A Game Boy Modding enthusiast names Nick (@BucketMouseBite) created an open source project that allows you to transform an original Game Boy DMG into a Game Boy Color.
Finally, I can share my DMG Color (DMGC) with the world! This is an original Game Boy (DMG) console that plays both Game Boy *and* Game Boy Color games.
More info and link to the GitHub below 👇 pic.twitter.com/usFF0XYiQy
— Bucket Mouse (@BucketMouseBite) August 19, 2022
This project uses the footprint of the various DMG circuit boards (mainboard, screen/button board, power board, audio board) and tweaks them to accept the unique components needed for a Game Boy Color to function (CPU, RAM, Link Port etc). Essentially, in order to perform this mod you need to harvest components (roughly 10) from an Original Game Boy DMG as well as a Game Boy Color. All the other components used for the project are brand new and can be purchased from a parts retailer like Mouser or Digikey.
Now it must be noted that this is a very difficult and time consuming mod. For those that want to undertake this project, you must have advanced soldering skills as you will need to be able to desolder chips from the donor consoles as well as solder in very small passive components. It is highly recommended to use donor consoles that are damaged or not working but has all the needed parts in good working order. This mod is definitely not for those who are just getting into modding or have limited experience soldering.
Additionally, this can be a fairly pricey project. At a minimum one can expect to spend roughly $150 and as much as $250-$300 depending on parts used as well as whether or not you need to procure the needed donor consoles.
That being said, once completed, you will have a Game Boy handheld with a DMG form factor but the functionality of a Game Boy Color and that is really awesome!
Now as of the writing of this article Nick actually made a few upgrades (version 2.0) to his design which are not reflected in my video (linked above) but are detailed in his GitHub as well as the below Tweet:
WOW! I passed 1,000 followers today. Thank you all for your amazing support <3
To celebrate this new order of magnitude of followers… here you go. The DMGC-01 v2.0. Thanks for sticking around with me 🙂https://t.co/lvMZlsSm4N
It's now CC BY-SA 😉
Some more details below 👇
— Bucket Mouse (@BucketMouseBite) October 23, 2022
And as I have mentioned previously, this project is completely open source. Additionally, the project is now released under CC BY-SA 4.0 International meaning anyone is free to commercialize the project, however, you must give me proper attribution and credit to Nick/@BucketMouseBite.
If you want to purchase the boards necessary for the you can do so at Nick’s Etsy Page.
