PAL gameboy vs gameboy

[Dawsthehorse 0]

Can someone please tell me how to differentiate between a PAL gameboy game and a gameboy game, often the price difference is quite significant . I would like to tell the difference . Please help !

 

 

 

[BirdDogGaming 194]

I believe PAL European titles have a circular seal of quality while North American titles have the oval ones.

Edited September 7, 2020 by thatgamernerd
Trying to break the habit of calling them PAL games.

[fcgamer 3,936]

Game Boy is a portable machine, none of the games are PAL, as they don't run off a TV.

[Brickman 2,891]

11 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

Game Boy is a portable machine, none of the games are PAL, as they don't run off a TV.

This.

There is also no region lock for the Gameboy so you’re literally paying for a different logo if it costs more, minus a few exceptions of course.

[Tanooki 4,566]

Gameboy has no PAL, it's a handheld, but if you're talking about the region, those games tend to have the product code start with EUR- and also you'll see that CE emblem for those regional testing standards there as well.

[guitarzombie 741]

Is there ANY handheld system thats region locked?  I dont think even the Switch is.

[snes_collector 56]

17 minutes ago, guitarzombie said:

Is there ANY handheld system thats region locked?  I dont think even the Switch is.

Unfortunately the 3DS is. Shame too as there is some interesting regional exclusives

[DarkTone 846]

I dont know which one to shoot! 

[RH 4,059]

4 hours ago, DarkTone said:

I dont know which one to shoot! 

Aaah, the Game Child.  Doesn't that one have a movie about it?  A reeeeaaally campy, semi-home made film about a guy who collects Kirfy "undesirable" hardware, hunting it down?

Anyway, if you care about "PAL" vs. US/NA games for collecting, you need to look at the serial numbers on the carts/boxes/manuals.  The numbers look like DMG-XXX-YYY-n.  The "XXX" is a game identifier that's the same across all regions.  The "YYY" is a region code.  It's usually not present on Japanese games, it's "USA" for the USA and usually Canada and Europe has a bunch of them (UKV, FAH, EUR, etc.)  If you want US titles, you need to stick with the USA code.  If you don't care, then get the cheaper ones but keep in mind if it's being shipped from Europe, it's going to be expensive and probably not worth it unless you're saving a lot of money on the specific game, or you are buying bulk lots. For completeness, the "-n" at the end just mentions the revision of the label.  When they make a change to the label (or the box/manual) the revision number get's bumped to 1 and then goes up from there.

All you will really want to do is double-check the language to be sure it's English.  If it's a UKV cart (or even the less common CAN) you should be good.  CAN is Canada, but it seems that often times Canada also just got US games.

SEMI-EDIT

I found this before posting.  I think somewhere on eBay is entire film, but if you've not heard about this.  Well, I'd like to say it's worth watching but it's not really unless you're really, really bored.

 

[Tanooki 4,566]

18 hours ago, guitarzombie said:

Is there ANY handheld system thats region locked?  I dont think even the Switch is.

DSi and 3DS because Nintendo was childish and dumb thinking people would import stuff and they didn't like they couldn't control it, that and fears over people exploiting internet capabilities to steal and hack the games too.  There are some good 3DS games I would have loved to own, but I refuse to get a Japanese handheld to do it so that's off the table.

Another technically would be the PC Engine GT/Turbo Express, because they use those console HuCard/Turbo Chips and they don't have the same setup exactly, so that's another.  I want to say it's a pinout issue, maybe it is, but with the flip of a switch a Turbo Everdrive will boot on either hardware.

[DarkTone 846]

7 hours ago, RH said:

Aaah, the Game Child.  Doesn't that one have a movie about it?  A reeeeaaally campy, semi-home made film about a guy who collects Kirfy "undesirable" hardware, hunting it down?

Anyway, if you care about "PAL" vs. US/NA games for collecting, you need to look at the serial numbers on the carts/boxes/manuals.  The numbers look like DMG-XXX-YYY-n.  The "XXX" is a game identifier that's the same across all regions.  The "YYY" is a region code.  It's usually not present on Japanese games, it's "USA" for the USA and usually Canada and Europe has a bunch of them (UKV, FAH, EUR, etc.)  If you want US titles, you need to stick with the USA code.  If you don't care, then get the cheaper ones but keep in mind if it's being shipped from Europe, it's going to be expensive and probably not worth it unless you're saving a lot of money on the specific game, or you are buying bulk lots. For completeness, the "-n" at the end just mentions the revision of the label.  When they make a change to the label (or the box/manual) the revision number get's bumped to 1 and then goes up from there.

All you will really want to do is double-check the language to be sure it's English.  If it's a UKV cart (or even the less common CAN) you should be good.  CAN is Canada, but it seems that often times Canada also just got US games.

SEMI-EDIT

I found this before posting.  I think somewhere on eBay is entire film, but if you've not heard about this.  Well, I'd like to say it's worth watching but it's not really unless you're really, really bored.

