Super Gameboy Compatibility

[jaybird]

I can't seem to find a concrete answer:

Does the Super Gameboy add-on for the SNES play just original Gameboy games or does it play Gameboy Color games as well?

[Gapporin]

Both.

If the Game Boy Color game was backwards-compatible with the regular Game Boy, then it can be played on a Super Game Boy.

[digitalpress]

According to our SNES Guide editors it won't play GBC titles:

http://www.digitpress.com/DP/cmf/game.cmf?gameid=160945

So we have a conflict!

[Gapporin]

Dun dun dun!

Well, I just tested it with a GBC backwards compatible game (Shadowgate Classic) and it worked. The plot thickens.

[MegaDrive20XX]

Ok lemme clear this up

Black cart GBC games will work on Super GB


Clear carts GBC carts won't work on Super GB

[NE146]

No no no.. the Super Gameboy cannot play "GBC only" games.

If a game is only compatible with Gameboy color (usually the clear carts like Super Mario Bros. with the rounded bubble upper part) Then it will not work on the Super Gameboy.

[fishsandwich]

Are you sure about the clear versus black cart thing?

I know some carts were enhanced for Super Game Boy (Donkey Kong was the first, Pac Man & Ms Pac Man also had the cool intro screen) while latyer carts were GBC only.

[Gapporin]

Are you sure about the clear versus black cart thing?

I know some carts were enhanced for Super Game Boy (Donkey Kong was the first, Pac Man & Ms Pac Man also had the cool intro screen) while latyer carts were GBC only.

The carts that were enhanced for the Super Game Boy were just regular Game Boy carts, aka grey ones.

[digitalpress]

No no no.. the Super Gameboy cannot play "GBC only" games.

If a game is only compatible with Gameboy color (usually the clear carts like Super Mario Bros. with the rounded bubble upper part) Then it will not work on the Super Gameboy.

I totally understand the difference and Gapporin's theory seemed more likely to me. I simply had to pose the DP Guide "fact" so that someone could prove it wrong (or at least too vague).

Thanks for the confirmation, fellas! I'll update the entry.

[rbudrick]

Some GBC games had a mode where they played in black and white on the SGB (sometimes adding graphical borders, I believe). Others had "SGB enhanced features" where borders were added and sometimes more colors, but not thesame as GBC colors, since the GBC had better color capavilities). Other GBC games were GBC-only games.

Please correct me if this is innaccurate.

I believe the Black vs clear thing is generally correct, though I heard they may be some exceptions to this, but I have not confirmed this.

-Rob

[NE146]

Basically, if you could play the game on a regular Gameboy, then you can play it on the Super Gameboy.

And if you can't, play it on a regular GB, then you can't on the SGB either. That's probably the simplest way to put it.

And I think most of them have "For the Gameboy Gameboy Color Only" label on it as well.

[Leo_A]

"Some GBC games had a mode where they played in black and white on the SGB (sometimes adding graphical borders, I believe)."

No GBC games had a mode where they played in black and white on the SGB. Any games that have borders are things like Zelda DX which maintained what was with the original game when they saw GBC rereleases(Would fire up in the same colors in a SGB as the original would, including the special custom border).

" Others had "SGB enhanced features" where borders were added and sometimes more colors, but not thesame as GBC colors, since the GBC had better color capavilities). Other GBC games were GBC-only games. ""

Games like Zelda DX had enhanced SGB features such as a custom border because its still essentially the same game that came out for the Game Boy. No true GBC games had this feature, just a handful of things like Zelda did. No Game Boy Color games had color enhancing features that you could take advantage of on a SGB (Such as with Donkey Kong).

Most all GBC games were GBC only. Only a few things such as Zelda DX aren't, because they're still the same game they were on the Game Boy, but with additional colors when it detects that its being played on a GBC compatible system.

[Jive3D]

I know for a tact that Tetris DX is playable on the regular GB.

Zelda DX was too, as mentioned above, but it had an extra dungeon that was not in the original GB version. This new Dungeon had a color coded lock that prevented you from gettin into it. but I'm sure that an FAQ could get you into it, not sure if the new ending had some special SFX only viewable on GBC.

[The Manimal]

Mega Man Xtreme plays in color on a GBC but on a SGB, it's in black and white and has no special border.

[Leo_A]

If its black and white, that's the color scheme it's using on the SGB (You can easily make any game black and white, and many GB games have preset SGB color palettes such as Metroid II, maybe the programmers thought we should be able to play it like on a real Game Boy? I notice the upcoming Mega Man compilation for the GBA also lets you play them in B&W.

Sounds like this GBC game was simple enough the programmers saw a opprtunity to strip it down some to make it also compatible with the Game Boy Pocket when it was released.

From IGN's review:

"Compared to the previous Mega Man Game Boy games, Xtreme is eons better with Game Boy Color support. Capcom shipped this one still to be compatible with the Game Boy Pocket, but that's clearly just a side thought -- on the old Game Boy, the game strobes like crazy, flickers wildly, and slows down with enemies on screen."

[mikeetler]

Unfortunately, there no way to search the online guide for this, but if you have the DP Advance book, all of the GBC games that are B&W compatible are tagged. Roughly 200 of the US releases were playable on the B&W GB and SGB and a number of the earlier releases in the GBC life span did have SGB enhancements (ie borders, additional colors). Most of them are tagged as Super Game Boy enhanced, though I'm sure I missed a few.

-Mike

[Leo_A]

Doesn't sound like I knew as much as I thought I did.