameboy games" as if they were
| a thing made by one company, rather than a diffuse
| community. What would that company be doing to market them?
| The community can do those things too!
| laumars wrote:
| > _Rather, I mean that nobody 's fabbing GB game carts,
| printing glossy color manuals for them, putting them in
| boxes, and shipping them to Kickstarter backers._
|
| Maybe not Kickstarter specifically, but they are doing
| the other stuff.
|
| > _Nobody 's translating these games into 10 languages._
|
| That's a little unreasonable ask. Given how little money
| these games will bring in you can't expect that.
|
| > _Nobody 's QA-testing the heck out of them to ensure
| they don't have any obscure edge-case bugs. Etc. (This
| was why I brought up Planet X3: it's an example of a
| modern retro-game that is polished in exactly this
| sense.)_
|
| There is QA testing happening but like with the above,
| you can't expect smaller operations to pay people to QA.
| So you end up either having "QA" be demo builds, in which
| case most people end up with a copy so you can't do the
| premium carts that you're also asking for. Or you just
| have to accept that QA is a smaller operation but still
| have the beautiful hardware copy.
|
| Even really well polished games on other platforms with
| much bigger audiences, like Xeno Crisis for the Mega
| Drive / Genesis, have had their share of bugs too. Even
| in the original days of these consoles, when games from
| big studios with big budgets to spend on testing, we'd
| still see new releases with bugs-galore.
|
| > _But a desire to go through all the effort to create
| polished modern GB games, is the sort of thing that
| requires market demand -- a willingness to spend real
| money to buy new GB games (whether digitally or
| physically.) No hobbyist game developer is going to spend
| a year on "things that aren't programming" to make a nice
| shippable product out of their game, if that isn't going
| to result in at least breaking even on their effort._
|
| This doesn't even happen with new games on current
| generation consoles. So I don't understand why you're
| expecting it to happen with retro-consoles.
|
| > _And a prerequisite for that demand, is public
| awareness of the fact that modern GB games are being
| created -- and, more importantly, a public "brand"
| awareness for the people creating them!_
|
| I don't think awareness is the problem. I think most
| people just don't care. If you're a retro gamer you are
| probably already aware, and if you're not then you're
| never going to play these games anyway. And I honestly
| can't blame people for not caring. There's so much
| content out there these days that GB games (with all the
| warts that the GB hardware had, by modern day standards)
| simple aren't going to appeal to most people.
|
| I think you're setting your expectations far too high.
|
| > _Indie game jams are great and all; but they don 't
| create brand awareness_
|
| Again, there are plenty of releases that aren't the
| results of game jams.
| derefr wrote:
| > This doesn't even happen with new games on current
| generation consoles. So I don't understand why you're
| expecting it to happen with retro-consoles.
|
| It absolutely does. What do you think
| https://www.nicalis.com/ as a studio does? They take
| hobbyists' indie games, acquire distribution rights, and
| polish them so they can see console release.
|
| Also consider: ports. What is the re-release of Shantae
| for Switch, if not someone spending a year polishing an
| (admittedly already polished by 2002 standards) GBC game
| into a product non-retro-gamers are willing to pay for?
|
| > If you're a retro gamer you are probably already aware,
| and if you're not then you're never going to play these
| games anyway.
|
| ...why not? I think you're setting your expectations too
| _low_.
|
| People pay for (polished) Steam and console releases of
| RPG Maker games; and those often have _far_ less effort
| or thought put into the gameplay, replayability, etc.
| than these games do.
|
| Though the real point of comparison that should be made,
| is the market for indie commercial homebrew releases for
| _non-portable_ consoles; which _is_ thriving even among
| non-retro-gamers, in a way that the market for portables,
| isn 't.
|
| * Consider: there are more people out there
| commercializing _just_ the ROMhacks of _Super Mario
| World_ (by doing full engine rewrites of games that were
| already full asset replacements, to get away from
| Nintendo 's IP, and then selling the results on console
| stores!) than there are GB/GBC/GBA game authors
| attempting to commercialize their games.
