How the Game Boy Advance knew it was running a Game Boy Game | MVG

The Game Boy Advance supports backward compatibility with original Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, yet the systems are completely different in architecture. In this episode we take a look at how the GBA managed its GBC mode and some of the tricks developers used to enhance Game Boy Color games on the Game Boy Advance.
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#GBA #GBC #Nintendo

[@Root3264]

How does Shantae know? She's a genie, that's how.

[@sonnyrynsaard3567]

Shantae: RISCy's revenge

[@deoxal7947]

And the oracles are well oracles

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

So I guess if they made a Baby Shark game for GBC... They could use a GAME SHARK ;) LOL

[@AltimaNEO]

Only half genie though

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

Or maybe if they make sports games on GBC.. you know how there's instant replay features with sports? What if... You used an ACTION Replay instead ;)

[@kickflipdemon]

love how this answers why the ds couldn't play gb games on the gba slot and why you need separate ever drive for gbc and gba

[@m2pt5]

Actually, the DS has a solid piece of plastic where that switch would be, so pre-GBA games literally can't fit in the slot. (The GBA Micro has it too.)

[@kickflipdemon]

@@m2pt5 kinda like how NA snes n64 has tab to prevent playing imports but if you remove the tabs you can play Japanese imports. hearing mvg explain that it literally has gbc hardware in a gba to switch it back and fourth was cool to hear

[@amnottabs]

@@kickflipdemon I guess in this case is different as the NDS probably pumps always 3.3v so even after removing that plastic rail it wouldn't boot the cartridge

[@slipperynickels]

@@kickflipdemon that’s also true of the SNES. didn’t know the N64 did the same thing.

[@zomfragger]

@@m2pt5 Correct and you could actually play gb games on the ds after filling down that piece of plastic. However due to software limitations on the ds most gb games would throw a cartridge read error on the ds.

[@Gameboygenius]

The real reason for the palette change is that the GBA screen is much darker than the GBC screen was. Nintendo, in all their wisdom, put the burden on the game to check if it was running on GBA and correct the palette instead of correcting it in hardware. You're not supposed to view them side by side like that. Rather, the aim was to match the color palette so it looked the same on both systems even though their LCD screens were different. Doing it this way instead of in hardware also did mean that only games released after the GBA had an opportunity to apply this correction. Of course, being able to detect that the game was running on GBA also meant that you could add easter eggs and other bonuses for GBA as well, which some GBC games released after the GBA did.

[@Einar730]

No

[@Gameboygenius]

@@Einar730 yes

[@Einar730]

@@Gameboygenius No

[@Einar730]

@@MN12BIRD No

[@Nikku4211]

@@Einar730 Then what's the reason for the palette change, then?

[@TruExtentChannel]

Fun fact: Another Wayforward GBC game, Wendy Every Witch Way, also got a GBA enhanced mode. With it, you get access to an exclusive set of Advanced Levels where the gimmick is the level fades in and out as you navigate through.

[@lerodkazuko4391]

I never realized that a simple switch in the GBA cartridge slot did so much to allow the system to switch between GBA and the GBC hardware. Shows how simple yet complex Nintendo was with their systems.

[@UwePieper]

I knew this switch. I played around with it a bit. I was young. I somewhat understood it but I don't exactly remember what I expected it to do when I modified the cartridge of a duplicate GB game to not push it.

[@freddiejohnson6137]

In all honesty I didn't know there were and GBC games that were enhanced in this way. It certainly wasn't advertised in any magazines that I am aware of here in the UK at the time.

[@David-nd4to]

They probably didn’t know this either haha

[@ilfirinms]

@@David-nd4to I would not be suprised, if even creators didn't know about them. I clearly see test reports "wierd icon is showing on menu when plugged in GBA"

[@ghostisblack]

yeah i played Ages and Seasons for the first time couple months ago and was like wth when I went to a shop called the gba shop and the npc telling me it only exists when played on a GBA.

