Don't want to mod your Game Boy/Pocket/Color/Advance? Here's how I made an external light that actually works!

Nintendo's Game Boy line is something very close to my heart. Over the course of my life, I've owned and enjoyed every iteration of the plucky handheld, from DMG to Color to Micro, and everything inbetween. As anyone who grew up with the earlier versions of the Game Boy will atest to however, the complete lack of an internal light was always, to put it politely, something of a hindrance. Various third-party companies tried to step in with numerous solutions, and these ranged from the bulky, battery-powered add-ons produced for the DMG to the small, flexible worm-lights that everyone with a Game Boy Color seemed to own.They all had one thing on common though; none of them really worked. Whether it was due to the light being, so small and focused that it merely illuminated one tenth of the screen, or because the light was so dim that it could give Paris Hilton a run for her money. The struggle for 90's kids was real.

Fast forward to the modern day and quite amazingly, numerous options now exist to retrofit and mod our old machines and finally give our adult selves the privilege that we never had as kids; to play our Game Boys in the dark.

Backlight kits in a rainbow of colours are cheap to buy and readily available for DMGs and Pockets. Dozens of thoroughly detailed guides exist on how to remove the front, or backlit screens from GBA SP machines and fit them into a standard GBA. There are even brand-new, knock-off screens available to buy from China so that you don't have to butcher a doner SP.

And yet, whilst these solutions will no doubt satisfy most players, they aren't completely without issue.

Firstly, all of the above require a steady-hand and a reasonable amount of skill with a soldering iron, and of course, the equipment needed to go with it. If not, then you'll need to pay someone who knows what they are doing, which of course can come at a price. A pre-made backlit Game Boy Advance might set you back around £100 or more, and a backlit DMG around £60.

Secondly, not everyone is comfortable with modding in general. For some, each and every surviving Game Boy is a genuine piece of gaming history, and should kept as original as possible.

Thirdly, none of the mods are entirely perfect. Front lights give the screen a washed out appearance with muted colours (especially on Game Boy Colors). DMG backlights diminish contrast with out extra modification in the form a bivert chip. AGS 101 screens suffer from ghosting, with the Chinese made screens being slightly more susceptable.

It's for all of these reasons that, I, myself began searching for an alternative solution. One that was cheap, didn't require soldering experience and equipment, and one that didn't require any modification of the Game Boy itself. And by jove, I think I've found it...

Say hello to an external light that actually works!

Quite impressive, eh? It provides an incredibly bright light with great coverage, and it shows the natural colour and sharpness of the Game Boy Color's screen in all it's glory. Clearly technology has moved on somewhat since the days of the wormlight!

Let's see how it looks on some other Game Boys.

Not too shabby! Not quite AGS 101 quality but I think it's a definite improvement over the front-light, certainly in terms of colour.

Even the DMG's blurry, pea-green screen looks pretty playable, though mine has seen better days with large strip of the screen needing repair. 

If this looks like something you'd like for your own Game Boy, then I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that it's dirt cheap and easy to find. The bad news is, it involves going outside and if you're outside of the U.K. then sadly this isn't going to be quite as simple.

 If you are in the U.K however then all you need to do is pop down to your local Tesco Supermarket (a decent sized one that is, not the little metro ones) and make your way to section with the lightbulbs and torches. Look for the thing called a 'Mini Clamp On Light'.

It'll set you back a mere £6 and for that the box promises a 100,000 hours of life in the bulbs! That's a lot of Tetris! The light is powered by AAA batteries, so if you don't already have a recharger and some rechargable batteries I'd highly recommed picking that up too.

Now obviously this thing was never intended for use on a Game Boy so we're going to have to find a good way attatching it. What follows is how I went about doing that, but there are probably lots of creative ways in which you could go about it.

I found my solution in the British mecca of cheap tat; Poundland.

This cheap and cheerful phone tripod, usuprisingly set me back £1. The only part I was interested in was the springy phone holder which handily unscrews from the legs easily.

The little ridges on the back make this even more perfect as it can provide a nice secure housing to attatch our light to.

I went back to my 'Mini Clamp On Light' and armed with a craft knife I removed the the clamp and made a nice flat surface. I then cut a square section from a plastic store card (I used an old RAC card) so that it was the perfect size to fit snuggly into the phone clip grooves. (I used a little electrical tape to thicken it to make it more secure.)
 

I then superglued a penny to centre of the card to act as a spacer, and then superglued the penny to the light where the clamp was. (You could use a washer or something instead if you're worried about defacing her maj's face or destroying the U.K economy.)

And that's it! You have your self a pretty nifty external Game Boy light.

The importance of making the plastic card a square is that in enable you to slide the light in horizontially and vertically. This is because of the way the springy clip attatches in a different way for the Game Boy Advance.

I prefer to have the light clipped on at the top of my GBC as it doesn't interfere with my grip on the unit. It has the downside of not being able to switch the game on and off, and adjust the volume with it on though. It can be clipped on lower down though if you'd prefer.

Now, whilst I showed off how the light illuminates a DMG screen, sadly the clip I used is not really up to the task and struggles to fit securely around the Game Boy's bulk. It just about manages, but I wouldn't really recommend it.

So that's all there is to say really. I can honestly say I've found mine invaluable and it gets used pretty much on a daily basis on my Game Boy Color. It's not going to be a solution that suits everyone but if you want a cheap, easy, non-invasive alternative to modding your system then I don't think you could do any better.

If anyone from outside of the U.K is still reading this, then I'd love to know if you can find any similar products to the 'mini clamp on light' in your own countries. Let me know if you do and I'll post them here to help others in future. Or if you're absolutely desperate to own one just like this, then contact me and I might be up for shipping the light and clip out to you at your cost.

Anyway, thanks for checking out this post and I hope you found it useful!

email: timelessgaminguk@gmail.com