How Graphics worked on the Nintendo Game Boy Color | MVG

In 1998 Nintendo released the Game Boy Color, an upgrade to the original DMG Game Boy. The Game Boy Color (GBC) was fully backward compatible with the Game Boy but came with some improvements to the original architecture. In this episode we take a look at the Graphics subsystem of the GBC and discover some of the technical achievements developers were able to pull off.
► Consider supporting me - / modernvintagegamer
Links:
► How Graphics Worked on the Nintendo Game Boy - • How Graphics worked on...
► GBC Hi Color notes - romhack.github.io/doc/gbcHiCo...
► Game Boy Color Bootstrap ROM - tcrf.net/Game_Boy_Color_Boots...
Social Media Links :
► Facebook : / modernvintagegamer
► Twitter : / modernvintageg
► IG: / modernvintagegamer
► BandCamp : modernvintagegamer.bandcamp.com/
► The Real MVP Podcast : player.fm/series/the-real-mvp
#Nintendo #GBC #Graphics

[@goldkirby]

Love that you added how GBC was able to “upgrade” older games with color! That was a mystery of mine as a kid; very cool they had a master list to retroactively set the color palettes.

[@kayleigh1991]

CodaBroda same, it blew my little mind.

[@leojei]

Same here, exactly why I watch this video in the first place. The default colour list is a genius move on Nintendo and game dev part, making old game cartridges work as-is w the new hardware w colour.

[@BlazeHN]

I opened this video just because I wanted to know that, for example how the new Gameboy Color knew the old Super Mario Land 2 Mushroom had to be red and white for example.

[@leojei]

@César Leiva me too. Preset color palette by Nintendo is actually a clever implementation.

[@TtEL]

I guess not the GBA, He showed Link's Awakening (the original, not the remake) running on the GBC and it doesn't look the same as me running it on my GBA. At least running it on my AGB-001, I have not tried it on my AGS-001 SP.

[@ModernVintageGamer]

A Few corrections : 1:10 - Xekkusu is actually titled X or X (エックス, Ekkusu) in Japan. 7:30 - Technically VBlank occurs at any scan-line above 144. 9:26 - Hi Color mode can display around 2000 colors instead of 4000

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

MVG, I have access to both a Wii and a PSP devkit. If you're interested, hit me up. Gear Seekers knows me.

[@KoenHendriks]

What i found out on Mario Island 2 - 6 Golden Coins is that on the boot of the gameboy you can override the color pallet by holding the B button and using the D-pad. You can even chose the original 'black and white'

[@dan_loup]

The DMA unit on the gameboy color can also copy data from the cart to the video ram VERY FAST, like 4MB/s, it's a massive upgrade over the 100KB/s if lucky you had on the original gameboy and it's what allows it to play FMVs etc.. the DMA on the original gameboy was fixed on the task of copying sprite parameters from the memory to the sprite memory so you could not use it to do things such as copying tiles to the vram.

[@mrverybored]

You're really over-stating the CPU speed - according to the GBC dev manual the CPU is 1.05mhz in normal mode, and 2.10mhz in GBC/double-speed mode... a quarter of the speed stated in the video.Makes some of those effects achieved look even more impressive :)

[@dan_loup]

​@@mrveryboredIt's a bit more complicated. The gameboy CPU execute one instruction every 4 cycles, so they're dividing the clock on the manual due that. And there are instructions that takes more cycles, but on the gameboy CPU i think it rounds to multiples of 4.

[@jwilder47]

I'd always wondered how my GB color was able to colorize my older games.

[@Ned47628]

Some of the later original game boy games had colour graphics in their code for use with the Super Gameboy

[@Smetroretro]

exactly - wizardry

[@Smetroretro]

❤️

[@BlazeHN]

I opened this video just because I wanted to know that, for example how the new Gameboy Color knew the old Super Mario Land 2 Mushroom had to be red and white for example.

[@sapiensesciencecerveau2523]

If I remember right you were also able to change the colour palette assigned to GB game by holding the D-pad in a direction while booting. (Or maybe it was only on GBA, not 100% sure... But I used this trick a lot to change my Tetris experience)

[@Zuudo]

8:13 nice T-Spin

[@AttilaTheHun333333]

Would have bern nice to show the real screen of the GBC more often. People get the wrong impression it was this contrasty and colorful on the original Hardware.

[@HCkev]

Some emulators can emulate the "washed out colors" look of the GBC screen

[@nbain66]

HCkev my gb emulator on my DSi has modes for the original game boy and game boy color

[@memelurd7341]

A backlight may work

[@ADeeSHUPA]

@@HCkev SHARe LiNK

[@mrdgenerate]

Sorta erking me he didnt even mention how pokemon red/blue were almost soley responsible for the extention of the gbs life and warranted the color even being made.

