Over 30 years after its debut, there are lots of of the way to change and improve the Nintendo Game Boy, in addition to the next variations of the hand held console, to enhance all the pieces from the display to the standard of the built-in audio system. But one hacker, lastly fed up with stressing over battery life, has upgraded the Game Boy Pocket with a photo voltaic panel so that they’ll by no means need to swap one other AA battery once more.

There are numerous legitimate complaints available with 24-year-old {hardware}, together with the Game Boy Pocket’s low-contrast display that lacked self-illumination; requiring players to search out an exterior mild supply when taking part in properly after the solar went down. Upgrading the hand held with a backlit fashionable LCD show is comparatively painless now, nevertheless it ends in higher demand on the pair of AA batteries that energy the Game Boy Pocket. Adding a chargeable lithium-polymer battery is often step one modders take when including upgraded parts to previous Game Boy {hardware}, however that then means you’re at all times in want of an influence outlet for charging, whereas a pair of substitute AA batteries are nonetheless straightforward to search out nearly in all places.

Sourcing energy from a wind turbine isn’t precisely handy so a Game Boy modder (who, for some motive, is sharing this hour-long construct tutorial by means of the Houston Museum of Natural Science’s YouTube channel) as a substitute turned to our different clear supply of renewable power: the solar. They have been capable of finding a compact photo voltaic cell that was an ideal match for the again panel of the Game Boy Pocket, and it was wired instantly into the added rechargeable battery in order that so long as the hand held was not noted in a spot with adequate daylight, the battery would at all times be recharging when the GBP wasn’t being performed.

There are different components that may have an effect on the battery lifetime of a Game Boy, together with whether or not a gamer is utilizing an OEM recreation cartridge or a third-party flash cart that may maintain lots of of video games at a time. With the display set at full brightness and taking part in video games from a flash cart, this modded Game Boy Pocket can run for about two to 4 hours earlier than dying. But with an OEM recreation cartridge within the slot and the display brightness dimmed, battery life can attain a formidable 10 to 12 hours between costs. And for each hour not noted in best daylight (with the solar instantly overhead and no clouds within the sky) the added photo voltaic panel can collect sufficient cost for two further hours of gameplay.

Had Nintendo included photo voltaic charging with the unique Game Boy, a complete era of children would have gladly obliged their mother and father and performed exterior all summer season lengthy.