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- a tiny, greenish, monochrome, unlit screen was for so many 90s kids their first window into the world of video games. nintendo would release numerous revisions on this popular design, including the slightly more powerful game boy color, and the entirely new platform game boy advance.

handheld gaming is certainly convenient, but sometimes you want to play your favorite games on the big screen. let’s take a look at how to get the best experience with game boy and game boy advance games on the go, and at home. (theme music) - an affordable system with affordable games,

the game boy was nintendo’s first handheld with interchangeable game cartridges. the iconic brick-shaped original, model dmg-01, was first released in 1989, featuring a 160 by 144 pixel lcd display... measuring only about 2 and a half inches diagonally... and capable of displaying

four shades of greenish-gray. even when put up against more advanced competing hardware, the game boy’s simplistic capabilities were no obstacle to its market dominance. but even though this is the screen game boy games were originally designed for, it is admittedly tough to go back to, and the contrast dial only helps so much.

the screen also refreshes very slowly, causing moving images to appear blurry. so where do you go from here to get a better experience? in this episode, we’re going to first look at every official portable game boy machine, followed by options for playing on your tv. then we’ll finish up by looking at mods,

hardware alternatives, and some of your options for emulation. in 1996, nintendo finally released the first major game boy revision, the game boy pocket. while the body is considerably smaller and requires fewer batteries, the game boy pocket’s screen

is almost exactly the same size. the screen is still slightly greenish, but it’s much closer to gray? perhaps more pleasing, but maybe a bit less nostalgic. these screens have not held up very well over time, and today you might notice faint vertical lines extending from areas with lots of darker pixels.

adjusting contrast helps, but they are still there. in 1998 - woah, what the heck?! nintendo released the game boy light? only in japan. for the most part, this is pretty much just like a game boy pocket? but it’s got a light.

it launched at 6800 yen, the same price as the game boy pocket, so it was a pretty great value. the backlight has a pleasant bluish green glow, and while it’s not super bright, it makes a world of difference when playing game boy games indoors. unfortunately, just like a game boy pocket,

those faint vertical lines can show up here too. since the game boy light is japanese-only, this might be a good time to mention that there is no such thing as region-locked game boy games, or differing refresh rates between ntsc and pal regions. the entire game boy line is one platform where import gaming just works with zero hassle.

nintendo finally left behind the game boy’s trademark monochrome graphics with the game boy color in 1998. the screen is still unlit, and actually a bit smaller than the game boy pocket screen? but hey, nintendo handheld games in color was kind of a big deal, if rather overdue.

the gbc is much more than a game boy with color, featuring beefed up hardware that many games were able to take advantage of. black cartridges work on original game boys, but feature significant enhancements on game boy color. clear cartridges are designed to take full advantage of the game boy color’s

extra processing muscle, and cannot be played on older systems. this led to a lot of nes ports and many games with surprisingly advanced graphics. of course, older game boy cartridges are also playable in color by replacing the four monochrome shades with various colors. while the game boy splash screen is displayed upon bootup, you can hold a combination of buttons

to activate pre-made color palettes. what’s cool is that sprites and backgrounds are separate entities as far as the system is concerned, which makes it possible for them to be different colors from each other... meaning that some palettes actually have more than 4 colors. one interesting side effect is that this

can help clue you in on dangers that are disguised as stationary background elements. in addition to the selectable palettes, the game boy color is able to recognize particular cartridges and provide uniquely tailored palettes by default. it’s not always a great result, but it’s interesting to see an attempt

at making kirby pink. there is no finer color control beyond the default palettes and 12 selectable palettes. if you aren't a fan of any of the available options, you can opt out by holding left and b for a monochrome pallet. even though it’s a bit smaller than earlier models, the gbc screen is actually a massive upgrade thanks to its lcd’s

improved pixel response time, which results in practically zero visible ghosting. the game boy was an impressive 12 years old in 2001 when nintendo finally released a full-on successor. the game boy advance reinvigorated handheld gaming with hardware that is popularly compared to the capabilities of a super nintendo.

at the time, it was kind of surreal to play games like that on a handheld. internal hardware allows accurate backwards compatibility with any game playable on a game boy color. palette options for older game boy games are also exactly the same as they are on game boy color.

if you’re so inclined to distort the original aspect ratio, the shoulder buttons toggle a horizontal stretch that fills the entire width of the game boy advance screen. the gba display is a nice upgrade over the original game boys' 240 by 160 pixels. it’s just as good at minimizing ghosting as the game boy color,

but the screen is oddly darker. looking back, it’s hard to believe that nintendo thought it was ok to release such a dark and unlit screen in the 21st century. thankfully, it took less than two years for nintendo to rectify the problem, and release the game boy advance sp in 2003.

featuring a front-lit lcd screen, pocket-friendly clamshell design, and rechargeable internal battery, the gba sp represents one of the biggest leaps forward in portable gaming history. the days of stocking up on aas and finding just the right angle to catch the light were finally over. light is emitted from the bottom of the gba sp screen,

and cast across the front of the lcd. if you prefer to save battery power, you can also turn the light off. it’s not very useful outdoors anyway. as big of an upgrade as this was in 2003, the result falls far short of what we expect from modern portable screens. front-lit lcds are built just like an unlit lcd, meaning they’re designed to be visible

with reflected light. nintendo ditched front-lighting with the original 2004 model of nintendo ds. gba hardware is baked into the same chip as the ds cpu core, but game boy color hardware is not on board, limiting backwards compatibility to game boy advance games only. while the dimly backlit screen was soon put

to shame by the premium lcd on sony’s psp, the inherent benefits of backlighting put the screen well ahead of the gba sp. due to the ds’s 256 by 192 resolution and higher pixel density display, gba games have a slight border and appear smaller than on an actual game boy advance. gba games can be played on the top or bottom screen.

