Hidden color pallettes in GB games.

[Pantechnicon]

As a result of my post-burglary rebuidling efforts I broke down and finally bought a GBA SP. I popped in Qix and my jaw nearly hit the ground.

Qix on a GBA looks absolutely amazing. Objects all appear in yellows and reds on the bright white background. It's veritably a lush color pallette for what is supposed to be a black and white game. I then put the cart in my son's GBC and saw the same effects, but less pronounced owing to the absence of backlighting.

My first thought was that this was one of the GB games that had a color pallette for use with the Super Game Boy, but this could not be the case because Qix came out in 1990 and the Super Game Boy wasn't released until about 1993, as I recall.

I understand that the Gameboy is not a strictly monochrome device; that it can display different shades of gray or black or whatever. I suppose all that's happening with Qix is that the GBC or SP is translating these shades into primary colors, but the contrast is striking.

So in grand roundabout fashion, I come to ask: What other monochrome GB titles out there (excluding Super Game Boy compatible titles) look really great and colorful when played in an SP?

[joshnickerson]

Metroid II has it's very own color pallete built into the GBA hardware... Samus comes out yellow and red, while the backgrounds are a deep blue

[agent709]

As far as I know you could change the color palettes by pressing buttons on the 'GAMEBOY' screen. :)

[insinion]

As far as I know you could change the color palettes by pressing buttons on the 'GAMEBOY' screen. :)

QFT. I still remember doing that on my gameboy color when playing "old" b/w games :)

[MarioMania]

As a result of my post-burglary rebuidling efforts I broke down and finally bought a GBA SP. I popped in Qix and my jaw nearly hit the ground.

Qix on a GBA looks absolutely amazing. Objects all appear in yellows and reds on the bright white background. It's veritably a lush color pallette for what is supposed to be a black and white game. I then put the cart in my son's GBC and saw the same effects, but less pronounced owing to the absence of backlighting.

My first thought was that this was one of the GB games that had a color pallette for use with the Super Game Boy, but this could not be the case because Qix came out in 1990 and the Super Game Boy wasn't released until about 1993, as I recall.

I understand that the Gameboy is not a strictly monochrome device; that it can display different shades of gray or black or whatever. I suppose all that's happening with Qix is that the GBC or SP is translating these shades into primary colors, but the contrast is striking.

So in grand roundabout fashion, I come to ask: What other monochrome GB titles out there (excluding Super Game Boy compatible titles) look really great and colorful when played in an SP?

It's prob not color pallettes..You're playing the Game on the SP & the Color. There's no way about a Hidden color pallette in GB games..like in 1990, Nintendo never thought about a Super GB or even a GBC in 1990..It might of been the 4 Shades of Color used in GBC with GB games played on it

[Pantechnicon]

It's prob not color pallettes..You're playing the Game on the SP & the Color. There's no way about a Hidden color pallette in GB games..like in 1990, Nintendo never thought about a Super GB or even a GBC in 1990..It might of been the 4 Shades of Color used in GBC with GB games played on it

No, I get that. When I say "hidden color palettes" I don't mean hidden as in put there intentionally through the foresight of brilliant programmers who knew a color system would be released one day. I mean hidden as in you put the old game in the new machine and are surprised to see the game rendered in colors; not by design, but as a pleasant consequence.

[T2KFreeker]

Kid Icarus is another Nintendo game that they put a pallette to on the GBA. It looks awesome on it for sure. You need to see it if you were impressed with the way that QIX looked. Sorry, as far as I have always been concerned, if you were going to play Qix on a hand held, play it on the Lynx, that is just awesome! :D

[Bratwurst]

There's nothing hidden in the cartridges themselves, it's all done through the Gameboy Color chip that the GBA happens to have in order to support backwards compatibility. Quite a few of the Nintendo published games have preset schemes embedded into the GBC CPU that trigger once it recognizes a given rom.

[boatofcar]

I'd like to see a list of all GB games that the GB Color chip specifically recognizes. It can't be all of them, right?

[MarioMania]

I don't think it possible..I think it's just the 4 color's on the SP..as well the the GBC.

[le geek]

I don't think it possible..I think it's just the 4 color's on the SP..as well the the GBC.

8 actually (or 6?) as the GBC and hence the GBA have different palletes for the sprites and the backgrounds...

Cheers,
Ben

[Bratwurst]

It is 8 visible colors. It can detract from the game sometimes because there are background elements that are actually sprites, so you can see if there's a trap or the platform is going to give out, etc.

Visual Boy Advance takes it another level and allows you to assign specific colors to a classic Gameboy rom.

[c0ldb33r]

Is this true? Does GBC/GBA have colour codes hidden in it for certain games?

If so, is there a list of such games?

[Jorpho]

I imagine there's a big list of ROM headers somewhere in that Gameboy Color chip. If not, I suppose the only way to be sure would be to check out every single game...

[GrandAmChandler]

I want to guess that all of these have "codes"

http://www.vintagecomputing.com/wp-content/images/retroscan/sgbflier_1_large.jpg

[MarioMania]

Is this true? Does GBC/GBA have colour codes hidden in it for certain games?

If so, is there a list of such games?

No, Just when you're playing GB games on the GBC or GBA, it has like 4 or 6 colors...the Colors on Qix might of been just 6 or 4 differnt colors

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

According to Bratwurst, though, the palette used to display certain old monochrome games on the GBC is not just arbitrary but specifically programmed into the system's BIOS.

I can confirm that some old GB games do look pretty nice on the GBC, but I always just thought it was chance like the original poster was suggesting. Balloon Kid is one example I can think of.

The games shown in that Super Gameboy poster are a different story. They actually have their special color palettes programmed into the games themselves not in the SGB or GBC BIOS. Some of them also had improved audio, too, but I don't think that feature works with the Gameboy Color, just the improved palettes.