|
| * Consider: there are tons of game streamers,
| speedrunners, genre-specific content creators (e.g.
| horror-game Lets Play-ers), etc, who play new console
| retro-games _if and only if_ they come packaged in some
| accessible format. So they 'll play Steam or console-
| store releases of these retro games; they'll play PC-
| accessible downloadables like Mario Multiverse or
| PokeWilds; but they won't touch a raw emulator. And, by-
| and-large, the developers of these new old-home-console
| titles are _aware_ of that, and produce /port/polish
| their releases so that they can be consumed in this way,
| and so can generate virality. I don't see anything like
| that happening in the new old-portable games space.
| laumars wrote:
| > _It absolutely does. What do you
| thinkhttps://www.nicalis.com/ as a studio does? They take
| hobbyists' indie games, acquire distribution rights, and
| polish them so they can see console release._
|
| They're not the games studio doing it, so it literally
| proves my point. These people could just as easily do it
| for the GB games too but they know there's no money in
| it.
|
| > _...why not? I think you 're setting your expectations
| too low. People pay for (polished) Steam and console
| releases of RPG Maker games; and those often have far
| less effort or thought put into the gameplay,
| replayability, etc. than these games do._
|
| Because those games are cheap as chips and don't require
| an original Gameboy to play them. Given your point was
| about polished cart releases, the requirement to own a
| Gameboy is a pretty big hurdle for people who are only
| casually interested in retro games.
|
| Then there's the other points I've already outlined:
| Gameboy graphics, much as I loved them at the time,
| haven't aged well. Even modern pixel art is _very_
| different to the 4 toned shades of grey on a 160x144
| matrix.
|
| > _Though the real point of comparison that should be
| made, is the market for indie commercial homebrew
| releases for non-portable consoles; which is thriving
| even among non-retro-gamers, in a way that the market for
| portables, isn 't._
|
| Thriving is over-stating the market. There's a lot of
| resellers driving the prices up but the market for actual
| retro gamers is a lot smaller than the market bubble
| suggests. A lot of non-retro gamers bought their NES or
| PlayStation "mini's" but then went back to their current
| gen PlayStation/Xbox a few weeks later; leaving their
| retro system to collect dust. Even the emulators bundled
| with Nintendo's Switch Online membership mostly gets
| played by people who are already retro gamers, while the
| rest of the Switch's demographic prefer either Nintendo's
| first party games or the range of indie offerings.
|
| And even if we take your comment at face value, you're
| _still_ ignoring my point that the Gameboy has aged
| probably the worst of any console. Except maybe the Atari
| 2600. Don 't get me wrong, I do love my Gameboy. But
| serious concessions were made in it's hardware design to
| facilitate it's long battery life. This made the device a
| fantastic handheld in the 90s but a terrible platform for
| modern gamers who aren't already bought into retro
| gaming. Sure you might get the odd non-retro gamer pick
| it up for nostalgia purposes (like with the NES Classic)
| but that's not going to be a sustainable source of
| income.
|
| > _Consider: there are more people out there
| commercializing just the ROMhacks of Super Mario World
| (by doing full engine rewrites of games that were already
| full asset replacements, to get away from Nintendo 's IP,
| and then selling the results on console stores!) than
| there are GB/GBC/GBA game authors attempting to
| commercialize their games._
|
| Are there? Do you actually have some data to back up that
| claim? Have you done any in-depth analysis here or just
| pulling guestimates out of your arse? And even if you are
| correct (which I doubt), what difference does it make?
| The two aren't related. They're not even mutually
| exclusive.
|
| > _Consider: there are tons of game streamers,
| speedrunners, genre-specific content creators (e.g.
