/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.4701046]

Ignoring the original unit's puke-green screen with horrible refresh, the Game Boy was kind of an amazing thing to have back in the day: a portable handheld with console-quality Nintendo games.

I never owned one myself, but a little later in my youth I was able to find some ROMs online and play through the classics like Super Mario Land 2, Link's Awakening, Kirby's Dream Land, and the first two Pokemon gens. (The latter was actually my introduction to emulation back in 1998, with a partially and poorly translated Pocket Monsters ROM.) To this day, they're still some of my all-time favorite games.

Even though I don't have any childhood sentiment for the Game Boy, I'm still kind of fascinated with how cozy and intimate of a device it is, sort of like a precursor to our modern-day relationship with smartphones. Color graphics, backlit screens, and everything else that came later were ancillary: all you needed was sprite-based graphics with scrolling backgrounds, four shades of grey to paint with, and a memorable polyphonic soundtrack (with stereo headphone output!).

So yeah, I really like the Game Boy. Hopefully one day we'll get a decent clone that doesn't look and feel like a cheap knockoff.

Pic related: best Game Boy

[Anonymous No.4701068]

>>4701046
Agree. But I like the yellow one more.

Also, I feel like the original Wonderswan was probably a better piece of hardware. 16-bit, runs off one AA battery, etc.

[Anonymous No.4701112]

>>4701046
Even with the weird coloured screen it was pretty awesome. The GBColor was when it got great though.

[Anonymous No.4701145]

I saved up for a used Game Boy so I could play Pokemon with my friends, it was an absolute blast. I was using an original GB long after the Pocket came out and just before the GBC launched, but it didn't matter.

[Anonymous No.4701185]

I don't have the heart to use it. I just use my SP instead.

[Anonymous No.4701189]

>>4701185
nice! I have one too, but mine's not new.

[Anonymous No.4701212]

>>4701189
I'm imagining that I'll be able to make money off of it one day, but I already know it's worth more than I bought it for, so I guess I'm just never going to get rid of it. Luckily it's the size of a book, so it's not like it's cluttering my life away or anything.

[Anonymous No.4701232]

>>4701212
I got mine pretty cheap on Amazon, oddly enough. I recently got rid of the others in that picture except the black and DMG-style. I really want one of those japan-exclusive clear GBCs next, but I usually just play everything on my GB Boy Colour anyway.

[Anonymous No.4701914]

>>4701046
>Pic related: best Game Boy
shittiest gameboy with lots of power-related issues.

[Anonymous No.4702394]

>>4701914
Largest GB screen, minimal ghosting, and there's only power issues when using modern flash-carts, and add-ons. It was perfectly adequate for the time.

[Anonymous No.4702703]

>>4701046
Cool blog kid. Sucks you couldn't find/afford one in your part of the 3rd world. But yeah, it had a lot of nice cozual games. There was at least one decent clone of it but it didn't sell well because Nintendo squirted out hundreds of millions of things at roughly the same price. Also sucks you're ignorant of the Light, which is literally the same as your "best" but better in every way.

>>4701068
Yeah. 10+ years of technological advancement will do that for you. But despite the WS having a library that's largely good playable stuff the GB beats it, hands down, on content. Simply because it has many times more good games than WS line has in total.

[Anonymous No.4702714]

>>4701914
>lots of power-related issues
I've seen a lot of people say this but I've never once had a problem with the MGB's power, even when using the Game Boy Camera.
The only instance in which the power could be a problem is when modding the hell out of it, but even that's a non-issue with the efficiency of modern LEDs, batteries, and third-party audio amps.

[Anonymous No.4703863]

>>4701046
>I'm still kind of fascinated with how cozy and intimate of a device it is
Serious question, are there any games for the Gameboy/Gameboy Color that don't feel like they've aged really poorly? I really want to feel the love but I have a hard time going back and playing anything prior to GBA games these days when it comes to handhelds. I should note that I stopped caring much for Pokemon games since I tried playing Pokemon Red again in an emulator and realized I could run the game at a 3x the speed and hold A to quickly level my Pokemon and easily beat anything in my way.

[Anonymous No.4703870]

>>4703863
pokemon pinball bruh

[Anonymous No.4703880]

>>4701046
>Ignoring the original unit's puke-green screen with horrible refresh, the Game Boy was kind of an amazing thing to have back in the day
>I never owned one myself

[Anonymous No.4703890]

>>4703863
Metal Gear Solid is still an impressive and well-playing game, Pokemon Crystal is extremely playable and much more 'modern' feeling than Red as well. I like the GBC version of Magical Chase, I've been playing a lot of stuff I missed out on since I got my flashcart. There's a few great GBC exclusives that came out super late in the system's life, and a lot of the original GB library holds up as well as good NES stuff does, though a lot of it is garbage as with the NES. Alleyway is one of the most satisfying versions of Breakout I've ever played.

[Anonymous No.4703919]

>>4703870
I should specify other than the timeless time wasters such as pinball, Tetris, old arcade games, card games, and other similar games that have probably been ported to anything and everything that can run games.

>>4703880
It's a portable console that didn't require you to carry packs of spare batteries or have a place to plug it in in order to be able to play it for more than a couple hours, it's really not that much of an assumption for him to make.

