Using the LCD from a Gameboy

[Tagler]

---

[Oreo_The_Cookie]

From GameBoy FAQ (http://hiwaay.net/~jfrohwei/gameboy/faq.html)

It is possible but complicated. The LCD interface to GameBoy is
very similar to other large screen LCDs in that a CRT controller
is really required. The reason for this is that all 23,040 pixels
(160x144) have to be written or "refreshed" 60 times a second the
same way that a TV has to constantly redraw or else there won't
be any picture. This is required even if what your trying to display
is static and never changes. This is all the info I have at the
moment.

[drunkmonkey]

Ok, well puters can give any refreshrate they want, how would you go about setting up the gameboy lcd as a second monitor?

[SniperXX]

LOL man. I was just thinking of hacking up my old gameboy color that I never use. If anyone has seen an article post a link or PM me, since I would like to see an article B4 I mess with my GBC.

[Element-Xero]

ditto.

[drunkmonkey]

Everywhere I look i get oreo's response. I don't give a ***** if it is hard to do or requires a lot of electronic knowledge, how do i do it, what do i need? Anyone got links to the actual goods?

[Oni]

I would imagine if you found a good site that told you how to hook up regular ones, you coudl pretty much adapt it to the Gameboy screen

Try Google :)

[Oreo_The_Cookie]

http://www.devrs.com/

more specifically http://www.devrs.com/gb/hardware.php#hardlink

Pretty technical and I haven't seen and actual step by step tutorials but the best I've found so far

[Borgy]

would a Game Boy colour or Game Boy Advance screen work too ?
thanx
Borgy

[Element-Xero]

if you're gonna tear open a $90 GBA (a crime in itself) you should just buy a PSone screen and mod it to interface with your vid cards tvout. Its half the price, and way better quality. Plus less hassle.

[Borgy]

I can get hold of a game boy Advance very cheeply theres loads of the in the 2nd hand stores going for about £30 CAN each

No one wants them by the looks of it just one store had 7 of them
as for A PS LCD i can find one here in canada (or someone who ships to canada)
well only the sony LCD @ $200 CND
so theres the math
sony at $200
or a
GBA for $30
iv only lost $30 if it dont work out

[two_dope2000]

Thats a good idea about the psone screen, i think ill look into that

[Element-Xero]

there was a bunch of threads around on them last week. Try searching the alt. modding section.

[drunkmonkey]

Originally posted by two_dope2000
Thats a good idea about the psone screen, i think ill look into that

If I had a buncha cash layin round i would do that, but Im one of those ppl who always likes to have $20 in his pocket so I'm never broke. Does the lcd have rca connectors? or ps connectors?

[Element-Xero]

its RCA, but you can buy an adapter (or make one if you don't wanna spend twenty bucks on a simple adapter) to make it interface with the TVout port on your vidcard.

[h0mersimps0n]

Yikes, I have a 8 year old GameGear laying around collecting spider webs. Now THAT would be a mod, specially since those things are backlit!!!!!

hmmmmmm

[TimDgsr]

Originally posted by h0mersimps0n
specially since those things are backlit!!!!!

you sure about that? i'm pretty sure even the game boy advanced isn't backlit. from what I remember nintendo always sold those geeky lights that mount to it and hover over the screen.

edit: nintendo is cheap ;) (http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/gba_backlit.html)

[o0OBruceLeeO0o]

instead of spending 100$+ on a psone screen why dont you buy a 17" monitor for 90$?

[Penguin4x4]

If you try it, you are one brave sonnafagun! :D:D:D


http://www.devrs.com/gb/files/gameboy2.gif




http://www.devrs.com/gb/files/gameboy1.gif

[h0mersimps0n]

LOL

I was talking about the gamegear being backlit, not the gameboy... gameboys never have and aren't backlit...

[Element-Xero]

unless you got an afterburner...



but also, the psone screens are only 49 dollars, and instead of buying a really really ****ty monitor for 99 bucks at best buy that takes up too much room and accomplishes nothing, you could spend half of that to get a functional mini-lcd panel that would be space-saving, useful, and frankly much cooler.

