I've got a hot-take: DSi XL is the sleeper best-in-class retro handheld. This is because it's got the biggest 4/3 optimized IPS screens available, huge battery life, and the ability to emulate anything 64-bit backwards (with more emu development needed), in addition to playing the entire DS Library beautifully. My GBA games have NEVER looked better, period. Please change my mind.
I did a top screen replacement on a DSi for a friend a few months back. I thought "how hard can it be?". Turns out that it was officially the worst, fiddly, most frustrating thing I've ever worked on in my life. I mean, I did it, but it was absolutely not enjoyable. Getting that ribbon cable back through the hinge almost made me lose my mind. Anyway, yours turned out nicely so congratulations!
The DSi was a much needed upgrade over the DS Lite for me. The DS Lite had terrible mushy buttons and d-pad, playing games that had felt great on a fat DS felt awful on the DS Lite. The DSi had good buttons again and I was very glad to get rid of my DS Lite. I truly believe the DS Lite doesn't catch enough flak for easily being Nintendo's lowest quality handheld system. The hinges were crap too, always breaking. And that weird design where it was colored plastic with a layer of clear plastic on top of it was always getting dirty and/or yellowing and just looked cheap and nasty. The DSi unfairly catches flak for not having the GBA port, but 1) by the time the DSi came out I wasn't going back to GBA games much, and if I did I would rather do it on a GBA because 2) again the DS Lite had such terrible buttons that playing GBA on it was an awful experience. Also the DSi XL was a great system too, much bigger for people with big hands like me and it's nicer to be able to play on the larger screen and full screen instead of a 3DS where you have to pick from full screen but crappy scaling or correct scaling but tiny screen.
Got a DSi to refurbish recently, the new shell and screens are on the way! I'm excited to get into it, hope the hinge doesn't give me too much trouble ww
Also the well of parts has really gone dry, no standalone button kits, very few options for shells. Wonder why the DSi doesn't have an eighth of the aftermarket support the lite has
replacement shells for this seems ot be pretty scarce now, that's why I ended up mixing and matching original parts for this build. There are still shells out there though, just don't end up paying over the odds.
The end result looks really nice. Thanks for sharing it with us. I had a DSi XL with a broken charging port. After trying to replace the port itself and ruining the entire mobo in the process, I bought two spare mobos from ebay. One with another broken charging port (even though the seller claimed that everything was working) and one with a broken cartridge slot (which I only found out after installing everything for the third time). Since I wasn't willing to gamble again with more spare parts, I simply decided to install cfw on the little fella. That process was pretty straightforward at least, and now I'm just using this console for playing roms from time to time. If you did a video on how to either install a new charging port or even better a new cartridge slot, that would be much appreciated.
Thank you! I'm glad that the cfw saved your console. I did a video on changing the DS Lite charge port but not done any others for different DS models yet
The DSi isnt great for modding in the physical sense, but it's an excellent system for softmodding. It's super simple to do, took me about 10 minutes and uses the DSi's built in camera app. It isn't as capable as the 3ds but still has a variety of homebrew and emulators that can run on it. With how expensive 3ds systems are in comparison, the DSi is a solid option as an alternative system. Also the DSi XL has two big IPS screens and runs DS games in their native resolution, making it the de facto system for playing DS games on.
Really useful points made here, thank you. Exploring soft mods is what I think I'll look into next. I did a hack on my XL but that was a long time ago and there are likely better options now
There 3DS is definitely better but that doesn't disqualify the DSi's quality. If softmodded it can play most retro handhelds up until its release and consoles up until 16bit systems. Also (like the 3DS) its native library is absolutely insanely huge (shovelware excluded) and unlike most consoles - its controller layout can't be comfortably emulated into a modern controller.
