4th July 2006, 2:00 PM
Rehashing why the SGB is better than the GB Player for original GB support... (ie: it's not just Space Invaders...)
(looking at just original GB game support -- of course the Player is needed for GBC/GBA play)
Super Game Boy
-48 color pallets (yes, 48!)
-some games have built-in support to enable higher color modes that only work on a Super Game Boy -- Kirby 2, Donkey Kong, etc.
-various backgrounds
-games can have custom backgrounds, and can freely change them (like in Street Fighter 2 there is one for each character's stage)
-create your own background (not savable)
-only controller 1 functions, normally
-multiplayer available if the game has been specially programmed to use it (some examples: Killer Instinct or Street Fighter II support 2-player with two controllers, Bomberman GB or Wario Blast support 4-player with four controllers and a multitap, and others)
-Space Invaders has a special fullscreen game mode as well
GB Player: identical support to what is found in a GBC, GBA, or GBA-SP. So:
-12 color pallets -- 32 less than the SGB...
-a few games have built-in default pallets the system will use. No high-color modes are available like in the SGB and there are far fewer pallets. No support for the special color modes SGB games used, and the built-in colorsets in specific games are vastly inferior.
-various backgrounds. No user creatable background editor. Games cannot include custom backgrounds and ones from SGB games are not supported.
-all controllers control the game -- odd feature...
-SGB games that added additional multiplayer modes are not supported. Since Bomberman GB ONLY supported multiplayer with a SGB, and not a Game Link cable, this means that its multiplayer mode cannot be accessed. I presume that the same goes for Wario Blast. The others can only be played in multiplayer with multiple copies of the cart and the other person playing on a linked GB.
-No support for other special SGB game modes like Space Invaders.
And with the SGB 2, you get rid of the SGB's one flaw: that it has no link port so it only supports multiplayer for the games that added special support. It's very clear which is better for original GB titles.
Anyway... I agree, there should be full support for all GC games and accessories that plug into the controller ports or memory card slots. But none for stuff that goes into the bottom. That's too bad, as the GB Player is awesome (GBA games on a TV is very cool!), and my GBA isn't working too well (d-pad is in barely usable shape and the screen is scratched...)... of course my GC is disabled at the moment too (it finally DRE'd itsself to death... so do I get some gamebits and try to fix it myself, or buy a new one... bah, I wanted it to survive until the Wii came out!) so ... um... yeah, I need to do something about that GC soon... but anyway, I want to continue to be able to use the GB Player. If there was no backwards compatibility it wouldn't be an issue, but as there is, it makes the lack more noticable... I can see why it won't (hardware shapes don't fit!) but having the function built-in, or having it as a USB addon or something, would be great.
As for Wii-playing-handheld-titles, there are rumors all over the place that it'll play DS games, but I mark that all down as pure speculation. I don't think they'll do that soon... maybe eventually, but not soon. And if they do it'll have to be an addon. The SD card slot is never going to fit a DS game.
... oh yes, as for online GC games, I just don't care. When there are only four games that even support it (Kirby and Mario Kart for LAN, PSO for online), none of which have fantastic, unique link/online modes... (PSO: play it online on PC, Dreamcast, Xbox... Mariokart: DS!... Kirby: Mediocre game, not worth it anyway...) Yeah, I'm not exactly worrying about THAT issue, anyway.
The GB Player has a tiny GBA hardware inside a massive plastic shell... and the GBA is able to run SNES stuff... there is no excuse for why the SGB wasn't supported.
(looking at just original GB game support -- of course the Player is needed for GBC/GBA play)
Super Game Boy
-48 color pallets (yes, 48!)
-some games have built-in support to enable higher color modes that only work on a Super Game Boy -- Kirby 2, Donkey Kong, etc.
-various backgrounds
-games can have custom backgrounds, and can freely change them (like in Street Fighter 2 there is one for each character's stage)
-create your own background (not savable)
-only controller 1 functions, normally
-multiplayer available if the game has been specially programmed to use it (some examples: Killer Instinct or Street Fighter II support 2-player with two controllers, Bomberman GB or Wario Blast support 4-player with four controllers and a multitap, and others)
-Space Invaders has a special fullscreen game mode as well
GB Player: identical support to what is found in a GBC, GBA, or GBA-SP. So:
-12 color pallets -- 32 less than the SGB...
-a few games have built-in default pallets the system will use. No high-color modes are available like in the SGB and there are far fewer pallets. No support for the special color modes SGB games used, and the built-in colorsets in specific games are vastly inferior.
-various backgrounds. No user creatable background editor. Games cannot include custom backgrounds and ones from SGB games are not supported.
-all controllers control the game -- odd feature...
-SGB games that added additional multiplayer modes are not supported. Since Bomberman GB ONLY supported multiplayer with a SGB, and not a Game Link cable, this means that its multiplayer mode cannot be accessed. I presume that the same goes for Wario Blast. The others can only be played in multiplayer with multiple copies of the cart and the other person playing on a linked GB.
-No support for other special SGB game modes like Space Invaders.
And with the SGB 2, you get rid of the SGB's one flaw: that it has no link port so it only supports multiplayer for the games that added special support. It's very clear which is better for original GB titles.
Anyway... I agree, there should be full support for all GC games and accessories that plug into the controller ports or memory card slots. But none for stuff that goes into the bottom. That's too bad, as the GB Player is awesome (GBA games on a TV is very cool!), and my GBA isn't working too well (d-pad is in barely usable shape and the screen is scratched...)... of course my GC is disabled at the moment too (it finally DRE'd itsself to death... so do I get some gamebits and try to fix it myself, or buy a new one... bah, I wanted it to survive until the Wii came out!) so ... um... yeah, I need to do something about that GC soon... but anyway, I want to continue to be able to use the GB Player. If there was no backwards compatibility it wouldn't be an issue, but as there is, it makes the lack more noticable... I can see why it won't (hardware shapes don't fit!) but having the function built-in, or having it as a USB addon or something, would be great.
As for Wii-playing-handheld-titles, there are rumors all over the place that it'll play DS games, but I mark that all down as pure speculation. I don't think they'll do that soon... maybe eventually, but not soon. And if they do it'll have to be an addon. The SD card slot is never going to fit a DS game.
... oh yes, as for online GC games, I just don't care. When there are only four games that even support it (Kirby and Mario Kart for LAN, PSO for online), none of which have fantastic, unique link/online modes... (PSO: play it online on PC, Dreamcast, Xbox... Mariokart: DS!... Kirby: Mediocre game, not worth it anyway...) Yeah, I'm not exactly worrying about THAT issue, anyway.
Quote:(on a technical level I can see a couple situations where the GBA really still wasn't designed to handle it, at least not without some emulation),
The GB Player has a tiny GBA hardware inside a massive plastic shell... and the GBA is able to run SNES stuff... there is no excuse for why the SGB wasn't supported.
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