DMG Game Boy games that are actually in color

[shadow460]

Is there a list of original Game Boy carts that actually display color when used in a Color- or later Game Boy? The ones with black and colored shells are obvious to an extent, but I'm wondering which gray

carts come up in color?

 

I have three so far: Qix, Solar Striker, and Avenging Spirit. The colors don't seem to be a fluke, either. I stick 'em in the SP and bam, there's vibrant color on each.

[Rex Dart]

The SP colorizes monochrome Gameboy games...

[Atariboy]

There are colors in every gray Game Boy cartridge I've ever inserted into my Super Game Boy, Game Boy Player, or Game Boy Advance SP. Many are dull and are better off being switched to B&W but that can of course be customized to your liking by selecting your own colors on a Super Game Boy or selecting a different color palette on GBC compatible hardware at start-up. And of course the black cartridges are fully colorized when played on GBC compatible hardware.

 

Some Super Game Boy enhanced cartridges are in full color when played on that accessory. Donkey Kong is probably the most famous example. And others have more limited color enhancements like Kirby's Dreamland 2.

 

But I suspect that you're asking which games have preset color palettes like Solar Striker. Pretty much any 1st party game I've played will have a decent pre-selected color palette. Metroid II for instance has a nice one that comes up on the Super Game Boy or any Game Boy Color compatible hardware. 3rd party games from my experience seem to usually default to a generic color palette unless you change it yourself but I mostly bought more obscure stuff outside of the Nintendo published releases.

 

I would think more popular 3rd party releases would tend to have gotten that extra touch though. The Mega Man games for instance seem likely to have a customized color palette.

Edited May 29, 2013 by Atariboy

[Algus]

The first Kirby's Dream Land has Kirby colorized properly.

 

I remember reading somewhere that many GB games were programmed with colors in anticipation of color hardware. No clue where I got it from though, NP maybe?

[Uzumaki]

Space Invaders for the original Gameboy contains enhanced Super Gameboy support. There are a few SGB enhanced games.

 

Gameboy games that comes in black cart has both B&W and Color palette, almost a 2-in-1 game.

[Thrillo]

I think he's looking for a list of games that the SGB/GBC automatically recognize & apply a fitting palette to, even though the games weren't created with the GBC/GBC in mind. I know Super Metroid is one of them.

[Pixelboy]

I think he's looking for a list of games that the SGB/GBC automatically recognize & apply a fitting palette to, even though the games weren't created with the GBC/GBC in mind. I know Super Metroid is one of them.

 

You mean Metroid II.

[BrianC]

Some Super Game Boy enhanced cartridges are in full color when played on that accessory. Donkey Kong is probably the most famous example. And others have more limited color enhancements like Kirby's Dreamland 2.

 

Donkey Kong isn't in full color. Most screens are still limited in to a palette similar to other GB games, aside from the extra colors for score and timer. It does have changing palettes and enhanced sound ("help!, help!"), though. I disagree on Kirby being more limited. It doesn't have a pink kirby, but it uses the SGB enhancements in similar ways (extra colors for status bar, changing palettes, some static screens with more color than the main game). I remember reading that SGB enhanced games could use tricks to show up to 10 colors on screen, but are still limited in color.

 

Also, the preset b/w games aren't in full color, don't have changing palettes, and are still limited to four colors. With the kirby games on GBC and GBA, Kirby is pink, but I found some of the other colors to look odd with the default palette for the games.

Edited May 29, 2013 by BrianC

[Atariboy]

Donkey Kong's colorization seemed a bit more ambitious to me. But maybe it's the nice background of the Donkey Kong arcade machine that made it seem more impressive (Something several other arcade ports on the Game Boy also did as I recall when played on a Super Game Boy).

 

Space Invaders for the original Gameboy contains enhanced Super Gameboy support. There are a few SGB enhanced games.

 

Yeah, but it's not really a colorized Game Boy game. In this case, it's the Super Nintendo release that it switches to with the multiplayer capabilities removed.

Edited May 29, 2013 by Atariboy

[per]

Only games with Manufacturing code 01 (Nintendo) has dedicated color schemes on GBC. The different games are separated by the sum of their game title, and games that has the same sum are further separated by the 4th character of the game title. Allthough many games are identified, a lot of them still uses the same palette setups.

 

Technical stuff:

• The dedicated color schemes are stored in the GBC bootup code, and are applied when the given games are recognized. Any directional keystroke will reload the color scheme based on the 12 user-selectable schemes.
  
• There is a total of 93 diffetently identified games, but the number of unique palette setups dedicated for these 93 games is only 45. This is due to some setups being used by several games (like the standard brown, which is used by 8 different games).
  
• A palette setup consist of a base palette, and mapping information for that palette.
  
• There are 30 different color records, and 29 base palettes using different combinations of these colors.
  
• Each base palette has 6 different mappings (OBJ1 may adapt the base color of OBJ0 or BG, while OBJ0 may only adapt the base color of BG. BG cannot be changed from the base color).
  
• Technically there are 174 valid palette setups, but lots of them produce similar color schemes.
  

The algorithm for setting the color scheme for the different games:

1. Check the manufacture code for 01 or 33h (if 33h, also check the new manufacture code for 01).
   
2. Add together the characters of the game title.
   
3. Look up the value of the sum in a big list of known sums. if it's found in one of the 65 first entries, the position in the list will be used as pointer in the list of palette setups. If the sum is found later in the list, then the 4th character of the game title is looked up in the corresponding column of a table of known 4th game-title-characters. The position in the table + 65 will be used as pointer in the list of palette setups.
   
4. The given palette setup is decoded and the color scheme is set.
   

Edited May 30, 2013 by per

[BrianC]

Yeah, but it's not really a colorized Game Boy game. In this case, it's the Super Nintendo release that it switches to with the multiplayer capabilities removed.

 

It does have the former on there too, as well as the SNES game, though. While it certainly doesn't look as good as the SNES game on the cart, the SGB palettes for the GB version on SGB are pretty good.

 

One thing I noticed is that, despite not being designed by Nintendo (though it was published by them in the US), is that Galaga/Galaxian has a default color palette on GBC and GBA (inverse). Does the JP version have the same palette? I have Namco Gallery 1 and 2 for GB, which have the same ports of Galaga/Galaxian (right down to the same sound issues on early GBCs where some sounds don't play right), but they don't have a special default (not really surprised, though). Namco Gallery 1 and 2 also uses the same awesome SGB palettes for Galaga/Galaxian, but changes the borders. I liked the old ones based on the arcade games better.

Edited May 30, 2013 by BrianC

[per]

I forgot to mention, the default color scheme for games with no special color palette is green/blue background with red sprites. It's the same color scheme as you get by selecting the A+Right manually selectable color scheme.

 

Games that default to all the same color are actually identified and spesifically set to do so...

 

The big question is how would a game clasify as "colorized"; Is there a minimum requirement for how well color is applied to it, is it any game with different colors, or is it the games that are spesifically identified and given custom palettes?

Edited May 30, 2013 by per