Gameboy Color, like a GBA...a little

[Aswald]

One of the few things about 2005 that went right was finding a purple Gameboy Color at a second-hand store (which closed down a couple of months ago) for $4.00. It didn't have a cover for the battery compartment, just electrical tape and cardboard, but it did work.

A couple of weeks later, at another second-hand store, I was able to get a Worm Light for it for $1.00. It was...purple.

Shortly after that, I found a clear battery cover at Radio Shack for about $2.00.

Then, at the same place, I found an AC adapter for the thing for another $2.00. By the by, it was purple, too.

So, for $9.00, I got a complete Gameboy Color set. Not bad.

Unfortunately, upon trying the AC adapter, I discovered some bad news:

As you all know, when you use a GBA, the battery pack is recharged by the AC adapter. So, as you play it, you are actually charging the battery. If you suddenly unplug it, nothing happens to the game you are playing.

Not so a GBC. If you plug in or unplug an AC adapter while a game is in progress, the unit "shuts down" for a second, and then reactivates. You lose whatever game you were playing.

This would be a serious problem where I am. Not so much during the winter (which has been freakishly mild for up here), but during the other three seasons, we often have electrical outages. So if I'm playing something, like Towers: Lord Baniff's Deceit, I could lose a whole night's gaming if this happens.

What to do?

I took it apart (in spite of those stupid "Y"-shaped screws), and cut the leads from the socket. Of course, it didn't work at all, until I soldered a wire from the component above the socket (actually, a soldering point connected to it, it was easier to get at) to the negative battery terminal. From there, it was simply a matter of soldering wires to the battery terminals from the socket. Closing up the works- it doesn't have much room inside to work with- was tricky, but...done!

It works!

This GBC is now, in this respect, like a GBA. Since the AC adapter goes directly to the batteries, it too charges them up. You can use the adapter, batteries, or both, and if the power to the adapter is cut off, nothing happens- just like a GBA.

I use special 2.4V, 2300 mA AA batteries. These can be charged at a rate of 4600 mA, so the 350 mA of the adapter is fine, while still more than the GBC uses, even with the Worm Light. And since the adapter is 3V, there is no real danger of overcharging.

Nice! :D

[ajfarias]

Congrats. That used to bug me alot, too. ;)

[boatofcar]

Cool. I wish I had the confidence in my electrical skills to just rip a console apart when it didn't work like I wanted it to. Mostly I just complain about it a lot :)

[rbudrick]

Sounds pretty dangerous if you are not using rechargables, or the wrong kind of rechargeables.

-Rob

[InsaneDavid]

Could always secure the battery door so the batteries can't be removed easily like the GBA-SP.

[Ed Oscuro]

Ha, sometime last year I passed up a $10 Game Boy Color. Unless it comes in a box, I don't need it. LOL

[Aswald]

Sounds pretty dangerous if you are not using rechargables, or the wrong kind of rechargeables.

-Rob

Well, I am using rechargeables- those 2300 mA ones I mentioned. And they are quite safe; 350 mA cannot threaten them, especially at 3V. All I really did was to reroute the power to the battery compartment directly.

My guess is that most people use regular batteries. You are not supposed to recharge them, so Nintendo built the GBC in such a way that it was impossible to do so (hence, the way it separates battery and adapter). Since the GBA SP I tried that time only uses a special rechargeable battery pack, this was not a problem- but not so the GBC, which uses AA batteries you can get anywhere.

[Aswald]

Could always secure the battery door so the batteries can't be removed easily like the GBA-SP.

But it is more than secure enough- the problem wasn't the batteries coming out, but the fact that if you use an adapter a power outage can lose the game you're playing- now that cannot happen, and what's more, the batteries are safely charged up while you play or even if you just leave it there.

Of course, it doesn't shut off automatically, as I assume a GBA SP does, but again, 350 mA at 3V is just a trickle charge for those particular batteries, so there is no possibility of overcharging.


Funny thing is: I have an AC Adapter that is one of those multi-voltage, choose your own plug types. At the local Radio Shack I picked up an end that those plugs plug into, and soldered it to a trailer plug, which is what all of the electronic stuff I make is based on (it's all interchangeable).
As a result, not only can the GBC safely charge up the 2 AA batteries in it, not only does it not lose a game in progress if there is an electrical outage, but now you can plug in anything that can run on 2 AA batteries into the GBC- colored LED lights, small radio, even a tape cassette player. All while playing Gauntlet 2 or R-Type DX (the only two games I have at the moment for it) It's probably the only GBC that can do that.

And since everything is purple, I can even claim that Prince once owned it.

[GameSlaveGaz]

Ha, sometime last year I passed up a $10 Game Boy Color. Unless it comes in a box, I don't need it. LOL

I bought a $10 GBC @ GameStop for the sole purpose of playing Kirby's Tilt n Tumble since playing it in an SP is impossible because loading the game upside down totally fucks w/the motion-sensors. Believe me, I tried - just to see if there was a way around it - and without even moving the SP, Kirby careened full speed off a ledge. Granted, I could play it in a regular Advance, but they're bulkier and the Color is cheaper. So even for 1 game I didn't mind paying $10 for a GBC, especially when the game is Tilt n Tumble.

[Aswald]

Motion sensors in a cartridge to control movement? That's a rather strange idea; how well does it work on a GBC, and was it meant for the original GB?

