The Official Game Boy Thread

[Video]

Links awakening? Iirc you had to travel south to find your sword on a beach, I'm thinking after you find Zelda, but its been so long since I've played. I should try it again sometime. I did a few years back when they released the switch version, which was so close play wise to the dmg/gbc versions the maps I'd made in the 90's still worked.

 

Conkers pocket tails was fun for me, and gorgeous graphically speaking. It is a totally new game and obviously different style, top down adventure type, but still imo fun.

[+atari2600land]

The problem I had was that I didn't know I could move the spiny things out of the way with my shield.

[Tanooki]

Hah your game's title screen the light change of that dude is like nightmare fuel.   Can't sleep the sprites will eat me.

How far are the graphics in development?  I think it would do a lot to have more than just one view of the dude in the actual gameplay area.

[+atari2600land]

Great idea! I added in four different sprite sets for the four directions.

[Tanooki]

Well if you were receptive to that, I have a number of visual upgrades I think would make the game seem more period accurate to the GB of the earlier 90s.

 

Animation

The exit circles, give it 2-3frames where it cycles the colors like you go down a hole.
The first enemy, it does nothing, maybe have the black feet spin so every other frame has 2 feet or 1 giving a feel of rotation, maybe a sensor on it too to do this.

Predator ghost, he has eyes, maybe have him watch you too like old Pac-Man ghosts would do

Locked door, give it more of a Solomon's Key style look to it, then have it open and vanish if the key is inserted, either leave an open doorway or have it pop/wink out

When you die, do something...crumble to a pile of dust, fall over and have struggling feet in the air on the players back showing a KO

[+atari2600land]

I made a topic about this game in the Homebrew Games forum, so let's move all discussion of it to there.

[Tanooki]

Ok fine, let's go back on track.

I did some flea, thrift, second hand scouting this weekend between here and the 2 fleas in the neighboring counties.  It worked out fairly well.

 

Saturday I ended up finding 3 $5 pick ups, GBA game Firepro Wrestling, but getting these two back in my hands was nice with Catrap and Lock n Chase. Ever played these actiony puzzles?  They're not bad at all, kind of under the radar other than the crap price Catrap kind of gets now.

[+jgkspsx]

Catrap is a top 10 Game Boy puzzle game for me. Not as replayable as a Tetris but utterly fantastic the first time through. If you like it check out Popils for Game Gear, different rules but similar feel.

 

Lock’n Chase GB is not really a port of the arcade game but a sequel and IMO a lot better.

[Tanooki]

I'm familiar.  And I'm also familiar with Popils as the last time around I had a GG I had the game, it's not bad at all.  History for me with Catrap goes back to when I actually got it CIB from a local shop around 1995-96 back west, the Japanese version known as Pitman.  I remember clearing it, once, it's not easy to say the least, but the favorable ability to re-wind time is a nice perk not having to aggravatingly restart the whole mess like most do.  And I guess if you're a furry fan, that helps too with the catboy and catgirl thing going on there too.   As far as the other I remember early emulation of it decades ago, similar but not the same, and for the better.  It's trickier but fair and fun.  Passwords on both do help a lot with sticking with it.

 

I'm guessing they didn't release many copies of Catrap in the US, or it's just a random target of greed as it's strange what it sells for at least to me.

[SlidellMan]

Yogi Bear's Gold Rush:

This is one instance of a game that while not terrible, isn't good enough to be up there with Konami's Tiny Toon Adventures games or what Capcom did with Disney. It needed more in terms of music and gameplay. By the way, this was also ported to the Game Gear, but said port wasn't released.

[Hwlngmad]

On 7/30/2023 at 11:24 PM, jgkspsx said:

Catrap is a top 10 Game Boy puzzle game for me. Not as replayable as a Tetris but utterly fantastic the first time through. If you like it check out Popils for Game Gear, different rules but similar feel.

Never heard of Catrap.  Will have to check that out soon enough.

[Tanooki]

4 hours ago, Hwlngmad said:

Never heard of Catrap.  Will have to check that out soon enough.

