![Game Boy Advance SP with Pokemon Game Boy Advance SP with Pokemon](https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Game-Boy-Advance-SP-with-Pokemon-scaled.jpg)
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
As a twelve-year-old, my first brush with trendy console gaming was once with Nintendo’s Recreation Boy Advance SP. It wasn’t the primary online game I’d performed, however rising up in India, it was once uncommon to have get right of entry to to the newest and biggest consoles.
The Recreation Boy Advance presented me to a brand new global of power-ups courtesy of Tremendous Mario, epic storytelling by way of Ultimate Fable IV, my very own quest to be the perfect because of Pokémon, and masses of hours of leisure spent strategizing my subsequent transfer in Advance Wars. On the other hand, as existence is going, someplace alongside the road, my adolescence significant other were given left at the back of for larger and shinier issues.
As destiny would have it, I stumbled upon my previous console all the way through a contemporary house renovation challenge. Tossed away in a carton for a decade and a part, more than one area strikes, and an entire life aside, it was once transparent that point had no longer been sort to Nintendo’s greatest. A damaged display screen was once simply the primary in a protracted line of problems with the console. For those who’re the rest like me, you’ll perceive my nostalgia for old-school electronics and why restoring them has been a lifelong pastime for me. This offered the easiest alternative to carry the damaged Recreation Boy Advance SP again to its former glory.
Have you thought about restoring a antique gaming console?
26 votes
An international of choices to revive or improve
![Gameboy Advance SP with parts spread around it Gameboy Advance SP with parts spread around it](https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Gameboy-Advance-SP-with-parts-spread-around-it-scaled.jpg)
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Repairing electronics of any sort can also be daunting, however the very first thing that you wish to have to learn about solving up a gaming console is that it’s quite like taking part in with Lego. Precision engineering implies that, extra ceaselessly than no longer, you don’t have many cables and bobbins to determine. In lots of, however no longer all, circumstances, a restore is usually a easy change. On the other hand, that doesn’t imply this can be a stroll within the park, both.
In contrast to computer systems or smartphones, restoring a console typically simply comes to swapping modular parts.
Getting began with the console restore task, my first process was once to spot the precise fashion I had available. Maximum manufacturers generally tend to spruce up their TV and hand-held consoles over their lifetime. The PlayStation’s narrow variants, the upgraded Nintendo Switch with higher battery existence, and the Recreation Boy Advance SP with a brighter display screen are all examples of consoles which can be technically the similar, however other sufficient to require a cautious test of the precise fashion quantity.
With the fashion quantity recognized, it was once time to delve into the huge global of customization.
![handheld legend gameboy sp components handheld legend gameboy sp components](https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/handheld-legend-gameboy-sp-components.png)
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Unfashionable gaming as a interest has best grown through the years and a long time, and a thriving neighborhood exists to serve the wishes of customers who wish to repair and improve their consoles. Scouring thru one of the vital fundamental storefronts for console spares, Handheld Legend, it’s mindboggling to peer the type of innovation at play.
Pristine and OG, or pimped out with RGB lighting, the selection is yours.
Need to give your previous hand-held a glow-up within the type of a brand new shell and buttons? Simple. How about LED-lit buttons? No longer an issue. Desire a USB-C powered Recreation Boy Advance? Certain. How about including a colour display screen to a console that didn’t even send with one? You were given it!
In my case, I sought after to stay the revel in as just about the unique as conceivable, so I made up our minds to stay the upgrades minimum and best give my historic Recreation Boy Advance SP a brighter display screen. I additionally made up our minds so as to add contemporary buttons and a pointy new shell to the order, and then it was once only a subject of ready a couple of weeks for the goods to send. You may additionally want some specialised equipment available to get into your console of selection. As an example, relating to the Recreation Boy Advance, or for that subject, maximum Nintendo consoles, you’ll want a particular tri-wing screwdriver available to pry it open. I’d counsel grabbing it off Amazon whilst you stay up for the remainder of the parts to reach.
In case your console is simply too a ways long past in addition up, it may well be time to name within the experts.