I love the DS Lite but I was sad that the clicky tactile buttons from the original DS were gone. The DSi buttons are way more satisfying to use, I love them. It feels like a luxury version of the Lite
Got a pokemon white dsi last week I love it. The screens are alittle yellowed in the corner so I picked up some new screens and they came in the mail yesterday!! 👍
that custom dsi looks really cool! regarding the beginning, i think that a modded dsi on its own is really cool (or any older ds model if that), the problem is just (for me anyways) if you have a 3ds then the modded dsi is kinda useless as it can do everything the dsi can plus more. people do enjoy playing on original hardware which i respect (i have a wii u but still use the wii frequently just cause of the vibes lol) but for me, ds games and stuff like it can be integrated really really naturally into the 3ds with stuff like ndsforwarder that i just dont see a need for it (i am personally not a big fan of the vwii on the wii u which is why i use an actual wii for that stuff, but im fine with how ds games can be incorporated with the 3ds menu, it still retains the same vibes for me). the 3ds has a way bigger modding community as well so i find it more fun tinkering with the 3ds than the dsi i will still never get rid of my dsi xl though lol i have way too many memories attached to it, great video
Thank you for your detailed and insightful words. I agree that the 3DS consoles are so capable they do end up leaving consoles like the DSi a little redundant. Still a great little console though
You've got to work with what's available! The dark metallic blue is also an option. This blue is very much a NES shade, kind of reminds me of the sky background in SMB world 1
I just discovered these in the last fortnight and ended up buying almost twenty of them, probably disturbing the market for a second. They are brilliant little devices and are ideal Mario machines. I’m not keen on the metallic blue, but every single other colour and finish are absolutely gorgeous. Get a couple of New Super Mario Bros with a couple of these, your children and their friends will be happy!
@@JoeBleeps I haven’t realised how good these were. I also bought a 3DS (nice, but it’s still too expensive for my young son as a school handheld/retro Nintendo emulator), three DSi Lites (some parts needing swapping and Macroing, thanks for the videos on this), 3 2DSs (before realising that someone already bought our son one) and a couple of 2DS XLs, which are probably my favourite. Oh, I forgot the two Super Mario special DSi XLs and the yellow one! Anyway, most are going back on sale, but I’ve got more games than anyone needs!
I've got a hot-take: DSi XL is the sleeper best-in-class retro handheld.
This is because it's got the biggest 4/3 optimized IPS screens available, huge battery life, and the ability to emulate anything 64-bit backwards (with more emu development needed), in addition to playing the entire DS Library beautifully.
My GBA games have NEVER looked better, period.
Please change my mind.
I can't argue with that. It's a fantastic machine. Would love for it to have a GBA slot too.
I did a top screen replacement on a DSi for a friend a few months back. I thought "how hard can it be?". Turns out that it was officially the worst, fiddly, most frustrating thing I've ever worked on in my life. I mean, I did it, but it was absolutely not enjoyable. Getting that ribbon cable back through the hinge almost made me lose my mind.
Anyway, yours turned out nicely so congratulations!
Thank you! And yes I feel your pain 🤣
The DSi was a much needed upgrade over the DS Lite for me. The DS Lite had terrible mushy buttons and d-pad, playing games that had felt great on a fat DS felt awful on the DS Lite. The DSi had good buttons again and I was very glad to get rid of my DS Lite. I truly believe the DS Lite doesn't catch enough flak for easily being Nintendo's lowest quality handheld system. The hinges were crap too, always breaking. And that weird design where it was colored plastic with a layer of clear plastic on top of it was always getting dirty and/or yellowing and just looked cheap and nasty.
The DSi unfairly catches flak for not having the GBA port, but 1) by the time the DSi came out I wasn't going back to GBA games much, and if I did I would rather do it on a GBA because 2) again the DS Lite had such terrible buttons that playing GBA on it was an awful experience.
Also the DSi XL was a great system too, much bigger for people with big hands like me and it's nicer to be able to play on the larger screen and full screen instead of a 3DS where you have to pick from full screen but crappy scaling or correct scaling but tiny screen.
@@mjc0961 DSi XL is fantastic. And despite me being a huge fan of the NDSL, I really can't argue against your points there 🤣
Got a DSi to refurbish recently, the new shell and screens are on the way! I'm excited to get into it, hope the hinge doesn't give me too much trouble ww
Also the well of parts has really gone dry, no standalone button kits, very few options for shells. Wonder why the DSi doesn't have an eighth of the aftermarket support the lite has
@@YuasBirds I think there are just more DS Lite consoles out there. I agree it's strange that it's hard to find buttons and shells nowadays
i bought one today since i had store credit i needed to use and i want to reshell it but i don’t know where to look
any recommendations?
replacement shells for this seems ot be pretty scarce now, that's why I ended up mixing and matching original parts for this build. There are still shells out there though, just don't end up paying over the odds.
The end result looks really nice. Thanks for sharing it with us. I had a DSi XL with a broken charging port. After trying to replace the port itself and ruining the entire mobo in the process, I bought two spare mobos from ebay. One with another broken charging port (even though the seller claimed that everything was working) and one with a broken cartridge slot (which I only found out after installing everything for the third time). Since I wasn't willing to gamble again with more spare parts, I simply decided to install cfw on the little fella. That process was pretty straightforward at least, and now I'm just using this console for playing roms from time to time. If you did a video on how to either install a new charging port or even better a new cartridge slot, that would be much appreciated.
