Watching this YouTuber restore a GameBoy Color might fix you too

YouTube channel Odd Tinkering doesn’t hold many surprises — other than the disbelief at how good the consoles, controllers, and keyboards they restore look when the work is done. What starts as a broken, dirty Game Boy Color in this video becomes a crisp, clean handheld fit to be a 1998 Christmas present.

The creator, seemingly based in Finland, keeps their name off their channel — but that doesn’t mean they’re totally mysterious to fans. Subscribers often send in their water-damaged, Cheeto-finger-stained, cracked gaming devices to be repaired, and the process is satisfying and nostalgic. (That makes this channel a great stoned watch, by the way.) It seems like the person restoring the items is a true gamer, too — some of the projects are deep cuts, like the Pokémon Mini.

The depth of knowledge around preserving and restoring sometimes sensitive materials, like processing chips and porous plastic, is a huge part of the fun with Odd Tinkering’s videos. That, and the interesting captions in English that let you occasionally learn something about how keyboards or consoles are made, or how to modernize a piece of old tech you wish you could still use.

There’s something endearing, too, about going to such great lengths just to preserve a crappy 2005 office keyboard. Those things we use every day do matter. It’s also clear there’s a real passion for restoration; plenty of videos on the channel show restorations of antiques like this rusty straight razor. After all, it’s about the tinkering and the oddity, not the items themselves.