Coming to the real console restore, the method can also be slightly trivial or extremely concerned relying on what you are attempting to succeed in. It is going with out announcing that in case your console is simply too a ways long past in addition up, it may well be time for some specialist assist.
Persistence is essential when repairing a console
![GameBoy Advance SP placed on a magazine GameBoy Advance SP placed on a magazine](https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GameBoy-Advance-SP-placed-on-a-magazine-scaled.jpg)
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
When you’ve spread out your online game console, any other factor to bear in mind is the positioning of the screws. Deep into the puzzle-like technique of opening up a console, it may be quite sophisticated to trace the place every screw is going. My recommendation? {Photograph} every step of the method, and stay screws segregated for every segment of the console.
Older consoles have a tendency to be slightly modular in development, and swapping portions is usually a easy unplug-and-replace revel in.
Maximum consoles are slightly modular of their method. It is smart since corporations needed to send hundreds of thousands of them out on release day. This makes unplugging and changing maximum parts rather simple. On the other hand, you’ll wish to be particularly cautious round ins and outs like shoulder buttons and hinges. Many older consoles used tension-loaded springs, which can also be astonishingly arduous to position in the right kind place. Be affected person, use a couple of tweezers, and don’t be afraid to take a spoil in case you’re discovering it too hectic. You for sure don’t wish to be ready like mine the place you unintentionally scrape off an element on a motherboard or lose a spring, necessitating weeks of looking forward to a alternative. Been there, carried out that. Caught someplace? Observe a video information.
I’d lower my tooth on repairing online game consoles as a interest and for pocket cash as a child, so it didn’t take me a lot more than an hour to strip down the console, give the internals a pleasing little bit of dusting, and update all of the exterior bits. The method is easy sufficient that it shouldn’t take a newbie a lot more than a Sunday afternoon.
Is it definitely worth the trouble?
![Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra GameCube Emulation with Xbox Controller In Hand Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra GameCube Emulation with Xbox Controller In Hand](https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Samsung-Galaxy-S20-Ultra-GameCube-Emulation-with-Xbox-Controller-In-Hand.jpg)
Now a few of you may well be wondering why I’d move during the long-winded procedure, and expense of repairing a long-dead piece of era. Nostalgia is a formidable drug, and for me, having my first reminiscence of a online game console in pristine situation was once praise sufficient. On the other hand, there are different causes to get going with a unfashionable console. For one, so far as one of the vital best video game console emulators have come, they are able to’t rather mirror the imperfections related to consoles from a bygone generation. For the ones folks who performed at the originals, the ones warts are part of the revel in, and the bit-perfect OLED revel in can ceaselessly remove from the attraction.
Emulation has come a ways however can not mirror the texture of a well-loved D-Pad, or the blocky perfection of a low-resolution show.
Then there’s the subject of controls, and on this case, portability. Possibly I’m taking a look thru rose-tinted glasses, however even the best handheld controllers can’t rather mirror the tactility of a well-loved D-Pad on an authentic controller. There’s additionally the small subject of sporting but any other tool with you if emulation is your jam. When it comes to my Recreation Boy Advance, the no-fuss, slide-in a cartridge and get-gaming method is a large plus. No notifications, no distractions, simply gaming.
![Nintendo Game Boy Advance with broken screen Nintendo Game Boy Advance with broken screen](https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Nintendo-Game-Boy-Advance-with-broken-screen.jpg)
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
The million-dollar query, in fact, is whether it is value it. And the one resolution to this is, sure, for the appropriate particular person. Modern day emulation has gotten to some extent the place maximum informal players could be extremely joyful to load up a legally bought reproduction in their favourite unfashionable gaming, slap on a conveyable controller, and phone it an afternoon. On the other hand, for many who need the true deal, old-school revel in, or wish to take a commute down reminiscence lane, best the enjoyment of resuscitating a cherished piece of tech that has introduced them masses, if no longer hundreds of hours of pleasure will lower it. I do know which camp I’m in.
Now, directly to solving that different Recreation Boy I picked up from a scrap backyard.