The official Game Boy thread.

[Gamegearguy | 224]

Let us make a thread to talk about Game Boy playing and stuff. I'll start.

I beat round 25 of Tetris 2. I doubt I can get past this. I think I have broken SNES controllers. I started on round 24.

[MegaMan52 | 2,445]

Played and beat several original Game Boy games this year. Played them on the Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Player, Switch Game Boy App, and a compilation. Beating the Extra Game mode in Kirby's Dream Land, getting 100% in Kirby's Dream Land 2 (both on the original cartridge played on the Game Boy Player, and on the Switch), beating Mega Man III, and beating all of the levels and getting all of the secrets in Donkey Kong Land 3 were probably my best Game Boy accomplishments this year.

Edited September 10, 2023 by MegaMan52

[Brickman | 3,986]

Can we also talk about the GBA? I love the GB but the GBA is like peak handheld for me.

[CMR | 520]

I've been playing a lot of original GameBoy games lately.  Pound for pound, I think it has one of the best libraries of any 8 or 16 bit console.  I've been playing Donkey Kong, Final Fantasy Legend,  Operation C, Fortified Zone, Double Dragon 1 & 2, and Cat Trap among others.  There are just tons of cool pick up and play games for it.  I sometimes wonder if devs just had more creative freedom because it was treated like a more limited NES.  Also, I think the fact that it's a handheld forced them to keep things more succinct.  The result was tons of fast action and addictive games that never seemed to ask for too much.

I would urge anyone to at least emulate the system and play around with it's library for a bit.  You won't be disappointed.  I say all this about the GB, and I'm not even a fan of handhelds.

Edited September 11, 2023 by CMR

[Tanooki | 4,933]

Wow I'm in shock this didn't exist already and thought it did.

I haven't touched the handheld (GB through Adv) for a little while, until recent.  I had a small trail of good luck finds with Gameboy related stuff.  Just yesterday knocked off one I hoped to find over a year now in this area and it was average so whatever, but Lunar Legend and it's still fantastic.

Also recently picked up as of a week ago Blades of Steel for a few dollars and nabbed Centipede for a dollar today for some odd variety.  Recently in the last month also snagged for 5/ea Catrap and Lock n Chase.  All these games but Centipede I've had before and they're quite fun, sad to see what some go for now which is nuts.

 

And related, anyone here using the GB Operator?  They finally redid and released the v1 of their software package now calling it Playback!.  They do nearly nightly build updates too.  The package is quite robust now runs a whole lot, just the more screwball stuff it hates on still like any form of a multicart (vintage, modern, flash kit) and I can't re-write my first party GB Memory Nintendo Power flash cart ...yet, but it should be added, some cheapy chinese junk carts can be done.

I put some time (2hr~) on Lunar using that package on my computer here yesterday, thinking I may do the same here again here shortly.

 

Truth be told once i got that PVM a few months back, mostly I've just been doing 8bit Nintendo and have been on a bit of a Famicom bender unless I find a nice local NES goodie.  I was very slowly prodding at Mario Picross though in my Super Gameboy, which I added a tindie DIY package to so it runs at the correct clock speed.

 

 

[Ankos | 439]

On 9/10/2023 at 4:14 PM, Brickman said:

Can we also talk about the GBA? I love the GB but the GBA is like peak handheld for me.

GBA is great. Lots of great games, ports of NES and SNES games, and backwards compatibly. That backwards compatibility and lack of region locking made it very easy for me to get into older games and ones released overseas

[Brickman | 3,986]

4 minutes ago, Ankos said:

GBA is great. Lots of great games, ports of NES and SNES games, and backwards compatibly. That backwards compatibility and lack of region locking made it very easy for me to get into older games and ones released overseas

Yep agreed and the Japanese library is different enough that if people get bored of the US/Euro library they can check out the ones released in Japan only. Like the 6 volumes of Hudson games.

[phart010 | 1,707]

Gameboy is one of the best systems out there, but most people don’t even know

[Tanooki | 4,933]

I brought this up, but it still surprises me so I decided to link a 15min play through, it's that short given what it is.  In the right hands even early on the old GB could blow you away beyond the thought capabilities of it with 2D.  I mean even early on to jump from Super Mario Land to Gargoyle's Quest the fidelity increase was insane.

Then there's this... (go around 5min in for the stunt course, that's the best 3D with raised tracks and the infamous loop.)

 

Edited September 14, 2023 by Tanooki

[RH | 4,903]

21 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

I brought this up, but it still surprises me so I decided to link a 15min play through, it's that short given what it is.  In the right hands even early on the old GB could blow you away beyond the thought capabilities of it with 2D.  I mean even early on to jump from Super Mario Land to Gargoyle's Quest the fidelity increase was insane.

Then there's this... (go around 5min in for the stunt course, that's the best 3D with raised tracks and the infamous loop.)

