Product ReviewsNintendo Game Boy Color Handheld System - Atomic Purple

Can play in the dark

I already had a normal, unmodified Game Boy Color in good condition but I bought this so I could play on original hardware in the dark without having to perform any mods myself.

Front-lit Screen:
First, I understand that this will never look as good as a modern back-lit screen. The light feels like it has a slight tint to it, but it's because the GBC doesn't have a pure white background, not from the light itself. There are little imperfections in the screen (little bubbles in the adhesive between the screen and the light) and from what I understand it's near impossible to get rid of them all. I expected this, and I figured I'd rather trust someone else who's experienced to do a better job with the mod than I could.

After playing for several days, the imperfections don't bother me. Though, be sure to experiment with different color palettes on original games as sometimes the default green/pink is hard to see with the light. I've not done rigorous battery tests, but I put in some old batteries and the front-light in this GBC was so low I thought it was broken. Fresh batteries and it works fine. So something to think about - at the tail end of your batteries the front-light may start to fail, but you'll still be able to play.

Replacement Shell: I like the replacement shell. It looks and feels brand new. The only visible difference is that a regular GBC has the Nintendo support hotline sticker on the battery door and this one has an embossed GameBoy logo, which looks fine.

Replacement buttons:
Here's where I had the most problem with this product. The buttons (esp B and A) didn't register as well as in my un-modded GBC. I really had to mash down the buttons to make a good connection. It was most obvious navigating menus, where I could sit there tapping A lightly over and over and nothing would happen. Also the power switch wiggled a little bit and made a click noise whenever I touched it.

Rather than go through the hassle of sending it back, I decided to pop it open. Ultimately, several fit and finish issues were causing the innards to not close together snugly and so the buttons didn't hit all of the time. Here's what I had to fix:

1. The power wires for the front-light were getting pinched by the replacement shell, so that the front of the shell was being pushed out, lifting the buttons a mm or two higher than they should be. I fixed it by shaving the plastic where the wires were passing through so the shell would rest flush where it wanted to.

2. Part of installing the front-light means removing the normal padding behind the screen to make room. There were still a couple globs of padding and adhesive goo behind the screen (maybe 3mm thick) on one edge, causing the screen to torque slightly and again push the front of the shell out. I scraped off the globs and everything fit much nicer after that.

3. The rubber membranes under the problematic B and A buttons felt fine, but they were a little dirty, so I cleaned them. (The other membranes under the other buttons were fine.)

4. Part of the problem is the replacement buttons themselves. I compared them with real GBC buttons, and the replacements are in fact about 1mm shorter overall and are molded slightly different on the inside (where they touch the membranes). So turns out they are a little more sensitive to the gaps caused by the issues I identified above.

5. The external power switch has two little nubs that reach in and move the "actual" switch on the circuit board. The molding of the replacement external switch is close, but not a perfect match to a real one. When the shell was being pressed outward, the switch was just loose enough that the little nubs weren't aligned and would "click" against the internal switch. Fixing the issues above stopped the clicking.

Ultimately the GBC works great. It was a little annoying to have to fix things myself but I can see how it would have passed a quick "turn on, game starts, press some buttons" test. If I didn't have another GBC to compare with I might not have noticed and just got used to pressing harder. I'm still glad that I didn't have to to the light-mod myself, though in the future I'd probably stick to original buttons and shells.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: thegodofgaming

Does the job

It worked.I was able to satisfy some nostalgia. The sound didn’t work at all; would just make a static noise.

The case was in good condition, screen didn’t have any scratches. No other issues.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: primotv

Collectors and Nostalgia-holics only!

The Gameboy Color portable...

The Nintendo Gameboy was, by far, the most popular of any handheld console at the time. The Gameboy Color marked a turning point for the console, ushering in an era of full-color gaming for Nintendo. Far from the first (color handhelds had been out since the release of the original Gameboy), it featured a very disappointingly difficult to see, transflective LCD screen. If you were not directly lighting the screen, it was uselessly dark and hard to see. The choice by Nintendo to stay with a very primitive screen technology was not without it's reasons, however. In addition to being vastly cheaper to produce, it also allowed a much more simple LCD section, negating bulky CCFL lights, reflectors, polarizers, and the bulky inverter circuitry to drive the lighting. This is the reason that all the color, backlit portables (Sega's Gamegear, Nomad, Atari's Lynx mk1 and mk2, and NEC's TurboExpress) required more batteries, of which only lasted about 10 hours at best, and added substantial weight, in addition to the bulky LCD lighting components.