...word is bondage...

[Jorpho]

The games shown in that Super Gameboy poster are a different story. They actually have their special color palettes programmed into the games themselves not in the SGB or GBC BIOS. Some of them also had improved audio, too, but I don't think that feature works with the Gameboy Color, just the improved palettes.

Only Wario Blast, Space Invaders, and Donkey Kong. The rest of them completely predate the SGB.

I've never heard of any audio improvements. Space Invaders might have had something like that, but it was really special.

Wario Blast's 4-player mode was actually only available on the SGB (provided you had a Hudson Multitap); it had no support for the Game Boy four-player adapter. (Bit of a cop-out, that.)

[Bratwurst]

<img src=http://www.angelfire.com/apes/madmeat/Samples/GBmet.txt> <img src=http://www.angelfire.com/apes/madmeat/Samples/GBkir.txt> <img src=http://www.angelfire.com/apes/madmeat/Samples/GBzel.txt>

I'm pretty sure that you can't get these particular color schemes normally through any of the GBA's button combinations. I'd like a list of all the games that have preset palettes embedded in the GBC chip myself but Nintendo never coughed one up.

[MarioMania]

<img src=http://www.angelfire.com/apes/madmeat/Samples/GBmet.txt> <img src=http://www.angelfire.com/apes/madmeat/Samples/GBkir.txt> <img src=http://www.angelfire.com/apes/madmeat/Samples/GBzel.txt>

I'm pretty sure that you can't get these particular color schemes normally through any of the GBA's button combinations. I'd like a list of all the games that have preset palettes embedded in the GBC chip myself but Nintendo never coughed one up.

Nintendo might of made some GB Games look better(Color Wise) on the GBC & GBA

[c0ldb33r]

Wow Metroid II and Kirby look great.

[CartCollector]

I believe Pokemon Red and Blue had support for the extra sound channels in the SGB... confirmation please?

[MarioMania]

where's the guy with the GB Wideboy for the Famicom..He's surpose to show pic of the GB game running on the Famicom

[whoisKeel]

From GameFAQs (or in your GB Color/Advance instruction booklet):


|Combo| |Background| |Sprite1| |Sprite2|
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Default Green/Blue Red Red
Up Brown Brown Brown
Up + A Red Green Blue
Up + B Dk. Brown Brown Brown
Left Blue Red Green
Left + A Dk. Blue Red Brown
Left + B Original Original Original
Down R/B/Yellow R/B/Yellow R/B/Yellow
Down + A Red/Yellow Red/Yellow Red/Yellow
Down + B Yellow Blue Green
Right Red/Green Red/Green Red/Green
Right + A Green/Blue Red Red
Right + B Negative Negative Negative

Probably easier to look at the image Palette Codes for Game Boy Games (PNG) at http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbadvance/game/916598.html

http://db.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbadvance/file/gameboy_advance_palette.png

[Graham Mitchell]

Hmmm...you know I was under the impression for years that Pantechnicon was right. I had read somewhere that GB games were actually designed with color in mind--only four colors, but colors nonetheless. Super Gameboy will assign the same colors that a GBA or GB Color will, and I highly doubt Nintendo tested, screened, and programmed a requisite color palette for the entire B&W GB library.

Even some of the earliest GB games have assigned color schemes, some pretty obscure. I remember firebrand is green in Gargoyle's Quest. Golf is all in shades of green, fitting for the grass in the scenery.

And have you guys tried Solar Striker in a GBA? You'll be shocked. The first level is actually on a black background, with white stars (like Galaga or something), which is like a negative image of how it appeared on a brick Gameboy.

[Jorpho]

But Solar Striker, Gargoyle's Quest, and even Golf are not what I would call obscure games. If there is explicit support for all three of them, I would not be surprised.

Now, if there are "custom palettes" for the likes of Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly or Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, then I would be convinced.

[Graham Mitchell]

But Solar Striker, Gargoyle's Quest, and even Golf are not what I would call obscure games. If there is explicit support for all three of them, I would not be surprised.


Oh, I wasn't suggesting that those 3 were obscure. I was merely adding to the pot of experiences.

[suckerpunch5]

It would make sense to me if nintendo made a conscious decision to make their franchise characters look extra special on the GBA (C). Cause it seems like a lot of the big name titles (metroid, kirby, zelda) have custom pallates.

meh, I really don't know the first thing about it though. But I will check out solar striker.

[suckerpunch5]

It would make sense to me if nintendo made a conscious decision to make their franchise characters look extra special on the GBA (C). Cause it seems like a lot of the big name titles (metroid, kirby, zelda) have custom pallates.

meh, I really don't know the first thing about it though. But I will check out solar striker.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

Thing is, having these custom palettes would require somewhere to store the data, a BIOS. And does the Gameboy Color even have a BIOS? Many older systems didn't. I guess maybe the GBC does, though, since there's a special Gameboy Color system screen that comes up before the game loads. I've never seen a dump of it, though. Maybe because it's integrated into the same chip as the CPU or something. Anyone know for sure?


...word is bondage...

[Jorpho]

And does the Gameboy Color even have a BIOS? Many older systems didn't.

You must be thinking of some very old systems, then. Even the ColecoVision had a BIOS. (I think in some of those old systems it was easy enough to bypass the BIOS since it wasn't very complicated.)

There's got to be a reference guide to the GBC CPU with more details out there. The current GBC emulators don't come up with the same palettes when you attempt to open these B&W games, do they?

[CartCollector]

Well, even the SNES didn't have a BIOS, to my knowlege. And that's, what, '91? Oh, and the GBC does have a BIOS. That's why, if you turn on a GBC without a cartridge, you'll still get the "da-ding!" start-up screen.