For the last 20 years, I’ve wanted a Game Boy Advance. I specifically remember seeing it on one of those sticker albums my cousin had, and it was one of the prices you could win if you completed it. Ever since, I’ve been wondering when or how I’d be able to get one… and well, here it is.

I ended up getting this “refurbished” unit online, the shell was a crappy replacement and the motherboard was full of corrosion from battery leakage. But despite that, it worked fine and it didn’t have many issues… but this pink shell feels so cheap, and I thought it’d be a good idea to replace it. And I cleaned the board further while I was at it. Originally I wasn’t gonna buy this thing, you see, I saw these two GBAs for sale in Japan, but the listing was a bit deceptive as it just said “Game Boy Advance with original screen” and the description said they had “no base”… which I later found out meant they had no motherboard.

But my shells arrived yesterday, so I went ahead and took this thing apart. I had to get a special tri-wing screwdriver, which is what Nintendo consoles use in order to prevent idiots like me from taking them apart. Next is taking apart two more screws on the inside (there are supposed to be 3) and the motherboard comes out.

I also got an IPS screen kit that allows me to actually see the damn thing. The GBA by itself has no back or front light of any kind, which was one of the main problems when this thing came out. A lot of early games had to compensate by making the colors more pale so that they’re easier to see on a darker screen, but this does come with the side effect of making games look very washed out if you’re using an illuminated screen. I tested the screen, and it works fine. So I went ahead and did a very shoddy job at installing it, I decided to not use the adhesive just yet.

And well, after a bit of messing around and putting it back together, the console works pretty well. The flashcard I got does have some issues though, apparently it uses more power than regular GBA games and it sometimes doesn’t load or crashes in the middle of the game. I don’t encounter these issues on my DS, since that uses a lithium battery. Other games worked just fine though, including my motion controlled ones.

Alongside the shells though, I figured I’d also get a pouch to store this thing. It’s a nice bright orange pouch with a belt clip on the back. If my GBA was orange, this would’ve matched perfectly, but the translucent blue version just feels right to me.

And well, my 20 year quest towards getting one of these things is finally over. Even through all this garbage, I’m still pretty happy with the end result. There are so many other consoles I’d love to add to my collection, but this was the big one for me. I might consider getting some more physical games if I can find them for cheap, and one thing I still haven’t tried are original Game Boy/Game Boy Color games, so I gotta do that in the future.

A bit of a shorter post this time, but I figured I’d write about something I was interested in for once. See you all in the next post.