i spent a bunch of time (and a bunch of money) in 2022 modding a gameboy advance with a pretty new ips screen and a bunch of other gizmos. like any nerd hobby there is a load of posturing for "who can spend the most money", and a fair bit of it is sort of unnecessary, so i'd like to talk through what i've done and whether i think it's worthwhile.

_{i didn't notice the horrid finger smudge on this one till i started writing this post and i don't want to take the photo again}

ips screen

i can't actually find a record of the store i bought this from, but its unlikely to be a huge deal because i'm pretty sure they're not sold anymore. people go for the laminated ips screens these days because they forgo the ugly gap between the screen and the glass panel, and while i can't speak directly for this product i can say that the upgrade to a new screen is an absolute must. it's hard to remember just how crummy the stock screens were until the gameboy is actually in your hands and you have to angle your back to a light source just to see what the hell is going on

shell

again, these particular shells aren't really sold anymore because the new screens require a very specific cutout. my main advice is to skip the mirror / glossy finish cases. i was initially interested because it would be nice to see the cool circuit board with complete clarity, but the slippery surface isn't that nice to hold on to

_{peep the top right corner where i almost completely lifted a pad for the shoulder button. i've left a note so that if someone sees it in the future they know that, yes, i did make a mess, but i'm aware that i did it so it's obviously okay}

capacitor kits

the flex cable on the centre right here, as well as the GBA Power Cleaner in the next picture are part of a mild trend of whacking more capacitors on the gba to clean the power signal - i'm not entirely certain that this does anything meaningful (i suspect the answer is no because you can't really buy them anymore) but they were surprisingly cheap so i don't plan on taking them off

clean amp pro and funnyplaying speaker

i was never actually super bought in on buying a replacement amp for the gba. the main draw seems to be that the speaker is louder, but i never really thought that the gba speaker was too soft. in any case, i managed to damage the speaker cable while making some other modifications, and if you're going to buy a new speaker, you might as well shell out the extra twenty bucks for the amp that is made for it. i can't say that i can hear a noticeable difference in clarity - the gba audio is almost always pretty harsh and tinny, and cleaning up that audio might honestly make it worse. the thing is also much louder, loud enough that you can hear music clearly from the other side of the house if you crank it all the way up. do you really need that though? i'll let you decide

tactile button kit

this is the sleeper hit of my gba modding adventures. to the best of my knowledge no-one sells these on any of the big name stores, but a kit is quite affordable from aliexpress. the difference with these is absolutely night and day and i can't recommend them enough. besides the screen i think the buttons are the gba's only other real hardware failing, and this kit brings them up to speed with the gba sp. note that i've stuck a little bit of cereal box cardboard in the middle of the dpad - if you skip this step your dpad can sometimes bottom out on more than two directions at once, which feels very disconcerting. i'd say that this is a must-have modification to the modification

shoulder buttons

you might look at the shoulder buttons and go "hey, those just look like the normal shoulder buttons but spattered with solder flux!", and you would be mostly correct! i fell into the trap of buying clicky shoulder buttons when i first started messing with this gameboy, and while the clicky buttons feel great on the face buttons, the reduced travel and high actuation weight make the shoulder buttons a complete chore to use. luckily it seems that some kind soul on aliexpress has started selling the stock shoulder buttons again - just make sure you buy two because they're not sold in pairs. better yet, just stick with the stock buttons because they're fine

cleanjuice gba

a rechargeable battery is a bit of a must have in my opinion, and these usb c ones are super convenient. as with a lot of these parts funnyplaying has sort of become the default option, but they do make good stuff so i'm not going to complain. with this particular part i would recommend sticking the circuitboard to the battery but not sticking the battery to the case. this gives you freedom to stick normal batteries in if you ever need to do that, and also makes disassembly easier because you don't need to get under the usb c port to get at the case screw. i've also stuck a piece of thick rubber on the top right to push the battery against the battery cover and keep the whole thing in place. ymmv if this is necessary for the battery you get

ezflash omega

this flashcart is the most expensive part of the project, but if it saves me sifting through secondhand listings to get games i reckon it's worth it. the ezflash omega is the most feature-rich and straightforward to use of the flash carts on the market, and i only really take it out to mess with my childhood games that i still have kicking around. the omega also lets you run homebrew gba games like goodboy galaxy and even gbc homebrew titles like the melting apartment and pokemon coral. if you want to try the latter i would recommend loading the jagoomba patcher, as it fixes a bunch of weird gb and gbc bugs for the ezflash's onboard emulator