[@adultmoshifan87]

I remember GBX Magazine saying that the Zelda Oracles contain GBA only content

[@ThunderDragonRandy]

I had the Zelda Oracle games as a kid as well as a GBC and GBA so I knew about these games having GBA-enhanced features. Speaking of them, I'm currently replaying Oracle of Ages.

[@talideon]

Mind you, the Wii is just two Gamecubes held together with some gaffer tape...

[@UwePieper]

The Wii wishes it was that powerful!

[@megamix5403]

*duct tape

[@WillParker322]

@@megamix5403 gaffer is more heat resistant and doesn't damage when removed.

[@Nikku4211]

And motion controls, and wi-fi, and more memory. Still not that much compared to the jump from PS2 to 3.

[@talideon]

@@WillParker322 Exactly!

[@menhirmike]

So if I understand this correctly, the "GBA Enhancements" aren't actually giving you anything more in terms of system features/performance - the game is still running on a GameBoy Color, no extra access to the GBA's RAM or CPU, and so it's only really useful to adjust for the two different screens? Does that mean that Shantae's Tinkerbat transformation could have worked on the GBC perfectly fine? (Not criticizing, just wondering why it was GBA-only if the GBA-Enhanced mode doesn't give any extra horsepower)

[@markjacobs1086]

Probably more of an incentive to "upgrade" 🤔

[@dbowl7111]

You're understanding it right, yeah. The transformation would've and has worked on gbc just fine, there's patches for it too. It was probably just something extra as an incentive to upgrade or something.

[@AnonymousGentooman]

I wonder if it would have been possible to make a 2 in 1 with both a GB/C and GBA game, make the cart GB/C sized, but give it the notch so it doesn't activate the switch, i don't know what sort of code it would need to make sure the proper version is loaded each time tho

[@Darkdaej]

@@markjacobs1086 Or to still buy the game, given its release was for the previous system

[@TXFDA]

FYI, there's actually rom hacks for Zelda, Shantae, and Wendy on GBC, that add the GBA enhancements (and light color palette) into the GBC games. It essentially just enables GBA mode, but it's still a GBC game and can be played on a real GBC using a flash cart or reproduction cartridge. There's also rom hacks for those games to re-do the palette back to default while keeping the GBA features. So yeah, those GBA enhanced GBC games work fine on a real GBC.

[@TravisStamper]

Like I have commented before. I simply love that you go into deep hardware and software dives. This is the way my brain works too and always have to know why and you give me that. Thanks for the videos. Keep them coming

[@CommanderWiggins]

I'm very similar, I'm the type who always wonders these things yet I don't have the ability to understand them myself. I appreciate MVG explaining things in a way my little brain can understand.

[@victornicolasruy-diaz2647]

Expanding the team... This video made me feel more complete and happier. It's incredible the big amount of work and creativity the engineers and programmers put into the games we enjoyed to play.

[@lindsaywheatcroft8247]

‘GBA enhanced mode’ just means ‘terrible screen mitigation mode’

[@jmtrad1906]

True

[@roberte2945]

GBA enhanced means *eyeball searing brightness*

[@pacomatic9833]

It's because the GBA had a darker screen. Make the palette lighter and it looks the same between GBA and GBC (assuming you were to look at then using real hardware)

[@mjc0961]

Nah, it also gives you small little gameplay enhancements. Shantae gives you an extra dance and the two Zelda games give you an extra shop. But it _mostly_ means "terrible screen mitigation mode"

[@driverdis3488]

@MHzBurglar I do the same. I have Shantae and Oracle of Ages/Seasons patched for both GBA Enhanced and original color palettes for use with Backlit GBC, IPS GBA, and AGS101 systems. I also patched the 3DS virtual console version the same way so I have the “enhancements” on 3DS.

