The Game Boy Advance was released in 2001, even now holds it’s own as a great portable gaming platform, however the original screen does leave a lot to be desired, thankfully it is a colour screen but not backlit, so playing in a dark room is a definite no no, unless you are a dwarf with darkvision….However modifiying the Game Boy Advance to support a backlit screen is pretty easy in 2017, this brings the GBA right upto date with a crisp beautiful backlighted screen.

The first step is to check which screen type your motherboard has, two types exist a 32 pin version and a 40 pin version. Just remove the battery compartment cover, and you will see printed in white lettering a line of numbers, just where the locking tab of the battery cover clips into place.

For a 40 pin screen connector Game Boy Advance AGB-001 the first number is “0” see example below:

GBA Mainboard with 40 pin screen connector

For a 32 pin screen connector Game Boy Advance AGB-001 the first number is “1” see example below:

GBA Mainboard with 32 pin screen connector