 

Ashens is a national treasure. 

[MiamiSlice 2,898]

On 9/6/2020 at 11:27 PM, Dawsthehorse said:

Can someone please tell me how to differentiate between a PAL gameboy game and a gameboy game, often the price difference is quite significant . I would like to tell the difference . Please help !

 

 

 

Sometimes there will be a regional mark on the box, a solid triangle in the corner. Also some games are specifically UK region and the region code is UKV not EUR, or there are some other regional codes within Europe. 

But the real kicker is this big CE mark label on the side: 

I have one game (Kuru Kuru Kururin) that never came out in North America so I have the Euro release for it. When I display it in a row with my other Game Boy games, with the fronts going to my right, the rest all have their titles on the side, but Kuru Kuru has this big CE mark. Just about every Euro release will have CE marks like this. 

[Tanooki 4,566]

I can vouch for that.  I have had a few UK games from the 3 generations of GB and that CE has gone back a long time.  I got kind of a really hard to find GBA game with that same big ugly white box on it too with a black box so it really pops for Pinball Advance.

[Splain 1,987]

I usually stick to calling it "PAL region" over "European" just because there are a couple Game Boy games that came out in Australia that I usually want to include.

[JVOSS 1,453]

Ok. Ok. OK.  lets clear the air here.  and i will only speak of the DMG side only.

 

there are Two count them 2 region codes for DMG and ill even go on a thin branch and say for all "Gameboy" as DS/DSI/3DS/2DS/3DSXL/2DSXL are not gameboys. (evil grin).

these are Japan and everyone else.... Officially Unofficially

To be more technical you have a total(at last count) of 22 (i'll call zones) or "regions" DMG-XXXX-YYY 

out of the zones you have sub sets and this has to do with rom or chip sets in which there are 13

(before Nintendo changed to 4 digit code they had 2 digit and on additional for zone)

they look like this "DMG-XXY-? or DMG-XXXY-?

out of the zones there are 13 "Language" sets for booklets/inserts/manuals

they look like this "DMG-XXXY-NXXX"

out of the zones there are 6 distributor subsets.

out of the zones and roms there are 11 Language (at last count)  validating Russian

Now for the upsetter. 

USA has 118 rev 1 or better game PAK.

rest zones have 105 rev 1 or better (at current count)

Japan has 2 sets:

DMG-XXXJ-JPN -- 515 (at Current count)

DMG-XXXA-- 430 (at Current count)

the question i have been trying to verify is which came first.  -JPN or blank?

At Current Count there are ~6874 CARTS

 

Retraction for using the word : Officially  (beer made me do it)

 

Edited September 11, 2020 by JVOSS

[RH 4,059]

4 hours ago, JVOSS said:

*snip for brevity*

citation needed 

Haha, I'm just kidding.

But seriously, that's more detail on "regions" I've come across and I've never heard anyone declare that "officially" there are only two regions and all other markers are called zones.

I'm not calling you out or saying this is wrong but I am curious about how you came across those details because they are far more specific than anything I've found.  I mean, if this is legit and you have source material to back it up, that's amazing!  I'll have to print this out and memorize these details because you've gone waaaaay farther down this rabbit hole than anyone else around here, or that I've met.

I trust you @JVOSS because I know you've been searching out these details for years (if not decades) but I'd also really like to know where those facts came from.  How did you figure out those details?  Thanks man.

[Sumez 2,218]

Regions are just some arbitrary collector definition that doesn't matter in the real world.   On all platforms.

Region locks matter if they are even there, and they can always be beaten. Often easily.
Ingame language might matter, but only in some games.
Distribution regions matter when games are sold new, but it's not like there's only Japan, Europ and North America, as just discussed. If you wanna segregate stuff, it's a real maze, so there is really no reason to bother.

[JVOSS 1,453]

9 hours ago, Sumez said:

so there is really no reason to bother.

Then why collect? 

@RH, pmed

 

 

[Sumez 2,218]

2 hours ago, JVOSS said:

Then why collect? 

Because you care about the games, not the regions?  

Edited September 11, 2020 by Sumez

[MiamiSlice 2,898]

18 hours ago, Sumez said:

Regions are just some arbitrary collector definition that doesn't matter in the real world.   On all platforms.

Region locks matter if they are even there, and they can always be beaten. Often easily.
Ingame language might matter, but only in some games.
Distribution regions matter when games are sold new, but it's not like there's only Japan, Europ and North America, as just discussed. If you wanna segregate stuff, it's a real maze, so there is really no reason to bother.

With CIB games, regions matter because it usually means different languages on the carts and different box designs or booklets that are region specific. 

Also while GB games are region free in functionality, I’ve always heard the releases referred to by their regions (which have varied over time). And yes, PAL “region” covers both Europe and Australia. We know the game doesn’t play at 50Hz. 

Not saying this is correct, just collector lingo I guess.