Anyone? I just don't think I have the ability to do this. Anyone else done it yet?

I'll be doing mine this weekend, if it turns out OK we'll talk, dig?

Word!

What's the word, oh master of the dremmel?

I dropped the ball. I didn't want to shell out $10 for a can of air, so I'll be doing it tonight or tomorrow night at work, where we have a nitrogen feed.

Word. I will talk to you in a few.

Cool, I just got my Afterburner today! But there's no way in hell I'm going to install it myself after what I've read about installing it .

I've been checking around for installers and found a few that seem good, but I'm waiting for people to get their's back from them to see how well modded they are before I send in my GBA. Most likely it will be on Wednesday I'm guessing. So.....whats a nitrogen feed?

what in the hell is this thing?

Internal lighting kit for Game Boy Advance

Read more here.

I installed mine over the weekend with excellent results. Took about 2 hours and the hardest part was keeping the work area clean. Only accomplished tinkerers should attempt this one as it takes a good deal of patience and attention to detail. (Keep it CLEAN!)

interested in doing another?

I order my afterburner kit but i'm looking for an installer.

Lame, I join the ranks of the 50% that screwed up their AR film. I ended up touching the sticky side while I had latex gloves on, and f'd it up but good. Ordered a couple more films last night, so hopefully I'll get them by the end of the week. All the dremeling is done, at least.

Practice up good, now, so that it will pay off on mine

So do I need a dremmel (SP?) or can I do all the cuts with a utility knife?

mine too. peeling the darn thing. then again when i pressed it against the lcd to test the sticky side.

You can use a knife, but holy geez would it be a pain in the ass. Heating the knife before you cut might work better, though.

I screwed up my AR film too! I wish that they would have sent two! oh well... I ordered the replacement AR today, hopefully I'll be playing my gba+a this weekend.

so where would i look in the phone book for a business that would install something like this

I used an exacto knife for cutting the hole for the dimmer. I heated it up before big cuts and it went pretty smoothly. I haven't gotten to the cuts around the screen yet, I'm hoping those will go just as well.

A warning about the dimmer - careful you don't glue the dial to itself. I was using super-glue and it leaked inside and the dial is stuck now. (it said gel on the glue package but it was not thick at all) So now I'm dead in the water until I get a replacement.

I also got extra AR films while I was ordering just in case.

I have done two of these so far and both came out well. First on had a slight AR film error which is just in a small corner, the other was excellent.
I opted for no dimmer and would never recommend installing one, not worth it for the minimal times you'll need it, one further complication for little gain.
I would gladly trade installation services for video games or dead presidents.

Anyone have a shovel?

My friend and I installed ours today. We "started" at about 2pm. finished ad 9:30. This was partially because we went out like 6 times to get everything we needed. To make a long story short, we ended up getting:

Dremmel
gloves
super glue
3 different screwdriver packages, then finally a 1\16th at sears

We finally started his, and it was taking forever! He started with the film. I told him to remove one of the coverings, and to test if it's sticky. At this exactp point he got a corner off, and as I was yelling "DON'T USE YOUR FINGER!", he touched it and left a nice big fingerprint... He tried for a while to get it off again, but instead screwing it up royally.

I got mine on just fine with the only problem a botch of glue in the lower right corner that got bunched when I took the film off . We both put our dimmers down at the bottom. Works fine! Woo hoo! You couldn't pay me enough to do it again, though. Ugh.

There are plenty of times when I would want to at least turn the light off. At a minimum, a switch is a must.

Sorry, but I just don't get it. Those kits sound like a monumental pain in the a$$. And they cost as much as the GBA itself (if you got one of those ugly pink ones from Overstock, like I did). Why go to all that trouble? I plunked $15 down on a Flood Light, which snaps right on, comes right off, provides great light in low or no light conditions, provides protection for the screen when not in use and looks pretty good as well (the less fucia visable, the better ). I don't mean to be a thread crapper here, but isn't that solution good enough? Is the Afterburner THAT much better?

Yes. Yes it is. This is assuming a few things:

1) You don't throw the GBA out the window while installing the Afterburner.

2) You apply the anti-glare shield correctly (no bubbles, matter under the shield, etc).

3) You do not scratch, touch, or get any matter on the afterburner itself.

4) You cut the GBA correctly for the afterburner to fit properly, avoiding the "trapezoid" effect.

5) You keep dust, hair, etc from getting between the external screen and the afterburner\LCD.

5) You can get the dang GBA screen (the part exposed to the outside that is in front of the LCD screen) to stay put and not use superglue to keep it on as I did after sucessfully making it through steps 1-5, thus making the grey areas that the superglue is in contact with to become clear, and then have the fumes from the superglue begin to screw with the LCD display causing random pixels all through the screen to display nothing but white, completely infuriating the owner to a murderous rage against those that actually made this dang thing available to the open market and ruining his Pokemon Center Gameboy Advance.

I'm in the same boat Decker.

I think the GBA screen is good enough as is. Castlevania is the only game I've had any problems seeing, and it looks as though developers have gotten the hint and started making the games brighter and more colorful.

At any rate, these kit are way too expensive, and sound like way to much trouble to install.

I'll stick with my $7.99 snap-on Light Shield Advance.