Game Boy Advance schematics now available thanks to Reverse Engineering

Nice!

You could actually already buy completely custom boards for a few GameBoy models, only transplanting the SoC from an original board.

But those are sold with an unjustifiably high profit margin, by the "loved by the community but actually quite shady" retro modding stores.

I just want a gameboy advance sp i can run some emulators on

I bought a Retroid Flip and have been really happy with it. I grew up with the game boy and have owned pretty much every iteration. Authentic is good but I think the utility of the android-based handheld can’t be beat. Especially given the high cost of the originals.
- Looks nice but thats more of a DS than an SP
I got a RG353VS off Amazon a few months back and am loving it. Good speakers, beautiful screen, USB C charging..... It came preloaded with a bunch of games.
- That’s not the form factor of an SP though :/ I want it to be able to close so it fits nicely in my pocket
Same but a Nintendo DS
- Looks like the Retroid Flip is what you’re looking for
- Flash cart?
- 3DS can emulate DS, my 2DS running homebrew can emulate DS, GBA, and everything prior. It's pretty cool.
That's the dream!

How come it took 20 years for a popular console? Sure, it probably takes some effort, maybe X-raying the boards, but a schematic can be created by someone with a desoldering oven and multimeter. Or sandpaper and flatbed scanner. At least they're free.

Edit: apparently includes full board recreation, that's better

The information has been available for a long time. And the method to get it was done by sanding down each layer and making scans, and tracing each line.
Without looking to much into this, apperantly the main new thing here is the way this information is compiled. Which may be quite the improvement in accessibility

Natalie the Nerd! <3

Are they well known? Glad this effort exists.
- I keep seeing their name on cool projects, and they're featured on RetroModding.
- Yeah, they released a few custom pcbs for Gameboy mods. I think the most recent one was a gameboy color to gameboy pocket retrofit pcb

This is the first post I've ever seen on a forum with zero downvotes

Not true anymore 🙃
- There's always that one person... 🫠

Awesome

I wonder if the shape of the button pads was chosen for functional or aesthetic reasons

I'm pretty sure this has been available for a while. I was using this site when I was working on my senior project in GBA emulation a couple years back

The outline kicad was uploaded 21 days ago

I mean, nothing stops you from just getting a pool going and then buying in more cost effective quantities
- I have participated in this with PCBs for keyboards and gamecube controllers (PhobGCC). It worked fine, but YMMV.
It's not very expensive to order 5 boards.

So?
- That is a wild factoid. I had no idea. I wonder how the fuck some shit like that even comes up. “Hey! Trans people are good at stuff just like regular people!”
Are you saying my modding hobby is going to lead to me mod my gender
- You know, sometimes I've wondered if that's why there's a weird correlation between the two. Engineers and scientists tend to grab physical reality in their hands and create something where there was nothing to change the status quo of existence.
  Reverse engineering and modding are the applied version of that when it comes to rules and constraints. Who's to say these types wouldn't also be keen on changing their own mortal reality as they like it?
- open the curtain and the window, take a deeeep breath.
Yes. There are, and it's fucking awesome because it's a space where we can say "the gender of the person who did all this great work has zero negative impact on the wonderful outcome!"
People can argue that trans actors can "feel out of place" or that trans athletes "ruin the spirit of competition." I don't agree with those perspectives, but I can see the (warped) logic behind them.
Here, there's nothing to possible complain about. Does the PCB function any differently because of who reverse engineered and recreated it? No. Should it impact one's experience gaming on this hardware? No, and if it does, said person has a problem disconnecting their personal beliefs from their objectivity.
- you'll note that I didn't say anything special but got downvoted to -76 :)