| horror-game Lets Play-ers), etc, who play new console
| retro-games if and only if they come packaged in some
| accessible format. So they 'll play Steam or console-
| store releases of these retro games; they'll play PC-
| accessible downloadables like Mario Multiverse or
| PokeWilds; but they won't touch a raw emulator. And, by-
| and-large, the developers of these new old-home-console
| titles are aware of that, and produce/port/polish their
| releases so that they can be consumed in this way, and so
| can generate virality. I don't see anything like that
| happening in the new old-portable games space._
|
| There are absolutely shit loads of retro gamer streamers
| out there too. In fact I'm doing a stream myself tonight.
|
| Disclaimer: as well as being a retro gamer and streamer
| myself, I know a number of relatively high profile people
| in the gaming and retro-gaming circles. Some who are
| resellers, some who are games researchers and some who
| are games journalists too. A couple of which are also
| really big fans of the GB, GBC and GBA so frequently get
| sent new games for review (albeit those games don't
| usually get published in magazines because, and I quote
| "not enough people are interested in the Gameboy". But
| they will publish reviews online).
| ngold wrote:
| Didn't even know this was a thing. And I immediately fell in
| love. What a great hobby. I remember my first game boy. You
| could probably knock someone out throwing it. And it would be
| fine.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| Sadly the original hardware is slowly degrading over time.
| Nintendo DS lite screens for example are all yellowing at this
| age. Buttons suffer too, my gameboy color is just a paperweight
| now because the buttons hardly register a press. Maybe these
| issues can be repaired but I'm not skilled with a soldering
| iron which is a big requirement it seems.
| AussieWog93 wrote:
| I run a video games business and fix button issues all the
| time!
|
| All you'll need to do to fix a GBC with stuff buttons is open
| it up (requires a tri wing screwdriver, $2 from eBay), clean
| the button pads with a q-tip and alcohol.
|
| The pads in question are the black bits on the back of the
| rubber immediately underneath the button, as well as the
| circular copper traces on the board that the black bits come
| into contact with when you depress the button.
|
| You might need 3 or 4 q-tips. You'll know when you're done
| because the q-tips will stop turning black.
|
| Takes 10 minutes overall and is only slightly more technical
| than wiping your arse! Don't be intimidated!
| whizzter wrote:
| Ahh, I had one I looked at once, the pads not being
| supposed to be black does bring back questions I had >D
| rootw0rm wrote:
| I used to suck with a soldering iron, but if it's something
| that interests you, just give it a shot.
|
| If you're deathly afraid of making mistakes, get a
| desoldering iron. If you mess up just suck the solder up,
| reapply a bit of flux as necessary, and try again.
| pzduniak wrote:
| I recommend the Engineer SS-02 solder sucker. Way cheaper
| than a proper desoldering iron, way more effective than a
| cheap Chinese one.
| deergomoo wrote:
| For what it's worth, I've managed to successfully mod a Game
| Boy Advance as a total soldering noob, with a cheap poor
| quality iron from Amazon. Some mods (particularly for home
| consoles) are difficult as all hell if you're inexperienced,
| but the Game Boy tends to be fairly easy-going. There's also
| an increasing number of mods (particularly screens) that are
| slightly more expensive, but are solder-less (or solder
| optional). Macho Nacho on YouTube covers quite a few of them.
|
| As for your buttons, you can buy new rubber membranes that
| make contact with the board to register the press. Give the
| board a good clean with isopropyl and pop some new membranes
| in and your buttons will no doubt be good as new--no
| soldering needed!
| 22c wrote:
| It's relatively easy to learn soldering basics, and even if
| you're not good at soldering, it's pretty forgiving
| (especially on older hardware where the components aren't so
| finicky).
| bennysonething wrote:
| I bought a no solder IPS screen for gameboy color. Think I
| bought the kit off eBay, it came with a new case and buttons
| too. It's pretty great! (And if I can do it anyone can)
| amiga-workbench wrote:
| The GBC is quite easy to disassemble (If you have one of
| Nintendo's silly triwing screwdrivers). Give the pads under
| the buttons a rub with some isopropyl, and at an extreme buy
| some new conductive silicone pads for about PS8 online.
