Question Wii portable in a retro case/other questions now

lpoolm

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Hi, so I signed up to the forum after stumbling across the gboy.
I have built mainly raspberry pi items but now need to do a wii portable!
I understand the work that has gone into a gboy but cant really afford to spend £300 on one so looking at building my own, there is enough build logs for me to get going.
However my question is with regards to the shell they go in. I no longer have a 3d printer so at the moment that would not be an option but i really do not like the look of most 3d printed cases, they look big/bulky.
So has anyone ever managed to fit a wii portable into something like a game gear case?I cant seem to find any youtube vids.
i understand the board once cut is still big, batteries etc but i would love to put one in a pre-made case so it looks nice?
 

Xerehm

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"if it fits in a gameboy, it fits in a gamegear" is a saying i just made up but should hold true in most cases.
 

Moo

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Given some of the spaces we've seen the Wii mainboard fit into after trimming, I'd say either a Game Gear or Game Boy case is a piece of cake.
 

lpoolm

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Thanks, so are any of you aware of anyone putting one in one of these?
 
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If your only reason for making your own is because of the cost of the G-Boy, then you should probably know that if you are going to be making your own that isn’t from a kit, it probably won’t be a whole lot cheaper than the G-Boy. The G-Boy might seem expensive, but it is actually a pretty good price for what you’re getting. You get power management, a usb-c charger + internal drive, sound (technically optional but not really), a screen + driver, a case, a controller (GC+ is definitely the way to go for this vs a real GC controller), and cooling. If you are doing all of this yourself, it can easily run around 300+ dollars, not to mention the time and effort that might go into things like custom PCBs.

Additionally, though I don’t know anything about the Game Gear, it’s possible (dare I say, probable?) that you would need to make (3D print) something to allow you to mount the stuff inside of it, as you DO NOT want floating components, since that is a fantastic way to short stuff out, which means more spending to replace the shorted components, batteries, etc.

TL;DR Can you build your own Wii portable inside a Game Gear? Almost certainly. Will you need to do some extra work to make it work? Again, almost certainly. Is it worth the money that you might save over the G-Boy? Probably not. Would it be absolutely awesome and probably a lot faster than pre-ordering a G-Boy and waiting months for the kit to arrive? Yes. All in all, whatever you do is up to you and all that matters is that you have fun doing it. You shouldn’t take up a hobby if it‘s not going to make you happy. If you want to put a Wii in a Game Gear, do it. If nobody else has done it, even better. I just want to make sure that you can make an informed decision.

Wow... That is a serious wall of text. Sorry about that. Usually the TL;DR should be shorter than the rest of the words. Whoops.
 

lpoolm

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Thanks for the input, I agree once you start putting things together price's go up, I think I will enjoy doing the full build.
My main reason for asking was purely based on looks, I actually think the gboy looks OK, I would be happy with it it's the DIY builds I'm not keen on.
 

lpoolm

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Now my project is starting to snowball.
I hate to ask question but struggling to find an answer!
Can someone please recommend a good 3.5" screen?
I have read threw many build guides, many use bigger screens, many say keep away from composite go for vga but there does not seem to be much choice in this size? (I was jut going to get a cheap reversing lcd screen.)
I have seen the below two, any feedback would be great thanks
 

Stitches

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Now my project is starting to snowball.
I hate to ask question but struggling to find an answer!
Can someone please recommend a good 3.5" screen?
I have read threw many build guides, many use bigger screens, many say keep away from composite go for vga but there does not seem to be much choice in this size? (I was jut going to get a cheap reversing lcd screen.)
I have seen the below two, any feedback would be great thanks
The second one you linked is a good screen, quite a few people have used it in small portables. There is a much more expensive 3.5" screen that is full 480p, but I can't remember the model number.
 

YveltalGriffin

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If you want a 640x480 3.5" LCD, you can get the new IPS 640x480 3.5" panel with VGA. It's quite expensive, but you're paying for vivid colors, great viewing angles, and pixel density.

If cost is a problem, there's always the $10 eBay 3.5" screen. It's composite-only, but doesn't look that bad.

You can find 3.5" screens at every imaginable price point. The Good Display one is a nice middle-ground for sure.
 

lpoolm

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Thanks, ordered the second one, also ordered a kedei (full hd.. not!) and wii2hdmi, even if not for this project will use on something else as it was pretty cheap!
Ordered a few batteries, two cheap gamecube controllers, a lot is coming from china so its going to be a slow work in progress.
 

Legend

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Im used to looking at the Wii2HDMI be used in the original xbox, and I do know that the electrolytic capacitors stick up. So for a smaller form factor, you may have to relocate them sideways or something.

Also If im not mistaken, Madmorda did a portable in a game gear case:

And splain started a game gear case related portable earlier this year:

Hope this helps!
 
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You could ask Gman if the printable STL for the case is available and if you could print it out yourself at a college, perhaps buy the PCBs individually and see what you can do with them. You miss out on the convenience of a package deal and a lot of the help that comes with it though. Other than that some modders have been able to fit a wii portable into an altoids tin. You should be able to fit the trim and most of the PCBs in most anything of comparable size to the G-Boy, perhaps in something like the original Gameboy case the GBoy was designed after, but just remember the G-Boy was designed for the PCBs chosen. Everything kinda is meant to fall into place. The controller PCB for example would have to be tossed or specially trimmed yourself. Fortunately the store page here sells an alternative but you have to figure out the buttons and sticks yourself. Whatever you do it's a trade off. I hope that helps.


Personally I would love to see a redesign of the G-Boy case to make the G-Boy Advance a reality.
 
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