[@poptheweasel100]

Game Boy Color is probably my favorite Nintendo handheld. It's weird, it's rather overlooked, the library is decent at first glance, but when you start searching for the unknown games, like Bootlegs and cancelled games, I swear, you'll never find a more underrated handheld. Some of my favorites include: Zook Hero Z, a fantastic Mega Man bootleg that combines Classic gameplay with MMX style movement, it's fairly long for a GBC game, has great level design, fantastic soundtrack using Capcom's soundfonts, and is a joy to play. Infinity also comes to mind, a cancelled GBC RPG that had SO much potential, being made by RPG lovers, with sound engineering by Mathew Valente, the composer for Chrono Resurrection. The battle system is unique, the story is surprisingly detailed, there's quite a lot of lore, and even the source code is available online, so hey, if you wanna work on a GBC game, give it a shot! There are plenty of other bootlegs as well that are awesome, like Pocket Monster Saphire, a good strategy RPG with horribly mistranslated Pokemon, Fire Emblem GBC, a decent if slow Fire Emblem game, and even a few decent RPGs, if you can read Chinese, that is. I'll also mention Mythri, which like Infinity, is a RPG with a demo, but it isn't that good standalone. The story was pretty good for its time, and you can read about it online somewhere. But with all these games, there are still some fantastic ones out there. Handheld Underground has all the bootlegs you'd want, while the cancelled games can be found by typing their name and GBC. I love these games and I want more people to love them, so I'm spreading the word!

[@terraspent]

ty for the insight, i think a gameboy color just may be my next direction for a new addition to my collection.

[@HieiTF76]

My only regret is that they made Link's Awakening DX backward compatible, which seems to have limited the colors they used (gameboy color games only always have better colors than backward compatible games), which felt average.

[@pr0f3ta_yt]

overlooked?!? under rated handheld?!?! what universe are you living in. the GBC is the most popular model next to the SP. it came back into the modding scene in a huge way. there are hundreds if not thousands of dedicated communities, modders and collectors under rated?!?! HAHAHAHA 😂😂

[@pr0f3ta_yt]

under rated handheld is a Sony Vita

[@terraspent]

@@simonbelmont548 ty i shall keep that in mind, i hear it is a must thing to do with atari lynx especially

[@faustianblur1798]

Horizontal Blank interrupts were the key to getting that classic Mode 7 perspective on SNES too. Mode 7 allowed the SNES to apply transformations like scale, skew and rotation to a 2D image, but by scaling each horizontal line separately developers could make it appear as if the image was shrinking as it receded into the distance (up the screen). It seems in implementing H-Blank on the GBC, Nintendo enabled the same effect (minus the arbitrary skew and rotation).

[@davidoros3268]

One of my favorite aspects of the GBC was being able to change the palette that the system used for GB games. Playing Pokémon Blue with negative colors (is that right?) or switching from just blue to a blu-ish green was awesome. I feel like not many people know about it and while it was kind of mentioned in the video it would have been cool to see it displayed. You switched the color palette by pressing directional buttons or directional and A or B while on the “Game Boy” screen.

[@HomeAmatuerRacer]

David Oros OG night mode

[@joemck85]

Speaking of, the pink/blue pastel palette option is useful in Pokemon Red/Blue to get through Rock Tunnel without Flash. The game turns 3 of the background colors into black and the 4th into dark gray, and all the sprite colors to black. Picking the pastel palette made that dark gray a pale blue. You still can't see NPCs but you can see the walls easily. This trick wasn't possible in Yellow since it sets GBC palettes, but it wasn't needed either since you could just talk to Pikachu to illuminate the screen for a moment with its sparks.

[@alexander_mejia]

Thank you for putting these together. I know you’re putting a ton of effort into these and I don’t know how you find the time.

[@r35.]

Watching vids of 1990's tech in 2020... I never imagined this 'future' back then lol

[@Nordlicht05]

i am searching for an original GBC at the Moment. Should be a present when i find one to my likings

[@Nordlicht05]

Got one with Pokemon Crystal. But the Game will be selled. Only hot a new Battery

[@gblargg]

And the videos being produced by the community and shared without any central gatekeeper.

[@BrianM180]

It's really fascinating how much you can get out of the Gameboys. Recently I tried out the Resident Evil prototype on the GBC and was quite suprised at how well it captured the original style of the game.

[@MRooodddvvv]

"Why change what isnt broken". Somebody need to say that to modern APIs developers

[@HyperMario64]

Why ? Old school APIs such as GL and Direct3D 9 are inefficient by design.

