Games - Super Game Boy

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	Games - Super Game Boy

The Super Game Boy is an adaptor cartridge for Nintendo's Super Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as the Super Famicom in Japan. The Super Game Boy allows one to play game cartridges designed for use on the Game Boy on a TV display using the SNES/Super Famicom controllers. When it was released in 1994, the Super Game Boy sold for about $60 in the USA.

Information

The Super Game Boy was only compatible with the original monochrome Game Boy cartridges. The unit could map the four shades of grey to various colors on the TV. Later Game Boy games that were optimized to use the Super Game Boy had additional color information and background borders. Those games would contain a small "Super Game Boy Game Pak" logo on the box and cartridge, although a few games had the logo but were not enhanced. The adaptor could support up to 256 colors in static screens (i.e the title screen) and 13 colors in the normal game. The Super Game Boy was favored by software developers and testers because they could use a larger television screen while working, instead of the small Game Boy screen.

It was also possible for Super Game Boy games to make use of the SNES hardware for extra effects. For example, Asteroids/Missile Command and Donkey Kong all had expanded sound when used with the Super Game Boy. The Game Boy version of Killer Instinct even allowed the second SNES controller to be read as another Game Boy, and the title screen changed to show that it had a two-player option, rather than just "connect." In the most skillful use, Space Invaders allowed players to play a full 16-bit version of the game that took over the entire screen.

No version of the Super Game Boy is capable of running games that are designed strictly for the Game Boy Color, although they will run dual mode (black cartridge, compatible with both systems) games in Game Boy mode. Some black cartridge games also have Super Game Boy enhancements, although there is no logo indicating this on the box or cartridge.

System menu

Accessed by pressing the L and R buttons at the same time; the menu has five options to choose from:

Color Palette: Choose from one of 32 pre-made color palettes, the Super Game Boy enhanced palette(s) (if available), or a user-created palette (if available). A few Super Game Boy games will not allow the palette to be changed.
Border: Choose from one of 9 pre-made borders, the Super Game Boy enhanced border(s) (if available), or a user-created border (if available). A few Super Game Boy games will not allow the border to be changed.
Button Setting: Switches between two controller mappings.
Custom Color: Create a custom color palette.
Graffiti: Create a custom border.

Super Game Boy 2

Nintendo released the Super Game Boy 2 in 1998. However, it was only widely sold in Japan; in the United States it was only available through mail-order. Additions included a link port (allowing the Super Game Boy 2 to connect with other Game Boys for multiplayer purposes), a green game link LED, and a red power LED indicator.

Predecessors

The Super Game Boy was the successor to Intelligent Systems' Wide Boy 2 (which connected to the Famicom or NES). One difference between the Wide Boy and the Super Game Boy is that the former did not use any part of the Famicom/NES other than the video memory. Even the controller (a single Famicom controller) was hardwired directly into the Wide Boy. The Wide Boy would continue running even if the reset button were held down on the Famicom/NES. The Game Boy had twice as many tiles as could fit in the Famicom/NES's video memory, so the Wide Boy had to refresh the Famicom/NES's video memory halfway down the screen.

Camerica had the Game Boy to NES developed by Biederman Design Labs, which appeared similar to the Super Game Boy.

Successors

The Super Game Boy was followed by the Transfer Pak for the Nintendo 64, which allowed one to play Game Boy Color Pokémon titles in Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Stadium 2
in a Super Game Boy-like fashion, complete with the Super Game Boy enhanced borders and palettes. However, the main role of the Transfer Pak was to transfer data from Game Boy Color to Nintendo 64 games, not to play games.

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