Substitute for Gamebits

[emwearz]

Does anyone know if there *proper* substitute for both the 3.5mm and 4.5mm Gamebits. Im not interested in melting a Bic. I'm talking about Hex or Torx that will open up what the two Gamebits would.

I don't want to buy them online, not because I'm cheap (I am) but I just hate buying shit like that online (For the bullshit price asked). I know you can make them with a screwdriver and im considering trying this in the future but I would much prefer if anyone knew a size of Torx, Hex or any other attachment face that works.

Cheers all.

[Hobie-wan]

Making one would be pretty difficult. Most screwdrivers are a driver that fits inside a screw head. So if you start with a rod, you can carefully file something down until it fits a funky security screw.

But game bits are the opposite. The screw fits inside of a hollow driver tip. I did see something a long time ago where someone took a hex driver and glued thin wires in the 6 corners to give it the ribs that fit in the screw head notches. The hex driver would need to have pretty thin walls though. The holes in NES carts are barely bigger than the screw heads and most hex drivers have pretty thick walls. I imagine you'd have to grind most of them down to make them thin enough, then try the wire thing.

I'll try to see what size hex is about the right size though in a little bit.

*edit

Just a thought, see if Dealextreme has them. You're actually closer than most of us here and since they have lots of cheeerfully cheap stuff.

[emwearz]

The screwdriver method is just taking out the middle section, I have seen it before when my friends dad fixed his copy of Maniac Mansion, he doesn't have the screwdriver anymore. But I could try this myself.

I was just hoping on a long shot that something I could pick up from a hardware store might open them up. I just want to mod my SNES (60hz ftw).

I searched DE first but couldnt find anything.

Cheers

In the end I think I will most likely have to buy one online, but would much prefer to just go to my local hardware or electronics store and pick something up.

[Hobie-wan]

Ah yeah, I get what you mean, filing a notch in a flathead screwdriver so it looks a little like an open ended spanner. I wouldn't expect it to last long, but if you're just opening up 1 system to mod it might work.

If you decide to just buy bits, I got mine from The Electric Quarter. They sell them individually, or both sizes at a pair. You need the larger 4.5 mm bit to open up a SNES. TEQ also sells a videogame tool set in a black case, but the game bits in that set are pretty crappy. The ones that are by themselves or as a pair are a lot higher quality.

[DerekG52]

As much as you don't want to hear it, I'd suggest just getting them. Unfortunately there are few sellers of them and it's difficult to make any sort of decent substitute. You can do what I did and rationalize it that people will pay premium for extra clean games. (Assuming you were to sell some that were opened using it)

[Niode]

Pretty much the only alternative to a gamebit is a bic, and even then it only works for 1 screw at a time. Which is very time consuming, but when you're in a bind it works.

You should just get them, once you've got em you've got em. It's not like they cost a lot, unless they've gone up in price lately. One thing I would suggest though, is if you intend on opening up your consoles again in future to replace the gamebit screws with a standard phillips head screw of the same size, that way you have less chance of threading the gamebits when you come to open the console up again. I did that, and had to destroy my Gamecube case so that I could install my mod chip. I was replacing the case anyway so it didn't matter, but it was unnecessary work caused by my hastiness.

[emwearz]

I did my own version of the 'bic' method, which involved me melting a thicket pen, pushing it hard into the screw slots, putting a bearing case on the tip and leaning hard, using pliers to turn the pen while my girlfriend held the snes in place. Had them all out in less than 5 and only had the use the stove once.

I start work late tomorrow and plan to mod my snes then, cant wait!