This poor destoryed GameBoy Micro needed some love. Cheap GameBoys: bit.ly/38UrGzP Instagram: / theretrofuturephotos Twitter: / elliot_coll #TheRetroFuture #GameBoy #Retro (Links are affiliated where possible to support the channel)
A lot of people have been asking for a little old-school The Retro Future video where I fix up a GameBoy. I hope this satisfies the urge! I have some much cooler things to repair in the not too distant future including a Panasonic Q! Stay tuned for that! I hope you’ve enjoyed the vlogs I’ve been doing! 😊
This reminds me of the fake famicom gameboy micro I own. I had to buy a legit one but I still have the old one im curious if it still works. Maybe if it doesn't I should send it to you for another gameboy micro repair video 😁
I appreciate that you left the broken tab in instead of waiting for a whole new shell for the sake of the shot. Helps to remind us all that every mod / resto isn't smooth sailing every time!
I remember seeing these when they came out, and thinking they were pretty cool but hilariously small. That's one thing I really miss about older Nintendo consoles. The hardware re-releases for their portables almost always brought some new features or functions, even if some of them were gimmicky they still sold systems. The shots near the end with the screen off make the piano black finish look really luxurious too. Great video and great result as always, this is a finicky one!
The 3DS had a ton of variations and the Switch has had a slightly updated standard model (fixed some hardware issues, improved battery life) as well as the Lite and OLED (new dock with RJ45 port, new improved kickstand) variants.
The Game Boy Micro was an impressive little device. Just look at the size of the cartridge compared to the size of the device itself. Essentially the cartridge slot and battery take up most of the space leaving not a lot of space for the rest of the hardware. It's impressive they managed to miniaturize it to that degree, especially at the time. This thing is considerably smaller than the DS Lite, and the DS Lite had to have the GBA cartridge stick out because there just wasn't room for a full size slot, despite being made with newer technology.
My life achievement in repair old consoles was changing one GameBoy micro's L/R button. They are SO TINY and so hard to solder / desolder. The fact that it works makes me so happy. One of my favorite consoles
00:09 Wait, I could have sworn this came out after the DS. No? Edit: Just looked it up. It came out a whole year after the DS. I thought so! Glad my memory isn't busted lol.
i just noticed we have the same screwdriver set! just the other day i took apart my old gba sp so i could clean it. that was my first time ever taking one of my consoles apart and it went perfectly because i watched a lot of your videos previously. thank you!
I still love the Micro. It reminds me of the original iPod Nano - not in their appearance, but in the sense that they're both perfect little devices that do one thing really well, and there isn't really a modern equivalent. Also, brilliant repair work as always.
I never knew these even existed until I started following you the other year. They look really cool, but I kind of skipped GBA due to my age at the time. Great restore work though as usual
I got one in green playing pokemon Emerald day and night first gameboy i got with backlight 😂 who remembers that time playing under the blanket at night? 😂
Brilliant work, as usual. You make it all look so effortless. I’m a complete “clutz” and always fail at doing anything like this … assuming I can ever find anything to fix up (which I can’t afford anyway!). 😸😸
i wonder if he found this while in America. when i was a teen my dad found one at a sketchy thrift store for $5. the battery was dead and we couldn't find a replacement. my mom basically kidnapped us and took me away from our old home. i could only really take what i could grab, and sadly it couldn't grab it. even months and years later when the house was abandoned and looted I'd still stop in to see if i could find it. i wonder if by some miracle this was the game boy? looks exactly like it. anyways, if by some miracle it was, I'm glad Elliot got it and fixed her up ^-^
Also that inner frame with the latches for the faceplate there is now a decent 3D print available to save your micro, for my workings in the I find the silver ones where the frame yellows is the worst you only have to look at it and it turns to dust
Hi, are you talking about that inner frame he called "skeleton"? My GBM "skeleton" is broken but I don't know where to Finde a replacement. So where can we find that decent 3D replacement you were talking about? Thank you. 😊
I know he said he doesn’t recommend the micro being your first restoration but MAN its my favorite one, and its genuinely falling apart and in desperate need of a cleaning. Also watching him put it back together made me so excited to try.
The gameboy micro is a console I miss so much. When I was a little kid I had a green one, always found it beautiful, my first gaming experiences were with it and always blew my mind how good the screen looked. Yet one day I went with my family to a restaurant and I lost it there, when we tried to get it back it was missing, someone took it, since my mom didn't had enough money to buy a new one I had no console to play for many years, until the DS Lite came around. Yet it wasn't the same, and I always had this need to find my Gameboy Micro, yet I haven't founded in it's beautiful green color, and even if I found one on ebay I cannot afford it. So, yeah, someday I'll have the money and I'll get my hands on one. But I get so nostalgic every time I see one of these on a video. I wish I had it right now, I would play the crap out of it. Nice video and awesome restoration!!
I picked up a broken Micro recently that doesn't power on/charge. Battery in it is fine. Gave it a deep clean inside with IPA already. I suspect it's a bad fuse or two, but haven't taken it apart again yet to test, as it's kind of a pain to get back together (in particular the start/select buttons and the power switch gave me a lot of trouble). I ordered the replacement fuses from digikey anyway and they're comically tiny, like grains of sand. Not looking forward to the repair. I do still have a working Micro from my childhood that I play on, luckily, just wanted to have a spare.
