DMG-001 Field Test

    Nintendo Game BoyOriginal Nintendo Game Boy from 1989 with RCA Audio mod

DMG-001 Field Test
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Train to City (seated):
Ideal conditions, perfect contrast, excellent sound from Samsung earphones.

In a tunnel with lighting:
Conditions less ideal but still very playable.

Basement area of a Building:
Not recommended, terrible interior lighting. Uncomfortable in areas that provide better lighting.

Train back (standing):
Surprisingly very playable due to carriage lighting.

Walking (Night)
Can’t distinguish objects on screen. Rely on audio and muscle memory only.

At Home (Day):
Ideal conditions, though noise from builtin headphone amp is very noticeable.

At Home (Night):
Unplayable, needs backlighting or extra environmental lighting.

Advantages:

  • Durable/rugged design, stronger than a modern smartphone.
  • Relatively compact, only slightly larger than a Samsung Galaxy Note 5.
  • Easy to use, comfortable controller.
  • Excellent battery life
  • Great bass compared to other Game Boy models

Disadvantages:

  • No backlight/frontlight option in original design
  • Cannot play GameBoy Color games (insufficient RAM and colour palette)

Apart from some lighting issues, the DMG-001 is an excellent unit for both GameBoy games and Chiptune music creation.

Backlit GameBoy Pocket

Pokémon Blue on a Backlit GameBoy Pocket
Pokémon Blue on a Backlit GameBoy Pocket

If you have to decide between a backlit DMG (Dot-Matrix GameBoy) or a backlit MGB (GameBoy Pocket), choose the DMG. I got the MGB because it was cheaper on eBay, but it wasn’t technically compatible with Pokémon as opposed to most other (simpler) games – though the description on eBay didn’t mention this.

When playing Pokémon, the backlight would produce an on/off flicker every 1/60 second (1/30 ON, 1/30 OFF).

To fix this issue, I installed a 30Ω resistor and moved the backlight terminals from the 3V source (audio) to the main 5V source. Though the next issue is battery overheating and mild contrast changes, this should hopefully be solved by increasing the resistance on the backlight (by changing the one I just installed or installing a variable resistor).

Good experience though, even if it should’ve been an off-the-shelf product.