in september 2005, nintendo released the final game boy machine, the game boy micro. but at the same time, nintendo quietly shipped to stores a new gba sp, model ags-101, which also touts a backlit screen. when you first turn the system on,

the improvement is immediately apparent. but once you press the brightness button one more time, you can see why many people consider this to be the definitive gba machine. the colors feel just right and the image holds up amazingly well to this day. there is a case to be made against the ags-101 however. the lcd has a lower pixel response time

compared to the game boy color, other game boy advance systems, and the original ds, causing a slight motion blur effect. it’s most apparent when black outlines move in the background. we feel it’s not all that extreme, certainly nowhere close to the blur on older game boy machines.

but for some people it’s a deal-breaker. you might also find talk about the ags-101 having a 50hz screen, but we can’t find any evidence to support this as anything more than a myth. if true, a 50hz screen would create an obvious frame-pacing judder due to the game and screen refreshing at inconsistent intervals,

which simply doesn’t happen. the brighter gba sp is the final device released with hardware support for original game boy or game boy color titles. the game boy micro, despite dropping the “advance” moniker, actually only supports gba games. despite not selling well, the game boy micro has its hardcore fans,

who love its ultra-portable size and extremely crisp backlit lcd. the screen is only 2 inches diagonally, about two-thirds the size of a regular gba screen, so the increased pixel density creates an almost hd look. the downside, of course, is that it’s really small.

while holding the l button, the volume control adjusts brightness. while pixel response is not perfect, ghosting is definitely less noticeable than on the ags-101. however, colors are much less vivid, with the overall image appearing a bit washed-out in comparison.

like the gba sp before it, the ds lite was released in 2006 to address flaws with the original hardware, with the main upgrade being a much brighter backlit screen. it’s a close match for the ags-101’s quality, down to what appears to be very similar pixel response time. so if you’re a stickler for minimal ghosting,

the original model ds might be a better pick for you. the ags-101 seems to have slightly richer colors than the ds lite, but otherwise image quality is remarkably similar. nintendo originally called the ds a “third pillar” alongside the gamecube and game boy advance. but their gamble with the ds paid off,

and the game boy brand was quietly retired. the dsi, released in 2009, cut costs by removing the gba slot. these are all of the official portable machines that support game boy, game boy color, or game boy advance titles. our top pick is the ags-101 because it

plays games for every game boy system, and has arguably the best screen. if you’d rather use another machine, there are a host of mods possible, which we’ll get to in a bit. but first, let’s take a look at the game boy hardware’s history with home consoles. - in the early 90s,

you could play game boy demos at kiosks equipped with green-tinted crts. man, to play game boy games on a bright, large screen? if only that were a luxury we could have at home. nintendo saw fit to give this power to the masses in 1994 with the super game boy? essentially, it’s game boy hardware in a super nintendo cartridge,

sold for about the price of a super nintendo game. with a tap of the r and l buttons? you bring up a menu where you can choose your preferred button layout, a variety of borders, and most importantly, select from a wide array of preset color palettes, or create your own.

the amazing possibilities here have always left me disappointed with the limited presets available on the game boy color. you can select from a variety of swatches, lighten and darken the colors, and even use passwords to recreate and share your favorite color palettes. if you’re interested in learning how to manipulate the numeric password

to create your desired rgb values, check out this guide on gamefaqs by motherkojiro. no other official hardware has allowed this kind of control over palettes in pre-color game boy games. the only perk offered by game boy color is allowing separate palettes for sprites and backgrounds. my go-to preset palette is the last one on page 4.

it’s not quite the authentic game boy pea soup green, but it’s more like how i wish game boy actually looked. one of the best things about the super game boy are “super game boy enhanced” titles. the most common enhancements are unique borders and special color palettes. what makes super game boy enhanced

color palettes so cool is that they can change from scene to scene, so while one world might have an orange scheme, another might have a blue scheme. but what’s crazier is that different sections of the screen can be blocked off to have their own separate palette, ultimately allowing for many more colors than the typical 4-color limit.

the donkey kong land 2 title screen does a bit of a poor job of masking the technique, but it serves as a good visual example of how it works. see how the red block intrudes on diddy’s eyes? this is why world maps in donkey kong ‘94 have so much color, and why pokemon appear as their

proper colors in battle. it’s also often used to great effect to add extra color in many games’ heads-up displays. some of the best games on the game boy have enhanced palettes, and the super game boy is the only official device that can use them. they’re treated just like any other old game

on game boy color and everything else. so real quick, about the borders. why do we gotta have the borders making everything so much smaller? well, ntsc standard definition is 480i, and the super nintendo displays at 240p. with game boy resolution being 144 pixels tall, there’s no clean way to shove that into

an ntsc video system without borders. if you have a pvm with an overscan button, you can make the game window slightly larger, which is nice. in the hd realm, you might also have a device capable of scaling the image however you like. my preferred way to play super game boy is with the framemeister,

using profiles downloaded from the pixel purist. these include a 7x scale for super game boy, which nearly fills a 1080p screen! set the border to black and enjoy! now the snes displays at a wider aspect ratio than a game boy lcd, super game boy displays games just a tiny bit too wide.

