" The LightBoy is Nintendo's official licensed light/magnifier accessory for the GBA and has gotten some excellent reviews. As it retails for $30-$40 in the US, I decided to get one of the LightBoy clones instead from a company called Level 6, which sells Lightboy clones for about $9. These clones are virtually identical to the Nintendo version.

The Lightboys use tiny incandescent bulbs. While the incandescent lighting was satisfactory, I preferred the white light of my modified Light Shield. I thought that replacing the bulbs with LEDs would give me both the clean illumination of the modded Light Shield and a magnifier. I replaced the two bulbs in the Lightboy with the same brand of white LEDs that I put in the Light Shield (not the Radio Shack LEDs). After some testing of the modified LightBoy and comparing it to my modified Light Shield, I must say that I still preferred the Light Shield, although I later came up with ways to further improve the performance of the modified Lightboy (see below).

I was disappointed with the end-result for several reasons. First, although the illumination was adequate for playing games in the dark, I could not achieve the same level of brightness as the modded Light Shield. In a lighted room, the LED light from the Lightboy was washed out and the GBA screen looked dark. This was due to the center beams of the LEDs firing above the GBA screen, not directly at it. There is little room in the lightbulb receptacles for repositioning the LEDs. Note: I obtained my white LEDs from a surplus outlet and they do not have the wide-angle dispersion of the Radio Shack LEDs. With Radio Shack LEDs, the illumination on the LightBoy screen would probably be much stronger.

Second, the LightBoy does not fit on a GBA with the Pelican PowerGrip installed.

Third, the LightBoy does not really protect the GBA screen from accidental scratches as the Light Shield does. In fact, the magnifying lens is fully exposed, so both the GBA screen and the magnifier are subject to damage. Thus, in these respects, the modded Light Shield is (IMHO) the superior lighting accessory for the GBA, if the magnifier is not needed.

However, I do think that the LED mod can be successfully implemented on the Lightboy, if modders install the wide-angle white LEDs such as the Radio Shack LEDs to increase the strength of the indirect lighting on the GBA screen. Smaller LEDs would be easier angle, but smaller LEDs usually have weaker illumination. And there is actually an advantage to indirect illumination of the GBA screen: less glare from light reflecting off the magnifier. Of course, brighter LEDs do not address the second and third objections that I raised, but not every GBA owner will care about these objections.

I also recommend getting at least 2 LightBoys for experimentation. The plastic frame of the LightBoy is rigid and brittle. The second unit could be kept as a source of replacement parts if the first Lightboy is damaged during the mod process."

                 

" I recently purchased a copy of Tetris World and was frustrated with the tiny size of the tetriminos. While the modded lightshield was fine for illuminating the screen, the tetriminos were still too small for my liking. It seemed that the best solution was the Lightboy magnifier.

I modded my Lightboy several months ago, but was not satisified with the results (see my previous submission for details). Since I now need the magnifier, I took out the Lightboy and updated the modifications to try and improve the performance. Here's what I did:

1. I enlarged the LED mounting holes in the clear plastic lenses into an oval shape so that there was more room to position the LEDs.

2. I replaced the cheap white LEDs that I obtained from a surplus outlet with the brighter, wider viewing-angle Radio Shack LEDs.

3. I bent the LEDs to shine directly on the GBA screen as much as possible before closing the top of the Lightboy cover.

The result is excellent. The modded LightBoy can be used with or without the magnifier. Without the magnifier, the illumination is as good as that from the LightShield." The Tetris World Main Menu screen is normally very dark. With the modded Lightboy LEDs turned on, the screen is perfectly clear and readable.

In the TW Game Screen, the illumination works well with the magnifier, but there is increased glare due to the brightness and directionality of the LED lights. The Lightboy cover can be angled to reduce the glare, but it's still fairly strong. I find I can ignore the glare most of the time. Best of all, the Tetris tetriminos are very easy to see and I enjoy playing TW much more. I completely recommend the Lightboy mod. "