 

They were too busy trying to figure out if they could do something, they didn't take the time to ask if they should do something.  I find that game to be a fascinating piece of technical capability for the system but the game still runs at 5 FPS and isn't that good.

Argonaut also make a Star Fox like game for the system.  One of only a few known proto carts for the game came up on eBay about 4 years ago.  I thought it'd go for way more than I could afford at the time, so I didn't put in a snipe through Gixen.  Turns out, it went for something around $500, and I was quite agitated with myself for at least not trying to get it.  I would have, at that time, probably bid at least $1,000 on it.

[CMR | 520]

Here's another good one people should appreciate.

 

[Tanooki | 4,933]

Let's bump  up to GBC for a moment, still Gameboy 8bit though I think GBA is fair game too.  I consider this a pair of technical marvels for the system and they work very very well.

The first is Warlocked, ever played the old DOS Warcraft?  Same game here basically right down to the 4~ units per side, same stuff you can build up, same peons, knights, archers, flight units, even a dozen~ stages per side with a progressive story for each.  Stage variety is the usual to the obnoxious limited units cross the map stuff all here still.  The change, having wizards to find that do strange effect spells.  You can get a heap of sprites on screen, everyone has lots of speech per unit many words to small sentences and despite 2 buttons it's easy to wrangle a group and get busy.

 

 

And then, we know digital eclipse and how they seemed to find insane ways to emulate games on weak hardware or do some crazy technical marvel stuff.  This one, love it or hate it given the mechanics people know, it's Dragon's Lair.  Unlike the NES, GB, SNES etc releases that were sprite swapped etc weirdness from some euro-junk, this is the laserdisc.  They got the game, compromised on detail, color and audio, it's down to 2bit color, but it's there minus like a half dozen moves in the long smithy stage.  The music jingles are still present and sound good, as are the retained sound effects and dirks death yelps too.  4MB sized cart on this and they squeezed a lot in.

 

And a bonus, Cannon Fodder, to me the best piece of FMV the system has.  But beyond that uses some nice high color visuals for the camp map, and has some nice solid sprite/detail work in the stages and audio too.  The audio compression is laughably tinny on that FMV too.

 

[MegaMan52 | 2,445]

Pingu is decent.

One of my favorite imports.

Worth importing even if you have Dexter's Laboratory: Robot Rampage.

[CMR | 520]

Daikatana on the GBC is probably the best version of the game and isn't even an FPS.  It's a shame it didn't come to the US.

 

Also Trax a GB game by Hal labs.

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by CMR

[Brickman | 3,986]

Is the GBC any good in the US? Because most of the Japanese library is pretty rubbish, I don’t ever see myself collecting that system.

[Ankos | 439]

8 minutes ago, Brickman said:

Is the GBC any good in the US? Because most of the Japanese library is pretty rubbish, I don’t ever see myself collecting that system.

If by GBC you mean games that will only work on GBC, not colorized stuff that can also be played on DMG, then I don't think it had that strong of a library anywhere. Dinosaur'Us is kinda cool, but that was a Europe exclusive. It also had a whole bunch of unlicensed stuff, but again, no NA release for that

[Brickman | 3,986]

9 minutes ago, Ankos said:

If by GBC you mean games that will only work on GBC, not colorized stuff that can also be played on DMG, then I don't think it had that strong of a library anywhere. Dinosaur'Us is kinda cool, but that was a Europe exclusive. It also had a whole bunch of unlicensed stuff, but again, no NA release for that

Yeah sorry meant GBC that only work on GBC. Wasn’t sure if the US got a heap of cool games. I only know of Shantae.

[Tanooki | 4,933]

OH yeah love Trax, finally got that one back locally amazing recently kind of (this year.)  Short, but an easily enjoyable replayed gem.

For imports if you want a really unique one, not hard, but just fun, look at Noobow.  This is translated, not that you need it really.

 

A really big one, well set, for the proper fully color (black cart) GBC releases, look to the UK and there's KOnami GB COllection Vol1-4.  4 will hurt your wallet, but check the games below.  There are Japanese titles here with first off for then english versions of titles, very worth it, one of them is Goemon.  Parodius, Pop'n Twinbee, MOtorcross Maniac(bikers), Guttang Gottong, Quarth, Yie ar Kung Fu, Frogger, contra, castlevania, gradius and more.
 

 

And an old one, the true gameplay and visual real sequel to Kid Niki unlike those 2 weird turds on FC, here's Ganso! Yancha Maru.  FOund this gem soldered into a GB BOy Color a decade ago, had to buy the cart.

 

 

I'll add more later, best to break it up.

[Splain | 2,569]

Hooray Game Boy!

[RH | 4,903]

6 hours ago, Splain said:

Hooray Game Boy!