[@LonSeidman]

I'm far from an electronics expert but let's suppose that switch gets stuck or damaged and it delivers 5 volts to a 3.3v GBA cartridge - did they have some over voltage protection on those carts or is it not enough of a difference to damage them?

[@ltlynx77]

I’ve never damaged a cartridge with my Retrode when I forget to change the voltage switch to 3.3V.

[@antikommunistischaktion]

Generally speaking, running 5v through 3.3v logic is ok as many 3.3v devices are designed to be 5v tolerant.

[@Zerbey]

Probably not needed, it's very low voltage anyway. Wouldn't recommend you try regardless.

[@4.0.4]

A lot of 3.3v electronics like microcontrollers tolerate 5v as Ryan said. Even if not, any damage would need time to build heat, which wouldn't happen since you can't play the game that way.

[@MrDbrennen]

I ran some 3.3v ATMega chips at 5v for months in an electronics project before realising there was 2 versions. They got a bit warm iirc

[@TBrizzle01]

Interesting about Oracle of Ages! But the color palette just seems brighter... I'm not sure if I'm a fan of the change.

[@Kellicros]

The original GBA has no backlight, the brightness change is to make the game more visible on the actual screen.

[@wistals3deniks]

The original gba screen was dimmer then the GBC one I believe. So maybe they made it brighter to compensate for that?

[@codo8584]

@@wistals3deniks A lot of early GBA games did that so it would make sense

[@roberte2945]

@@wistals3deniks I believe some later GBA games let you pick between a brighter or dimmer palette, after the GBA SP was released. The brighter colors in, say, the GBA port of Super Mario World were indeed a way to make the games more visible on the dark screen.

[@Robomandude]

The change is specifically to make it look good on the GBA screen. GBA backwards compatibility with GBC has somewhat notoriously bad conversion of colors, often looking muddy.

[@MrNineties]

MVG, I've been following for a couple of years now. I tune in for videos like these. You go far beyond what most people are capable of, because of your dev background. Seeing your unique perspective is really cool. Your production quality and professionalism is also second to none. Love your content. Keep rocking!

[@11Davidrh]

The amount of investigation, detail and technical description seen in this channel is almost unmatched. Congrats on the great content!

[@Househoppper]

Actually this is probably why they didn’t include backwards compatibility in the Game Boy Micro because it would take up a lot of space even though Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges fit in there

[@AnonymousGentooman]

That and the fact the cartridges are twice the size so holding the thing would be weird

[@rynomclaughlin1595]

But if you use a flash cart you CAN play GB/GBC games on the GBMicro

[@elsorino]

@@rynomclaughlin1595 Not natively, it uses an emulator called goomba

[@rynomclaughlin1595]

@@elsorino Right, still very useful to "restore" the backwards compatibility

[@mattb154]

Ohhh I'd been wondering about that since I bought mine. I kind of assumed that it was ergonomics, but that also makes a lot of sense.

[@SRC267]

Hope we see MVG cover the EA hack from last week.

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

"EA mistakes where made" EA help we've been hacked! Gamers burst out laughing EA surprised Pikachu face

[@DarDarBinks1986]

EA fucking got theirs for gouging gamers with DLCs.

[@MrJJandJim]

Wait, what happened? I must've missed that!

[@thekell]

@@MrJJandJim 700tb of source code was stolen.

[@ukozi]

Not really worth a video. An employee gave away their 2FA token to some random on slack.

[@justjoeblow420]

I would love to see a dive in the strangeness that is the 3DS GBA support as how it's done catches a lot of people off guard when they look into it. Really wish Nintendo would of made more use of the feature.

[@dizzydaisy909]

Isn't it just using the gba processor on the 3ds? IIRC they had to keep that processor on so that the DS games worked, so they used it for native GBA support

[@ButtProsecutor]

It's great you documented this in this fashion, this is extremely fascinating for examining simple solutions to problems when working on dev projects

[@taatzi5554]

"How the Game Boy Advance knew it was running a Game Boy Game" -Ooh! I wonder what technical trick they used to pull this off! "It was shaped different" -oh

[@ptbunz2501]

Thank You so much for making this! Your explanation of the B function was easy to follow and the video was very informative.