|
| No soldering required to get you back up and running.
| vlunkr wrote:
| This is awesome. I miss hinges. The Switch is great, but I loved
| being able to throw my sp or ds into a bag or pocket without
| worrying about scratching it.
| autoexec wrote:
| You can't even put the switch in its own dock without worrying
| about scratches. Considering that Nintendo has always been a
| company that makes good hardware the switch has been a huge
| disappointment. All the scratched screens, dead pixels, and
| joycon problems shouldn't have made it past the first batches
| sold.
| vlunkr wrote:
| I thought the dock scratching the screen was a hoax that was
| dispelled roughly at the same time it launched. My kids have
| been docking it very ungracefully for years and it's not
| scratched.
| autoexec wrote:
| Still seeing problems reported online:
|
| https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/303578/how-
| preval...
|
| https://old.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/krl6b1/doc
| k...
|
| screen protectors and other weird tricks like wrapping your
| switch in cloth or modifying the dock seem pretty common
| which probably helps make it less likely.
| kibwen wrote:
| Now that folding-screen smartphones are a thing that actually
| exist on the market, it's not entirely impossible to imagine
| that the next Switch could be foldable like the SP. :P
| gambiting wrote:
| At the pace Nintendo adopts new technologies, maybe in 20
| years ;-)
| [deleted]
| dcow wrote:
| If God never intended it, why is the Gameboy Advance SP a thing?
| glonq wrote:
| Divine intentions notwithstanding, I think the author intended to
| say "Adding a hinge that God never intended to a Game Boy"
| jollyllama wrote:
| >Purely in terms of industrial design, I don't think a Nintendo
| handheld has matched the elegance of the SP.
|
| 100%.
|
| Awesome post.
| qbasic_forever wrote:
| The SP was pretty painful to hold and use for long times in my
| experience. The shoulder buttons were particularly hard to hit
| comfortably. The original GBA horizontal design is my favorite
| and most comfortable. Swap it to a nice backlit LCD or even
| OLED and it would be perfect.
| jollyllama wrote:
| GBA wasn't bad but it was bulkier to carry on your person.
| The portability of the SP was killer and the beautiful LCD
| screen was protected in your bag or pocket.
|
| As far as ergonomics, it wasn't so bad. For more action
| oriented games, it could be a bit tiring, but for Pokemon it
| was the perfect machine.
| [deleted]
| uni_rule wrote:
| I think the relative peak was the micro's black and silver
| (either way) design, personally.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| Ds Lite imo is even better. Its thinner so it fits easier in
| the pocket even though its wider. You put in a flashcart with a
| 32gb micro sd and now you can store every game worth playing
| from the nds, gba, gbc, gb, snes, nes, sega genesis, various
| ataris and other early game systems. It has the longest battery
| life for a nintendo handheld I believe. Plus I find it pretty
| comfortable in adult hands still, definitely moreso than the
| nintendo switch.
| purpleflame1257 wrote:
| The one pain point on the DS Lite is that if you want to put
| in an actual, physical GBA cartridge it sticks out.
| Everything else is great.
| jollyllama wrote:
| Good point but I'd contend that the SP might have been more
| durable. I'm not sure. Either way, I liked the weight of it
| over the DS lite. Both great devices though.
| padobson wrote:
| I like that the title implies that Gunpei Yokoi[0] is God.
|
| [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpei_Yokoi
| BoorishBears wrote:
| I lived down the block from that NYU makerspace and walked my dog
| past it every day.
|
| I'm also a self-taught dev who's wanted to go back to college and
| get a degree for posterity.
|
| So naturally applying to NYU made sense, get started on the
| education stuff I was putting off, get access to a really cool
| makerspace, etc. I talked to someone from admissions at the
| school, learned more about the process, but then we got to
| pricing and the fact I wouldn't qualify for assistance... well it
| turned out it was practically unaffordable for me, a senior SWE
| in NYC making a "FAANG-like" salary.
