Choosing a display for a gameboy pocket, need input

[Frankienaitor]

Hello Sudomod,

I found out about the concept of a pi powered gameboy about a week or two ago, and have been obsessing over it ever since. Obviously, I had to try it for myself.

I'm basing my build around a gameboy pocket case (Those are somehow just sexier to me vs a dmg, don't know why) Obviously that means I'm going to be fighting for every millimeter. Starting with; (clue is in the titel) the display

1) composite
I've been doing a lot of reading on this forum (obvsly), and watching plenty of videos and screenshots. In my humble opinion a composite display is just to fuzzy and unreadable (especially on screens smaller than 3.5 inch) Also, I can't really find them in sizes smaller than 3.5”, so I guess they're out.

2) 2.8" spi
I've been reading Moosepr's thread on spi screens, and I recon this is probably my best option. First of all, it fits. It also has a clear image, goes up to 33fps (which is enough, I don't plan on playing pro counterstrike on my Gameboy) and is cheap to boot.
Only mayor downside is the location of the ribbon cable, cousing the screen to be offset, as this guy on another forum also found out:

(http://bitfixgaming.boards.net/thread/3 ... cket-rev-2)

3) 3.0” anything
I found haihaisb on instagram, and he fits Nintendo ds's in gameboy cases. The DS Lite screen (3.12”) is a pretty much perfect fit for a pocket in my opinion:

unfortunately, this is ofcourse not exactly an open source display, and I can't find any other 3” displays at all. Bummer.

4) 3.2" spi
the ribbon is also the reason a 3.2” spi won't fit. (if I could find a 3.2 inch screen with the ribbon coming out the bottom, that would be an absolutely perfect fit by my estimates, but I haven't seen one of those yet.. :/) Great info on these screens in VeteranGamer's thread tho

5) 3.5" anything
I have seen a couple of GB pockets with a 3.5” screen of some sort. It requires cutting the sides of the case out completely. This is far to ghetto for my liking and (to me) not an option. The only way I could possibly see a 3.5” display fitting in (and I mean actually inside) a gb pocket case, is if you'd actually orient it in portrait mode, and overscan the hell out of the bottom/top (depending on where the ribbon is)... Maaaaaybe this is a tiny bit less stupid if you'd have a 640x480 resolution? Still a pretty daft idea tho, so forget I mentioned it :p

6) hail mary frankencase
If I REALLY went crazy with this project, and I insisted on some kind of hdmi display, or the 640x480 unit discussed here, I could, conceivably, cut the case in half length-ways, ad in however many mm's of plastic I needed, and stitch it back together.. (and maybe do the same for the display-port's height, to keep it proportionally decent-ish looking)... I'd rather not go down this route for obvious reasons (the main one being it's a giant pain in the ass) allthough, if I order another case, cut them both slightly offset then use the bigger half of each, that would reduce the pain-in-arse-ness somwhat.. Hmm.... Talk me out of it guys

All of that said, I've been only looking into this stuff for a bit over a week. If anyone
- has experience with gb pocket cases
- knows of displays that would be perfect
- can correct me on any errors I might have made
- has an opinion on shell-widening
- is otherwise interested in any way

I'd love to hear from you

[Frankienaitor]

Nope, no clue.
In this vid (at 3:12) you get a quick shot at how it looks from the inside, but I don't see any hints as to how it all screws together..
Maybe an option could be glueing a tini L-bracket of the side of the case for the screw to grab onto?

[VeteranGamer]

your gonna have to be realistic in what you want to achieve.....

when people start putting restrictions as to what they want in or out of a build, chances are those builds never get completed (they just stay as ideas, that cant be pulled off)


have a look at this build.....

http://sudomod.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=2060


and a 2.5" screen isn't that small (the mintyPi has a 2.4" screen.... people are happy with it)....
especially if you want it in a Game Boy Pocket shell/case....

really, if you want a bigger screen then go for a bigger base shell/case.....


.

[Frankienaitor]

your gonna have to be realistic in what you want to achieve.....

when people start putting restrictions as to what they want in or out of a build, chances are those builds never get completed (they just stay as ideas, that cant be pulled off)


have a look at this build.....

http://sudomod.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=2060


and a 2.5" screen isn't that small (the mintyPi has a 2.4" screen.... people are happy with it)....
especially if you want it in a Game Boy Pocket shell/case....

really, if you want a bigger screen then go for a bigger base shell/case.....


.

I look at a build like that and think, "there's loads of space, should've gone for a 2.8", haha
Seriously though, I really appreciate you looking out for the new guys, thanks
That said, the reason I started this thread is because I really want to do my research before I lock myself down on a purchase (Okay, I allready have the GBP shell )
I also thought it could potentially be a good thread to find/read for anyone who wants a GB Pocket Zero in the future.
(And I'll admit, that larger-than-stock look of HaihaiSb's pockets gives me a big ol' retro boner, so thats what I'm aiming for, haha)

[gbjack]

I love the gameboy pocket form factor but things get complicated. The gameboy dmg is perfect to fit a 3,5 inch screen, a raspberry pi 3 without removing connection headers, a big battery and really don't care about space, but for me its too big.

Now I'm making a gameboy pocket built too for that reason, and I went for the 2,8" as you did for the same reasons you exposed. My dream was to play n64 and psx games on it, but I think that you need much more than 2,8" to play comfortable without killing your eyes. For example, when I play on my iphone SE to n64, even having a high resolution rendering of 720p, things look so small, and the equivalent screen to the 4:3 ratio is 3,2".

As a conclusion, the gameboy pocket is a very beautiful console, maybe my favourite handheld, but even having the power of the rpi3, I don't see myself playing on it 3d console games with joysticks on it, but good luck with your built, it looks very good.

PD: I found this screen: https://www.ebay.com/itm/3-2-Inch-ILI93 ... 2083436213. If you separate the driver board from the lcd and ribbon, maybe in can fit inside the shell because the ribbon is bent very close to the display...