[@johnruskin3080]

And then there's Google.

[@CLOYO]

You don't have to tell Microsoft.

[@AliceC993]

@@HyperMario64 Doesn't necessarily mean you have to use old APIs... but use modern ones in a way that makes sense instead of assuming that whatever hardware you're running has enough power to brute force its way through sloppy code.

[@HyperMario64]

​@@AliceC993 If you use a modern API you probably know what you are doing. Of course you will try to squeeze as much polygons and texels in the scene within your console 30FPS, because that's what you are paid to do.

[@sawbonesquad4876]

The first gaming system ever bought for me. Nostalgic. The GBC had a lot of good exclusives, sad it was short lived due to the GBA.

[@jr2904]

Same here, got mine in Dandelion yellow with Pokemon yellow. Good times lol

[@SirCharles.]

@@jr2904 I got mine in the translucent Atomic Purple with Pokemon Yellow. I still have the GBC but unfortunately lost that cartridge somewhere. Good times indeed!

[@technodaz]

I remember when my brother bought a vga card and told me I could have his ega ...put it in my 8086 only to discover what 2 fps was like for the first time...going from 4 to to 16 colours was obviously a task and a half for my little cpu.

[@overlordalfredo]

Hamtaro Ham-Hams unite is one great example of what the GBC was capable of. That game looks like a cute little GBA game, but it is from the GBC Era and also runs without any slowdowns at all! Such a good system!

[@fensoxx]

In the span of a few months this has become my favorite channel. Thanks man for all the detailed reporting on these old systems. Fascinating.I can see a lot of hard work goes into these.

[@kemi242]

The engineers at Nintendo did some really clever tricks to overcome the hardware limitations.

[@davidwells6259]

This was a really interesting video. MVG videos always are really informative. It's cool what was possible on old systems because of the ingenuity of the hardware engineers and the programmers.

[@MousePounder]

Every one of these videos is simply fantastic. Thanks MVG for all the hard work!

[@CurtMudgeon]

Another superb video! I always find myself wishing they were longer. Thanks for taking the time to make these!

[@MegatornadoDeNiro]

I saw you talking on twitter about how proud you are of this video and I agree with you, this is one of your best videos so far. Great content, amazing video editing skills. Your work is impressive, thank you very much for your content.

[@Azazel010101]

That music.. I just can't decide, what I love more: your music or your videos! Many thanks.

[@Kylefassbinderful]

I've seen this episode before but now I'm rewatching it after watching your latest video, _How_ _Cartridges_ _worked_ _on_ _the_ _Nintendo_ _Gameboy._ I sometimes binge watch your videos even if I've already seen them before. You pack a lot of information in a short time which means I sometimes learn something new the 2nd, 3rd or even 4th time around.

[@Kafei2006]

Toki Tori on GBC simulates prallax scrolling. Here's what Collin Van Ginkel of Two Tribes BV told me about how they achieved this (this here is a direct quote, not my words): "The multilayer scrolling is actually faked by having a 'video' of a scrolling 64x64 pixel pattern stored in ROM that's being streamed every frame. If I remember correctly, this is also where most of our ROM size went to. The rest of the game was really tiny and Nintendo didn't have any smaller cartridges, so we thought we'd just use it for that then."

[@miguelmejia4656]

it's not fake if it's shown perfectly on the screen. it's still considered a side scroller.

[@Kafei2006]

Those are the words of the actual dev, not mine. If you think you know better than the dev itself...

[@zeldajunkielol2]

Wow, this not only explained how the gameboy color works but also helped me understand a bit of game design. Thanks!

[@RS_Redbaron]

Not many people can get that old feeling back when i was small and gaming but you sir are coming very close. I'm very happy that i fond you on yt. There are not many like you on yt. Thank you so much for it all your hard work. I will never remove you. Keep up the amazing work you do. A 80e gamer :)

[@Favourites669]

Fascinating. I would love to see more tech vids like this from you MVG. One of the best channels on YT by far! Keep up the great work man.

[@TechDunk]

Really interesting! Love to see these more technical videos!

[@Sephy69]

Increbidible video. I was hooked, you make subjects like this so interesting and informative. Keep them coming!!!

[@felixb9078]

I really appreciate the nice animations of the different video layers! Great content!

[@Wiresgalore]

Still remember picking up my Gameboy Color back in '99 after it came down in price a bit :)

[@unknownninja1]

Same here lol 😁😊👍💯.

[@SlyBeast]

Man, GREAT picks for background music in this video. Good taste!

[@RashaEX]

That edit at around 5:40 is unbelievably clean - it's insane that you reach a level of quality like this every single week!

