Super Game Boy

The Super Game Boy is an adaptor cartridge for Nintendo's Super Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as the Super Famicom in Japan. The Super Game Boy allows one to play game cartridges designed for use on the Game Boy on a TV display using the SNES/Super Famicom controllers. When it was released in 1994, the Super Game Boy sold for about $60 in the USA.

Information

The Super Game Boy was only compatible with the original monochrome Game Boy cartridges. The unit could map the four shades of grey to various colors on the TV. Later Game Boy games that were optimized to use the Super Game Boy had additional color information and background borders. Those games would contain a small "Super Game Boy Game Pak" logo on the box and cartridge. The adaptor could support up to 256 colors in static screens (i.e the title screen) and 13 colors in the normal game.

It was also possible for Super Game Boy games to make use of the SNES hardware for extra effects. For example, Asteroids/Missile Command and Donkey Kong all had expanded sound when used with the Super Game Boy. The Game Boy version of Killer Instinct even allowed the second SNES controller to be read as another Game Boy, and the title screen changed to show that it had a two-player option, rather than just "connect." In the most skillful use, Space Invaders allowed players to play a full 16-bit version of the game that took over the entire screen.

No version of the Super Game Boy is capable of running games that are designed strictly for the Game Boy Color, although they will run dual mode (black cartridge, compatible with both systems) games in Game Boy mode. Some black cartridge games also have Super Game Boy enhancements, although there is no logo indicating this on the box or cartridge.

System menu

Accessed by pressing the L and R buttons at the same time; the menu has five options to choose from:

Color Palette: Choose from one of 32 pre-made color palettes, the Super Game Boy enhanced palette(s) (if available), or a user-created palette (if available). A few Super Game Boy games will not allow the palette to be changed.
Border: Choose from one of 9 pre-made borders, the Super Game Boy enhanced border(s) (if available), or a user-created border (if available). A few Super Game Boy games will not allow the border to be changed.
Button Setting: Switches between two controller mappings.
Custom Color: Create a custom color palette.
Graffiti: Create a custom border by using several painting tools.

Super Game Boy 2

Nintendo released the Super Game Boy 2 in 1998. However, it was only widely sold in Japan; in the United States it was only available through mail-order. Additions included a link port (allowing the Super Game Boy 2 to connect with other Game Boys for multiplayer purposes), a green game link LED, and a red power LED indicator.

Predecessors and Successors

The Super Game Boy was the successor to Intelligent Systems' Wide Boy 2 (which connected to the Famicom or NES). One difference between the Wide Boy and the Super Game Boy is that the former did not use any part of the Famicom/NES other than the video memory. Even the controller (a single Famicom controller) was hardwired directly into the Wide Boy. The Wide Boy would continue running even if the reset button were held down on the Famicom/NES. The Game Boy had twice as many tiles as could fit in the Famicom/NES's video memory, so the Wide Boy had to refresh the Famicom/NES's video memory halfway down the screen.

Camerica had the Game Boy to NES developed by Biederman Design Labs, which appeared similar to the Super Game Boy.

The Super Game Boy was followed by the Transfer Pak for the Nintendo 64, which allowed one to play Game Boy Color Pokémon titles in Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Stadium 2 in a Super Game Boy-like fashion, complete with the Super Game Boy enhanced borders and palettes. The games were played via the use of a software emulator on the Nintendo 64. However, the main role of the Transfer Pak was to transfer data from Game Boy Color to Nintendo 64 games, not to play games.

A Wide-Boy64 AGB was released for the N64, which allowed Game Boy and Game Boy Color titles to be played on a television. It cost $1400, and like the original Wide Boy, it was only available to developers and the gaming press ^*.

On the GameCube, the Game Boy Player was released in 2003, which allows all Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games to be played on a television. It attaches to the bottom of the console; however, a boot disc must be in the GameCube disc drive in order to operate it. The Game Boy Player functions just like a Game Boy Advance, letterboxing the games' display on a standard television set. Some GBA games were programmed with consideration for the Player, including activating the vibration feature in GameCube controllers and special color palletes which accounted for a TV's brightness and resolution. The Game Boy Player will not activate Super Game Boy options on a Super Game Boy enhanced cartridge, however.

Trivia

The Super Game Boy actually consists of the same hardware as the Game Boy; inside the cartridge a separate CPU processed the games while the SNES only provided means for user-input, output of graphics to the screen and the additional coloring.

The Super Game Boy plays the audio for games, and perhaps the games themselves, about 2.4% faster than the original hardware. The slight change in music pitch may be noticeable to some, but it is probably undetectable except when tested. ^*

If the player opens the paint program, paints on the screen and leaves it alone for a while, a janitor would come and clean up the screen until the player presses a button on his or her controller, at which point the janitor and the area he cleaned would disappear.

External links

About.com Guide to Game Boy - All things Game Boy: News, reviews, history, culture and development. Updated several times a week.
The Super Game Boy Frequently Asked Questions

Game Boy accessories | Super NES | Nintendo hardware | Game console intercompatibility hardware