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The Gameboy That Nintendo Should Have Made
It was 1989 when the Nintendo Gameboy first came out. One would be the envy of everyone else if you had one of these. It was cutting edge for its day, but compared to more recent tech, this is ancient. It had no built in memory or games - you had to buy game cartridges. It had a mono speaker. The screen was monochrome and had no backlight.
Over the years, mods have been introduced and fairly recently were new mods introduced to this handheld that revitalized it's status as the granddaddy of all hand held gaming consoles. Here we have the backlit, IPS screen.
A modded original Gameboy with IPS display.
Though the original DMG Gameboy has had this revolution in the past few years, it's still largely relegated as a collectors item. I myself have modded several Gameboys yet I find myself only playing with these a few hours each week. It is no longer the addicting handheld game console it once was, but that doesn't stop a handful of enthusiasts, mostly my age, who still love and adore the handheld enough to shell out some dough to make it sort of up to date. The downside of this modding scene is that prices of original DMG Gameboys have gone up. I bought this transparent one second hand for about 1,500 Pesos. It was fully working and came with a bootleg cart. Nowadays, a similar model will cost anywhere from 3,000 to 4,000 pesos. Making it no longer budget friendly to mod. It would be better to just go for a Gameboy Advance and mod that instead. The one I have below is an example of a modded GBA.
GBA with IPS display and AMP mod.
There are several versions of the backlit display for the DMG from several makers most of which originated from China. While some are better than other mod kits, generally, they deliver the same result - being able to play the original Gameboy in the dark without any external light source because of the modern IPS backlit display.
These are not cheap! These range from 1,700 to 2,500 pesos depending on the features and ease of installation. By ease of installation, I mean you need to have some knowledge in soldering and a steady hand. A little bit of courage as well since some mod kits require you to cut and modify the Gameboy housing. And the prices I mentioned, they are prices on AliExpress where you can buy these direct from China without paying an extra premium from local shops that market these mod kits as their own.
Local online shopping sites now have these mod kits. It's just a matter of setting your budget and deciding features of the mod kit you want. The one I installed in this transparent, play it loud version of the Gameboy is an outdated version of the RIPS, if I'm not mistaken. You can change the brightness and the color palette, but that's about it. If you would like to see how I installed the mod, you can watch it on the video below.
The first one I modded was the grey DMG. You can see the video below. This one has a more feature rich IPS display kit which is a bit larger than the original LCD. I had to make the opening of the front case larger and this came with a custom glass screen cover with matching larger window.
I damaged the original LCD so I was compelled to update this to an IPS screen. The kit costs 2,500 Pesos and it seems to be similar to a FunnyPlaying kit. It has a myriad of color palettes and also has the pixel mode for a more retro feel.
DMG with damaged LCD
These two modded DMG Gameboy's will remain the foundation of my collection. Though they are no longer considered "original", I think the upgrade will make it a more relevant and useable device for generations to come. I'm hoping my daughter will enjoy these some day.
While Seiko has the "5", Citizen has the "7". Also called the Eagle 7, this must be Citizen's answer to the popular Seiko 5 line. Though, I'm uncertain if the Eagle 7 lineup is as extensive as the Seiko 5's, the watches I have seen are quite good looking. And like the Seiko 5's, it has a myriad of different flavors and styles. I got this one from the used market earlier this year (2018). It was an accidental purchase because I was not counting on it being gold. The posted photos looked silver to me and there was no mention of it being gold. I was uncomfortably surprised when I saw the watch in person and by then it was too late to cancel the deal. Here it is, my Citizen Eagle 7. It came with a metal bracelet, but it was missing the end link. I scrapped the bracelet and got a black leather strap for this. It has a black dial with stripes, a day & date complication. It has that iconic eagle badge with a red shield. In the middle of the shiel...
My father gave me this watch sometime in 1993. I was in grade school and back then all of my classmates had those really colorful digital watches. I didn't mind though. I reveled in the thought that my watch didn't need any batteries. My classmates would look at me in confusion as I tried to explain that my watch didn't need batteries because it was an automatic. Of course back then, I didn't care about brands or movements or what "jewels" meant for a watch. It was just cool to brag about a watch with no batteries. I don't know where my father got this watch. He also couldn't remember how this came into his possession. It was obviously pre-owned since there was some name engraved on the clasp. By the time I was given this watch, it was already pretty scuffed. Of course in the years that followed, I also added to those dings and scratches. I've tried searching the internet for a similar one, but so far I have not found any. There is also no spec...
Before I share to you my highly opinionated and very personal review, let me get a few things out of the way. I am not a watch critic. I am a watch enthusiast. I have little experience in reviewing watches and what I write in this post is not the "law". I have little technical knowledge about watches. If I happen to mention or mislabel some parts in the watch, please be kind. I am not recommending any brands nor is this blog backed by any watch brand or manufacturer. Let's start. I purchased a watch online back in March, 2018. It's a mechanical dress watch that is made in, you guessed it, China. A very affordable, manual wind, mechanical watch that caught my eye mostly because it didn't look half bad, with the skeleton movement and display back, and mainly because it was a manual wind and not an automatic. This one was not my first choice, but it turned out to be for the best since I now realize my first choice was not very coherent in terms of its colo...
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