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This is my third DSL. I love these things. It's the most I've spent on a busted one so far, at $30. The last one I bought was 12, and the one before that was 5. All this one needed though was a new shell and a digitizer. Both screens are in excellent condition. The shell was very yellowed and busted.

Anyway, I had just learned recently that eXtremerate made DSL shells, and I decided I needed to try one out. I am a huge fan of the Switch Lite shell I have from them, it feels nearly OEM.

The DSL shell, not so much. The plastic is pretty soft. That's kind of nice, since I have had issues with previous aftermarket DS shells cracking. The bottom screen bezel is molded in, which I also like. It's hard to get the adhesive ones off without ruining the digitizer. The upper shell does not have the dual square DS logo molded into the top, which is also appreciated. The fit is also very good. No unexpected warping, everything fit together fine.

But the plastic is so soft.. I'm afraid it is going to scratch very easily. Plus, it's painted. I thought it would be gray plastic with some UV printed logos, but it is white plastic painted gray with UV logos. Sort of disappointing. If I ever re-shell it again, I'll get one of their transparent ones. But yeah, probably the best aftermarket DS shell I've seen so far, overall.

Did you know there's a decent DOS emulator for the DS? You aren't going to be playing Doom, but you can play Oregon Trail! Or Jetpack! And lots of other earlier stuff. Bind the buttons to keys, use the stylus for mouse input.

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[-] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago

David Attenborough: “Once the fragments of the old carapace have fallen away, the DS lite looks and feels like a completely new creature.”

[-] GalacticGrapefruit@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Ahhh, that's a beautiful machine. Brings back some very fond memories. I love it when people put in the love and effort to restore old machines, it makes me so happy.

[-] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

I actually never had one when they were new. I had the DMG, GBC, the Tiger Game.Com, the GBA, and that's where I stopped. Probably because that was around the time I was graduating high school (for the fat one), and I was all about PDAs from then until about 2011.

But yeah, I love keeping them going. I always have a few digitizers on hand, because that's what I seem to ruin the most on them. I can change one in under 15 min at this point.

[-] FalschgeldFurkan@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

That Gameboy style looks really nice 🙂

What's the game on image #3?

[-] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Oregon Trail

[-] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Thank you! Yeah, it's Oregon Trail.

[-] tomkatt@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

I’m in awe of people who do this stuff. I’ve wrecked a DS Lite and a DSi XL trying to do reshells, I’m just not delicate or patient enough for the work.

[-] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Oh, it definitely takes a lot of patience. But I love it, the whole process is therapeutic. I love the precision of it.

[-] tomkatt@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

I feel you. I felt that way doing some soldering for things like fixing my trackball (bad left mouse button replacement) and my microwave (blown thyristor, easy fix).

I’m just not really good with small stuff and delicate parts like ribbon cable and thin wires. My eyes are old (hello presbyopia), and my hands were never the steadiest, even when I was younger.

[-] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

What trackball? I've been keeping my T-BB18 going for 20 years now, and it's to the point I have to start 3D printing replacement parts for the rubber stuff that's turning to goo.

[-] tomkatt@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

It's an Elecom Huge wired model. I've owned three, had two fail on me, both to left click double clicking on single touch. First time could have been a fluke and I replaced it, but the second failed inside of four months. I said hell with it, took it apart, desoldered the switch and replaced it with a Kailh GM2.0. Worked like a charm and it's been fine since.

Ironically, my oldest Huge is still working fine. Apparently they were originally using Japanese Omron microswitches that were quality and seem to last forever (case in point, the oldest trackball is from 2019 and no issues). With the newer ones I bought, they apparently changed to using Chinese Omron switches of poor quality.

Sucks, but I have a few spare Kailhs laying around if any of the other buttons die now.

[-] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

That is a big, beautiful beast! Wow. It's ingrained in me that the trackball is for the thumb, so I'm not sure I could use it. But I am impressed by that behemoth.

[-] tomkatt@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

I started with a Logitech Marble Mouse back in the day, thumb-balls were never really my thing.

[-] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Ah, Logitech T-BB13 for me. My grandpa had the marble, it felt weird to me.

[-] twotonebax@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Nice :) I just finished re-shelling and swapping an amoled screen on my Gameboy color.

[-] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Excellent. Is that one of those laminated ones? I have not tried one of those yet. Just the Q5 mod.

[-] twotonebax@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Yeah, one of the Hispeedido amoled glass screens. Super happy with the results. I got it bundled with the shell designed to fit it, so I didn't have to hack up the original one.

Also swapped out the red power led for an amber/yellow one because I thought it looked better with the atomic purple case. :p

[-] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Mine, too, is Atomic Purple. As far as I'm concerned, it's the only color a GBC should be!

[-] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

That looks great, by the way.

[-] tacosanonymous@mander.xyz 2 points 2 days ago
[-] michael@piefed.chrisco.me 2 points 2 days ago
[-] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago
[-] youngskywalker@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Compared to the switch lite reshell in terms of difficulty how was this one? I didn't have too much problem with the lite just imagined you needed to do soldering or a heatgun for the DS

[-] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

DS is so, so much easier. I never want to do another Switch Lite. I already had to take it back apart to put hall effect joycon replacements in, it's not coming back apart.

No heat gun or soldering necessary for DS, yes heat gun for the Switch Lite to get the screen out. And get the digitizer off.

I do DS Lites and Gameboys for fun. Switch, Vita, and PSP are not fun.

[-] Reygle@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago
[-] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago
[-] YewEyeOwe31@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

That looks clean! I wish I could find an aftermarket replacement or 3d print model for a 2ds shell, but nobody seems to make those for some reason.

[-] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Thanks! That's a shame about the 2DS.

[-] DmMacniel@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago

even though its only painted, it looks really lovely!

[-] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

It does, for sure! And something I forgot to mention is that it came with three full button sets, so you could mix and match to get that DMG color scheme. Plus new silicone button membranes. And some other spare parts that easily get lost, like doubles of the L and R button springs and pins. And the little adhesive screw covers for the upper shell. It's a very nice kit. I'm just going to keep it in a neoprene sleeve when I carry it around to avoid scratches.

this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2026
168 points (100.0% liked)

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