I started the AIM chat room that got the kit going. It was the same day the GBA was released. I forget his name, but he basically came in the room and posted pictures about how he put an led inside it - but it looked horrible. Another guy suggested the luminescence material (which evidentally is used in making movies and usually comes in a much larger size.)
Adam (at least that's the name I remembered) told us it would be a free kit at first and that he would keep development. He registered portablemonopoly.com that night. Then, he became a total dick. Basically all our suggestions that night went into the final product and I dunno about the others, but I felt had. A lot of us broke our first GBAs reverse engineering them. He initially promised us free kits - but that never happened. I think he long forgot us and he turned the project into that commercial endeavor which ended up being the Afterburner. I bought one and installed it - and it did work nice.
It annoys me that he kept everything to himself, though, especially since our suggestions and work went into the product. I have the AIM log of it somewhere on one of my backup cds and I'm not making this up.
But, I was really annoyed with Nintendo when they released the GBA SP.. The SP basically rips off the Afterburner and uses the same 30-degree (the angle required to properly frontlight the GBA screen) luminescence material - you can easilly tell just by angling the SP's screen and seeing that it reflects at a 30-degree angle.
But ya, you will NOT be able to find the parts for the Afterburner because the luminescense screen and the 30degree refractor (I believe that's what it's called) are both custom-made for the Afterburner.
Anyway, that's my story and it is the truth.
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