[@MrShadow2x]

I love your channel. These detailed overviews you give really crank up my strong desire to learn programming and coding. But I always get stuck and can't figure out solutions, so I set it aside and give up.

[@fensoxx]

When sitting my ass down for the night to watch some vids I was presented with about 8 new notifications for new vids from people I really like. MVG wasn’t even considered anything but first. Really look forward to these, you’re doing a fantastic job, and all the work is greatly appreciated. Thanks man.

[@soulman902]

Thanks for another great video! I always love waking up to find another excellent video from MVG. It really makes my day!

[@theblubus]

I NEVER noticed that switch in my GBA cartridge slot!

[@spacefacts2553]

Your explanations are always so concise and thorough, even to the layman. Thank you!

[@jajabinx35]

To this day, the gameboy colour had two technical advancements which never saw the light of day. 1) resident evil port (unreleased) 2) metal slug clone called 'terrifying 9/11' The metal slug clone had outrageous content, but the gameplay was just too good and easily maxed the gameboy colour performance

[@martinantelo7086]

I take that 9/11 game isn't dumped/preserved?

[@jajabinx35]

@@martinantelo7086 you can get the rom. Apologies got the name wrong it's called 'terrifying 9/11'. Definitely worth a watch on KZbin. Of course ignore the cut scenes

[@thecryingsoul]

It has been speculated that "terrifying 9/11" was actually an unreleased port of metal slug that had its code sold off and then modified with that strange 9/11 theme after the fact, rather than just being a clone with bizarre theme

[@jajabinx35]

@@thecryingsoul I can totally believe that. Shame snk didn't release it. It even looked better than the neo geo pocket versions

[@ExtremeWreck]

@@jajabinx35 I doubt they even planned making a Gameboy Color port.

[@supermariosunshine64]

This channel is an absolute jewel. I've learned so much.

[@WhatAboutZoidberg]

Such a simple little handheld with so much power and potential. Love these small vids.

[@8BitPasta]

Awesome mate, as always. Very intriguing

[@nathandaven]

i'm starting as a TA for a GBA dev class in the fall, i love watching these videos they are all super interesting :D

[@GVG]

Thanks for this! I was hoping to see a video on this topic after we talked about your work on Shantae! -Steve

[@miasuke]

Wayfoward's GBC game Wendy: Every Witch Way is GBA Enhanced too...

[@brianparent4023]

I’ve always been intrigued by coding and hardwire modifications etc but never had the confidence to try it. This channel is amazing to me.

[@undeadunluck]

Unbelievably informative and helpful. Truly greatful for this kind of video.

[@dpatt6175]

Love me some MVG on a Monday morning. The into music is always a bonus!

[@plutoniumshore]

0:14 You had me at Golden Sun. One of my all time fav rpgs!

[@Myshtuff]

Nothing quite like a MVG video on Monday morning to go along with my cup of English Breakfast Tea. Part of a complete balanced breakfast.

[@ravenlunatic7822]

Breakfast tea the legendary megabeverage ... I see you are a man of taste 😎👍

[@SRC267]

It's lunch time m8 get to Gregg's.

[@ravenlunatic7822]

@@SRC267 Greggs sausage rolls non soggy for £1 yes please 👍 Tell you what England is the best country on Earth, we have tea we have pork based snacks. Oh yeah baby we got Dem good goods 😎

[@juansalas2882]

where are you from in England is 1:45 pm

[@ravenlunatic7822]

@@juansalas2882 If you know Reading or Oxford it's close to there. 13:51 😎👍

[@MarcuStar745XD]

I'm actually learning about assambly language at school and this video just got me more interested into learning more. Keep the good work man!