you might not even notice, but one cool perk to using the pixel purist 7x profile is that it squishes super game boy into the same skinnier aspect ratio of an actual game boy screen. of course, the quality of the picture depends on what kind of cables you’re using with your super nintendo,

and what kind of super nintendo you’re using. if you need to catch up, check out rgb 204, where we go over pretty much everything you might need to know about super nintendo video quality. the short answer is that rgb is the best, but s-video is also really good. later consoles produced at some point in

1995 onward have a redesigned motherboard marked “1chip,” and are significantly sharper than earlier systems. the smaller snes is normally composite-only, but it can be inexpensively modified for rgb output that some say is even sharper than the full-sized 1chip consoles. most snes footage in this episode

was recorded with a 1chip-02 over rgb through the framemeister. when playing on a pal region super game boy, games run at the same speed as ntsc super game boys. but of course, the output refresh is synced up to the typical pal 50hz. it’s an interesting trade-off for pal gamers,

because while game boys in all regions ran at about 59.7hz, the old lcd screens have so much motion blur that even the lower 50hz on a pal crt could be considered an upgrade. speaking of mismatched refresh, a consequence of trying to make these games work on an ntsc or pal video system is what people call “judder.”

sometimes you might see a slight frame hitch that wouldn’t have happened on a game boy lcd screen. most of the time this will probably go unnoticed, but if the screen is scrolling in one direction for a while, you might catch it. it doesn’t bother me too much, but others might be more sensitive to it. that’s about all there would be to say

about the super game boy? if there weren’t a super game boy 2. that’s right, in japan nintendo released the super game boy 2 in 1998. the main marketing difference is that it has a link cable port (primarily for trading pokemon of course). it also includes an all-new set of borders, but for our purposes,

there’s a very subtle difference that makes super game boy 2 one of the best pieces of game boy hardware? or rather, the question should be, “what’s different about the original super game boy?” you probably didn’t notice, but the original super game boy is a bit fast. it runs about 2.4% faster than

a game boy is supposed to run. in other words, the music, gameplay, everything is just a tiny bit faster than intended. over the course of a demo or cutscene, you can see how the super game boy starts to creep ahead. the super game boy 2, on the other hand, runs at the exact speed of a real game boy.

it might seem like a small thing, but if you’re interested in as authentic of an experience as possible, super game boy 2 is arguably the definitive way to play pre-color game boy games on your tv. you can, by the way, easily put japanese cartridges in a north american super nintendo by simply

removing the little plastic tabs in the back of the cartridge slot. you can just wiggle them off with needle-nose pliers if you’re not picky. simplest mod in all of gaming! one last game boy device for the snes that we’d like to mention is the japanese-exclusive sgb commander, an officially licensed controller

by renowned accessory manufacturer hori. it doesn’t have anything to do with video quality, but it does let you interact with the super game boy hardware in a fun way that a regular controller cannot. the mute button stops sound passthrough from the super game boy to the snes, but the real draw here is the speed button. one press literally underclocks the

super game boy and the games run in super slow motion. it makes the music sound really cool too! a second press puts the hardware in a faster slow mode. and press once more for stock speed. it wouldn’t be until 2003 when nintendo would release another method for playing game boy games on your tv,

with the game boy player for the gamecube. ok, before we move onto gamecube, we can’t forget about n64. while it was never commercially available, nintendo did develop a series of double-height n64 cartridges called wide-boy 64. specifically, it was created by intelligent systems, known for their work on fire emblem,

paper mario, and metroid, and they’ve also created a number of development tools for nintendo. the wide-boy name actually dates back to famicom-era game boy development tools, but in addition to developers, the wide-boy 64 was also sold to the press, intended as a means of creating screenshots and videos

for game boy games. earlier models are called wide-boy 64 cgb, which is essentially game boy color hardware, and can play game boy color exclusives, something not possible on the super game boy. later units were created to also accommodate the game boy advance, called wide-boy 64 agb. it’s pretty wild to think about

playing gba games on an n64, and i honestly never would’ve expected to have had a chance to try it. but twitch streamer mic da microphone bought one on ebay for? a thousand dollars, and approached us asking if we’d like to take a look at it. well? yes.

it’s pretty obvious the wide-boy 64 was never intended for commercial release. the logo is garbage, cuts in the plastic are rough, and the cartridge slot doesn’t even enclose the front of the game. of course, the n64 normally only outputs composite video or s-video at best. but if you’ve watched rgb 205,

then you should already know about rgb and hdmi mods available for the n64. the hdmi mod, called ultra hdmi, pulls digital video straight from the n64 chips, and even has a “de-blur” function that in my opinion is a massive improvement in image quality. de-blur is now also possible

with some rgb mods. so thanks to the n64’s brilliant fans, the system’s shortcomings in terms of video output have been resoundingly improved, meaning that the wide-boy, equipped with real game boy hardware inside, has the potential to offer the ultimate game boy experience. most direct capture footage here is recorded

using the ultra hdmi with de-blur engaged. as with the super game boy, the wide-boy 64 runs at 240p and fills the empty space with a border. by default, every time you turn on the wide-boy, there’s an anti-aliasing filter applied to the graphics? hit the z button to switch to another filtering mode? and hit it once more to turn the filter off. ahhh, there’s my pixels.

