The Official Game Boy Thread

[+atari2600land]

I can't beat level 1 of Hyper Lode Runner. I tried for an hour. I tried watching YouTube videos where the people do impossible things and I tried to do it but I couldn't because the stuff they did was impossible. Why do people think they have to make games so impossible where you can't even beat the first level? Is it fun being angry? Why?!

[SlidellMan]

Phalanx for Game Boy Advance:

 

[Pixelboy]

5 hours ago, atari2600land said:

I can't beat level 1 of Hyper Lode Runner. I tried for an hour. I tried watching YouTube videos where the people do impossible things and I tried to do it but I couldn't because the stuff they did was impossible. Why do people think they have to make games so impossible where you can't even beat the first level? Is it fun being angry? Why?!

Don't feel too bad. If it's any consolation, I've always sucked at Lode Runner myself, on all gaming platforms. Just like I suck at all iterations of Pac-Man. My guess is those who are good at such games simply have brains that are good at rapid spatial analysis. That's not something everyone is born with.

[Pixelboy]

Just in case anyone here is interested, I got an e-mail the other day which informed me that GoodBoy Galaxy for GBA is now complete, and can be purchased in digital ROM format right now. The physical copies will be produced and released later this winter, in 2024. Oh well, at least the game is finally done. 

 

The game is also apparently available for the Evercade, and will be released on PC (Steam) and Nintendo Switch some time in 2024.

 

[SlidellMan]

A little something from Stuart K Reilly:

If he decides to start Game Boy collecting, maybe he should go for Phalanx, Astro Boy: The Omega Factor, and Bomberman Tournament.

[Tanooki]

Gameboy, the most loved by one part of the spectrum and misunderstood by another system.  As he said, get comfy how you need to be comfy but do the experience.  Find the many games hiding under many more licensed/terrible shovelware and you're in for a great treat.  Even early on you could get some full size games like Gargoyle's Quest no smaller than your NES/SNES games of the time or you could because it's an on the go solution which may mean less time is best.

[Hwlngmad]

6 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Gameboy, the most loved by one part of the spectrum and misunderstood by another system.  As he said, get comfy how you need to be comfy but do the experience.  Find the many games hiding under many more licensed/terrible shovelware and you're in for a great treat.  Even early on you could get some full size games like Gargoyle's Quest no smaller than your NES/SNES games of the time or you could because it's an on the go solution which may mean less time is best.

I didn't the Game Boy back in the day myself as the screen on the DMG was just horrid.  Also, I had grown up a bit and turned into a bit of a tech snob gaming hardware wise (which is why I wanted, got, and loved the Atari Lynx).  However, I will say that modern day screen replacements and/or various emulation handhelds have really helped to bring those games alive for me and I have really enjoyed going into the Game Boy catalog here and there and uncovering games that I really enjoy and consider some of my very well-liked and/or favorite games.

[Hakogame 箱亀]

The OG gameboy library covers a huge spectrum from ports of old arcade games to demakes of 16-bit games with everything inbetween.

The best part for me is discovering all of the obscure gems I never heard about before and seeing so many games with 'experimental' gameplay and unique design approaches to compensate for the weaker hardware.

[Tanooki]

Don't forget even old computer games too from asia, usa, and euro stuff too.  From Xenon 2, to Miner 2049'r, to old Heiankyo Alien you really can dig up some wide range of gems.

 

Sure the DMG screen was hard for some, but the Pocket while not lit was far better for its time.  GBC was fantastic and the lens/TFT combo really did draw in the light fairly well, and with a well positioned worm light you really were set.

 

I had a 2nd hand game gear in the mid 90s I was given but it never appealed to me as much as the GB did strictly because of the games, game quality, game variety, and spread of genres covered.  Game Gear just popped for color but it lacked in much the rest, and it blurred as bad as a DMG did really which was a shame.

[SlidellMan]

Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble:

 

[SlidellMan]

I cannot believe that I didn't mention the 20th anniversary of the original Wario Ware:

Feel free to discuss, especially when the newest entry was finally released.

[c0op3r]

I am not sure how I originally missed this thread, but I spotted it the other night and read all 49 pages!