Thank you! I'm glad that the cfw saved your console. I did a video on changing the DS Lite charge port but not done any others for different DS models yet
The DSi isnt great for modding in the physical sense, but it's an excellent system for softmodding. It's super simple to do, took me about 10 minutes and uses the DSi's built in camera app. It isn't as capable as the 3ds but still has a variety of homebrew and emulators that can run on it. With how expensive 3ds systems are in comparison, the DSi is a solid option as an alternative system.
Also the DSi XL has two big IPS screens and runs DS games in their native resolution, making it the de facto system for playing DS games on.
Really useful points made here, thank you. Exploring soft mods is what I think I'll look into next. I did a hack on my XL but that was a long time ago and there are likely better options now
There 3DS is definitely better but that doesn't disqualify the DSi's quality.
If softmodded it can play most retro handhelds up until its release and consoles up until 16bit systems.
Also (like the 3DS) its native library is absolutely insanely huge (shovelware excluded) and unlike most consoles - its controller layout can't be comfortably emulated into a modern controller.
I really like the DSi, buttons are more comfortable and screens are durable than DS lite
I love the DS Lite but I was sad that the clicky tactile buttons from the original DS were gone. The DSi buttons are way more satisfying to use, I love them. It feels like a luxury version of the Lite
This built went so well i tought it was an original special edition
Thank you! I tried to get it to look authentic so I appreciate that!
Got a pokemon white dsi last week I love it. The screens are alittle yellowed in the corner so I picked up some new screens and they came in the mail yesterday!! 👍
Good luck installing them! Take your time and take photos as you go, you'll be fine 😀
that custom dsi looks really cool!
regarding the beginning, i think that a modded dsi on its own is really cool (or any older ds model if that), the problem is just (for me anyways) if you have a 3ds then the modded dsi is kinda useless as it can do everything the dsi can plus more.
people do enjoy playing on original hardware which i respect (i have a wii u but still use the wii frequently just cause of the vibes lol) but for me, ds games and stuff like it can be integrated really really naturally into the 3ds with stuff like ndsforwarder that i just dont see a need for it (i am personally not a big fan of the vwii on the wii u which is why i use an actual wii for that stuff, but im fine with how ds games can be incorporated with the 3ds menu, it still retains the same vibes for me). the 3ds has a way bigger modding community as well so i find it more fun tinkering with the 3ds than the dsi
i will still never get rid of my dsi xl though lol i have way too many memories attached to it, great video
Thank you for your detailed and insightful words. I agree that the 3DS consoles are so capable they do end up leaving consoles like the DSi a little redundant. Still a great little console though
I have 2 Japanese DSi's and their colors are metallic blue
I love that metallic blue finish.
i used to have a DSi, its broken now. One day I want to get the data from it and put the thing on the other board
That's another interesting thing I hadn't thought about. How to extract data from broken consoles...
I like the idea of a Mario DSi, but I don't like type of blue that was used
You've got to work with what's available! The dark metallic blue is also an option. This blue is very much a NES shade, kind of reminds me of the sky background in SMB world 1
@@JoeBleeps And that is why paint exists
@@Wii505 true, but in this case I wanted to use original parts. I'm not a big fan of painting parts but they can look good if done well
I love my molded dsi xl
It's a beast of a handheld isn't it
wow that custom dsi color scheme is great!
Thanks so much!
Colour choices on point.
Thanks so much!
You sir just turned a new subscriber
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed
I just discovered these in the last fortnight and ended up buying almost twenty of them, probably disturbing the market for a second. They are brilliant little devices and are ideal Mario machines. I’m not keen on the metallic blue, but every single other colour and finish are absolutely gorgeous. Get a couple of New Super Mario Bros with a couple of these, your children and their friends will be happy!
Buying 20 in a frenzy is the sort of thing I'd end up doing 😅
@@JoeBleeps I haven’t realised how good these were. I also bought a 3DS (nice, but it’s still too expensive for my young son as a school handheld/retro Nintendo emulator), three DSi Lites (some parts needing swapping and Macroing, thanks for the videos on this), 3 2DSs (before realising that someone already bought our son one) and a couple of 2DS XLs, which are probably my favourite. Oh, I forgot the two Super Mario special DSi XLs and the yellow one! Anyway, most are going back on sale, but I’ve got more games than anyone needs!
@@ComeJesusChrist that's a great collection! The Mario XL is fantastic