Change buttons on DS Lite

[rederiet]

Hello! I've always considered the DS Lite to be the ultimate Gameboy Advance, but have never really cared for DS games to be honest. So my plan is to butcher a DS lite, remove the top screen and just play GBA games. I don't really care about the speakers to be honest, as long as I can use the headphone hack.

That process itself does not seem very complicated, but I've never really liked the tiny buttons on the DS. While the D-pad is great, the ABXY buttons are horrible IMO, and the GBA doesn't even use all four of them.

So my question is: is it even possible to somehow modify the unit to use two big buttons instead of four tiny ones for this purpose? The A and B-buttons from a Gameboy, NES controller or SNES controller would be awesome. I'm not tremendously experienced in modding, but I have done a few things (mostly soldering).

 

[sonictimm]

It's possible to replace them and get rid of X and Y, but if the buttons you replace them with are too large (NES), then A and B may stick out a little.

On the circuit board, cover up X and Y with small pieces of electrical tape so you don't have to worry about them
How you attach A and B depends on what buttons you use

 

[Zero]

Honestly, if you want the "ultimate GBA" you should either just frontlight an original GBA or stuff a backlight SP into an Original GBA. It'd look and feel better than a butchered Lite, and it could play GB/GBC games as well.

 

[zharrhen]

I don't know if this will work, but to change the buttons, just make the button holes bigger to fit the buttons you want, find some way to attach the bottons you want OVER the original DS buttons, and just get rid of the X and Y and cover the holes up with plastic and epoxy (maybe just epoxy).

Also you mentioned the speakers, you could probably put those on the back and cover them up somehow as long as you keep the wires intact when you rip the top screen off.

EDIT: I agree with Zero, but it's your choice