That’s nice and all but where are those variant dupes at?!

In all seriousness though, I do like that setup. When my wife’s grand father’s estate sold off his stuff, we got first pick to keep what we wanted he had a nice metal drafting drawer cabinet that he kept tools in.
I know I’ve posted it before but the drawers are deep and good for 3x rows of Gb games, and all my GB games (standards, dupes, internationals, etc) fit in 5 drawers.  

It works very well, but there’s something to be said about seeing a whole set together like that. I am a tad jealous.

[Splain | 2,569]

12 hours ago, RH said:

That’s nice and all but where are those variant dupes at?!

Top drawer holds the complete North American set, plus the 5 Wisdom Tree carts. Next drawer down holds a bunch of sub-collections:

- Label variants (was complete prior to @JVOSS's recent additions)
- Complete PAL-exclusive set
- Some PAL regional variants, don't know how complete I want that set
- Black-cart GBC carts, near-complete NA set
- CHN set, it's around half-complete
- Worldwide Tetris set, about half-complete
 

It's all a mess right now, I can take a picture once it's presentable. even that top drawer is missing a bunch of carts, currently strewn about my house. The next drawer is a bunch of GB-contemporary stuff that does NOT belong in this thread, then the taller drawer at the bottom is my manuals and GB hardware. I completed the PIL set not too long ago. It's getting hard to find these since re-shells are so popular now.

 

[CMR | 520]

On 9/15/2023 at 6:25 PM, Brickman said:

Yeah sorry meant GBC that only work on GBC. Wasn’t sure if the US got a heap of cool games. I only know of Shantae.

I think there are a few cool titles, but nothing like the original gameboy got.  I know it had a sweet port of Dragon Warrior III.  I wish I hadn't sold mine.

[JVOSS | 1,762]

1 hour ago, Splain said:

- Label variants (was complete prior to @JVOSS's recent additions)

very nice setup @Splain,  i just have a few questions.   what side is the cabinet you have the set in??  i have to get, make on for the World set! 
i do have to say the DMG Gray Set is one of my most valued set.  fun facts for most.   DMG Gray World set is 2990 (with out extra variants ie.. PCB/OSQ/3 Line/Rom).  with all the others the count is between 3133 - 3500.... there are a few set i don't know if it will ever be completed.  PCB set, Kiosk, BAR-USA set or the ROC set.  just to few to verify the real carts..

For my usa full set from PCB, ROM, Variant 1, Variant 2 and then lastly the LABEL Variant will bring your USA Cart Set to 659,  sadly i'm missing 3.   just how crazy it that.

[Tanooki | 4,933]

While I may post the GBA list, it's shorter but good, here's the 8bit stuff.  I'm sure some will be curious about some of the stuff, because of such love for Sachen here.

I'm more picky and keep what I care about, but since we're doing imports, for the original GB I've got these:
- Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon
- Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon R
- Ganso!! Yancha Maru (JP)
- Genjin Collection (JP)
- Lunar Lander (JP)
- Miracle Adventure of Esparks (JP)
- Money Idol Exchanger (JP)
- Nekketsu Kou Kou Dodge Ball-Bu (JP)
- Nettou Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special (JP)
- Nettou Samurai Spirits Zankurou Masouken (JP)
- Noobow (JP)
- Sports Collection (JP) Includes: Seaside Volley, Boxing, Roadster, Soccer, Dodge Boy
- Trip World (JP)

- Metal Slug (Terrifying 911 hack)
- Yuenan Zhanyi 2001 (Metal Slug) (Sintax!)
- Pocket Monsters Blue (Bootleg, Teal Cart - Game Amy)
- Sachen 31-in-1 Mighty Mix -- (Game Boy / Color)
- Sachen 8B-001 8-in-1 Color -- (Game Boy / Color)
- Super 23-in-1 -- (Game Boy / Color)
- Super 25-in-1 -- (Game Boy / Color)
- Super 28-in-1 -- (Game Boy / Color)
- Super 58-in-1 w/Box -- (Game Boy / Color)
- Super 102-in-1 (Game Boy / Color)
- Rockman World / Yuu Yuu Hakusho Dai-2-dan: Ankoku Bujutsuaki

GBC are black carts ->
- Konami GB Collection Vol. 1 (EU)
  -- Gradius, Castlevania Adventure, Konami Racing, Probotector
- Konami GB Collection Vol. 2 (EU)
  -- Parodius, Quarth, Track & Field, Frogger
- Konami GB Collection Vol. 3 (EU)
  -- Pop'n TwinBee, Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, Motocross Maniacs, Guttang Gottong
- Konami GB Collection Vol. 4 (EU)
  -- Gradius II, Castlevania II Belmont's Revenge, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Antarctic Adventure

[MegaMan52 | 2,445]

Other Game Boy games worth importing.