[@michaelmouton53]

An answer to a question no one ever asked, yet still entertaining to watch. Thanks for the fun content

[@JameMarius]

II love how simple and elegant the solution was. As a kid, I never gave a second thought to the GBA being able to play GB games, after all it was also a gambeboy.

[@kubekzpiciem]

fantastic video, thank you so much, had all the game boys when I was a kid and had no idea it was as simple as a switch moved by cartridge

[@bedwablackburn]

Wonderful as always. Fascinating stuff

[@kadosho02]

Fascinating. Always wondered how the Advance recognized GB cartridges, or Color as well. The library, and accessibility was amazing. Also it's awesome to know the same hardware was built into the GB Player (which you covered several videos ago) I'm curious, if every game is ported to the Switch. Using this system. It is possible for the entire library to be playable. Btw your work with Shantae, the Switch port was fantastic.

[@awesometron7866]

IKR! The port Shantae was actually pretty damn good!

[@hanbill]

Wow this is very detailed throughout, great stuff

[@GeomancerHT]

Loved the time when handheld batteries lasted +24 hours, and that still seemed somehow low... thanks for the videos!

[@superlbc]

Your content is always super interesting! Thank you!

[@Dronemain]

Great video. I love this machine. So many memories come alive watching this.

[@Jorgespfear]

I love mondays because of your content, thank you very much for brightening it :)

[@MadsonOnTheWeb]

GREAT! It would be interesting to know how the Genesis/Mega Drive did backwards compatibility as well

[@WhityNightyUntertan]

Quality Content! Keep up the great work!

[@ImBoredToo]

Thank you, not only was this interesting, it was helpful for emulator configuration

[@hhectorlector]

great video! didn't really care for the topic at first but I watched the whole thing cuz... its an MVG vid!

[@Lethargy01]

Learned something new today. I never knew any of these features existed. Thanks! :)

[@PIB2000]

The GBA really was a powerful little system for it's time. 32 bits might not sound like much, until you realize windows 98 ran on a 32 bit processor.

[@j_c_93]

So does the GameCube, PS2 and Xbox

[@derp195]

Not just windows 98. Back in the day, I ran windows xp and even windows 7 on a 32 bit processor. x86-64 was such a big deal.

[@fabamatic]

It's not the same CISC vs RISC, but agree that the GB Advance was pretty powerful

[@j_c_93]

The Gamecube/PS2/Xbox are also 32 bit

[@undeadwilldestroyall]

Such a good video! Thanks for sharing

[@rafciu123123123123]

GBA was my first handheld and it Was amazing so much great memories. Even now from time to time i get back to Megaman battle network series and Pokemon. I remember that i use backwards compatybility alot with GB/GBC Pokemon games. Because of it discover Pokemon Trading Card game (hidden gem in my opinion) and my favorite Pokemon game to this day - Pokemon Crystal version.

[@sonnyrynsaard3567]

One of my favourite bits of trivia for the GB/A. I knew about the hardware switch before because of how the gba micro couldn't play original gameboy games, but I didn't know it went this deep

[@jorybeatty1726]

After witnessing that T block placement in Tetris I immediately hated the video. I can't believe you.

[@kieranblacker]

Before watching the video I saw this comment and thought "How bad could it be"...........Yeah, turns out it's pretty bad!

[@Buggsucksatvideogames]

Lol this also made me uncomfortable

[@groszak1]

This is actually quite a good placement

[@Macko_z_Bogdanca]

The only console I own is SNES but I am watching your every video they are just so good and informative. Keep up the good work!

[@schoellhorn]

Congratulations to 600k subscribers!

[@detectingretro6313]

Nice video. A subject I’ve often wondered about!

[@sojannedos]

Great video! Very informative!

[@davey3765]

Your videos are rally informative

[@ArtisChronicles]

I see that lovely backlit screen. I also did this to my GBA. Such an improvement. Anyway it was extremely interesting to see how the console detected how it knew what games it was playing.