|
| I say "practically" because technically I could pay it, but to
| what end? I'd be looking at over 150k over the next two years for
| a simple bachelors with no appreciable change to my career
| trajectory.
|
| -
|
| It really blew my mind. I was making what their graduates can
| expect to make years out of school and the math wasn't working,
| how is it supposed to work for someone coming out of high school?
|
| The cynic in me would look at that makerspace that easily had
| *40k in Ultimakers that never actually seemed to be printing
| anything peeking out the window and think "is this what they're
| paying for?", but I guess on the flip side you get things like
| this post?
|
| * Actually I went and looked at an old picture, I only counted 8
| or so in view of the window...
| [deleted]
| hancholo wrote:
| If I may ask... what specialization are you in? and is it the
| same thing you started off in? I've been thinking of pivoting
| and have narrowed it down to 1-3 niches, but also don't have a
| degree but currently working in a FAANG company.
| BoorishBears wrote:
| My first paid programming gigs were on video games as a
| freelance Unity developer, but my "real career" was founded
| on embedded Android
|
| Embedded systems were a good match for my background
| tinkering with assembly for calculators and messing with
| MCUs, but it's a very "traditional" part of tech.
|
| Android in embedded is much closer to mobile in terms of
| culture, so my lack of a degree wasn't a problem getting
| started, and demand has only grown over the years. I
| currently work in HMI for self-driving vehicles these days
| but I've worked on everything from in-store interactive
| displays to prototype fitness equipment
|
| Bonus: You can also pivot to traditional mobile dev, which
| I've done for some stints over the course of my career
| rhacker wrote:
| What are you complaining about?
| jsight wrote:
| Presumably the amazing high cost of education and how it
| isn't always being used efficiently.
| BoorishBears wrote:
| The idea that schools get to use 18 year olds as unsecured
| loans to build out extravagant facilities.
|
| Then those 18 year olds grow up, can't pay back the loan, so
| the government uses bailing them out as a political
| bargaining chip.
| [deleted]
| 999900000999 wrote:
| What's the point of this, you can easily go to cheaper school
| and pay about 10K a year. Software Engineering is a fields
| where you don't even need a degree to be honest. I know at
| least 2 colleagues who make much more than me without degrees.
|
| Just make side projects.
|
| Or spend a bit more , go to UC Berkeley and you can attend one
| of the best CS schools in the world. Just live in California
| for a year to get residency first
| BoorishBears wrote:
| That's my whole point, I don't have a degree and it's been a
| long time since that came up.
|
| In my most recent position I got an offer before the
| recruiter found out I didn't have a degree: We were making
| small talk waiting for someone to join the call and they
| offhandedly asked where I went to school... I didn't.
|
| -
|
| So with that in mind, how are they justifying their value
| over those cheaper (or free) options? With an expensive
| makerspace? Pedigree? (as you point out there are cheaper
| schools of a similar calibre)
|
| To me it doesn't add up and something has to give at some
| point. I've long felt that if we get student loan relief, it
| _must_ come with tightening the purse strings on the tuition
| side by downsizing how much the government is willing to
| finance per student.
|
| The schools are using the money for everything from vanity
| projects to real-estate plays, that needs to stop.
| 999900000999 wrote:
| If people want to pay for prestige let them.
|
| For the most part you either should logically come from
| money or get a scholarship. At 18 your free to ruin your
| life in a variety of ways ,college isn't the worst.
| BoorishBears wrote:
| The problem is they (usually) can't pay for it.
|
| They take out loans for it, and as the now-in-jeopardy
| relief program shows they often can't pay those loans
| back.
|
| A lot of schools don't even have the prestige but have
| this pricing problem: if we keep letting colleges access
| "free money" on the backs of 18 year olds, they will keep
| taking that money and spending it regardless of if it
| benefits the students.