by tilting the analog stick, you can blow up the image, but it looks kind of awful. reactivating the filter smooths it over, but i can’t quite see how this would’ve been useful to developers or the press. shrinking it back down helps line up the gba pixel rows correctly with the scanlines of an analog tv system.

but just as with the super game boy, i wanna see those pixels fill my hdtv. the framemeister lets me scale the image as big as i like, without the nasty low-res scaling that the wide-boy does on its own. so is the wide-boy 64 agb the ultimate game boy machine? well, in some ways, maybe so,

but it has two flaws that may or may not bother you. the first is something common to n64 games, a generous dither is applied to the whole screen. see it here in the border? well, at first i didn’t think it was over the game graphics too, but it is. i discovered it when i noticed something funny with the screen scrolling.

the dither causes faint checkerboarding where on the gba there should be none, and while moving at slower speeds, this can cause the background to have a slight flicker. here i’ll slow it down so you can see a bit better. sure, more visible dither is a risk we take when using the ultra hdmi’s de-blur, but it’s silly that the dither is there at all. depending on your setup,

the movement flicker may or may not be faintly visible over analog connections as well. and judder is more severe on the wide-boy than the super game-boy, because sometimes you can see it jump back to a previous frame! so while the n64 may offer a pathway to the sharpest possible image while using real game boy hardware,

it is sadly not perfect. the second flaw doesn’t have anything to do with picture quality, but just so you know what you're getting into, the audio is weak and tinny, with pretty much no bass or oomph at all. but... you know what it sounds like? it kinda sounds like a real game boy speaker. i can’t decide if intelligent systems

was going for authenticity, or if nintendo decided to just cheap out on audio hardware. funny as it sounds to hear this coming out of a big speaker, it does sound very game boy-like, so i dunno... i might be kinda into it, but a lot of other people have complained.

one inconvenient thing is that you will not hear game boy audio over hdmi when using the ultra hdmi. this is because the wide-boy does its own audio processing and passes the result through to the analog output where the ultra hdmi never sees it, requiring a bit of an audio workaround if you’re playing with hdmi.

so, a game boy advance in a cart in your n64. that means that game boy and game boy color games work just like they do in a regular gba, with the same palette options. which unfortunately means that super game boy enhanced palettes are also unavailable here. another way to play some game boy games

on n64 is by using the transfer pak in pokemon stadium and pokemon stadium 2, though only the first two generations of pokemon games are supported. even though this is running on emulation, not game boy hardware, it’s the only other official way to use super game boy enhanced palettes. some people have experimented with

editing roms and using flash carts to fool the pokemon stadium games into loading non-pokemon game boy titles, but from what we understand, this technique may not be very reliable. at any rate, as neat as it is to play game boy games on the n64, the pokemon stadium method is fiddly and the wide-boy provides uneven results,

in addition to being super expensive. so let’s come back down to the consumer level. to get the best color palette control with pre-gbc titles, a super game boy or super game boy 2 is essential. but you’ll still need a device to play gbc exclusives and gba games. thankfully, nintendo crammed a gba

into another device that you’re much more likely to get your hands on. - alright, here we go. the gamecube game boy player. this is one of the most useful pieces of game boy hardware in existence, but it can take some work? not to mention money? to get the best out of it.

we previously covered gamecube video quality and available mods in rgb 207. we also went over the basics of getting the best picture out of your game boy games on the gamecube, but now we’re really gonna get into it. quick recap of what you can expect to get out of the gamecube: ntsc region gamecubes output

composite video and s-video. pal region gamecubes output composite video and rgb. any gamecube with the “digital out” port can also use the fabled nintendo component cables or japanese d-terminal cables, both of which are really rare and expensive these days. a more recent,

less expensive option is to modify your gamecube to output hdmi, or to convert the signal and port to something that works with wii component cables. watch rgb 207 for more information. the game boy player itself is awesome, built with real game boy advance hardware. that makes it a lot like the wide-boy,

but unfortunately, the software on the included boot disc is not so hot, featuring input lag, frame stuttering, poor video scaling, and other issues holding the hardware back from its full potential. thankfully, homebrew is easy to use on the gamecube

you can do it with or without any modifications to the console. you can install a mod chip, or replace the disc drive outright with an sd card reader like badassconsole’s megadrive. or, you can do what we did, and buy an sd media launcher, which does require a disc like

an action replay to boot the gamecube into a mode where it can read software from the memory card slot. we’ve also been told that it’s not too hard to build your own sd card to gamecube memory card adapter. simply put, if you want more out of your game boy games on the gamecube, the first step is to get a method for launching homebrew.

it’s arguably even more important than the cables you use. if you’re dead-set on using the official software, then this is where your journey ends. changing game boy player software settings don’t improve the experience in any significant way. so let’s take a look at what homebrew can do for you.

for starters, we need to do something about the resolution. the super game boy and wide-boy run on consoles that primarily output 240p, a more appropriate resolution for game boy games than the gamecube’s typical 480i or 480p. the game boy player software’s scaling is just not very attractive,

even at the smaller bordered size. it’s worse when blown up. to make game boy games look their best, we need the system to output 240p. this allows crt scanlines to line up correctly with each row of game boy graphics. it also lets us do a more refined scale to hd resolutions with the framemeister

or other scalers. whether you’re using component cables or s-video, 240p is going to make a really big difference. in rgb 207 we talked about using using homebrew software called swiss to force the game boy player software to run at 240p. this is a huge improvement and makes the signal much more useful for crts or upscalers built for video games.