[@tommyboulet]

Props on using a game you worked on porting to switch and a all time favorite Metroid fusion!

[@ahmettumis]

Great way to start the day! Thanks for your hardwork!!!

[@ibrakap]

Bence de ahbap

[@Asobitech]

Loving all this recent GameBoy content

[@turbinegraphics16]

They could have just used a menu, killer instinct gave you a brightness option in the menu.

[@ravenlunatic7822]

Killer Instinct was one of the best and most heavily underrated titles ever. What a shame though, I prefer KI to MK and SF. That combo and breaker system 👌

[@PinkBunnyCorporation]

But that doesn't sell games. "GBA Enhanced" does.

[@ravenlunatic7822]

@@PinkBunnyCorporation nothing to stop them adding a single feature for egba , just to achieve sticker on box and actually just have the same game underneath it for the same cost. That would be the best of both worlds. Many games did do this probably most of the better ones.

[@LordZero666]

Wow. I had no idea. I remember the notch but it never crossed my mind that it had a particular purpose. That's great design.

[@Jakoliath]

You do a good job explaining the code, made sense to me who knows nothing about ASM

[@novelezra]

I like to watch these videos with friends around and every so often nod my head and let out little "hmm"s. Maybe even sometimes exclaiming "Oh! Thats how they did it. I understand." I don't understand. But still, I love to try and learn.

[@dava00007]

Thanks for the 4K native text!

[@johnny112115]

Mind blowing, for all these years i didn’t know about the Gameboy Switch in the GBA

[@SianaGearz]

Getting both types of catrtidges to run reliably without a physical switch would have required one more voltage regulator or some high-side switches, and a new 3V3 pin in the socket, and i'm not sure there was a robust way to accomplish that. The fundamental problem why you can't just probe both cartridge types only digitally is that they need different voltages, 5V supply for GB/GBC and 3V3 for GBA. Manufacture of higher voltage ROM chips and other chips was becoming no longer viable.

[@Einar730]

No

[@nicholasvinen]

It's trivial to let a CPU control a regulated voltage. Just connect a digital output to the gate of a small MOSFET which then switches a resistor in parallel with the voltage setting resistor. But I guess it's cheaper and smaller to use the physical switch.

[@DoctorWhom]

mixing 5v and 3.3v is usually fine as long as the 3.3v parts are 5v tolerant. Gotta pay attention to those tolerances, maybe run 5v stuff at 4.9v

[@nicholasvinen]

Most 3.3V parts are not designed to run from 5V though. They might have I/O pins that are 5V tolerant but it isn't especially common.

[@SianaGearz]

@@nicholasvinen you can control the voltage with the CPU, but how do you decide which voltage you need beforehand? Startup of a 5V cartridge on 3V3 can be unreliable and 5V to 3V3 cartridge is rude, especially EEPROM chips don't really like that, it's not instant death but it's out of spec enough that you shouldn't be doing that in a shipped product, it could lead to data loss.

[@alexander_mejia]

Great work as always.

[@MrPeteykins]

This is super interesting! I always wondered how this worked. Odd that there are so few GBC color games which take advantage of this!

[@juanmbt]

Probably the developers didn't bother. When the GBA was released, many just moved on to the new portable and didn't release a lot of games for the old GB/GBC.

[@eDoc2020]

These 'GBA Enhanced' features are just a gimmick, it's an example of developers artificially limiting games when run on the older platform. There isn't any additional hardware functionality accessible to GBC games when run on the GBA. This is in contrast to DMG games which can and often do take advantage of the upgraded hardware when running on a GBC.

[@FloatingSunfish]

I love these videos from my era of gaming. ☺️❤️

[@nuclearbeeberman]

excellent video as always

[@troystrain2436]

Very cool! I had no idea this feature existed before now.