Nintendo's LCD choice allowed the console to run for at least 30 hours on fresh batteries, made the console small enough to fit in your pocket, and kept costs down.

Nearly 20 years later, since its release, the screen technology does NOT hold up to modern standards. With bight, beautiful and calibrated cell-phone screens everywhere, the dismal, slow, transflective screen of the Gameboy color just... sucks. Get a frontlight!

Speaking of backlights/frontlights... There's a good technical reason that backlight kits aren't more popular for these: It's because, since the LCD is transflective, the light is reduced/colorized/polarized going into the LCD, and it is done AGAIN when the light comes from the reflector. In other words, if you backlight one of these, the colors will only be at 50% of their potential saturation. Due to the glare of frontlight/lightguide kits, and the dramatic increase of the relative black level, they are equally washed-out and difficult to see.

Why some Chinese company has not cashed in on a substantial market of modders and collectors, and made either an OLED or an IPS-based panel for these, as well as the Pocket/original, is beyond me. I mean, you can find higher-resolution, larger panels for under $10 on eBay; none of them would feasibly work on here, due to mechanical differences.

Overall, if you're a nostalgic collector looking for original, actual hardware to play your games on, you need one of these. If you just want to play some classic games, get a Gameboy Advance SP AGS-101, or an original AGB-001 with a modded, backlit screen (they were transflective junk, originally).

Protip: when you first power-on the console, if you're playing a non-color game, hold LEFT and B, then flick the power switch ON; it'll put the console into monochrome mode. This also works on the Gameboy Advance/SP. There are many, many more button combos to change the pallet of mono games in the GBC.Read full review...

Very painful for your eyes: go with GBA SP, preferably AGS-101 model.

A very good system with an extremly large library of games. It's comfortable to hold in your hands, it can use rechargeable batteries, so you don't need to bother about a built-in battery to lose its capacity.
But there is one big issue: the screen is NOT backlit. If there is no good light in the place you play it - you don't see anything. There are some workarounds, but none of them gets it right. So your eyes can get EXTREMELY tired while playing a Game Boy Color, even with good lighting.
Since Game Boy Advance SP has got a frontlight (and I personally recommend a backlit AGS-101 model) and it supports the whole library of Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, think twice before buying this one, you may better go with GBA SP instead (original GBA has got the same issue with its screen: some people say it's even more problematic).
But otherwise, this model is a very good collector's item.Read full review...

Great Product

Bought this product the other week as I am a huge gaming fan, growing up in the 80s when it all started and 90s when GB Color was released it was very cool to be able to get my hands on a piece of gaming history.

The quality is superb and well done, the backlit Mod is well executed, overall counsel condition of this handheld was near mint!! Would never know it wasn't just taken out of its box! Being able to play GB Color in the dark is huge!Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: thegodofgaming

Amazing system for the right price!

I wish I could give a deeper feedback, but the system works just about fine, it wasn't dirty and while showing some wear it is nothing too distracting. The fact it came with the battery cover is equally impressive.

The only downside I could think of would be that the headphone jack doesn't provide the best sound quality, but I can't be sure if that is because of the jack or how the GBC sound system worked really. Besides that, I lovely system to recall childhood memories!Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: superjustincat

The good old days of gaming on the go.

The Game Boy Color goes without speaking it has great battery life, a great selection of games spanning over 10 years and superb reliability.

It's really hard to review something like this because without games it has no function but I prefer original systems rather than what goes on today.Read full review...

Works great, like brand new!

This refurbished Gameboy Color is great! The glass lens makes it look brand new, and it feels exactly like it did the day it came out!
These Gameboys don't have backlights and unfortunately the Gameboy Color can't be backlit. There are frontlight kits, but I've found them to make the image look too washed or faded. Just play it in good lighting and it looks great!Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: the-game-boy

Excellent condition! Great price! Looks new. Would definitely recommend.

Was very satisfied with this product. It looks like it's new. Love the color. It has no scratches or defects and it works great.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: 02octavian

Wonderful!!

I had one when they first came out and my parents bought me one on Christmas! It was the best gift ever! But, unfortunately i dropped it in a puddle of water in a rainy day and stopped working and had to throw it away. Looks like new and works great! Thank you for a great product that brought childhood memories!Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: jmoran924

Always fun to play!

Gameboys are a great buy, they're easy to use and most games are simple to play for all ages. I love that you can take the handheld anywhere but i find myself going through a few batteries. Me personally i enjoy this type of system compaird to others because its cheaper and thers a good game selection.Read full review...