interestingly enough, if you use swiss to force 480p ã®nstead of doing it like normal, it overrides the blurry deflicker filter employed by the software. but now there is a better way, thanks to an incredible piece of software from a developer going by the name extrems?

called the game boy interface. the game boy interface is a complete replacement for the boot disc. but even better, the game boy interface is just? better. a lot better. it’s not flashy, but it simply does what you want it to do, run your game boy player hardware

the way it should run. first of all, search for “game boy interface” to find the creator’s thread on gc-forever so that you can download the latest version. to be clear, the game boy interface is actually three separate pieces of software. you can load all of them onto your sd card,

or just one if you like. the programs are gbi-ll, gbi-ull, and the standard gbi. you simply launch the one that suits your needs. let’s start with gbi-ll, which stands for “low latency,” and is probably the most useful.

this is a no-frills piece of software that requires no setup and runs at 240p by default. the game appears within a plain black border. despite this, it still looks great on a crt. this is also very useful for scalers with zoom control.

with the pixel purist profiles, we can easily use the framemeister to scale regular game boy games up to 7 times in size, and gba games 6 times, filling most of a 1080p screen! we’d say this is just about the best possible experience you can get with game boy advance games on an hdtv.

the gbi-ull version, or “ultra low latency,” is an attempt to get as close as possible to the refresh rate of a real game boy advance. it’s an oddball number that may not work on certain displays. we’ve found it to work very well on pvms, consumer crts,

and even a samsung hdtv, but the framemeister won’t have anything to do with it. gbi-ull has both 240p and 480p modes. if you’re using component cables and it’s starting up in 480p, but you’d rather use 240p, boot a regular 480p-capable gamecube game and say “no”

to progressive scan mode. then gbi-ull will boot in 240p. while the “low latency” version might have an occasional scrolling stutter if you’re really looking for it, we couldn’t produce any stutter in the “ultra low latency” version at all. this is the way to go if you’re playing on a compatible crt.

the standard gbi software is intended for people connecting directly to an hdtv, by default, it launches in 480i or 480p, but it features much better scaling than nintendo’s own software. it also has a few extra features. you can toggle the on-screen display by hitting the x button. while it’s visible,

you can scale the image with r and l, as well as reposition it to fit your display. by adding some extra files from a separate zip folder extrems created, you can even use nintendo’s borders. if you use homebrew utility swiss to launch the game boy interface, you can also choose a few options prior to starting. by default,

scaling is a sharp bilinear filter. this helps keep scaling nice and even as you increase the image size. it’s a lot better than the blurry scaling in the official software, which is caused by a deflicker effect that is always on. some pixel art upscaling filters are also on offer.

we recommend sticking with either the default settings, or just using the other versions of gbi. you might have noticed a weird sort of double image or blur in the regular gbi software. this is caused by a sort of frame rate conversion that helps prevent scrolling judder regardless

of your display’s refresh rate. if this bothers you, you should use the low latency or ultra low latency versions instead. but no matter which version you use you’re absolutely getting a better experience than with nintendo’s official software. latency cannot be 100% eliminated with any version of the game boy interface,

more specifications can be found in the official gc-forever thread. now with the gamecube hdmi mod, it can output 240p over hdmi, but unfortunately the framemeister doesn't like it, and your hdtv might not like it either. so if you're interested in using 240p for game-boy games your best bet is

to look into component, d-terminal, or s video cables, or one of the analog mods from badass consoles. if you’re debating between playing pre-game boy color games on a gamecube or super nintendo, keep in mind that the gamecube’s video output, even 240p over component cables, isn’t as sharp or clean as a 1chip snes

or a modded snes mini with rgb. the pixel purist framemeister profiles for gamecube account for this by adding 1 notch of sharpness. the added sharpening artifacts aren’t too noticeable on gamecube. it’s worth pointing out that unlike the super game boy, the game window is a 1:1 match for the proper game boy and gba

aspect ratios in both the official software and game boy interface. now, this is a bit outside the scope of an rgb episode, but what’s the point of all this if you can’t play with a controller you enjoy? the gamecube controller, with its analog stick and inconvenient dpad, is the least game boy friendly controller nintendo has ever made.

the japanese hori pad is king in my book, but unfortunately it’s become very expensive. some other alternatives could be something like a ps2 to gamecube adapter? or the raphnet snes to gamecube adapter, which features selectable nes style or snes style button mappings. but if you really want the authentic experience, you can actually use a real

game boy advance connected to a gamecube controller port with the link cable! this works in the official nintendo software as well as the game boy interface. as a final note on the game boy player, the pal region gamecube is worth special consideration regardless of where you live. let’s suppose you don’t want

to play any gamecube games, or you’re cool with playing those on the wii instead. if your gamecube’s only purpose is to exist as a game boy machine, then you don’t need to worry about 480p, expensive component cables, or having a video mod installed. you can even use a power adapter

from any region! the pal gamecube is capable of outputting 60hz video. when set to launch in 240p, the game boy interface plays no differently on an ntsc system or a pal system. just be sure that you’re using rgb, because composite color encoding is in pal. footage shown here was captured using nintendo’s official gamecube rgb cables,

