I'm not obsessed with it, but I've modded a few when it was easy and cheap to do so. I do really like seeing how people decorate, modify, use and store theirs. Kinda' yuppie & middle-class to do so, maybe. Not really sure on the class dynamics of this.
My GBC from childhood. My brother and I got GBCs that year on our birthdays and then for Christmas we got Pokemon R/B/Y. Played those game so much. Must be hundreds of times by now. The lens was kinda' scratched up so I got a new one and figured I'd do a colorful Pokemon theme for it loosely based on the colours those Pokemon edition GBCs had. Just finished this today. Use a booklight instead of a wormlight for better, diffuser lighting that also doesn't drain the console's battery as much.
Like 10-11 years ago I bought the GBA off a nintendocore musician that was discounting it since it was the last one with spare parts he had left. Has an AGS-101 screen inside it if I remember correctly. It was just a normal red GBA (plus the screen) and I swapped out the lens for a reproduction Pokemon Center lens and the white buttons/membranes. Honestly not a big fan of the AGS-101 screen due to the ghosting but non-backlit GBAs suck ass too, so IDK. Really hate how many drawbacks there are to modded screens, particularly the 3rd party ones, that the initial modders/youtubers/etc. don't mention at all. Fake gamers, I tell you. If I can find a small, cheap Latias pendant/charm I might attach one to the little lanyard spot. GBA's one of the most comfortable handhelds/controllers in my opinion so that's why I stuck with it over an SP. I also much, much prefer to using my hoard of rechargeable AA/AAAs to built-in ones.
I had to repair my stick(s) for stick drift. I think it was the right one would do left inputs very softly, most noticeably in menus and it was getting worse. I fucking hate how Nintendo has handled this issue. Figured I might as well just try those hall effect sticks/sensors instead of haemorrhaging more money to Nintendo. Figured I might as well swap out the shells if I'm going to completely disassemble the joysticks to do that. I kinda' like the TOTK OLED model's colour scheme but it's not great. I think I got a decent colour scheme here that matches everything: stand, screen theme, and carrying bag. Kinda' wish I went BOTW-themed since I prefer that game to TOTK. Swapping out those sensors was a pain in the ass. Wasn't impossible or skill-intensive but so many small parts you need to fold over each other and stuff inside the housing and the tiny springs on the L/R buttons are super easy to lose. I also tore one of the ribbon cables that connects to the joycon rails in the main console and had to buy another one and wait like 10 days (after the first one I ordered cancelled) and it has this little pigtail knot bit you need to do that's tricky as fuck to plug in the cable with (with tweezers while maintaining the knot). Glad I managed to do it at least.
My Saturn's top buttons that control the power, reset, lid fuckin' dissolved away for some reason. I only needed the top housing and buttons/springs etc. to swap out but couldn't find anywhere. Oh, also it was missing all but like 2 screws from the bottom of the case/shell for some reason. Ended up buying a broken Japanese saturn and Frankensteining the models together so I have this weird '90s VCR-looking Saturn now. At least it's all screwed together with perfectly working buttons though because of slight differences in the models I had to do some tricky shenanigans and slam the case shut and screw it together before some springs popped out. It has been like 2-3 years and it hasn't fallen apart yet so whatever. Kinda' tempted to get one of those white and pink Japanese Saturns because the player 1 controller port on this one's finnicky and I have no idea how I'd fix it, maybe I could desolder the port off the Japanese one and try it on this one but I suspect that got changed in the revisions too.
I haven't done any real hardmodding, but all my handhelds are softmodded for piracy. An early model switch, new 2ds xl, and psp 2000. I have replaced both my joycon sticks because of drift, and will probably go for hall effect ones if I have to do it again. I also printed a replacement dpad for my powkiddy V90 that pivots a lot better than the stock one did, I couldn't do metroid shine sparks with the stock one but I can with the replacement.
Pretty cool. Not gonna lie.
Furthest I went with changing hardware is I have some custom keycaps for mechanical keyboards and thats it.
i have my psp go with a vita battery for more battery life and a memory card to SD card adapter. ive done some repairs of older systems, mostly Sega CDs. I have a modded xbox 360 but i paid someone from ebay to do that for me.
plus i can sell the go memory card i had, which is going to $100 on ebay which is just fuckin stupid
not really because I'm not much of a gamer (anymore)
I have helped plan/construct two PCs built in the shells of old consoles (original xbox, wii) tho which was cool. done a few minor repairs on handhelds, and helped my buddy mod a gameboy (iirc)
also made an RCM jig for my switch early on. No modchip or anything but not 100% software only technically lol
What I am into modding is 1) my casio, and 2) any electronics I have that still charge with mini or micro USB. I solder USB-C ports in.
casio mods are pretty fun. you can flip the polarization layer in the screen to make it white letters on a black bg instead of the inverse. You can add much better illumination LEDs. you can do a custom frontplate (incl one with rfid), you can swap the entire pcb out for one with a microcontroller that can run a variety of apps. etc.
I installed USB-C ports on all of my handhelds and on the game boys I got for my little brothers. I don’t do much aesthetic modding, though we did put my bros SP into a custom case.
USB-C mods I’ve done:
PS Vita
New N2DS
GBA SP
and GBA classicI'd suggest looking into the IPS panels for the GBA. They can go brighter and dimmer than the ags-101 backlit and offer a retro pixelated mode. Albeit, I now prefer the lcds of yore. They dont blast your eyes full of photons and feel rather nostalgic.
I also own two Saturn's lol. One I soldered in a mod chip when i was 21 for burned discs and run an action replay to bypass region.
I have a modded GBA it is super nice but it chomps through normal batteries. If I played it more I'd get one of those lithium battery mods.
Those IPS screens are what I'm talking about in regards to having hidden problems that aren't really mentioned. Some of them add input lag. Other have similar ghosting/image retention issues on blacks. At least the AGS-101 was an official product and some of the later games would have been designed around them.
The one I have from funnyplaying feels good. I havent noticed any lag. I'll try to see if theres ghosting.
Wouldn't mind an update if possible. The ghosting annoys the shit out of me. If there's a better screen then I'm interested.
Well ghosting is usually prominent from screen usage and age. I dont see much in either of my screens but I'm on 2 Sp's. I can tell you that the ips has incredible color and brightness and rich blacks. A new screen really wouldn't hurt you. I'd say bite the bullet.
The AGS-101 screen sucks compared to the aftermarket ones. I've seen them both in person.
Yeah I've got a hacked 3DS it rules. I wish I had a Saturn.
not successfully
I had a Wii with homebrew at one point though.
I have a modded halo special edition original Xbox, modded with MakeMHz's HDMI kit, really makes a difference when playing.
I also have a soft modded wii, 3dsxl, ps2, and switch. I used to have the god of war edition psp that was modded with m33, that thing was an absolute beast and daily driver until it got stolen.