Super Game Boy

The 'Super Game Boy is an adapter cartridge for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as the Super Famicom in Japan. The Super Game Boy allows game cartridges designed for use on the Game Boy games to be played on a TV display using the SNES/Super Famicom controllers. It was the precursor to the Game Boy Player on the Nintendo GameCube, which functioned in a similar manner.

Information


The Super Game Boy was compatible with the original monochrome Game Boy cartridges and black Game Boy Color cartridges, although it would display the latter in monochrome. The unit could map the four shades of grey to various colors on the screen. Later Game Boy games which were optimized to use the Super Game Boy had additional color information and could over-ride the ability to change the on-screen colors, and the ability to display a graphical border around the screen as well as the ability to display special background sprites on the screen as seen in the Mario's Picross title screen. Those games would have printed a small "Super Game Boy Game Pak" logo on the box and cartridge. The adaptor could support up to 64 colors for the border, and 12 colors for the screen. Colorization was applied to the screen itself, and did not scroll with the background. Static screens could display all 10 colors.

It was also possible for Super Game Boy games to make use of the SNES hardware for extra effects, as demonstrated in Contra: The Alien Wars, Donkey Kong, Kirby's Dream Land 2 and Toy Story had expanded sound when used with the Super Game Boy. Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!, Killer Instinct]], and several other titles even allowed the second Super NES controller to be used for two-player action, and the title screen changed to show that these games had a two-player option, rather than a connection status. Among the best uses of the Super Game Boy enhancement may be the Game Boy version of Space Invaders, which allowed players to access the full Super NES version of the game that utilized the entire screen for play.

Some black Game Boy Color cartridge games also have Super Game Boy enhancements, although there isn't any logo indicating this on the cartridge or packaging thereof.

Hardware
The Super Game Boy actually consists of the same hardware as the Game Boy; inside the cartridge is a separate CPU that processes the games while the Super NES only provided means for user-input, output of graphics to the screen, and the additional coloring.

The Super Game Boy also plays the audio for games, and the program of the games, about 4% faster than the original hardware.

Super Game Boy 2
Nintendo released the Super Game Boy 2 in 1998 in Japan, although there are unsubstantiated rumours that it was released in the United States through mail-order, however Nintendo states otherwise. Additions included a link port to allow a user to access two-player mode via the link cable, a green game link LED and a red power LED indicator. Contrary to rumours, the system is unable to run Game Boy Color games. One of the flaws is the system's inability to change borders in some games which have built in borders. In addition, the device came with seven new default borders. Some games have features only available through the Super Game Boy 2, such as a special Tetris DX border.



System menu


The system menu is 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. Internally, the Super Game Boy includes special palettes for several games that came out before the release of the Super Game Boy, for example Alleyway, Yoshi's Cookie, Kirby's Pinball Land and Solar Striker have one 1 of the 32 default colors by default.
 * Border: Choose from one of 9 pre-made borders, the Super Game Boy enhanced border(s) (if available), or a user-created border (if created). A few Super Game Boy games will not allow the border to be changed due to having a special Border, ex. Pokémon Trading Card Game and Wario Land II.
 * Button Setting: Switches between two controller mappings. A few Super Game Boy games will not allow the controller to be changed.
 * Custom Color: Create a custom color palette and get a password to retrieve it later.
 * Graffiti: Create a custom border by using several painting tools.

Easter Eggs

 * Some of the Super Game Boy 1 & 2's default borders start to animate if the controller isn't touched for several minutes (or by entering a code). For example, the Movie Theater border starts showing the audience falling asleep, talking and it even shows two children playing linked up Game Boys.
 * Through a code, the game's credits can be accessed on both Super Game Boy 1 and 2.
 * In the Graffiti menu, if something is drawn and the controller is left alone for a while, a little janitor will come out and slowly erase everything. However, the drawings made by the player will return and the janitor will vanish once the player resumes the game.