which are not anywhere near as expensive as the component cables, but they aren’t cheap. since the pal gamecube only supports sync-on-composite, third party cables are prone to noise unless they’re built with superior shielding. here’s where things get a bit tricky? while in theory it’s not difficult to make

an alternative to the official rgb cable, simply using a scart designed for super nintendo will likely result in a warped image? such cables tend to work very well on rgb-modded nes and n64 systems, but are not robust enough to handle the gamecube properly. one cool alternative is using

hd retrovision’s snes cable, which converts rgb from nintendo consoles into ypbpr component. despite being designed as an snes cable, the result is a clean and stable image that fares very well next to the official rgb scart cable. one surprising perk of the pal gamecube is that the game boy interface ultra low latency version’s

oddball refresh seems to work just fine with rgb into the framemeister? it’s the framemeister’s handling of ypbpr that’s the issue. so with its easy-access rgb signal, the pal gamecube has a ton of potential as a dedicated game boy machine? but it all depends on whether you can find the right type of cable for it.

well, that’s pretty much all we have to say about official game boy hardware. but we’re not finished yet. still coming up are mods and alternatives. - as such a long-lived product line, it’s no surprise that people have invented some clever things to do with game boy hardware. we certainly can’t cover everything,

but we’ll show what we can. ever since humans first held the 1989 original, they sure wished it had a freaking light. plenty of accessory manufacturers sold crude light and magnifying attachments, but we can achieve more interesting things by modifying the game boy itself. here’s an example of a biverted backlit original game boy.

biversion is a method of using a chip to invert the monochromatic shades, and a polarized film to invert back to normal, increasing contrast. many different backlight colors can be installed, and in this case, it handily beats the japanese game boy light!

but we've also heard that biversion is not necessarily beneficial for all backlight colors. while on the topic of game boy screens, time has left many game boys with blank vertical lines. these are caused by failing connections with the screen’s ribbon cable. while not exactly a mod,

it’s worth mentioning because it’s such a common issue. after opening the system, unscrew the front board from the shell, temporarily remove the rubber strip under the screen, and heat the affected area with a soldering iron. i found that immediately applying pressure

with a tool after removing the iron provided more reliable results. this was my first-ever attempt at using a soldering iron, so while i can’t vouch for my technique, i can say that it was a good project for a novice. horizontal lines are not as easily fixed, we’re told. in 2014, brothers josh and zane from the netherlands launched

a kickstarter campaign to fund a game boy hdmi mod project, called hdmyboy. despite receiving 25,000 euros in pledges, the project was not funded, but they still worked on developing their simple mod kit, which does not irreversibly alter the system, creating an “hd game boy sandwich”

as they call it. the brothers let us borrow their latest prototype so that we could show their vision for game boy games in hd. earlier prototypes used nes controllers, but the one we received has a port for connecting a super nintendo controller. there’s a data port for updating firmware, a mini hdmi port up top,

and on the left side, two red buttons. let’s hook it all up and see how it works! wow! the picture is extremely sharp! output is 1080p, with each game boy pixel scaled exactly 7 times, nearly filling the screen. the top button toggles between

normal and stretched modes. the bottom button flips through a huge assortment of color palettes. i’m personally really into the dull greenish brown option, it’s the closest thing to my go-to super game boy palette. the game boy screen remains fully functional and even though my tv tends to be a bit laggy,

it looks like about only to frames of delay. with a better screen this could be near zero. i’m overall pretty impressed, but with this prototype unit, there are some quirks. the hdmi connection is a bit sensitive, but it’s fine as long as i don’t touch it. the output signal seems

to run at some oddball specification. it works without any fuss on my 32-inch sony, as well as a toshiba and vizio i tested, but my main 1080p samsung and a 1080p acer computer monitor aren’t compatible with the raw signal. by routing the hdmi through my framemeister using the passthrough feature,

i can get it to work on both of these screens. obviously, you might not have a framemeister or similar device to “recondition” the signal into something a bit more usable? so we hope the final product can be tweaked to work more properly with all standard hd displays. they told us they are working on it.

also, high contrast edges can cause something that almost looks like a chromatic aberration, like some element of the image is one pixel out of line, or an artifact from over-sharpening. this manifests on the display as well as in the capture, and is more or less noticeable depending on the chosen color palette.

thankfully, it doesn’t really stand out to my eye on my favorite color palette. there is also a bit of weirdness going on with the leftmost and rightmost pixel columns. again, this is a prototype, so we hope these are issues that can be ironed out, it just has a ton of potential as a method

for getting a digital signal out of a real game boy. we wish josh and zane well in bringing their vision for hd game boy hardware to a wider audience. moving onto game boy pocket, biversion and backlighting are also possible, with comparable results to the same mods on the old brick,

also outshining the game boy light. however, due to the ghostly vertical lines that can be an issue on game boy pocket, we think the original model could be a better choice for backlighting. the design of the game boy color lcd prevents backlight mods from being feasible, which is well-explained in a video by this does not compute.

however, front-lighting is possible using a technique similar to the first game boy advance sp. it looks ok for front-lighting, but with this implementation it has more refraction issues than the sp. now here’s one of my favorites? woah! how does this original model gba backlight mod look so good?!