[@Swampert_Tube]

I remember a few years back the gameboy switch on my GBA SP from my childhood was somehow flipped to on constantly, and I had to look up a fix for it, and saw youtube videos saying "flip this switch and it's fixed." Anyways, great video as always MVG.

[@MonochromeWench]

wouldn't be surprised if they originally wanted to use the vcc as a way to tell the carts apart. attempt to read cart at 3.3V. if success must be gba if not gbc, but i'd guess that some gbc carts would work with only 3.3V so a different method was needed

[@louism771]

Or if a GBA game has dirty contacts initially. The GBA tried to read, fails, switches to 5v and now has better contact for some reason and then slowly toasts the cartridge with 5V VCC. The higher the voltage, the "better" it can" travel" bad contacts (lower efficiency though). It might not die instantly in most cases, but the heat could cause damage over time. Some people here reported playing GBA Games at 5V in i.e Retrode consoles by accident, without problems gameplay-wise. Original Hardware wouldn't be able to boot the game when set to wrong voltage, due to CPU checking the register, and switching to Sharp CPU. This results in the Gameboy most likely being switched off after few seconds, so no harm to the cartridge. This is clearly an edge case, but Nintendo planned to ship Millions of Millions of these to the hands of kids, so they should be as robust as possible

[@Sinistar1983]

This is super helpful, since I've been trying to figure out how that worked. Now that I know how, I can just add that into my GBC games when I get around to it.

[@Gameboygenius]

Are you on the GB Dev Discord?

[@Reelix]

Console: We can't run earlier versions of our own games due to incompatibilities PC: I can run everything from every console ever! \o/

[@kazumasatou6124]

thanks for the evening vid!

[@reviathan3524]

Watching that pearl blue GBA having a GBC cartridge sticking out of it brought me a lot of memories of me playing Pokemon Gold!

[@mathprodigy]

Not sure how interested this topic would be normally, but the fact it's one of your vids means I'm definitely watching and i know its gonna be a smash hit (course I'm interested anyway XD)

[@SanchezS]

Very well explained. Tnks can’t wait to get gba I’m looking for one

[@hzafary]

Very fun and interesting video! Would you consider doing a video on the color pallets that are available to choose from when playing a GB game on a GBC or GBA? Thank You!

[@osenator]

Very interested! Thank you.

[@NicolaFloris]

Missed opportunity to make a collaboration video with @stacksmashing Would have been perfect!

[@patrickj]

Quality content, as usual 👌

[@lancelnce]

I already know about the switch in the cartridge slot in the GBA. Noticed almost instantly when I first see it

[@percharnelmontefalcon1983]

Meaning to ask "RSA Secured" at the back of Nintendo DS

[@mainnine]

It’ll be related to the Wi-Fi of the system

[@GrinningWolfGames]

Brilliant video MVG

[@atomiclemon77]

Great video, I think I prefer the default pallet though! Also, is there anything interesting that happens when you hit the switch with a GBA game? I suppose the boot up screen with the logo missing?

[@agnel47]

Love the GameBoy. Never had a real one but just completed Links Awakening on an emulator on my phone. Completely lost track of time when I played that game.

[@yesticles]

Aww, I was hoping you'd cover the Super Gameboy borders & enhancements some games got, too, and if there was any possible way to hack in something like DK'94's SGB color mode when using a GBC or GBA. Maybe an idea for a future video?

[@The_Tifa_Lockhart]

Hardware retrocompatibility is quite fascinating, whereas these days systems tend to use software retrocompatibility as in built-in emulators to achieve the same result.

[@iamlucidess]

Amazing how much effort was put into making all these cartridges.. now it's all digital. I'll never get rid of my handhelds!

[@alex_b_9850]

I would like to see a video on how the 3DS’ (almost) double backwards-compatibility worked, including just how it ran DS games. I was under the impression that the 3DS and DS were also pretty different pieces of hardware.