|
| -
|
| If you walk into a bank as an assetless 18 year old and
| ask for a $100,000 for "a big bet that will probably pay
| off just trust me", you'll be politely but firmly asked
| to leave.
|
| Why are we letting that happen just because some school
| offering 0 collateral happens to be the co-signer?
| 999900000999 wrote:
| Most people aren't literally taking out a 100k loan.
|
| It's a very complex problem. Not everyone wants to code,
| for many professions you really need to get into a top
| school. That top school might cost a bit of money.
|
| Recently I've found it's best to worry about oneself to
| be frank.
|
| Know you don't want to take out 100k for a top school,
| but don't judge those who do.
|
| Assuming that results in an additional 5 to 10k in income
| per year after graduation, it easily pays for itself.
|
| For you, since you already have an established career it
| makes little sense to spend that much
| BoorishBears wrote:
| You're creating a martyr that doesn't exist.
|
| I didn't judge the students who go there, or imply such a
| thing.
|
| My parents both came to this country from a third world
| country and spent the better parts of their lives working
| towards their doctorates, so I'm not looking down on
| people for seeking education.
|
| -
|
| My entire point is that the act of paying tuition isn't
| what makes you 5-10k, going to the school as a whole is.
|
| NYU is a school where according to their own numbers the
| average student _does in fact_ pay out more than 100k for
| a 4 year degree _after_ the >30k in aid the average
| student gets
|
| And so I'm questioning if that extreme level of cost is
| actually a requisite of NYU creating a student worth more
| than average.
|
| Do they really need to spend 1 billion dollars more a
| year than UC Berkley, on a slightly smaller student body,
| to make students who make near identical salaries?
|
| -
|
| At the end of the day no one person can answer that, but
| I'm highly skeptical and would rather see downward
| pressure on tuition in the form for cutting off the money
| faucet that is 18 year olds taking out loans.
|
| If the schools really generate equivalent value to what
| they're asking, that shouldn't be an issue: richer
| graduates will still benefit their endowments, better
| outcomes will still differentiate them, etc.
| nsxwolf wrote:
| I never liked the SP form factor. It's too cramped. The original
| GBA is absolutely perfect. It's like a DS without the weight of
| the top screen. It's too bad it couldn't have had the SP 101
| model backlit screen.
|
| One of these days I'll do that mod.
| nicoburns wrote:
| Agreed. The DS is a similar size to the GBA, but it's much
| bigger and heavier. Even as a kid I could have a GBA in my
| pocket and not think too much of it. And the horizontal form
| factor was really nice to hold. The only really flaw was the
| lack of backlit screen.
| juanci_to wrote:
| I think exactly the same. Even though the SP design was more
| successful and influential for consoles like the DS series, the
| shape of the original GBA is not only very comfortable but also
| pretty darn iconic!
|
| Wikipedia says: <<As of December 31, 2009, the Game Boy Advance
| series has sold 81.51 million units worldwide, 43.57 million of
| which are Game Boy Advance SP units and 2.42 million of which
| are Game Boy Micro units.>>
|
| So, the SP was the most sold version, but I can't name a single
| GBA emulator that uses its design as the logo.
| cybrox wrote:
| I actually loved the SP, perfect form factor for your pocket.
|
| But I agree that the normal Advance would benefit greatly from
| a backlight. For what it was, I'm surprised how well the
| external light you could buy held up (connector & flex cable)
| throwaway6734 wrote:
| Agree, the gba is the perfect handheld system. I was feeling
| nostalgic and wanted to play one recently but they were selling
| for ~$150 so I went with an ANBERNIC RG351P instead. Same form
| factor
| agentwiggles wrote:
| But the thing is, they're _not_ the same form factor. I've
| been somewhat interested in getting one of these new emulator
| snc devices like Anbernic makes, and the 351 is the most
| interesting - but man, if they sold one that looked just like
| an original GBA, I'd have already pulled the trigger.