Get a taste here, just don't watch the full thing as it's every single puzzle.  It's kind of an action puzzle of sorts, as you have to actively move around, but stuff doesn't come at you to kill you either.  It has a nice mechanic I think I mentioned where you can reverse time instead of aggravatingly having to reset things, and you can pick your stages, play them out of order(to a point?) and more.  It's under the radar, fun, and because of that it's like a $35-40 game now which is dumb as it was a $5 bin game for like 25+ years.

 

 

[+atari2600land]

I bought Sneaky Snakes.

Is it like Snake Rattle and Roll for NES or something different?

You know what? Someone should make the snake munching on apples game for the Game Boy. Not me though, I never understood how someone could code something like that.

[SlidellMan]

It's Snake Rattle 'n Roll as a 2D platformer. It was going to be a sequel called Snakes in Space, but that got cancelled.

[Hwlngmad]

11 hours ago, SlidellMan said:

It's Snake Rattle 'n Roll as a 2D platformer. It was going to be a sequel called Snakes in Space, but that got cancelled.

Will have to give this a go sometime soon.

[M-S]

Does anyone here own a GBP with a backlight plus a bivert mod and an IPS modded console (any model is fine)? Is it worth it getting an LCD replacement? Is the GBP screen better than the one from the DMG at least? I was looking at it and the cheapest mod is the backlight one, followed by a screen which is 85% the size of the original, and the full sized ones would basically double the cost of the console.

[Tanooki]

I never did that bivert mess it was not something great, but a nice fix for the years it was there.  You need the IPS drop in, no plastic cut, GBP LCD kit.

 

I'd order off aliexpress unless impatient, it will cost notably less, and with some you get a very high quality shell/glass lens etc replacement too which still lowballs the greedy US seller rates banking on what people want for speed.

 

The screens are basically android mobile phone/tablet level quality.  They have 2 touch censors you adhere inside the shell where you like. 8 ways on both and one brightness the other color schemes.  The level of quality of detail, refresh, view angle, brightness, etc are amazing.  It makes the GBP just sparkle as a perfect handheld for someone who wants nothing to do with a GBC.  I've done a couple of them, a few on the GBA GBA SP and GBC side.  Personally I like the GBC with the same style screen as I catch all, but if I didn't have that I'd tweak a GBP for the fix for the smaller convenient shape as the DMG is kind of beefy for a pocket.

 

Generally speaking, the screens IPS style are all a catch all really, same general panel made to fit for DMG, GBP, GBC, GBA, GBA SP too so you're not going go think....damn this looks so much nicer on DMG vs GBP or GBC.

Do NOT take some crap screen that is 85% size of normal, I'm shocked anyone would sell that shit still, as those went out of fashion a few years ago as the current are 1:1 or slightly larger but still fit while needing a custom lens for the wider space.

Edited August 24, 2023 by Tanooki

[The Mr. Video]

Can anyone recommend me a good replacement screen for a Game Boy Pocket? The polarizer on mine seems to be coming apart at the middle.

[M-S]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

I never did that bivert mess it was not something great, but a nice fix for the years it was there.  You need the IPS drop in, no plastic cut, GBP LCD kit.

I never considered these mods to be very good, specially for the DMG, since the screen is so bad even with the mod. But I heard that the Pocket's screen is better so I wanted to know how it looked. Honestly I don't want a lot of features, just something that works and makes it easier to see, kind of like the Light model.

2 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Do NOT take some crap screen that is 85% size of normal, I'm shocked anyone would sell that shit still, as those went out of fashion a few years ago as the current are 1:1 or slightly larger but still fit while needing a custom lens for the wider space.

If there a shell that was 85% the size of the original with a board that would fit on it I would take it, like some kind of "Gameboy Mini" mod.

Honestly what I really wanted was a GBC or GBA, but both of these consoles are very expensive right now, even the junk ones. I had an idea of buying a replacement motherboard and one of those GB Boy Colour adapters for clone SNES consoles, take it's CPU and install it on the motherboard, hopefully fixing some of the issues it has. I even talked with the creator of the DMG Color and he said the chip should be pin-by-pin compatible, but no one ever tried it, so there's a chance I would just waste all of those materials for nothing.