 

I love the GB and bought my first one as a young adult in 1989 from the Toys R Us in south Miami, I used to go back every Friday when I got paid and get the new cart/game that was released, I got Alleyway, Super Mario Bros, Qix.  See at first they came out about 1 a week, but then one day I went in and they was like 3 or 4 new games, so I picked one and said I will catch up over the next couple weeks.  Well next week there was 6 more games, I was like WOW, so I bought 1 game. The week after that I came to the TRU and well there was like 10 new games, so at that point I had to just really start getting only the ones I wanted.

 

The funny thing today is that Tetris and Dr Mario are my 2 favorites!

 

I only got back into the Gameboy a few years ago with the Multicarts enable me to play games I never got to see, then I found about the modding scene and well thing went downhill from there.

 

So the some of the highlights from the collection are:

(2) Gameboy Micros (Famicom Controller I and II) [II being a Japanese Nintendo Club exclusive] - these are both unmodified.

(3) Analogue Pockets (Glow in the dark, Translucent Clear and Translucent Smoke(not photo'ed still in sealed box)

Gameboy Color Atomic Purple with the works for mods - Screen, Case, LED Buttons, USB-C and Li-ion Battery

Gameboy Advanced Slate

Gameboy Advanced SP - Translucent Glow in the dark Case with Atom sticker on the inside - and all the regular mods - screen, usb-c etc

Gameboy 2DS Charizard and Pikachu - both reflashed to US version of the software

Gameboy Light - no mods - but minty (I actually bought my first of these in Hong Kong Toys R US[in 1996 just before the hand over] and it was Gold - of course I no longer have that one)

Gameboy Pocket Color - This is my current favorite and generally my go to Gameboy

Gameboy Advanced SP Boxy Pixel 'Unhinged' with all the mods, headphones USB-C etc

Gameboy Micro from Boxy Pixel front and clear replace back shell

Gameboy Advance Consolized - Orange thing in the back with 8Bitdo SNES wireless controller

 

I also love the GB Camera, I never had one of these originally but was always interested in it.  I got one a few months ago and though wow this is fun.  I then found out about the 'Modded' version from 2BitPixels and HDR and well things went bad from there.

 

So now I have:

Purple original Gameboy Camera (but with US board inside)

HDR board with original lens and clear 3D resin printed case

Original cased InsideGadgets AIO PicNRec board - I want a better case for this but have just not figured out what to do yet

2BitToy 3D printed case with original board and changeable lens

2BitToys clear 3D printed Case, HDR Board and C mount Lens

I have a Pokémon Printer but really they print like garage - so I built the GBpXL interface so I can print to an Epson receipt printer - this works very well.

 

So my new Gameboy collection branch is Pokémon Carts, so far I got the original 11 games and a few physical ROM hacks - some of which are amazingly well done. 

 

So I hope you enjoy seeing my collection and I would love to see others collections.

 

 

 

[SlidellMan]

Wow, that is a magnanimous collection.

[Tanooki]

Now that's pretty fairly impressive, a share of a lot of variety there.  I've got a number of them myself from the DMG to the micro to a near spotless GB Light as well, some things modded, some not, a few still complete in their box.  The only one I don't have, I dumped it to break even, was the Pocket over the lies they spun about their adapters and their firmware defective dock unfortunately.  Once the GBC FPGA handheld gets the bugs worked out, I'm going with that.

 

I never did end up with the GB Printer or camera, printer I wouldn't put to use but would be nice, yet I think I would find some use still for the Camera.  They pop up rarely around here, but they want at or above ebay so I walk off.

[NE146]

21 hours ago, c0op3r said:

So I hope you enjoy seeing my collection and I would love to see others collections.

Sure! I just realized I had never posted any pics of mine so here's most of my "Nintendo handhelds" collection. It's not as nicely presented as yours as I basically just snapped a pic after dumping them out of a bin a couple years ago  

 

I pretty much am a sucker for any new Nintendo hardware so 99% of these items I am the original owner and bought for full retail price in their time (or in the case of the G&Ws, my mom bought them for me). That's why I don't have much variants as when I got something (like a GBC) I saw no need for another especially if it was just a different color.  One thing I'm missing is a Micro because it seemed like just another GBA for example, but now I kind of wish I had one. 

 

There are some items missing in the pic when I took it, like my NIB Tokyo Pokemon Center GBC, and a number of G&W's like Boxing, and a few others. But I think that's the majority of the Nintendo "console handheld" that I have. I also once had a bunch of Majora's Mask 3DS.. but I gave all but one away to my nephews and nieces.