[o0OBruceLeeO0o]

Originally posted by Element-Xero
unless you got an afterburner...



but also, the psone screens are only 49 dollars, and instead of buying a really really ****ty monitor for 99 bucks at best buy that takes up too much room and accomplishes nothing, you could spend half of that to get a functional mini-lcd panel that would be space-saving, useful, and frankly much cooler.


oh hehe :)

[TimDgsr]

Originally posted by h0mersimps0n
LOL

I was talking about the gamegear being backlit, not the gameboy... gameboys never have and aren't backlit...

lol, my bad then ;)

excuse me while i feel retarded for not reading

yeah the gamegear screen was a nice one

[Mpegger]

Using a Game Gear screen might be easier, since the Game Gear itself is just a portable Master System with a screen built in. If Sega didn't use a direct method of controlling the screen, then they might have just used normal TV signaling methods. Remember, they had the TV tuner for it that allows NTSC signals to output on the screen. Maybe the built in LCD is just a monitor that could accept a line level input. I think I'll search the web myself and see if anyones done any hackings/mods with a Game Gear.

[jayson]

ive got an old gameboy, id be intrested in modding, if anyone knows how!!!???

[Borgy]

yeah a game gaer that even cheeper still and iv its easyer too
bonus

[Tbird man]

i opened up a gamegear a while back cause the bottom 1/8 of the screen was black and i found out that they use a neon for backlight. it wouldent be too hard to mod a 4" CCFL to work in there. i will see if i still have that thing around.

[Penguin4x4]

http://www.gamesx.com/index2.htm

Just found this on Google

[h0mersimps0n]

dang, I still have the TV tuner for my gamegear also!!! you guys kill me!!

MOD MOD MOD MOD MOD MOD MOD MOD MOD

[Mpegger]

I found out that the panel in the Game Gear accepts RGB inputs, but I haven't found out any other information other then "it would be possible to use the screen in other applications".:rolleyes:

I got a small 2 1/4 inch TV that has a video input I may use just to play around with. My GF3 doesn't support NView so it would be pointless to use that screen to really do anything with it.

[Tbird man]

i think i am going to buy an old Game Gear and use the screen from that for a car pc. would anyone know haw i would go about finding where to attach the RGB to?

[RoadWarrior]

Yeah I heard a while back that the Game Gear had some video input on the expansion connector or whatever for the tv tuner. If it's RGB and you're gonna use it for non graphics intensive stuff (i.e. not return to wolfenstein 3D) then an old Trident TGUI 9680 PCI or Cirrus logic PCI card and the information at www.epanorama.net should get you quick results. They have dos drivers for NTSC standard signals out of generic VGA cards there. Also there are some drivers around for win 95 and some instructions for setting up X window for display to an NTSC standard display. I've done one of these convertors before, for an RGB TV, worked great. If it's composite then a cheapy card with composite out is the best bet rather than screwing around with convertor chips.

IF you just want a small LCD with video input and can't be bothered tracking down a Game Gear then www.allelectronics.com have some 3inc to 5ins.

Road Warrior

[Turando]

if you think you can do that mod then try it, whats the worse that can happen?

Turando

[Mpegger]

The video input on the TV Tuner module for the Game Gear is either a external antenna input, or an actual video/audio input, or maybe it has both. I dunno since I never got one for mine.

But the screen itself supports RGB internally. It would just be a matter of finding the controller chip for the screen and then the inputs for it.

Plenty of Game Gears being sold on eBay, although most ppl are selling them with games. But you can still find the occasional $10-$15 one with a scratched plastic screen or case.

I just found some more info on the net about the pins. 3 of the pins in the cartridge port are used for the TV module. 1 pin is the TV signal itself, and the other 2 are for the left and right audio. I'm guessing that the single TV input pin is a line level signal, like the RCA connectors on the back of a VCR. I would say that would be the simplest way of using the LCD as a separate screen, but it would require you to keep pratically the whole unit in one piece. There is a active "forum" though where you may be able to find some more info. http://geocities.com/vjkemp/sega/ has a link to the forum and also has the pinouts for the cartridge port.

[Tbird man]

could my onbord video putout RGB? it is an 810e chipset mobo.

[Penguin4x4]

Computer graphics use RGB, so yes,

[myarse]

i wanted to add the psone screen or some other small 5inch lcd display using the duel view / tvout on my ti4200 but had problems with running the 2 screens and what applications ran on what screen.

i wanted mbm display on the lcd and everything else on my monitor. this was easy to setup and worked ok until i ran some 3d application mainly 3dmark 2001 and 2003.

2001 always ran on the lcd no matter what nview settings i had and 2003 said i didnt have a 3d card.

this would be such a cool mod if only i could get nview working.

good job i tested this on a normal tv before i spent my cash on the screen.