|
| While looking into it recently, I kinda came to the
| conclusion that the best bang for buck was probably to just
| get one of the PSP Vita models.
|
| To be fair, this has a kind of synchronicity, since the
| original PSP was my first exposure to homebrew hardware
| modding.
|
| IDK, either way, I'll probably eventually end up with an
| Anbernic device or something similar. They're just so neat
| and the idea of a tiny little Linux box with a built in
| gamepad appeals. But I can't help but think they could do
| better.
| throwaway6734 wrote:
| Anberic: 5.98 x 2.8 x 0.71 inches
|
| GBA: Approximately 145 mm (5.7 in) x 82 mm (3.2 in) x 24 mm
| (0.94 in) (WxHxD)
|
| Not exactly the same, but very close.
|
| I wonder if you could drop the internals for the anberic
| into a gba frame
| agentwiggles wrote:
| I didn't realize that the Anbernic thing was that close
| to GBA size, based on the appearance I expected something
| closer to the size of the Switch (entirely my own bias
| here).
|
| But still, one of the things I liked about my GBA was how
| well it fit in the hand, part of that was because the
| back was somewhat contoured. The new trend of everything
| being flat rectangles makes devices a lot less comfy for
| me.
| throwaway6734 wrote:
| >I expected something closer to the size of the Switch
|
| I see where you're coming from here. I like playing the
| switch handheld but it's way too big for true portable
| gaming.
|
| >part of that was because the back was somewhat contoured
|
| It's got very slightly elevated grip pads on the back and
| the build quality is high so it feels solid.
|
| https://main.retro-
| handhelds.com/content/images/2021/09/RG35...
| agentwiggles wrote:
| I'm increasingly tempted to grab one of these! Might have
| to just pull the trigger.
| hazn wrote:
| Personally, I find the gameboy advance sp one of the slickest
| designs ever. You could say that the sp is one of the most
| iterated on designs in later nintendo products
| anthk wrote:
| Before the SP there was the Game and Watch.
| fercircularbuf wrote:
| I did this mod! It is fairly painless as far as mods go, and
| the result is amazing. It even appears to run longer than with
| the original screen.
| RototRobot wrote:
| I always felt that way too however after coming back to the GBA
| with now with larger adult hands it's also too cramped for me.
| its way too unwieldy and heavy but I feel like I would need
| something like a GameGear these days.
| [deleted]
| garfieldnate wrote:
| I love projects like this because I learn about new materials or
| gadgets. I'm filing them away slowly in my mind hoping to put
| together an Ex-Word clone in the future. I didn't know you could
| order flexible PCB, and now I do. I thought the hinges were
| perfect, too, but now I realize that the SP hinges don't also act
| as a power switch. I just love that the Ex-Word would switch on
| and off automatically when you open and close it.
| Semaphor wrote:
| > I have a distinct memory of dismissing the whole Pokemon craze
| as gauche, childlike, beneath my refined nearly-adult maturity.
|
| I mean, of course, Pokemon was childlike. Us almost-adults played
| _clearly_ superior games like MtG with cardboard. The GameBoy was
| for Tetris.
| nazgulsenpai wrote:
| From this article I learned you can get a woodgrain GameBoy SP
| shell[0]. Great article and awesome project!
|
| [0]https://extremerate.com/products/ips-ready-upgraded-the-
| wood...
| danesparza wrote:
| Thank you for this detailed article. I don't have a Game boy (and
| don't intend to start). But man o man. Articles like this remind
| me of why I being a geek. Thanks.
| sho_hn wrote:
| > _Another thing I learned about myself: I kinda like being old.
| I recently turned 41 and sure, my back hurts all the time and I'm
| going grey, but I have enough experience and domain knowledge at
| this point that picking up CAD and PCB design over the summer
| isn't that big a deal. It feels nice to reap the rewards of all
| of my experience._
|
| Lovely quote.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| hanniabu wrote:
| Documenting all this seems more daunting than the actual
| conversion
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