1 hour ago, The Mr. Video said:

Can anyone recommend me a good replacement screen for a Game Boy Pocket? The polarizer on mine seems to be coming apart at the middle.

I think you can buy a new polarizer, unless there are any dead pixels on the screen, but there are ways to remove them too.

[Tanooki]

I think you're misunderstanding what I'm talking about.  I'm not sure how you'd think a screen of that level, which is the same IPS put to all forms of GBA (NGPC too) is somehow substandard.

 

Maybe you're thinking of the bivert as that would 100% fit your gripe.  Biverting a DMG still sucks as it's just a reversing of the way it pops the graphics up then lights the panel, yet you still get the terrible ghosting/blurring over the awful refresh.  The GBP though if biverted is sharp, clean, minimal ghosting and not blurry at least like the DMG was and it is fine.

 

The IPS drop in is a 2020s style LCD, not a 80s/90s panel with a tweak.

 

I'm guessing since you're in brazil english isn't quite getting across directly or you're using some language translator, and in that case I'm not sure what to do other than link images because we're not talking about the same thing.

[Hwlngmad]

I would recommend this @M-S if you wanting a GBC replacement of some kind.  It is: https://www.aliexpress.com/i/2251832737708497.html?gatewayAdapt=4itemAdapt

[Tanooki]

That thing has compatibility issue with select few games, but it is a working choice.  Just try buying one elsewhere where you can get it second hand tested or easily returned as they leave the factory there working or not.  I had one before, it's not bad, and they have a multicart soldered to the board with some games to play right off.  One of them so impressed me I got the real cart, Ganso! Yanchamaru, the true sequel to kid niki.

[Hwlngmad]

On 8/25/2023 at 3:37 PM, Tanooki said:

That thing has compatibility issue with select few games, but it is a working choice.  Just try buying one elsewhere where you can get it second hand tested or easily returned as they leave the factory there working or not.  I had one before, it's not bad, and they have a multicart soldered to the board with some games to play right off.  One of them so impressed me I got the real cart, Ganso! Yanchamaru, the true sequel to kid niki.

Yeah, it is not the end all be all, but it is a solid enough choice I think.  Also, thanks for recommendation.  Will try and check out Ganso! Yancha Maru soon enough.

[Tanooki]

3 hours ago, Hwlngmad said:

Yeah, it is not the end all be all, but it is a solid enough choice I think.  Also, thanks for recommendation.  Will try and check out Ganso! Yancha Maru soon enough.

Yeah that game is fantastic, it uses the Kid Niki NES sprite style art and gameplay design with a few nice welcome additions, not like the other sorta sequels in title only that have a totally different feel and character design.  As to the GBBC I had, it had a broken component (common-ish with them) inside where even when turned off, it drained the batteries left in the system over like a couple weeks so it never was truly OFF.  I put up with it for awhile taking the batteries out, but eventually I got fed up and went back to using a SP for GBC stuff until better choices (IPS panels) came along.

[M-S]

 I'm quite familiar with the GBBC, but for the price maybe it's not worth it anymore, first of all the factory has probably been closed, since all items have raised in price and in a lot of stores it's out of stock, second it's a quite sensitive console, the components are very cheap and it doesn't supply enough power to the chips for some games, this is probably also why so many stop working or need repairing after a few months of use.

 The only GB Boy Colour product that's still being made is an adapter for clone SNES consoles which can output HDMI, it doesn't have a multiplayer port and uses a 4:3 resolution, if it wasn't for that a portable SNES with this adapter would be the best combination to own, but I wanted to see if I could get that CPU and install it on a new motherboard, however when I was trying to buy the board I noticed the SMD resistors and other extremely small components don't come installed on the board, and now I think that's way beyond my modding skills, even though it would probably work just like a real GBC. 

 Maybe I'll install the backlight+bivert mod on the Pocket, and if I don't like it I could try selling it for a lower price than normal and buy another one for the IPS.