[Anonymous No.4704068]

>>4701046
>console-quality Nintendo games

But we never got console quality handheld games until the 3DS...

[Anonymous No.4704367]

>>4704068
You mean except for all those handhelds that played the exact same games as a console. And in the case of the GG you're correct. The handheld games were superior. lol

[Anonymous No.4704380]

>>4701185
Damn the original's color scheme with the offwhite, gray, black and cherry is so fucking aesthetic. It's beautiful.

[Anonymous No.4704393]

>>4701046
I wouldn't call it 'console-quality' even when only the NES was out, but it was an amazing device yes. The Pocket was my first game console.

>>4703863
Although I agree that many Game Boy games feel clunky and ugly compared to today's games, Game Boy Color games are generally very charming and pretty. A few timeless games for me across both consoles, as well as games I discovered later but can still enjoy, include Super Mario Land 2 and also the Wario Land games, Pokemon gen II (although I grew up with gen I, I can't go back to it now, I agree it aged poorly), Shantae, Zelda (Oracles + LA), Pokemon TCG, DQ Monsters, and even the first two Harry Potter games. There's also a few great niche RPGs like Grandia: Parallel Trippers.

That said, if you're the type who just loads up an emulator and uses save states, cheats and turbo speed to power through and then tell everyone how easy it is you're probably better off not playing games at all.

>>4703919
Pokemon Pinball specifically has not been ported to anything. It's also not 'just pinball' imo, the pokemon catching mechanic and the minigames add something unique to it. It's one of the few Pokemon games that you can only play in its original state on the Game Boy/Color, especially since it came with the rumble pak.

[Anonymous No.4704925]

>>4701046
>I never owned one myself
can more of you guys care that op wrote this? feels like a meta troll or pasta or at the very least b8.

[Anonymous No.4704994]

>>4704393
Yeah, it's weird that the original Pokemon Pinball never got put on a Virtual Console, but the sequel did

[Anonymous No.4705645]

>>4701046
I modded my Gameboy with a backlight and a bivert chip. I love it so much that if I had a time machine I'd go back to the 1990s and give one to myself as a kid.

[Anonymous No.4705784]

Giggle giggle

[Anonymous No.4705889]

>>4704925
No. No matter how many times you try to make this a thing no one will give a fuck about your autistic feels.

[Anon No.4705902]

Where my gb boys at

[Anonymous No.4705909]

>>4705902
Isnt the screen ratio wrong on those?

[Anonymous No.4706129]

>>4705784
what fuc

[Anonymous No.4706140]

>>4705784
>EL backlight
Holy shit that looks comfy. B&W LCD displays with EL backlights are comfy as hell.

[Anonymous No.4706168]

>>4706140
It's super comfy. I especially like how they went with the teal color instead of the pea green like old Nokias had. Too bad the screen ghosts like a motherfucker. It's hard to tell what going on sometimes with things blurring around the screen.

[Anonymous No.4706183]

>>4706168
I scored it in box for 3 or 4 thousand yen at Hard-Off, seems like a steal compared to what I've seen them go for on ebay. It's a shame they never released it overseas.

[Anonymous No.4706254]

>>4706168
do they play all region carts?

[Anonymous No.4706312]

>>4706254
Yup, GB is region free.

[Anonymous No.4706460]

>>4705784
kek kek

>>4706129
hue hue

>>4706183
I didn't get the box with that one but it was only ¥500 so I'm not crying. People are actually paying $100+ on ebay. Wew lads.

[Anonymous No.4706621]

>>4705909
It's about the same amount of squash a Super Game Boy does. Not a huge deal for $30 shipped.

[Anonymous No.4706675]

>>4703890
>Magical Chase
excellent taste, anon

[Usme No.4706680]

Quite comfortable, plus you do not have to worry about if you drop it.
But I think it's better GBA since I can play 3 consoles in 1 plus the difference in comfort is not very big compared to GB

[Anonymous No.4706745]

>>4706675
Coming from the PCE version I was surprised what a faithful port it is. The music is a little lacking, unfortunately; mainly because holding the fire button basically eliminates one channel of music to make the pew pew SFX.

[Anonymous No.4706750]

I had the pocket! I had the original gameboy as well, but only really played Mario Land and Tetris on it - at the time I preferred the Game Gear. When the Pocket came out I got it with Link's Awakening and I was hooked. Pokémon madness came later on, and although I didn't get into that series like my younger brothers did, I LOVED the Pokémon card game game.

[Anonymous No.4706887]

I was living in a group home when the gbc just came out, we were told to write "santa letters" for what we wanted. A bunch of other kids and u requested gbcs, a couple kids got " game boy pockets", tears ensued. Traded him in a heartbeat, he threw in Metroid 2 to sweeten the deal. No regrets

[Anonymous No.4707037]

>>4705784
>>4706460
I sold or gave away all my old DMGs, but I'll never get rid of the Light. I found mine for five or ten dollars at a California flea market. Ghosting is bad, but it's good for RPGs and shit in bed.

[Anonymous No.4707054]

>>4701046
The Zelda, Metroid and platformers that ended up on here have to be some of Nintendo's best feats of ingenuity. You could argue they're not the best games in their respective series, but considering how everyone was falling flat on their face making games for the three handhelds at the time. And how little power there was to work with on the Game Boy.