The Super Game Boy

The Super Game Boy was an adapter that let users play Game Boy games on the SNES. It was great for a few reasons.

Firstly, playing it on a TV obviously gave it a bigger screen. Multiple people could watch without crowding. Plus, it was lit up instead of needing sunlight or good indoor light to see so it was easy to play at night or in the dark.

Secondly, and this was probably the biggest advantage, is that the SNES controller was easier to hold than the Game Boy. For those with larger hands, finding a comfortable way to hold the vertically oriented Game Boy without overlapping fingers was difficult. Plus, it was possible to change the button orientation to \ instead of / . That might not seem like a big deal, but it’s much more comfortable to get both buttons with a single thumb.

Thirdly, adding color just made them seem better. It removed the “puke green” background, and colorizing them almost (sorta) made them seem like a regular NES game.

Every game could be given 4 different colors, since the Game Boy could display black, 2 shades of gray, and white (meaning clear, or where no dot was displayed). There were 32 preset palettes, or users could customize their own. Some of the other features like custom borders, animated borders, and being able to draw added some nice touches, albeit unnecessary ones for gameplay.

To duplicate the correct dimensions of the GB, the SGB didn’t display games in full screen. Instead, it had a border around the game. The default border looked like a Game Boy, but there were about 8 other choices. If left alone for long enough, the borders became animated.

At this point, there were 3 kinds of Game Boy games:

Type 1: Regular, ordinary games - of which there were literally hundreds (like Mortal Kombat or Pac-Man).

Type 2: Regular games that Nintendo knew were popular, in-house games (like Kid Icarus or Yoshi). The list of these games is probably fewer than 40 games.

Type 3: Games that were optimized for the Super Game Boy (like Donkey Kong ‘94 or Space Invaders).

For normal games (type 1), after the SGB booted up, the game played like normal. The SGB selected the default palette, which had black, white, and two shades of orange. Once the game loaded, additional palettes could be selected, or one could be custom created. Some of the pre-made palettes had higher contrast or specific combinations (blue/red or green/brown, etc.) and most had some shade of white and black.

For games like Type 2, the SGB loaded like normal, except that it picked a particular built-in palette for the game. So when loading Link’s Awakening, it picked a color scheme with green/brown, or a red/yellow/green palette for Metroid II. This was a feature built into the SGB to recognize that a specific game had been inserted.

Games like Type 3 had a specific logo on the box/game that indicated that it was optimized. These had a custom border that would come up, and would often be in full color. The game was able to use some of the SNES hardware to improve sound. For example, in Donkey Kong ’94 Pauline screams when being taken by DK. On a Game Boy, it just sounds like a high pitched computer bleep. However, on the SGB, she actually screams, “HELP!” in English.

The SGB would let you change the borders and palettes from the optimized ones if you wanted to, but it was best to just use those because of the improved quality. 

   

4 years after the Super Game Boy was released, the Game Boy Color came out. Along with the newer hardware came 2 kinds of games, distinguishable by the color of the plastic of the GamePak.

Type 4: Game Boy Color games (in clear plastic)

Type 5: Cross Compatibility Game Boy Color Games (in Black Plastic)

Game Boy Color games (type 4) could only be played on a Game Boy Color (duh), and were in full color. Because they lacked the little notch in the corner, it prevented people from turning them on in a regular Game Boy. If a GBC game (type 4) is put into the SGB, it displays a nice message that informs the player that the game must be played on a GBC.

But the black ones (type 5) could be played in either system. If played in a GB, it had a black/white four color palette as expected. But if played in a GBC, they would be displayed in full color. Black cartridge games were optimized for the SGB with custom borders, but depending on the game, it would either display full color or just pick one of the preset palettes.

Games that were optimized for the SGB were treated like a type 1 or type 2 game by the GBC, unfortunately, and didn't have any kind of enhancements. 

Additional Resources:

The Gaming Historian reviews the Super Gameboy