[@matuzaato]

You can tell the amount of research you did for this, incredible video!

[@RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS77]

I'm a fan of these more technical videos. Interesting stuff. Keep it up, friend.

[@ericsalidbar1693]

I love your videos airways so much info I wish you made more and more often but Im sure it's not very easy. I always rewatch videos though so that keeps me entertained while new stuff comes out. Thank your again for everything you do.

[@GlobalGarageAus]

Your content is amazing. I love the in depth tech analysis of retro hardware. The copy protection series is fantastic also.

[@trecaa]

I love watching your videos. I can't say I understand all the technical jargon but it's a great watch.

[@Viper-py4pg]

This was incredible and interesting to watch I love content like this!

[@comatory]

Great video as always. I really dig these hardware and software episodes.

[@ToolCraze]

Thank you for sharing the video in 4k, great video as well

[@ibrakap]

This video uploaded when i ' m reading a thesis about emulation. Thanks MVG

[@luisgeraldes32]

ibrakap can you share please?

[@ibrakap]

@@luisgeraldes32 personals.ac.upc.edu/vmoya/docs/emuprog.pdf

[@DJCosmicLatte]

I think what's even more impressive in all of this is the *forwards-conpatibility* -- that the original GameBoy could seamlessly run any GameBoy Color software that didn't need the additional RAM or power, and could at least display a custom error screen for the convex cartridges that did. They really did an excellent job of keeping the GameBoy accessible to its very last breath.

[@vytah]

That was actually a requirement by Nintendo that all GBC-only games do that. Source: Gameboy Development Manual V1.1 page 287

[@deadhell304]

Awesome vid! Thanks for making it!

[@Marktwoface]

Again, man! THANK YOU for making these videos! 💙

[@SirCharles.]

It's incredible what they were able to do with the Gameboy and GB Color. Looking back at retro game hardware/software development you can really feel that they were pushing the boundaries, using creativity and ingenuity to work around the limitations of the time. Feels good to learn about the tech behind this little handheld console that fueled my childhood. Awesome video!

[@joelbailey62]

find these so interesting thanks for the run down on how it all works

[@nightcat7741]

If I remember correctly, the GB Color was my first ever handheld console. Thanks for this vid!

[@SETSUNAFSEIEI885]

Your explanation is amazing! really love your channel!

[@breadbunbun]

I'm so happy that someone that's pretty well known talked about X Ekkusu, I love the game

[@tsunamirider9895]

Awesome video! Great information and presentation. Learned a lot! Great job!

[@rprx]

Thanks MVG :-) my first and last ever hand-held, feels good to learn more about!

[@wormsex]

Just had the idea to pick up a GBC 3 days ago, it’s like you know my life better than I do with your upload schedule

[@MaidenHell1977]

Excellent video as always, sir!

[@memorix101]

This is so great! Thank you! ❤😀

[@zdp-189]

I love X, have the complete box game manual from Japan. Was so happy to see DSi include a sequel! Can still download on your 3DS, titled X-Scape. Another awesome, informative video MVG...you're video editing to help us see and visualize the complex things such as memory banks storing tiles, the full stored image of GB but only what we see on screen, etc. is amazing, I don't know how you do all this so smoothly!

[@91Nickson]

As always, excellent video 👏👏👏

[@HazyJ28]

Super dope collaborative effort with Linus!!!!! Random but had to give you the big ups 👋👍

[@jpaulobiem]

Amazing vídeo! Great work.

[@kevinjrpiedr2490]

Great vid man showing love to the GBC! 👍🏼👍🏼

[@RWL2012]

You're a legend for showint Wacky Races!!! It was one of my childhood GBC games :)

[@Elastane]

Music at 2:40 onwards is Metal Masters - Metal Beat (gameboy) :)

[@overdriver99]

man.. your explanation is superb! I am so impressed by they way of this video presents. Now, it makes me to invest better IPS LCD mod for my gameboy color. damn I don't know what to choose...

[@user-zo9dc1lu3q]

AMAZING !!! Next ? : How Graphics worked on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance ? Can you please talk about the (software based) 3D capabilities of the console ? I need to know if some games like Street Racing Syndicate for GBA are in true 3D or not.

[@NYCJoeBlack]

Alessandro Cussino - Yes, please do the same for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. Actually, do one specifically for the Game Boy Color!

[@DJCosmicLatte]

If I'm not mistaken, the GBA does actually have Mode 7 hardware, enabling effects such as 3D perspective illusion, rotation, etc., and plenty of games took full advantage of it.

