My install went surprisingly well, with the follwing caveats:
I completely screwed up the anti-reflective film. It got a big old hair on it right in the beginning, before I had even removed much of the covering. In the process of trying to “fix” the hair with scotch tape, it freaked out and got these permanent looking fingerprints, and bubbles on it. And a giant piece of dust. So I said fuck it, and left that part out.
You WILL want a dremel for this. The afterburner lays on top of the LCD, and presses against the “face” of the GBA. This requires pieces of the case to be cut out. Not huge pieces, mind you, but the big deal is that the cuts need to be VERY flat, almost recessed actually. And the space is a little awkward; you almost want to cut straight down instead of at an angle. I have a dremel but I didn’t have the ideal tips for this job. Even with what I consider a pretty darn good cutting job-- I ran my finger across the cuts and they seemed very flat with no bumps-- I still get a little “trapezoid effect” and the thickest part of the afterburner, the base, was clearly sticking out a bit when I mounted it.
The install is complex enough without futzing with the brightness dial-- additional soldering, additional case cutting and mounting, etc. I don’t recommend going for that. Also be sure to cut the wires if you decide to forgo the brightness dial, otherwise they’re ridiculously long. In any case, the wires end up “behind” the battery compartment, which has plenty of room for any slack.
The end result is nice, though: a truly bright GBA. Maybe too bright!
The contrast takes a HUGE hit. Imagine turning your gamma up to about 2.0+ and playing Quake, and you’ll have some idea of what I mean. I tried out some DOOM, and instead of looking dark and generally unplayable, now it’s super bright and playable, but it’s still difficult to discern edges due to the lack of contrast. :(
The AR film was a “new” addition to the afterburner kit a few months ago so I’m guessing this is a problem endemic to front-lighting. I ordered some replacement AR film and I’m hoping that will at least alleviate the problem a bit.
Still, don’t get me wrong. I’ll take “somewhat gamma washed out but playable anywhere” over “only playable in supernaturally perfect lighting conditions”. And with ambient lighting, god forbid you move your hands or shift your head while playing! I was really struggling with the worm light and Colin McRae Rally 2.0 (which is fantastic, btw, fully polygonal cars and great physics)-- I never knew whether I screwed up a turn because I couldn’t see at the time, or because I made a mistake.
Anyway, there’s a thread on the official messageboards about the contrast issue:
The Sears 1/16" pen-style flathead screwdriver (it’s the one with the yellow top) works great on the so-called tri-wing GBA screws. I read some complaints about stripping, but I didn’t have any troubles at all.
The part that I found most daunting* was removing the plastic sections from the front of the case to make room for the afterburner. As it turns out, you can buy pre-modded front case sections from Microsoft’s favorite web site, http://www.lik-sang.com ; just check the GBA section. Handy if you want to skip the tedious dremelling/cutting. For most people this part takes the longest. It did for me anyway.
I’ve been reading the forum a bit (see below link-- dense, but lots of good hands on install advice in there) and it sounds like the AR film on the LCD does help a lot with the lack of contrast problem I have. So, whenever that arrives, I’ll post my before and after impressions.
except for the AR film I screwed up. It’s hard to make sense of the addendums to the instructions on their web site, but this is one you want to make note of: INSTALL THE AR FILM IMMEDIATELY AFTER REVEALING THE LCD.
Got the replacement AR films. I’m getting pretty good at disassembling the GBA and handling its innards-- I had compressed air, scotch tape, and a flashlight handy this time-- so it went fairly smoothly.
Short answer: the AR film makes a HUGE difference. Doom, which is pretty much the worst scenario for the GBA’s non-backlitness EVAR … is totally playable now. Contrast is good, blacks look black again, and colors look decently saturated.
I did get a few small bubbles in the film. I was meticulous about checking for dust with the flashlight, and I don’t see any dust under the bubbles, so I think they are just that: bubbles. From what I read on the forums (see above link), those tend to disappear over time by themselves. Also, leaving the GBA in a hot car or even putting it in the oven (!) also works to help dissipate air bubbles.
Anyway, I can heartily recommend this mod. It’s a pain in the ass, but doable, and the end result is DEFINITELY worth the effort now that I have the AR film.
My install (I was in the first batch of orders) was very easy and quick. Since I had no soldering experience, I had a friend do that part. Anyway, the only problem I had were three airbubbles left on the AR film (that was always in the kit, BTW) when I was done. I was going to order some more, but procrastinated on it, and it turned out for the better. Two days after, one of the air bubbles was gone. A few weeks later, the second one disappeared. And the third and most stubborn air bubble was gone only last month. Not sure if this has to do with the pressure from the outer plastic or the heat from the screen, or both, but it looks perfect now, not even a mark where the bubbles were.
Any sort of add on is unacceptale to me, this is how the GBA is meant to be played. I really don’t think Nintendo could have done much better had they decided to include a light with the GBA.
I would not call this modification “easy” nor “quick”, but I am immensely pleased with the results… post AR-film application, anyway.
The sucky part is that if you want this done, good luck getting any online vendor to do it for you, either as a prebuilt or as a mod for your system… they’re all backordered until next century. That’s basically the only reason I bit the bullet and did mine myself.
Thanks for the Lik-Sang link, Wumpus. I ordered one of the cool Afterburner-labeled replacement covers with the dimmer switch. Saved me having to borrow Jason’s Dremel. :-)
(Normally I’d do it all myself… But with the six-week-old in the house, shortcuts are a good thing!)
Well, it was easy because I, having never even used the dremel or taken apart the GBA before, didn’t have any problems. The soldering took about a minute and I’m sure I could have done it but just played it safe and let a friend do it. Total time didn’t exceed an hour, which isn’t quick for fast food, but for what was being done, I thought that was pretty quick.
Anyway, it rocks, and I can’t recommend it enough. It is exactly one million times better than any add-on light. Now I need a mod that adds on the X and Y buttons and fixes all of my games to use them properly…
Btw, that link Tom posted. The one to the Happy Place. Is now accepting orders again. I just went ahead and ordered an Afterburnered model, gonna gift my regular GBA to a friend.
