Hmm, I wonder which particular caps affect the screen contrast? Wish I had a schematic for the thing, that's surprising that the tantalums don't work as well. It had been ~20 years since I'd played a Game Gear when I got the one I have so I couldn't recall how the screen was supposed to look. The tantalums sure made it look a lot better than it did with the leaky electrolytics though.

I've heard of the backlight CCFL failing too but that was fine in mine. I've seen some LED mods that apparently extend the battery life quite significantly but I'm using NiMH batteries so that hasn't been a huge concern. Back in the day I remember these things ate alkaline AA's like popcorn. It was a large part of the reason the Game Boy with its ugly puke green and black screen was so much more popular. It would run for more than 10 hours on 50% fewer batteries.