GameBoy as external HDD

I decided to give ghouls idea a shot and replace the display with a nice picture from the original Super Mario Land game. Will buy a OHP printable film tomorrow. This way I can print out the picture with my printer and simply attach it in front of the screen. The characteristic screen colour will shine through and the picture will look quit realistic. Not sure about the picture though. I downloaded a speed run from YouTube and searched for nice shots. Then I pasted three into a picture of the gameboy and made them overlay to get the result the OHP film will produce. Here are the three possibilities. Please feel free to choose one, but explain why if it's possible and not just a feeling (post feelings to). I really can't decide which I will choose and need to hear some other statements.

Shot 1:

Shot 2:

Shot 3:

The actual image looks way better, but the resizing tool couldn't really shrink these files down.

Looking good, +Rep! If you can get away without putting a vent in there, that's what i'd do, but you seem to like the mesh, so just go for what feels right. :D

-Dave

id say the third one

I did a test to determine if I need the top vents or not. I did one hour of test in idle and another hour of copying files directly after the idle time.
Shut-off temperature: 22°C
after 1 hour idle : 27°C
after 1 hour copying: 35°C

So I decided to give it no top vent because it is not necessary. Knowing that I went to the hardware store and bought some spray paint. I'll go with black and stainless steel effect spray. This is the nearest I can come to the overall paint job on my desk. So I bought primer, black, stainless steel and clear coat. Have to think about the paint job now.

I also bought the OHP film. But not sure which one to pick yet.

EDIT:

I will go with this paint job:

So I primed the case and made a first layer of the titan paint (stainless paint, but really looks like titan, which fits well). I think it came out quit good. Will get a closer look when it is dry. So here are some pics about the painting:

Covering the parts not to be painted:

painted rear side:

painted front side:

It would of been better if you could keep the original colour of the gameboy, but the black and silver would look nice too..

:up: well done with your process so far!

I'm going with a slightly different paint job as planned, but nothing really different. Just a Titan stripe under the display and the letters will be black. Here's a pic of the black painted case. Titan areas are masked:

I choose the third picture because it reminds me the most of the old Mario games. So I printed it on the OHP film and cut it out. It looks really nice:

The picture doesn't really show how nice it looks. Hope I will get better pictures of it, when the whole case is assembled.

thats looking sooo sweet dude, Keep up the great work.

I like the idea of the paint job. It'll look nice. I'm not sure what you mean by a titan stripe, so can't comment on that. I also think you shouldn't put any words on it. I'm personally a fan of sleeper mods, and the "Nintendo Game Boy HDD" just would ruin the effect. Overall, it looks excellent.

Glad you like it. I just call it titan because "stainless steel effect spray paint" was very long to write. And it looks nearly the same as some titan paint on my pc. There will be a stripe in this colour directly under the display and all around the case. Will show some pictures as soon as the paint is really dry and I can remove the masking tape. Will also post some pics with and without the lettering. It isn't painted yet, because it will be the last step to take.

Awesome idea. To bad you can't get something that would let you use the screen to display harddrive space and status when it was hooked up.

HDD Temp: XX
Status: Idle, writing, reading, etc.

Maybe to show up the screen picture some though you could hook a clear LED or something to kinda spread the light all over and flash as the HDD activity light. Or maybe I'm making to many complicated suggestions.

Like the idea about the illuminated display. Maybe I will do something like this later. The status display would be nice also, but the HDD will be in idle mode for about 80-90% of its life, so it would be some kind of over-the-top. Maybe in my next mod :rolleyes: .

Here are the promised pictures of the case with lettering and without. Hope the paint was dry enough to remove the masking tape. The parts around the buttons aren't as clear as I wanted them, but their better then I expected. Think it looks somewhat okay for my first paint job ever.

The GAMEBOY letters will be in black paint and the HDD in the titan paint.