Was Wizardry ever available in America for the GB or GBC, and if so, was it the "American" or "Japan-ized" version?

[Ed Oscuro]

I bought a $10 GBC @ GameStop for the sole purpose of playing Kirby's Tilt n Tumble since playing it in an SP is impossible because loading the game upside down totally fucks w/the motion-sensors. Believe me, I tried - just to see if there was a way around it - and without even moving the SP, Kirby careened full speed off a ledge. Granted, I could play it in a regular Advance, but they're bulkier and the Color is cheaper. So even for 1 game I didn't mind paying $10 for a GBC, especially when the game is Tilt n Tumble.
Yes, I've heard that the SP makes playing Wario Ware: Twisted well nigh impossible as well.

But for the boxed comment...I recently passed up a $14 boxed game boy color from Japan (would've been a bit more after shipping). Really, no great shakes. Would be cool to own, of course.

[Nesmaster]

Ha, sometime last year I passed up a $10 Game Boy Color. Unless it comes in a box, I don't need it. LOL

I bought a $10 GBC @ GameStop for the sole purpose of playing Kirby's Tilt n Tumble since playing it in an SP is impossible because loading the game upside down totally fucks w/the motion-sensors. Believe me, I tried - just to see if there was a way around it - and without even moving the SP, Kirby careened full speed off a ledge. Granted, I could play it in a regular Advance, but they're bulkier and the Color is cheaper. So even for 1 game I didn't mind paying $10 for a GBC, especially when the game is Tilt n Tumble.

I hated that also. Might be worth the effort to track down a gameshark then, since it will load the game the proper way :D

[Jibbajaba]

Motion sensors in a cartridge to control movement? That's a rather strange idea; how well does it work on a GBC, and was it meant for the original GB?

There is a Yoshi-based GBA game that also has motion sensors built into the cartridge. Pretty fun.

Chris

[GameSlaveGaz]

Motion sensors in a cartridge to control movement? That's a rather strange idea; how well does it work on a GBC, and was it meant for the original GB?

There is a Yoshi-based GBA game that also has motion sensors built into the cartridge. Pretty fun.

Chris

Kirby's Tilt n Tumble was released for the GameBoy Color. It will not work in an original GameBoy. It will only work in a GameBoy Color or the original GameBoy Advance.

Wario Ware Twisted and Yoshi's Topsy Turvy are also motion-based, and they actually use a gyroscope (I know for a fact Wario does, but I have not seen Yoshi in action yet so I don't know for sure) and they are calibrated before the title screen so the games work just as well in an SP, and original Advance or a DS regardless of the position of the cartridge. (although playing them in a DS is rather cumbersome, I'm told)

On that note, my boyfriend is determined to play Wario Ware Twisted in his GameBoy Player. He is literally going to pick up his GameCube and move it around. I told him it would probably make the GameBoy Player start-up disc skip, but he's a stubborn little man.

EDIT: I've forgot to mention that I've actually played Wario Ware Twisted in an SP and it worked fine. Since it is calibrated before the game even starts it doesn't matter if the cart is loaded rightside up in an original Advance or upside down in an SP, and Nintendo made sure of that because by the time WWT came out, the original Advance was discontinued and SP reigned supreme. Hell, there's even an SP on the cover of the game! (Yet even today, a lot of the GBA instruction manuals use the original Advance in illustrations, have you noticed that?)

But obviously when Nintendo released Kirby Tilt n Tumble, they could not see into the future and see that they were going to design the SP with the cartridge slot on the bottom and so the game was not designed to be calibrated in that position. Nintendo should learn to see into the future to avoid such problems LOL

[Ed Oscuro]

Aha. I heard some folks complaining that the layout of the SP makes it hard to play Twisted - again, that's all second-hand. Probably related to the clamshell throwing off how onscreen commands translate to the game pack (aligned with the second half of the case), I'm guessing...

[Jorpho]

I used the official Nintendo Game Boy rechargable battery pack on my old B&W for years without problems - things keep going merrily on their way if the battery pack is suddenly unplugged from the wall while playing. I don't think the pack actually recharges while one is playing, though. (In fact, it says in the manual that the pack won't recharge at all if it is plugged into the Game Boy, regardless of whether the Game Boy is on or not.)

[mills]

my friend you can order a battery cover for your gameboy color for $1 at nintendo's website!

[Lothars]

that's a good idea, I have a gba color that I found at home the other day

hmm I wouldn't mind to find another one soon as well

but I love my sp and ds for playing gba games, just wouldn't mind to get another

great idea though

[Aswald]

I used the official Nintendo Game Boy rechargable battery pack on my old B&W for years without problems - things keep going merrily on their way if the battery pack is suddenly unplugged from the wall while playing. I don't think the pack actually recharges while one is playing, though. (In fact, it says in the manual that the pack won't recharge at all if it is plugged into the Game Boy, regardless of whether the Game Boy is on or not.)


But the batteries in mine now do. I allowed them to go "near dead" (as indicated by the very dim red power light), and then plugged in the adapter- immediately, the light brightened, got brighter in moments, and all tests I've done confirms that this project, at least, was successful!

Now, all I have to do is wait for Towers to come in from Telegames. I'm rather looking forward to it! Then, Towers 2, which looks even better!