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| Description |
The Super Game Boy is a game accessory that plays original monochrome Game Boy games as well as black Game Boy Color games using the SNES console as an input interface with audio and video output display to the TV. The focal point was allowing players finally being able to play Game Boy games on a more accessible bigger screen, as well as having the ability to assign all 4 of the monochrome palettes to a 15-BIT value.
Games could also be developed to take advantage of the additional functions of the SNES, though they were almost completely wasted in games. Most developers just opted to throw up a border and palettes that were often incomplete and weren’t very good, as well as often locking out the player from changing palettes and or controller settings. Games could allow up to 4 players to play limited modes by plugging in a SNES Multitap accessory allowing Bomberman deathmatches, Street Fighter 2 tournaments and even the more obscure turn-based board games would be setup to work without passing a single controller to other players.
A small number of games offered alternate soundtracks using the SGB sound driver, games even uploaded their custom own sound samples and that was much less common. Only one game, Space Invaders actually uploaded an early version of the game running in the SGB’s RAM. The ability to write custom hooks in both RAM and ROM were also possible though never actually used in any meaningful way.
Super Game Boy enhancements, or additional features utilising the SNES hardware may be offered by Game Boy games (rarely used to any impressive extent) are now disabled and run in original DMG Game Boy mode. Examples of additional content provided by some games include borders (most popular), multiple SNES controllers, palettes, sound effects, soundtracks and custom voice samples using the SNES audio processing unit and SGB sound driver, or even could upload an entire SNES game, as was done with the inclusion of Space Invaders. This patch was created for those who want to play Game Boy and some Game Boy Color games as if they were played using an original Game Boy.
Speedrunners may also want to use this patch because games will run perfectly in a Super Game Boy 2 without slowing down from loading VRAM screen transfers and additional joypad frame reads for most often updating the palettes and borders.
Graphics, sound, and even in some cases, levels, text, gameplay, and other components and mechanics are affected depending on the system that the game is played using; determined by the hardware modes. For example, a game may change the text or allow or disallow access to certain menu functions or modes if the game is played using a Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Color, (or could theoretically even include Game Boy Advance detection as a possible system type) as oppoosed to a Super Game Boy / 2 or vice-versa.
Known issues and or limitations (due to hardware limitations)
-Screen garbage may appear at the first few frames where screenmasking was designed to black out the screen for a set amount of frames depending on what game is played if it detects that it is running in Super Game Boy / 2 mode. Some may consider this an issue or limitation, but it is actually how the games were originally designed and may be more or less obvious with original DMG, Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Color models.
-Games are now confined to the limitations of the original Game Boy hardware because they are now running in original DMG mode, and as a result, games that offer the ability to use additional SNES controllers or the multitap accessory for up to four players will require at least one Game Boy link cable, which is unironically possible to do with using the Super Game Boy 2. Games that offer Super Game Boy soundtracks and internal sound effects (Kirby's Dream Land 2, The Pagemaster, Golf Classic, etc) will now default to original DMG audio. Space Invaders will now boot into DMG mode. |
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