Maintained By the award-winning Sh0gunZ!
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Oh yeah, and for those of you who didn't
know, FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. (I actually got
a few emails about it :) )
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2. What is Gameboy Color? 3. What's the difference? 4. Will my old games work on the GBC? 5. Will the new games work on my old GB? 6. What are the specs on the GBC? 7. How will the color modes work? 8. What games will be released? 9. When was GBC be released? 10. What does it look like? 11. How much does it cost? 12. What kind of link support does it have? 13. Which old games play in full color? 14. How do the GB camera and printer work with the GBC? 15. Is it's better than game gear? 16. What competition does it have? 17. Is the screen backlit? 18. What peripherals are compatible? 19. Is there a pack-in game with the GBC? 20. Which games were released at the same time as the GBC? 21. Where can I find a GBC in my home town? 22. What games are good? 23. Which old games don't work quite right?
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If you've been in a cave for the last decade, the Gameboy is the worlds first, longest lasting, and most supported portable of all time, surviving the Atari Lynx, Sega Game gear, Turboexpress, Nomad, and Game.com. Released in 1988 (japan) and 1989 (USA), the system has sold over 60 million units worldwide in both Gameboy and Gameboy Pocket forms. The library of games has grown to over 1000 over the last ten years despite being the least technically impressive. It ran on 4 AA batteries for anywhere from 15-30 hours, and was based on the Z80 processor architecture. The screen used 4 shade greyscale LCD. The Pocket model, released in 1996, ran on 2 AAA batteries for 10 hours, with a higher contrast screen. Over the years there have been dozens of variations of the gameboy. Counting all possible combinations of colors and sizes, I think the grand total of different North American gameboys is somewhere around 17-20. |
Basically, it is a gameboy on steroids with a color screen provided by sharp, an 8 MHz Z80-esque Processor (also made by Sharp) with additional main memory as welll as some other nifty features, most listed in this document. The GBC was released Oct. 23, 1998 in Japan, Nov. 19 in the states, Nov. 23 In Europe and most other places. I saw first signs of the GBC in Calgary on Nov. 21. The GBC could be compared to the atari 7800 because of its advancements over its predecessors as well as backwards compatability. |
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Yes. That's it. See sections 5 and 7 for further details. |
There will be 3 levels of compatability with the GBC as follows: Monochrome GB- will work on any gameboy (Or Standard GB game with a 10-color built in palette for GBC) Enhanced GBC- will
work on any gameboy, but with GBC color enhancements
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Processor:
8 MHz Z80 work alike by Sharp with TWO processor modes: Single (4MHz) and
double (8MHz).
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For non-color games: 4 background & window colors, 3 sprite palette 0, and 3 sprite palette 1 colors for a total of 10. The GBC will ignore the SGB color tables and supports none of the SGB features. The 32 and 56 color modes will still have 4 color sprites (with one transparent) but the games with CGB enabled modes will correct a bunch of sprite priority bugs in the original gameboy (yes there were bugs in the original gameboy!) Also, there can now be up to 512 tiles on screen because of the double size of the graphics buffer. (16K) But still, alot of this technology is still undocumented (or at least undisclosed). The number of BG colors in the 56 color mode is 32 colors, and the maximum number of colors for sprites will be 24 (3colors per sprite*8 pallettes). Raster effects are also possible. More on the 10-color mode: When you turn on the GBC you will be able to select from 12 different palettes by pressing different combinations of the direction keys and the A, B buttons. Here's the table
as previously promised!
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The GBC has already been released worldwide. |
Credits: EAGB, Nintendo of Japan, Videogames.com
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MSRP of 8900 Yen, $69.99 US. $99.99 Canadian + 7% GST = $106.99 after tax. |
The GBC will feature both GameLink and
IR ports.
I also found out (next generation on-line: the only magazine on the net that gives a care about the GBC) that the GB will have four-player split-screen linkup capabilities with the N64! This is achieved through four GBC's connected through the joystick ports. The N64 and the GBC have the hardware to do such built right in!
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There are a whole bunch of games that have been found to have color tables built into the GBC. More are being discovered daily, so here's the list: DKL series
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The GB camera and printer will function in 4 shade grayscale, making no use of the GBC |
In my opinion, the
gameboy was always better than the gamegear because of superior games and
support, but here are some comparisons:
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SNK has revealed a portable 16-bit greyscale NeoGeo , with some kind of compatability with sega's 128-bit dreamcast. This unit is simply called the Neo*Geo Pocket, and looks half decent. Although it is very unlikely that there will ever be a North American release, you may be able to pick one up at an import shop. Also, all the games play in English as well as Japanese so that doesn't hurt either :) I hope you all enjoy fighting and sports games though! Bandai is releasing its own portable, with twice the gameboy's resolution (greyscale). The unit is called the WonderSwan- it seems to be a fairly powerful little system, although not color. This is also the brainchild of the gameboy's creator, and several conspiracy theories have been circulating which attribute the WonderSwan to the gameboy creator's death. Tiger's Game.Com is still around- it offers mediocre greyscale, a blurry screen, single channel PCM sound, I don't think it'll be around for too long. Infact, I've never seen a store in Canada that carries game.com. Tiger recently released the Game.Com pocketpro, which looks like a smaller Game.Com with a backlit screen, and no second cartridge port.
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No, it uses a new reflected-color LCD display which allows for less blurred refreshes, more contrasted colors, and very low power consumption. In other words, no light comes off the screen, and you can not play in the dark.
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Gamelink, GameBoy
Pocket AC adapter, Game Genie, Game Shark...
WARNING: The GameGenie and Game Shark are INCOMPATABLE with GBC games, however the units still function with old GB games when used in a GBC.
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As of yet, there has been no plan to release the GBC with a pack-in cart. However, if you own any of the games which the GBC will have built-in support for, I think that's just as good as a pack-in. |
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1) Check any major video game or
electronics store.
Also, be aware that I am unable to order
GBC's for you, nor give a GBC to you free of charge. I don't even
have my GBC yet!
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However, many of the games mentioned play just fine on my GBC- those games have an asterisk beside them. Also, I've added more games that do mess up for me to the list. Sound Problems:
Minor Display problems: small graphic glitches
Display problems: information necessary
for game play is not displayed.
Won't Play at all:
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