[Fuzzbeaner]

Well, I don't want to open my GG and risk this if it doesn't work, however: MESSAGE TO BLACKHABIT

http://geocities.com/vjkemp/sega/connect.txt

There, it appears to me if you use pins 41 and 43 (or where they hook up on your GG rather) attach an RCA cable and boot, it'll just take up the signal from that....maybe. In conclusion, I ask that you try this out before I do, because I have no courage. Cheers!

-Jeff

[nixie]

I think the method will have to be reverse engineering of the screen conectors to map the rgb inputs and power inputs, then splicing a rgb cable onto the corrrect inputs and suppling a new power source for the screen. I'm looking into getting a nomad to do this with (apparently the screen is better on the nomad). One of the earlier links should a portable snes which had the nomad screen used in this manner

[Neo Demi]

the ps mini lcd sounds like an idea to me, anyone have the schematics for a converter to plug it into my graphics card tvout, its an r9000, so i have a choice of the tvout, or the crt thing which can be adapted to give a second monitor connector, wonder what uses the crt connector could be...hmm, 60 hz refresh rate perhaps?:)

[Ffats]

Originally posted by TimDgsr


you sure about that? i'm pretty sure even the game boy advanced isn't backlit. from what I remember nintendo always sold those geeky lights that mount to it and hover over the screen.

edit: nintendo is cheap ;) (http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/gba_backlit.html)

The GameBoy Advance does not have a backlight - the GBA SP does.

There's also an easy way to get the GBA on your screen - they came out with an adapter that attaches to the GameCube (which is very cheap right now). GameBoy Player (http://www.gameboyplayer.com/)

But hey, its always cooler making it yourself :D

[DarkDraco]

um Ffats, they dont want to show the gba on the computer screen, they want to show the computer on the gba screen.

anyways. everyone is talking about using the gb / gg screen as a second monitor. anyone know a way to make it only display computer stats? like ive seen some lcd screens people made for the comp and programed it to show windows version, mhz, ram, etc.

[Smirabi]

yeah, those screens are usually just showing their motherboard monitor info. i think.

[Minx]

Sups
i was thinking about putting a playstation 2 screen on my computer. U need a dvi to vga adapter. then u need to splice the vga cable and divide it up. Here is a link to site where someone did it and he tells u how to. Go to http://users.adelphia.net/~mowry/new_page_1.htm

out

[Nightingale]

As much as I would love to have an lcd I couldn't bare to rip up my Gamegear. So where else can you get a dirt cheap color LCD with built in controller?

[Minx]

Well...The playstation 2 screen is like 150 and the gamecube one is like 100. But if u want cheaper, I saw another thread on liek the fourth or fifth page that had the subject as like lcd screen attaching or sumthing. They gave a site where he bought his.

[DarkDraco]

why dont you just get a Pelican PSone screen? it has a built in vga adapter and you can hook up anything that has the 3 collor wire (yellow, red, white). i was playing my xbox and snes on it the other day. its only like 30-40$ now.

[Minx]

Wow
can u really hook it up to abything with the 3 wires? It has a vga cord right? And its only 40$! wow. Does it have good color?

[Wolfe]

Originally posted by Element-Xero
but also, the psone screens are only 49 dollars,


I would LOVE to know where you found a PS screen for 50$

[Deathmasher]

what about that monster sega thing that has a direct input RGB screen you could just use a video jack

[tom10167]

http://www.gexpress.com/detailedspecs.cfm?returndept=SEARCHRESULT&returnpage=1&returndesc=lcd&number=711719401704 And I had a hell of a time finding it, too.

http://www.psxa2z.com/batscrn.html - $85

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3065604013&category=1489 - Ebay.


http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?query=LCD+PSone&ht=1&sosortproperty=1&from=R10&BasicSearch= - All of E-bay.

[DarkDraco]

sorry it was Interact, not pelican. it shows nice and sharp. i got it used from Funcoland over a year ago used. I saw it sitting on my PSOne and decided since its not in use, to hook it up to the pc. i opening it up and made my own svideo->rca adapter to hook it up to my 9800. nice this is its little control thing. It has 2 mini speakers, brightness control, color->black white control, game/av switch (swithc between the 2 different video modes), volume control, and a power switch.

Im thinking of cutting my 2 floppy drive black plates so that 1 will have the control switches and dials the other will have the yellow/red/white plugs so i can hook stuff up to the computer and watch it on the little screen with its own speakers

[Lord_Zoltan]

so has anyone been successful at modding the GB screen into an LCD to show stats from the computer?