Game Boy (Color) emulators: Difference between revisions

The '''[[wikipedia:Game Boy|Game Boy]]''' (GB) and '''[[wikipedia:Game Boy Color|Game Boy Color]]''' (GBC) are 8-bit, fourth-generation handheld consoles released by Nintendo on July 31, 1989, and November 18, 1998, respectively and retailed for {{Inflation|USD|89.95|1998}}. The Game Boy has a Sharp LR35902 core CPU at 4.19 MHz. It had a monochrome display that could only show four shades of grey, albeit with a olive green tinge on the original. The Game Boy Color uses the same LR35902 core as the original; while it is clocked at 8.38 MHz, it can be underclocked to 4.19 MHz for backwards-compatibility purposes. It was named such from its color screen, but it also had a larger memory size and a faster CPU. The hardware similarities allow cross-compatibility between the two platforms and they are often treated as one. They would both be succeeded by the backward-compatible [[Game Boy Advance emulators|Game Boy Advance]].

Nintendo released a peripheral for the [[Super Nintendo emulators|Super Nintendo Entertainment System]] called [[wikipedia:Super Game Boy|Super Game Boy]] in June 1994, which was modeled like a cartridge but included its own cartridge slot for Game Boy (Color) games, as well as the hardware needed to translate the games. Many Game Boy (Color) emulators offer at least some of the special features it included, such as added borders, colorization, custom button mappings, and other features. It was possible to link, but without the external port, as well as errors in the CPU, it would not be feasible to the end user. These issues would later be corrected in the Japan-exclusive Super Game Boy 2.

| [https://guacemulator.com/ guac]

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|Git artifacts:

 

 

[http://www.mamedev.org/release.html {{MAMEVer}}]

|[[Input lag|Input lag-mitigating technique]]||{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{~}}<ref name="LibretroExclusive" group="note" />

|[https://docs.retroachievements.org/general/tutorials/turbo-button.html Turbo button]||{{Dunno}}

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|{{Ya}}

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<small>Possible with technique called [[Widescreen hacks#Emulators .282D.29|WideGB]] which uses a similar technique as [[Widescreen hacks#Emulators .282D.29|WideNES]].</small>

|[[Overclocking|Overclock]]||{{Dunno}}

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|{{Enhancements/Post-processing/AI-powered filter}}||{{Dunno}}

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|{{Enhancements/Post-processing/Filters}}||{{Dunno}}

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|{{Enhancements/Post-processing/Inverse tone mapping}}||{{Dunno}}

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|{{Enhancements/Post-processing/Shader chain}}||{{Dunno}}

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|Automatic updater||{{Dunno}}

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|[[Frontends#Graphical User Interfaces .28GUIs.29|Big Picture Mode]]||{{Dunno}}

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|Built-in [[Cheats and patches|cheat manager]]||{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{~}}<ref name="SameBoyCOCO" group="note">For macOS only.</ref>

|Built-in Game Boy sound player||{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{~}}<ref name="SameBoyCOCO" group="note" />

|Built-in [[Mods, hacks and fan-translations#Built-in mod editor and manager for emulators|mod editor and manager]]||{{Dunno}}

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|Built-in [[Cheats and patches|patch manager]]||{{Dunno}}

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|Command-line options||{{Dunno}}

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|Pause/Resume emulation||{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Ya}}

|Per-game profiles||{{Dunno}}

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|[[Save disk space for ISOs|Streamable compression format]]||{{Dunno}}

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|Fast forward/Turbo speed||{{Ya}}

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|[[wikipedia:Macro_(computer_science)|Macros/Scripts]]/[https://tasvideos.org/LuaScripting Lua]||{{Dunno}}

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|[https://tasvideos.org/Movies Movie recording/playback]||{{Dunno}}

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|Rewind||{{Ya}}

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|Save states||{{Ya}}

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|[[wikipedia:Category:Debugging|Debug features]]||{{Ya|link=https://bgb.bircd.org/manual.html#debugkeys}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Ya|link=https://sameboy.github.io/features/#debugging}}

|{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{~}}<ref name="LibretroExclusive" group="note">Input lag mitigation technique and [https://docs.libretro.com/guides/retroachievements/#game-boy-game-boy-color RetroAchievements exclusive to libretro cores]. Also [https://docs.libretro.com/library/sameboy/#features netplay enhancement] exclusive to SameBoy libretro core.</ref>

|[[RetroAchievements]]||{{Dunno}}

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| colspan="2" |Game Boy Advance-enhanced mode||{{Ya}}

|{{Na}}||{{Ya}}

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| colspan="2" |On-cartridge save batteries||{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Dunno}}