 

 

At this point though, most of my ACTUAL handheld gaming for nearly everything is done either on the Switch, Analogue Pocket, or Steam Deck

 

Edited December 12, 2023 by NE146

[SlidellMan]

I wonder if they make Game Boy replacement screens that still have the gold/green look while being efficient and backlit?

[Tanooki]

I think that was one of the color choices on a panel I put into a gameboy before, but it has been awhile.  A DMG I did some years back had like 8 color choices, pea green was one, then real black & white, then the usual spread of red, yellow, blue, purple, green, and one other.

[SlidellMan]

Nice, and I'd like to see some photos of those replacement screens.

Edit: I found this video by This Does Not Compute:

 

Edited December 13, 2023 by SlidellMan
Included a video

[SlidellMan]

Balloon Kid's Japan-only Game Boy Color release. By the way, Alice from this game served as the basis of WarioWare Gold's Lulu. (Ditto for that ghost girl in Wrecking Crew '98.)

[SlidellMan]

Time for Rhythm Heaven:

In all honesty, Nintendo should have made this the last first-party GBA game.

[SlidellMan]

Panel De Pon GB restoration has been going swimmingly aside from a few bugs:

 

[Tanooki]

Wow that's impressive someone trying to dig the nuggets out from the deep side of that ROM to restore GBC Panel de Pon.  Hopefully they do it, then translate it, and it ends up in a way where you can get that tossed on a bootleg to hold onto.

 

The Balloon fight GB game though, I'm waiting, so waiting, for when the Epilogue OPERATOR finally gets their crap together on the firmware to support the official Nintendo Power GB Memory flash cart.  I've got the rom builder, the original retail menu, etc just waiting.  I'll load that card up with the unique Lawson's distributed gems like that to make it a really special cart.

 

 

Oh and over the summer I had mentioned I found a copy of Catrap for a steal at the flea, fast forward to this morning. That same seller since I'm in good terms in hanging around and discussing things let me know he brought in some boxes, boxes of manuals, and in that box I grabbed a few (5) but what's relevant here, I got the original manual that went to that Catrap game now (yes!) and also one for Burgertime Deluxe which I also have the game for too.  

[+Karl G]

I got an original Gameboy for Christmas, and I'm having fun with it so far. I've never had a handhold console before, so it's fitting that this is my first one, I think! The screen is a bit brutal, but I was also expecting that.  🙂 I'll be reading through this topic slowly but surely. It seems big enough for a dedicated subforum!

 

[robotwo]

12 hours ago, Karl G said:

I got an original Gameboy for Christmas, and I'm having fun with it so far. I've never had a handhold console before, so it's fitting that this is my first one, I think! The screen is a bit brutal, but I was also expecting that.  🙂 I'll be reading through this topic slowly but surely. It seems big enough for a dedicated subforum!

 

Congrats on picking up a Game Boy, it's such a charming little system and Super Mario Land 2 is definitely a great title to get you started.
But yeah, the screen may not have aged quite as well as the games, the ghosting can be pretty intense, but it's decent as long as stuff isn't moving too much.

[Tanooki]

@Karl G You know, good on you having the luck or request of that luck turning out getting an original Game Boy for Christmas.  That's what I got for Christmas too, in 1989, and I ruined my parents fun in a way on accident.  They got me +1 game for it, Super Mario Land, and guess what i opened up first, the game!   I played the hell out of it and Tetris day after day, finished Mario so many times.  The screen even in 89 was I guess brutal, at least when a game has more going on screen and scrolling due to the low refresh rate which causes that blur.

 

If you find you're really digging it,  you know, you can with a screwdriver alone carefully save the internal upper board/screen combo in an safe place and drop in a new upper board and modern lit up iphone style quality screen in there for not that much money.  That way you can experience the hardware largely as intended, outside of the screen with its blur.  Having a direct light source helps negate it some, but not enough.  The other choice if you won't do that, get a GB Pocket, the screen isn't lit, but ghosts far far less and it's plain mono black and white style.

 

Game Boy all of them captured me greatly in the 90s, and when Nintendo consoles faltered a bit for a time in the 64 era which sent me towards a Turbo Duo, I also largely due to ease of access at a second hand level, went deeper into GB then GBC gaming and it kind of has been a primary interest ever since through the advance.  I definitely can give you many of recommendations, and not the junk people cluster to because Nintendo made it.