well, the answer is simpler than you might expect. this is simply the screen from an ags-101, you know, the brighter sp, transferred into avn agb-001, the original gba. unfortunately it can only be used with the lower brightness setting, but it’s still plenty bright. i really like this mod because the

original model’s controls are much less cramp-inducing. we want to give a huge shoutout to bob of retrorgb.com for providing all of these modded game-boys and many other devices for this episode. moving onto the ds, it’s actually possible to mod the original model ds for video capture.

the kit sells for just over $50 and installation is offered for a bit more. no one has yet made a practical solution for getting a regular video signal out of the ds, but this method installs a small chip inside the system and adds a micro-usb port to the top. this way it can then talk to proprietary windows software that can

be downloaded at 3dscapture.com. this site, as you might guess, specializes in selling and installing 3ds capture kits, so why even bother modding a regular ds? well, for digital game boy advance capture, of course! the software even has a dedicated gba window mode. now i’ll be honest with you,

part of me was much more curious about this as a method for playing game boy advance games on my tv than i was using it as a capture device. double-clicking the window makes it go full-screen, and it looks kind of amazing. if course, it probably won’t be integer scaling due to your tv or monitor’s resolution,

but it’s pretty impressive regardless. colors look great, and everything is super crisp. unfortunately i did experience noticeable input lag, as well as some frame skipping while in full-screen mode. it could be a combination of the mod chip, the software,

and computer specs, it’s hard to guess what, if anything, might be done to bring the experience closer to perfection. it might be a great way to play rpgs or text adventures, but action games don’t fare as well. alas, it is designed for capture first and foremost, and the image is displayed

as normal on the ds screen, so you can play that way. capture controls are simple and modest. clips are recorded in native resolution, 240 by 160 in the case of game boy advance. footage like this is difficult to work with, so we teamed up with game salk to figure out the best way to scale it up.

adobe after effects and apple compressor are so far the only software we’ve found that can scale it up with sharp edges from such a small size. desktop capture using something like obs is another option, but since dropped frames are visible when blown up on my monitor, this causes them to appear in the recording too.

keep in mind that audio must be recorded via the headphone jack. if you don’t mind looking at the dimmer original ds screen, then this can be a very useful mod, especially for streamers. but unfortunately we feel that it’s too laggy and uneven to consider as a reliable method for playing on your tv or monitor.

one last mod we want to touch on, if you don’t want to buy a super game boy 2, it’s actually possible to inexpensively install a crystal oscillator in a super game boy so that it runs at the correct speed. the unit we tested actually has a dial for seriously underclocking or overclocking the super game boy

for some pretty weird results. we’ve also heard about a few things that aren’t ready just yet, like a gba hdmi mod by shmups forums member woozle, as well as some r&d for total screen replacements. we hope to cover options like these in the rgb 300 series as they become available.

there are also a number of hardware alternatives out there. such as? well, how about the? gb? boy? colour? this may be a beyond shameless knock-off, but it feels nice to hold and actually makes a decent first impression. kong feng industries sell themselves short on the back of the box,

claiming the “new front light screen much more better.” it’s actually a backlit screen with surprisingly good color, it's certainly no ags-101, but it compares better than you might expect! color palettes work the same way as on a real game boy color, and through some light testing,

games seem to play exactly like they should. the only real shortcoming here is that the aspect ratio and resolution of the screen used are not a match for game boy games. it’s easy to see the distortion on the pyramids in super mario land, or when the screen scrolls vertically. but this is the only obvious dealbreaker with the gb boy colour,

so if out-of-whack scaling doesn’t bother you, you could honestly do a lot worse. some models may include built-in roms, but the one we tested did not. others may look like a gba sp, but they still only play game boy and game boy color games. if you’ve been looking for an alternative to the gamecube game boy player,

i’m sure you’ve come across the super retro advance adapter by retro-bit. this is a game boy advance adapter for the super nintendo, and it works similarly to other devices that claim to let you play nes or genesis games on your snes. in other words, you're not really playing on a super nintendo,

it’s a whole clone console in a cart, and it just needs to steal power and controller inputs from the snes. it also unfortunately cannot use the snes av out, supporting only composite video and stereo sound through its own port. (people booing) but hold on, ya know,

all things considered, the result isn’t necessarily an abomination. output is 240p, and while the video signal has some noise and the scaling is rather soft, i’ve certainly seen much worse composite. the bigger issue is that the aspect ratio is noticeably skinny, but setting your tv for 16 by 9,

while also incorrect, might be good enough for a lot people. hey, if these issues aren’t deal breakers, then at the end of the day you got gba games on your tv and you didn’t spend a bunch of money on gamecube accessories. but remember, it is not compatible with game boy or game boy color games.

now here is the revo-k101. the revo-k101 is more of a premium alternative. this is a game boy advance hardware clone, and game boy-slash-game boy color game cartridges are not supported. to boot the system, you either need to insert a gba game, or the included k-card. you can load software and media

onto the k-card via the micro-sd slot, but don’t get excited thinking you got a free everdrive. it does not work with other gba consoles, only the revo. the k-card loads the system software and lets you change settings, we’re most interested in display settings. in addition to 5 steps of brightness, there are 3 scaling modes for the lcd screen.

