Neo Geo - Of the Pocket variety

[rubber_jonnie]

I've always liked the look of the Neo Geo Pocket Colour, and being a handheld fan I decided it was time to have one join my collection:

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It came in the box, which was nice and I've picked up a RetroHQ SD cart solution, which is great because I can flash multiple games and easily pick from the list of ready to run games.

I'll write more on this soon as I have an IPS screen upgrade to do. Sadly whilst very nice, the screen isn't backlit, so bright light is a must to play it's weird collection of games :)

[stephen_usher]

I was going to say that the screen looked nice and crisp. Obviously that's due to your lighting conditions.

[rubber_jonnie]

I was going to say that the screen looked nice and crisp. Obviously that's due to your lighting conditions.

Yep that was taken on my workbench in optimum lighting conditions. In good light, the screen is nice, but move somewhere darker and it's not great.

[rubber_jonnie]

Well, the back lit IPS display just arrived for the NGPC, hopefully I'll have time to install it over the weekend.

The PCB has to be amongst the thinnest I've ever seen.

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More on this later.

[HigashiJun]

No time for a rest with @rubber_jonnie...

There's always something to repair !

:lol:

[rubber_jonnie]

No time for a rest with @rubber_jonnie...

There's always something to repair !

:lol:

Repair or mod :)

[rubber_jonnie]

OK, so I decided to do the Neo Geo screen today. It's pretty easy to disassemble, bar the fact that one case screw is a tri-wing security screw, but the kit I ordered had the necessary screwdrivers included, so that wasn't a barrier.

The original screen pops out easily with a lit bit of pressure on one of the corners, and once everything was disassembled, I had everything laid out:

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And it was here I noticed that there is s significant size difference between the old and new screens. In the image above, the old and new bezels are top left, and the old and new screens are top right. At first I wondered if I'd ordered the wrong thing, but going back to check, it was correct and the screen resolutions are the same, but because it's a no cut kit, the screen is a bit smaller.

Time to move on then. First I popped in the new bezel and added some thin double sided tape to stick the new screen down:

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And dropped the screen in place:

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It didn't stick down great, so I ended up popping a drop of hot glue at each corner, and that steadied the ship :)

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Note the speaker is only held in by 2 tabs, no glue at all, so it's easy to pop it out and work on the top case unfettered.

I have to say, getting the screen in the right place, with no fingerprints on the screen or the inside of the new bezel in the correct place was a trial, and took a long time to get right. This is due to the size difference and I would say that the kit really needs a 3d printed frame to center the new screen and hold it in place. Since this kit, unlike others requires no case cutting and is fully and easily reversible, not to mention cheap, lets me forgive it a bit, but not totally.

Next I had to hook up the PCB to the display:

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And then gently fold everything into place in order to get ready for reassembly:

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Note that I used another piece of double sided tape to stick the PCB to the back of the display for ease of reassembly. Also note the small pad coming from the top right of the PCB. That's a capacitive pad that allows you to select the brigthness level. I used another thin piece of double sided tape to stick that to the inside of the case once the PCB was in place. It works perfectly just by touching the outside of the case :)

Note, there are 2 pieces of film included with the kit, one goes on the back of the display, and one goes on the back of the PCB. Make sure you use the correct ones, as the PCB film is cut to the shape of the PCB.

They are there for insulation, so don't forget them.

All reassembled, the display, despite being a little smaller looks great:

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Would I recommend this screen kit? I'm not entirely sure, since getting the screen aligned and attached was a heck of a fiddle, and I'm not overkeen on the generic bezel, when mine was colour matched to the console.

In terms of price, under £40 including delivery is cheap, especially if you consider screens for other handhelds like the Lynx and GameGear are at least double that, so that does go in its favour.

Given it is easily reversible, there'd be nothing to stop me moving to a different screen, but then there is the problem of having to cut the case, so neither is ideal.

Also, there is a distinct lack of installation instructions, I had to figure it out as I went along, so it isn't for the beginner.