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| colspan="2" |[[Game Boy (Color) emulators#Real-time clock|Real-time clock]]||{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Ya}}

|{{Ya}}

| colspan="2" |[[Game Boy (Color) emulators#Rumble|Rumble]]||{{Na}}

|{{Na}}||{{~}}<br><small>RetroArch only.</small>

|{{Ya}}

|Borders||{{Ya}}

|{{Na}}

|{{Ya}}

|{{Dunno}}

|Custom audio||{{Na}}

|{{Na}}

|{{Na}}

|{{Dunno}}

|Custom palettes||{{Ya}}

|{{Na}}

|{{Ya}}

|{{Dunno}}

|Local multiplayer||{{Ya}}

|{{Na}}

|{{Na}}

|{{Dunno}}

|Super Game Boy-enhanced mode||{{Ya}}

|{{Na}}

|{{Ya}}

|{{Dunno}}

|{{{~}}<br><small>Motion Control does not support controller accelerometer. Supports only remapping to keyboard/gamepad.</small>

|{{Dunno}}||{{Ya}}

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| colspan="3" |[[Game Boy (Color) emulators#Infrared|Infrared (Game Boy Color)]]||{{Na}}

|{{Na}}

|{{Na}}

|{{Dunno}}

| colspan="3" |System BIOS||{{Ya}}

|{{Ya}}

|{{Ya}}

|{{Dunno}}

| colspan="2" |[[Game Boy (Color) emulators#Accessories|Barcode Boy]]||{{Na}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Na}}

|{{Ya}}

| colspan="2" |[[Game Boy (Color) emulators#Accessories|Barcode Taisen Bardigun]]||{{Na}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Na}}

|{{Ya}}

| colspan="2" |[[Game Boy (Color) emulators#Multiplayer|4-Player Adapter]]||{{Na}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Na}}

|{{Ya}}

|{{{Ya}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{~}}<br><small>[[SameBoy]]'s libretro core supports Link Cable, standalone does not.</small>

|{{Ya}}

| colspan="2" |Mobile Adapter GB||{{Ya}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Na}}

|{{Ya}}

| colspan="3" |[https://shonumi.github.io/articles/art8.html Full Changer] accelerometer||{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}

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|{{Ya}}

| colspan="3" |[[Game Boy (Color) emulators#Game Boy Printer|Game Boy Printer]]||{{Na}}

|{{Dunno}}

|{{~}}<ref name="SameBoyCOCO" group="note">For macOS only.</ref>

|{{Ya}}

| colspan="2" |[[Game Boy (Color) emulators#Game Boy Camera|Game Boy Camera]]||{{Ya}}

|{{Na}}

| {{~}}<ref name="SameBoyCOCO" group="note" />

|{{Ya}}

| colspan="2" |GB Kiss Link IR modem||{{Na}}

|{{Na}}||{{Na}}

|{{Ya}}

| colspan="2" |[[Game Boy (Color) emulators#Accessories|GB Pocket Sonar]]||{{Na}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Na}}

|{{Ya}}

| colspan="2" |Power Antenna & Bug Sensor||{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Dunno}}

|{{Ya}}

| colspan="2" |[[Game Boy (Color) emulators#Accessories|Sewing Machines]]||{{Na}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Na}}

|{{Ya}}

| colspan="2" |Turbo File GB||{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Dunno}}

|{{Ya}}

| colspan="2" |[[Game Boy (Color) emulators#Accessories|WorkBoy]]||{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{~}}<ref name="SameBoyCOCO" group="note" />

|{{Ya}}

| colspan="2" |[[Game Boy (Color) emulators#Multiplayer|16-Player Adapter]]||{{Na}}

|{{Na}}||{{Na}}

|{{Na}}

| colspan="2" |[https://tcrf.net/Alleyway#Paddle_Controller_Accessory Alleyway Controller]||{{Na}}

|{{Na}}||{{Na}}

|{{Ya}}

| colspan="2" |Game Genie||{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}

| colspan="2" |[https://luigiblood.tumblr.com/post/187348407478/reverse-enginnering-the-unreleased-gameboy-printer Pocket Printer Color]||{{Na}}

|{{Na}}||{{Na}}

|{{Na}}

| colspan="2" |Pro Action Replay||{{Na}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Na}}

|{{Dunno}}

| colspan="2" |[https://segabits.com/blog/2022/08/18/the-story-of-the-cancelled-game-boy-color-to-dreamcast-official-connectivity-solution/ Sakura Taisen TV Adapter/Barcode Scanner]||{{Na}}

|{{Na}}||{{Na}}

|{{Na}}

| colspan="2" |{{YouTubeVideo|yP1Bkfj9kDY|WORLD PORT}}||{{Na}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Na}}

|{{Na}}

| colspan="2" |[https://sakurawars.fandom.com/wiki/Pocket_Sakura Pocket Sakura]||{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}

| colspan="2" |[[Bulba:Pokémon Pikachu 2 GS#Interactions with Generation II|Pokémon Pikachu 2 GS]]||{{Na}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Na}}

|{{Dunno}}

| colspan="3" |[[wikipedia:Hot_swapping#Gaming|Cartridge hot swapping]]

|{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}

|{{Ya}}

|{{Dunno}}

The cartridges were designed for the Japan-only [[Early online services#Nintendo Power .28SNES .2F Game Boy.29|Nintendo Power cartridge service]] and come with special sticker spaces for the player to make note of the games they installed onto the cartridge. The Super Famicom Memory Cassettes were released for the same service.

See [[Early online services#Nintendo Power .28SNES .2F Game_Boy.29]] page and [https://niwanetwork.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Memory_Cartridge niwanetwork's dedicated page] for more information.

There are [[wikipedia:Game Boy accessories#Game_Boy|a few accessories that the Game Boy and Game Boy Color]] had. Due to their very small and game-specific use, most emulators don't bother with them at all, save for GBE+.