Oof, the donor buttons are nasty (surprise! It happens with 20yo stuff kept in random boxes)

Time for a quick clean

But first, test the display! It’s alive and looks good!!

Lost ages to a screw whose head broke that I can’t remove. Grabbed some pliers at the hardware store so hopefully I’ll be able to sort this out 😩

9h and a lot of cursing later:
- most of my screws are fucked up
- i broke the two GBA PCBs i had in two different ways (capacitors/resistors being knocked out of the board..)
- i broke the case in some spots and it's impossible to close

I spent my afternoon and evening on this and i have nothing to show for it. I'm tired and angry 🙃

Lessons learned:
- 20 years old screws fucking suck
- i guess i am too clumsy for that kind of project
- I'll just buy a pre-modded GBA because i don't want to go through all of this over again

I'll drown my anger and sadness in yogurt because i didn't eat dinner and it's too late to cook anything.

Send cute stuff in my mentions pls

A new donor GBA, shell, LCD, screws, and 2 hours later, the modding is a success 🎉

I forgot to buy white silicone pads so Sel/Start are grey and not white but 🙃

The LCD is gorgeous, otherwise!

In my clumsiness i _of course_ knocked another capacitor off the PCB and had to re-solder that and, folks, it was the most stressful shit i ever had to do 😰 😰

i am, however, not sure why the LED is red despite my rechargeable batteries being completely full 🤷