[@startedtech]

@@DJCosmicLatte it also can render true 3D. There are plenty of full 3D games, check out Punching Weight videos on the GBA. There is some seriously impressive stuff that can not be "faked" using mode 7, Doom-style 3D, Sprite scaling etc. It is true 3D.

[@DJCosmicLatte]

@@startedtech Interesting, I wasn't aware. To be fair, most of the games I've played on GBA used 2D graphics with occasional Mode 7 distortion (ie Pokémon) or isometric views with 3D models rendered out to 2D sprites (ie Spyro the Dragon).

[@user-zo9dc1lu3q]

@@DJCosmicLatte Take a look at Street Racing Syndicate, 007 Nightfire, Driv3r, Asterix & Obelix XXL, Payback, Big Mutha Truckers, *Quad Desert Fury, Smashing Drive ;-) *The game use Voxel graphics.

[@psivewri]

Anyone else binge watching these videos?

[@dewdop]

Na. Jk, I am.

[@spiicypotato]

@@dewdop same

[@Sinistar1983]

Yes

[@luanmorris5161]

At 1am

[@RetroPlaybacksVR]

Great video, I'd love to see more like this from other systems

[@tjl82996]

Amazing work !

[@InglebardGaming]

I always appreciate these "how things work" videos for old consoles and handhelds. Not making any requests, but I think it'd be real interesting to see one on Saturn graphics. Even though there are a few videos out there from others on that topic, it's still often misunderstood. Anyway, nice job on this one, as always!

[@matancadeporco]

LUV UR CONTENT DUDE! KEEP GOING

[@robertt9342]

This video is really well done.

[@jazzvieadnan3779]

honestly man I don't know almost all of the things you said but I still like ur video, it's very interesting

[@ET_Videos]

Another great video MVG!!

[@wadurito]

Your channel is niche, but so underrated. Keep bringing top quality content, see you at a mil in a few months.

[@CCNightcore]

Amazing explanations!

[@superlbc]

Thank you, very interesting and informative video. Keep it up :-)

[@Dreaded4Saken]

your the best. you always get a like from me for this amazing informative and entertaining content. im a new independant game dev and its cool to see the history and science that i havent grasped yet.

[@IngwiePhoenix]

Some of the songs in the background are amazing. A song list would be epic to check them out independent of the video!

[@charliewythe5540]

Ingwie Phoenix One of them is from Batman by Sunsoft on the OG Gameboy... recognised it straight away

[@loszhor]

Thank you for the information.

[@Shelboooooo]

Subscribed! Great Videos, Very informative.

[@greensun1334]

The "Prehistorik Man"-Intro-Screen always makes me wondering... Such cool Parallax- and Line-Scrolling!

[@Jay-zd9qs]

You and Technology Connections could make some amazing videos together!

[@EmulationDojo]

I really enjoyed this, thank you!!!

[@hunterdigiace]

Please more content about Game Boy series (like how audio works, graphics on GBA, differences between cartridges of GB, GBC and GB/GBC (the black ones)) very nice video, I like a lot how you explain, with animations, all the effects on the screen.

[@NEOGEOJunkie]

That was am epic explanation! i'll never look at the GBC the same again.

[@OroborOSX11]

Awesome video. Would love to see a similar vid on the GBA!

[@Adanos_ger]

great video, liked this one a lot.

[@s.b.b.3567]

Another high-effort timeless gaming essay, deserves to be part of a boxed set! Thank you MVG! Love catching you on Spawncast!

[@lookingglassproject9679]

super awesome video man

[@duodream]

Decent video, had a few nitpicks but you addressed them in the comments. +1

[@MetaSieg]

Very interesting look at perhaps my favorite handheld as a kid.

[@PhlisWSRandVFDJandWriter]

Cheers for another cool video MVG

[@robertandruw7647]

thanks for this valuable information . you learn something new eveyrday

[@ArnavDhamija]

I've been watching a lot of your videos of late and I really enjoy your deep dives into explaining how the hardware of retro game consoles worked. Do you have any plans of releasing such a video for the DS or 3DS? They are comparatively modern, so I guess they don't need to use the same hacks that were needed in the time of the GB/GBC, but I'd love to know more about the secrets of their hardware.

[@jackmyowl]

Holy crap... You're up early!! :)

[@halberdierv2]

Pure noatalgia for me! I also loved messing with the pallete combos at the boot screen, and i remember loving inverse a lot!

[@PriceAintRight]

This video was so soothing.

[@DanielLopez-up6os]

Didn't know I needed in my life, but now I can't believe I lived without the knowledge.

[@retropuffer2986]

Great episode.

[@m_5373]

Fascinating video !!

[@BoyNamedKelly]

Amazing video!!