BoxOfFeetI re-shelled another DS Lite.
macnielIt does, for sure! And something I forgot to mention is that it came with three full button sets, so you could mix and match to get that DMG color scheme. Plus new silicone button membranes. And some other spare parts that easily get lost, like doubles of the L and R button springs and pins. And the little adhesive screw covers for the upper shell. It’s a very nice kit. I’m just going to keep it in a neoprene sleeve when I carry it around to avoid scratches.
YewEyeOwe31That looks clean! I wish I could find an aftermarket replacement or 3d print model for a 2ds shell, but nobody seems to make those for some reason.
David Attenborough: “Once the fragments of the old carapace have fallen away, the DS lite looks and feels like a completely new creature.”
“Little does it know, there is a PSP hiding in the bushes nearby.”
“The PSP has the natural ability to be overlooked and underestimated, which is perfect for launching a surprise attack on unsuspecting portables.”
Reygle
tomkattI’m in awe of people who do this stuff. I’ve wrecked a DS Lite and a DSi XL trying to do reshells, I’m just not delicate or patient enough for the work.
Oh, it definitely takes a lot of patience. But I love it, the whole process is therapeutic. I love the precision of it.
I feel you. I felt that way doing some soldering for things like fixing my trackball (bad left mouse button replacement) and my microwave (blown thyristor, easy fix).
I’m just not really good with small stuff and delicate parts like ribbon cable and thin wires. My eyes are old (hello presbyopia), and my hands were never the steadiest, even when I was younger.
What trackball? I’ve been keeping my T-BB18 going for 20 years now, and it’s to the point I have to start 3D printing replacement parts for the rubber stuff that’s turning to goo.
It’s an Elecom Huge wired model. I’ve owned three, had two fail on me, both to left click double clicking on single touch. First time could have been a fluke and I replaced it, but the second failed inside of four months. I said hell with it, took it apart, desoldered the switch and replaced it with a Kailh GM2.0. Worked like a charm and it’s been fine since.
Ironically, my oldest Huge is still working fine. Apparently they were originally using Japanese Omron microswitches that were quality and seem to last forever (case in point, the oldest trackball is from 2019 and no issues). With the newer ones I bought, they apparently changed to using Chinese Omron switches of poor quality.
Sucks, but I have a few spare Kailhs laying around if any of the other buttons die now.
That is a big, beautiful beast! Wow. It’s ingrained in me that the trackball is for the thumb, so I’m not sure I could use it. But I am impressed by that behemoth.
That Gameboy style looks really nice 🙂
What’s the game on image #3?
Oregon Trail
Which games would you recommend?
Oh man, it’s going to be a bit of a list. Ok, here we go.
Tetris DS - Not Tetris Party. Party hardly has any single player value.
Rayman DS - It is a pretty good port of Rayman 2, you use the stylus as the analog input. It’s kind of tricky at first, but you get used to it pretty quick.
Advance Wars - No introduction needed. Turn-based strategy, sequel to the GBA games. As good as always.
Super Princess Peach - Fun platformer, Peach has several abilities.
Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja - The story is cheesy, but it’s a fun randomly generated rogue-like
Picross and Picross 3D - Fun and challenging ‘nonogram’ puzzles
Geometry Wars - Space shooter with button or analog controls, earned power-ups
Dungeon Explorer - objectively, not the best action RPG. But I have been playing Dungeon Explorer for the TG16 since like, 1991. So, I can’t help but like it.
Solitaire Overload - So many types of solitaire. My favorite is Spidercell
Jewel Master :Cradle of Egypt - it’s a jewel game. Of the ones I’ve tried on the DS, that’s my favorite.
Mario Kart - Self explanatory.
SimCity DS - It reminds me of the original SimCity, graphics are more similar to SimCity 2000. It just eats my battery, though.
Yoshi Touch & Go - not my favorite, but my wife likes that one
Dementium - I can’t believe the fit an FPS that good on here.
Now, if we want to get into homebrew, I haven’t used a whole lot. Haven’t figured out DLDP yet. But, here’s some that don’t require any extra work that I like:
Worldofsand-0.1 - A falling sand sandbox game
NDS_Shisensho - it’s all in Japanese, I have no idea what any of it says. But it’s a matching game using mahjong tiles
Lameboy - Gameboy emulator
NitroGrafx - Turbografx emulator, but it runs better on the DSi and above
WabbitDS - a TI-83 emulator! It’s a challenge to set it up the legit way, which is to dump the ROM from your actual TI-83. Which I did. But I’m sure there are less legit means to get it going.
DSx86 - DOS emulator! You need this specific open source DOS kernel to get it going, and the folder structure is kind of specific. But it is DOS! On your DS!
I have the hardware, but the games i have right now are
New Super Mario,
Dark Spire
Ill have to try dungeon explorer and Dementium.
Handhelds are fun to have on a steam deck
I haven’t played it yet. It seems cool from a quick start up. I need to sit down and figure it out.
Question about the ribbon cable on the top screen. Is there a trick to getting that routed through the hinge that doesn’t involve blood sacrifice? I’d like to rehouse mine but not looking forward to that bit of torture.
Compared to the switch lite reshell in terms of difficulty how was this one? I didn’t have too much problem with the lite just imagined you needed to do soldering or a heatgun for the DS
DS is so, so much easier. I never want to do another Switch Lite. I already had to take it back apart to put hall effect joycon replacements in, it’s not coming back apart.
No heat gun or soldering necessary for DS, yes heat gun for the Switch Lite to get the screen out. And get the digitizer off.
I do DS Lites and Gameboys for fun. Switch, Vita, and PSP are not fun.
MikeWould.
TwotoneExcellent. Is that one of those laminated ones? I have not tried one of those yet. Just the Q5 mod.
Yeah, one of the Hispeedido amoled glass screens. Super happy with the results. I got it bundled with the shell designed to fit it, so I didn’t have to hack up the original one.
Also swapped out the red power led for an amber/yellow one because I thought it looked better with the atomic purple case. :p
Ahhh, that’s a beautiful machine. Brings back some very fond memories. I love it when people put in the love and effort to restore old machines, it makes me so happy.
I actually never had one when they were new. I had the DMG, GBC, the Tiger Game.Com, the GBA, and that’s where I stopped. Probably because that was around the time I was graduating high school (for the fat one), and I was all about PDAs from then until about 2011.
But yeah, I love keeping them going. I always have a few digitizers on hand, because that’s what I seem to ruin the most on them. I can change one in under 15 min at this point.