The Proper Use For A Gameboy Advance Carrying Case

About a decade ago, Nintendo released a Game Boy Advance carrying case in the shape of a Game Boy Advance. It was the obvious answer to the original brick Game Boy carrying case every eight year old had in 1990. This jumbo-sized Game Boy Advance case also makes a really good platform for a console mod, which is exactly what [frostefires] got when he put an N64 in one.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this bit of old Nintendo paraphernalia used to house an N64. A few years ago, [Hailrazer] used the same GBA carrying case as the body of an N64 build. There were a few shortcomings in that build, most importantly the removal of the D pad.  [frostedfires]’ build fixes this oversight.

Inside the GBA enclosure is a 4.3 inch screen, a replacement Gamecube joystick, an SNES D pad, and of course the entire N64 circuit board with a few modifications.

[frostedfires] entered this into a ‘Shark Tank’-ish  competition at school, and this build was so impressive he won first place. Link to the full build thread here.

14 thoughts on “The Proper Use For A Gameboy Advance Carrying Case

  1. I still have an original GBA. I had added a backlight mod because I hated the the Game Boy SP’s buttons. A backlit GBA was so much more comfortable to me.

    It’s pretty impressive that a non-intended-to-be-mobile console could be fit in a handheld.

    1. The N64 is rather small once the PCB has been taken out and cut down to minimum size. After all there are only 2 main chips and 3 or 4 smaller side chips that are needed for operation. I can fit a cut down N64 PCB in my hand. N64. The only home console that is smaller than some portables once the extra wasted space and useless PCB sections have been removed.

      1. Even if you don’t want to chop it down, the board is encased in a metal plate that’s small enough for a basic portable build. You’d want to replace the heatsink, but the rest is quite slim, and would fit nicely behind a PS1 screen

      2. Eh I thought PCEngine board was pretty small. PCE (and Coregrafx) are among the smallest non-portable console which makes them good for portable hack. Some people would prefer to hack TurboExpress with bigger screen instead.

Leave a Reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.