Okay forget about the above pictures. I was sitting here watching the gameboy for about 15 minutes and I must say: I do not like it!. At first I thought I is nice but now I just don't like the design. So I will sand it down and paint it in the titan colour completely. I like this colour but not in the combination it is now. So please be patient and forgiving for these rapid changes but it simply can't stay the way it is now. Will post new pics soon.

du must des nich abschleifen das deckt auch so
for all the others
you dont need to sand the paintjob down, its fine if you just make a coat above :D

I tried this, but it wasn't really good. The colour was not even through the case. So I sanded it down yesterday (even if it was unnecessary it was a good feeling :) ), and applied the first layer of paint. Have to go to the hardware store and buy some more paint before I can go on.

Edit:

Ok, after applying the first layer of paint I saw much unevenness around the case that wasn't really visible with the black paint. So I decided to use some of the filler to make it an even surface. I applied the filler in a very thin amount and sanded it down. Then I searched for areas I had not seen the first time and found some on the top surface. So I used some more filler and sanded again.

This was shot between second filler and second sanding. It looks much better now. Actually I'm glad it wasn't good the first time with the black on, because I wouldn't have seen the uneven spots around the case. Hope to do some painting tomorrow. Till then.

Okay, this sucks. I wasn't at home when the sun was shining on Saturday and now it is raining since then. So no further painting. Hope there will be better weather soon because I really want to complete this paintjob. Did all filling and it has a nice clean surface but simply can't paint it. Please stay observingly, I will do the painting as soon as the weather changes.

there is also another filler called "spritz spachtel" dunno how this is called in english :D better to use for smll dents

Thanks for the info FrooP. Looked at the filler I used for the small gabs again and searched the net for the "Spritzspachtel". I think it is nearly the same. I think the bigger problem is the size of the tool I use to attach the filler. Will look for a smaller one for the future.
The filler I used:

It says:

fine putty
for small scratches

The weather finally changed to sunlight and no rain today, so I was able to do some painting. Here is a picture of the game boy with three layers of paint. Sanded between each layer with 400 Grid sandpaper (had nothing else around).

There are still some small gabs in the surface. Not sure what to do about them. Would it be better to fill them with the fine putty or with more layers of paint? I prefer the putty idea, because I have lots of it and the paint is much more expensive. But if the paint would be the better solution I would buy some more of it.

Don't expect to much progress till next weekend, because I just passed my Abitur today but have to do a "Abweichprüfung" next week. This is very important for my final mark so I have to learn much for it. But making breaks is necessary while learning (or I don't remember anything I learned), so I will do some work on the game boy in these breaks.

hi doesi87!
I found something for you, could be great...

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6076470[/URL]6470

Thanks for the link. That's some nice enclosure. I like the working buttons most. Too bad I don't like apple very much:D

There was some nice sunshine around today so I got some painting done. The case is ready for clear coat now. The paintjob is not as nice as I hoped it to be, there are still some scratches on the rear part of the case, but you won't see them when the case is lying on the desk. Filled the gabs and scratches on the top with the fine putty.

wow i like that colour, much better then the last one! :)

hey glad you like it.

If the weather is nice (and really think so), I will give it the clear coat tomorrow. Will do the rest of the wiring later today or tomorrow to. Must do a little re soldering on the led because it needs a slightly different way for the cables to go (This is very bad English). Planned this earlier this week, it is just a little chance in the cables. Hope to give you some pictures tomorrow.

here is a picture of the front part with two layers of clear coat applied. couldn't do more today, because it started raining. Will give it some more layers on Tuesday. But I can say that it starts to look nice.

It's coming along really nice. I remember having a lot of good times with our old GameBoy... ahh Tetris, the only game we had for ages, lol. Did you guys know those little cartridges aren't harmed by water? My bro forgot it in his pocket when he went swimming and it still worked after we dried it, but it was lake water though, not salty like the ocean is. I still wouldn't recommend trying to do that though, just in case.

pretty cool idea doesi87, +rep

I can't wait to see the final product..this is quite the inspiring project.

funny project, keep it up :)

Thank you guys, glad you like it. I spend some time on the led because it wouldn't work as I planned it. So I decided to use a fan-connector which will give me the flexibility I need.