I have the special edition mario micro and it was my childhood console i loved it so many hours played i was a kid didnt know the piece of history i had. It still works but it does have a scratch or two. Just ordered a new battery.
I fixed a Micro last year it was my personal I had gotten when they first came out. I had given it to my niece and she still had it this whole time didn't know if it work because she had lost the charger so I took it back and changed the shell and battery and it was working find just like the one you just restored. Was very happy with my old but new micro. I'm gonna go home now and play with it.
i got a GB Micro pretty late from its original release date for like $80 new. i was very happy with it because it'd just fit in any of my pockets whether it be my pants or my jackets. 3 years ago i sold the thing for $240 and now im sad i did... these are rare and hard to find for under $100 if at all.
I've been modding every GB I own (GB,GBC,GBP,GBA,GBASP,Micro) to all be DMG themed and the micro is the last one I need to do. started it a while back but stripped the head on one of the triwing screws and never got back to to getting it out. really need to find the time to just get it done as it'll be a sweet set when it's all done. Surprisingly the GBA SP is the one I'm least happy with as no1 seems to be doing DMG buttons for a SP, so had to order a Mario Anniversary case from AliExp to shuck the buttons from it but they're nowhere near correct.
I assume you purposefully made the audio design for this video in an "ASMR style" for the sections you didn't talk in, but I feel like a little bit of lofi or other chill music could have helped bring a little more life into the video. Just my two cents. ^^ I love seeing some videos of you fixing stuff again, it feels like it's been a while! =D
Why on earth the dishonest thumbnail? It was damaged enough as it was...decided not to watch on the basis i hate clickbait..otherwise id have lapped this content up.
Handheld Legend actually sells replacement screens for the Gameboy Micro for $24.99 USD. If you ever decide to go back and replace the screen, that’s a viable option!
I bought a Game Boy Micro once around ~2006 because of the NES Classics. I sold it a few Days later because of the Size it was unplayable for me. That was the Moment when a small Game Boy was too small.
oh this was satisfying! loved the micro repair. i love the micro so much. i dont think i knew it was thing until i had a DS and still regret not buying one back then but i picked one up and its just so portable. can easy pocket it and forget it is in there!
You're so careful when doing this. It's nice to see someone who respects this historical equipment. I don't like working with tiny pieces, so I couldn't do this. I admire you. Hope you're having a week. Cheers, mate.
Love your repair videos so much! Always so fascinating seeing how something goes together and so satisfying seeing it restored. Wonderful work as always! 💖👏
i remember as a kid i saved and saved for a gameboy micro but i was only 5 dollars away and i asked my mum if she could help, but sadly no luck ... was 100 dollars back then brand new. luckily i eventually got a gameboy sp but still to this day im sad i never got that micro... i wish i had one in the collection, id actually put it in a nice small arcrilic case display.
Agreed micros are fiddly. Years ago and going back before you could get new frames and even lenses that weren't just touch to scratch improper fits I used to come across these, dead, real cheap and I'd harvest them for parts. As it is I have a set or two of the inside buttons, contacts, screws, and a couple OEM batteries that still work fantastic. Rather keep an old one that works than the checkered modern bits. I'm surprised in the last year or so how solid they have become depending where you source on new metal frames as some are just spot on, and the lenses finally aren''t garbage miss fits that you touch and scratch but are done nice and hold up. I've got one in a silver shell with a blue lens and it's quite nice as a carry around beater to test with.
I remember back when I was in college, I saw one for the first time at a goodwill computer works. Best $10 I spent just upsetting that I no longer have it and won't spend insane prices to buy one today.
I picked up a Gameboy Micro because of you! It's not a bad thing. It was the black and silver and in pretty good condition. No scratches or dents. But worth it!
My GB micro collection so far: FF IV micro 2x famicom micro 1x brand new in box famicom micro 1x famicom micro with the mark II faceplate installed on it. Love them.
"Look at the text, just awful" Me, looking closely: looks pretty good to me lol I mean yeah by comparison it's a tad different but it's by no means like, the wrong font or something haha
Still have my Famicom edition GB micro, bought it for $29 CAD 20 some years ago, they weren't selling cuz the colors looked strange, ha. Still beautiful to this day 👍
I also restored my GBM with an aftermarket shell. They fit badly and need quite some work- my dad, who is way better than me with metal work he!ped me fitting the shell. Unfortunately, there are no aftermarket semi translucent buttons as in the original GBM available. The originals get beat up quite easily. I got mine to an all-black stealth look finish which is pretty cool 😎
Love these vids. I always cringe a little when I look at Gameboy Micros because I had the opportunity of buying the Famicom edition at MSRP when it was brand new and I instead bought a piano black DS Lite :(
Aren't the GB Micro screens an off-the-shelf camcorder viewfinder screen Nintendo re-used? I wonder if we could salvage screens from the camcorders that also used them to make repairs cheaper
I used to have a red one of these, i hated it so much because after about an hour or so of use it would give me the worst headashes ever trying to look at the tiny little screen on it.
I have restored a gameboy micro. But mine had extremely brittle plastic inside and most of the screw threads broke. I have not yet found replacement parts
Part of me wants a Micro for my collection, but I don't think I can justify the prices they now go for. Good video, must have been so frustrating when that tab broke.