4 by 3 fills the screen, but the scaling isn’t great, and the aspect ratio is too skinny. 3 by 2 is the correct gba aspect, but since this screen does not share a native resolution with gba games, pixel sizing is inconsistent across the screen. 240 by 160 is the gba’s native resolution,

and this mode shrinks the image down to almost the exact size of a game boy micro. as with the micro, the image in this mode is crisp and looks great, if a bit tiny. and actually, colors pop a lot more than on the micro. the screen stands up pretty decently next to the ags-101, but doesn't feel quite as high quality.

the revo does have superior pixel response to the ags-101, resulting in minimal ghosting. the only downside to this screen, aside from displaying gba’s correct resolution at a small size, is that you might notice a faint jailbar effect, more visible on some colors than others. the revo also offers output

for mono sound and composite video, with two scaling modes offered. in our tests, we saw less visible noise compared to the super retro advance. revo makes a solid case for itself as an alternative to the real thing, and a lot of people have told us that it’s their go-to gba machine.

the buttons feel great, the screen is overall very good, and the included ability to load roms, hacks, and homebrew is sure to be useful for a lot of people. we did run into an issue with super mario advance 2 having black skies, but aside from that, we didn’t see anything obvious

that made any games feel like they weren’t playing on the real thing. emulation for other systems is also supported, but we didn’t find the emulators to be very reliable or satisfying. - speaking of emulation, well, let’s talk about it. starting with official methods,

virtual console on the 3ds is nintendo’s first service to offer downloadable handheld classics. there are a decent number of game boy and game boy color games available for download to the 3ds, going for 3 to 5 dollars? including most of the obvious nintendo classics, a few surprising hidden gems,

and best of all, an affordable way to play the original shantae. if you launch a virtual console game normally, it fills the screen and looks a bit soft. but if you do want 1 to 1 pixel precision, hold start while launching a virtual console game. this mode is pretty fun because it draws a realistic game boy border around the game window,

and if you’re viewing in 3d, the screen appears to be set just a bit inside the game boy! unfortunately there are no color options for non-gbc titles. the 3ds had an unexpectedly rough launch, forcing a price drop within the first half year. nintendo made it up to early adopters by offering 20 free virtual console games,

half of which were for game boy advance. these are the only gba games available on the system, and only so-called “3ds ambassadors” will ever be able to download them. as we understand it, the gba virtual console games are actually not quite emulation. remember how i said that

gba backwards compatibility is simply part of the ds cpu core? well, thanks to the 3ds’s hardware-based ds backwards compatibility, enough gba dna exists inside the 3ds itself for these games to tap into. they seem to play just fine as far as we’ve seen, but word has it that nintendo was dissatisfied with this awkward workaround,

and further gba games were never released on the 3ds eshop. just like with other virtual console titles, holding start launches gba games in a smaller 1 to 1 pixel mode. they are oddly a bit dark, but overall it’s a solid experience with some of the gba’s biggest titles. gba games arrived

on the wii u virtual console in 2014, the first time handheld games had been available for a nintendo home console download service. not only that, but game boy advance on wii u is simply some of the best that the virtual console has to offer. japanese developer m2 is known

for going above and beyond in packaging classic titles for play on new hardware, treating the original intent with great care and respect. and it was m2 that handled nintendo’s gba emulator for the wii u. colors are vivid and spot on, and scaling is absolutely superb. button mapping and graphics settings can be tweaked by tapping

the gamepad touch screen. with “pixel perfect” mode, gba graphics are given a 6x integer scale, ensuring crisp pixels and smooth scrolling. i’m sorry to say that the screen smoothing option provides kind of weird results. sure, options are limited, and it’s not original hardware, but for my money,

this is one of the absolute best gba experiences money can buy. a decent selection of games is available from nintendo, capcom, natsume, square-enix, bandai namco, and even konami. of course, if you’d like to use your collection of real game boy cartridges on an hdtv,

there are emulation-based consoles like the retron 5 and retro freak, both of which output at 720p. when the retron 5 is set to force original resolution, and to force 60hz, the visual results are pretty respectable. original game boy games fill the screen nicely. super game boy enhanced titles

actually boot up in a super nintendo mode complete with borders, so it’s nice to see the enhanced color palettes get support here. game boy color games run like you’d expect. colors are bright and vivid. all of this emulation is a touch laggy, but it’s mostly tolerable. however input lag does vary

between different systems on the retron 5, and when it comes to game boy advance, lag is noticeably more severe. but otherwise, these emulations mostly perform just as well as you’d expect for such simple systems. now, there are some shady aspects regarding how retron 5 manufacturer hyperkin skirted

around open source licensing, with the emulators being based on the retroarch family. just for a quick overview, pc emulators allow you to build your own game boy color style palettes, including separate colors pc emulators can use all kinds

of shaders for special effects, but perhaps the most fun one of all is the game boy shader, which does a surprisingly good job of recreating the original’s lcd screen look? you can also use a similar filter for game boy advance. you can even apply these filters to other consoles for fun.

even if emulators are not our area of expertise, we do have to admit that the possibilities for game boy can be pretty exciting. - what a legacy that such a simple 160 by 144 dot matrix display has left us with. the game boy proved that games didn’t need raw power, or even color, to be fun and captivating

and leave you with memories of great adventure. and hey, that even the smallest games could shine on the big screen too. the game boy brand remained a bastion of 2d gameplay long after consoles had all but abandoned it. but no matter where the future of portable gaming might go, game boy has left us with plenty to enjoy,

and plenty of ways to enjoy it. (credits theme)