Test the led and connector:

Solder the connector to the board:

I finished the wires for the status led. It will only have blue or off and not the red light for activity. First I thought this would be great but when testing the led it drove me crazy, so I decided to kill the red colour.

Here's the led attached to the upper case with hot glue. The connector is in position to connect to the one on the hdd-controller board.

When removing the screen cover I found a little problem:

I haven't cleaned it completely jet, but that's not the problem. There is a little white spot directly under the window. So guess what: I have to some of the painting again. There is still some paint left, but as I got my new rig this week and have to work lot more than usually because we have holidays over here this won't happen very fast. But everything except the paint is completed. Hope to give you some nice shoots of the finished game boy soon.

Okay I sanded the top with 800 grid wetsand paper for about half an hour this morning and gave it a last coat of paint. Now the "bottle" is empty. But man I like the surface now. It was totally worth sanding it, but I think I did it to long. There was no really viewable chance after about 15-20 minutes. But I wanted to be sure. You will get a pic as soon as I gave it the new first layer of clear coat.

Just a small update, because the top is still getting clear coat. The coats may be finished at the weekend, if the weather is fine.

Did some work on the bottom part today. I attached the game cartridge to the case and gave it the Super Mario Land cover to fit with the picture on the screen.

Some shots of it:

The top is a bit rough but I will work on that.

The picture on the screen will be attached as soon as the clear coat is finished.

EDIT:

Here is a first shot with 4 layers of clear coat. Will give it some more layers at the weekend. It looks way better than the photo shows it but I don't know how to make a nicer shot of it.

okay I gave it the last layers of clear coat. The coat is drying right know. Tomorrow I will mount the display and the Super Mario foil if the paint is dry till then. Will give you some pics as soon as possible.

The clearcoat is still sticky. I wonder if this is normal? Should I let it dry longer or can I simply go on and work on the display?

The clear coat finally dried, so I removed the masking tape.

I then did some work on the display-film. I cleaned the plexi cover from the film side and attached the film.

Sadly the display is very dirty from the other side. Tried to clean it with some stuff but nothing really worked. Have to try more things:D

sorry for the bad pictures, but I had to use a webcam.

u know that plastic screen comes out.. its just like double sided taped in there. im working on a gameboy ipod case and it came out pretty easily so i could paint it.

Personally why would you cover up the X-craft? I have one in black and it looks fine the way it is. The X-craft is a thing of beauty and that game boy case is just wrecking it. Plus there will be very little ventilation in the game boy case.

Thanks for the info. I got it out. This will make things much more easy. I tried to get it out before but I thought it was attached so well that it would break if I pushed it any more. But instead it came out quit nice.


But to annoy you all (:D) I will repaint it again. I know its a hard time with me, but I got this new case (switched from laptop to desktop) and want it to fit the case paintjob. I think of modding the case itself sometime but the paintjob is just fine, so I will definitely stick with it. But to me this just don't look right:

I think of giving it the same look like the case. The white ring will get silver, the rest black (with better knowledge then last time I tried the black, so it won't produce this bad looking bulbs). So this project will go on and hopefully it will be recoloured for the last time.

I'm sorry for making this look very confused and disorganized but since it is my first real project I want to have it nice and this needs some practice and testing also including rejection of some progress. Hope you still watch this and give me advice.

oh god another respray.. nah just kidding with you :P
I think you just learned that planning is really worth the effort at the start of a project, save your self alot of time.

If a ecommendation is possible i would of done the paint scheme on the computer first before wacking out the paint. something like photoshop or one of the many of the same programs out there like GIMP.

I like that your thinking of matching your computer too :)

A very good job on the prints too they look cool :up:
keep up the good work

I like this mod a lot! Wanna trade game boys?

nice on makin it match...i plan on doin that with my laptop and all my stuff once i finish my case