Gaming GBA enhanced GBC games

[Chaykin]

Hi! I'm looking for a list of GBC games that are enhanced when playing on a GBA. I googled a lot and didn't found any list. Is Shantae and Zelda Oracle games the only one to have such feature?

And BTW are there any other, except Pokemon, DS games that support dual-slot mode with GBA game?

Thank you in advance for replies. :-)

 

[geoflcl]

I can't help you in the realm of GBA-enhanced GBC games, though that is an interesting topic.

I do know that there's quite a few DS games that interact with the GBA slot in one way or another. Warioware: Touched!, for instance, gives you an exclusive (albeit lame) toy when you have either of the GBA Warioware games in the GBA slot.

 

[Zparks]

Advance Wars used Dual-Slot. Allowing you to buy new maps and wallpapers by having Advance Wars or Advance Wars:Black Hole Rising in slot 2.

I believe for the most part there were no games that were designed to take advantage of 'GBA enhancements' it seems highly impractical IMO. So I think for the most part you won't find a thing. Mind you the GBA was a large step up from the GB/C and as such having something that functioned well on both would be highly limiting to the other.

 

[Chaykin]

I believe for the most part there were no games that were designed to take advantage of 'GBA enhancements'

I know of two (well three) games that have extra features when playing on GBA - Shantae and both Zelda Oracle games so I thought there could be more.

 

[Sir VG]

Those are the only 3 I'm aware of as well. There is a way to identify if a GB/GBC game is "GBC enhanced" or "SGB enhanced" so there may be a way to tell if a GBC game is "GBA enhanced" by looking at the header of the ROM.

This is what I mean by the header info for identifying GBC/SGB enhanced games.

http://nocash.emubase.de/pandocs.htm#thecartridgeheader

 

[FAST6191]

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=107629

^that covers a bunch of DS games with enhancements although there are a few missing details in places (the Japanese only advance wars dual pack for instance), I recall another thread as well I think by Hanfuda.

As for the GBA enhanced GBC stuff you might want to have a look back at some of the old threads from the first few releases of goomba color on the GBA (pocketheaven naturally)- it is a simple detection for the GBC games to do and the option to "fake" it (one of the fun things with emulation is you often get to do things like this) and I recall a bit of discussion back then on the subject. I have no straight up list though and I did not even know about Shantae before you mentioned it. That I can recall most "enhancements" if they could be called as such extended to a rejigged colour palette which given the original GBAs screen probably does not work all that well (see all the work that has gone into recolouring GBA games in the last year or two http://www.dkc-atlas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=606 )

On a related note as much as I hate linking wikipedia they appear to have a nice list of super game boy games which is usually the next question after finding out about all of this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_Game_Boy_games

 

[Chaykin]

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=107629

^that covers a bunch of DS games with enhancements although there are a few missing details in places (the Japanese only advance wars dual pack for instance), I recall another thread as well I think by Hanfuda.

Wow! Great list! Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you very much.

About the GBA enhanced GBC games I still didn't found anything (nothing on PH forums). I guess that Shantae and Oracles are the only three probably.

 

[kuwanger]

There's also "Wendy - Every Witch Way" by WayForward Technologies (also the maker of Shantae). You get three extra levels to play, of which the last two seem to work fine on a GBC emulator (through a password) although IIRC the extra ending credits crashed the game; that might be an emulator bug?

 

[Chaykin]

Thank you very much kuwanger! So there are more GBC games that are GBA enhanced. We got 4 now, does anyone know about any more? :-]

 

[thaddius]

Can anyone explain what the enhanced features of these GBC games on a GBA are? I own all of the games (save for Shantae; $200+ on ebay? No thanks!) and have never even tried to play them in a GBA\DS.

 

[FAST6191]

The general idea of it was that GBC games could detect if they were running on a GBA fairly easily. If they did they added some extra features. What they were varied between games, the main examples are the Zelda oracles games (oracle of ages and oracle of seasons) that added some shops and a few rings. I would not expect much in the way of game changing differences- the whole thing was usually treated as something of a marketing gimmick.

I have no idea how many had such enhancements, indeed finding out what had them was one of the aims of this thread.

 

[Metoroid0]

just to make it clear.. GBA enhanced games are basically CBG roms that are enhanced to look like GBA games and are played on GBC console, not on GBA or any flashcart like EZ IV etc...?

Also, those are all officially enhanced games, not some homebrew mod..?

 

[TecXero]

just to make it clear.. GBA enhanced games are basically CBG roms that are enhanced to look like GBA games and are played on GBC console, not on GBA or any flashcart like EZ IV etc...?

Also, those are all officially enhanced games, not some homebrew mod..?

You necroed a five year dead thread. Anyway. "GBA Enhanced" GBC games just refers to GBC games that have certain features enabled when played from a GBA. Like LoZOoS/OoA's Advanced Shop and brighter color palette, Shantae's extra dance and brighter color palette, and so on.

 

[Metoroid0]

You necroed a five year dead thread.

so?

and Thanks

 

[IAmCaptPlanet]

so did anyone ever find out, definitively, if those were the only 4 GBC games with GBA enhancements?

also was wondering if there is a way to play them on VGA GX emulator on the Wii.

 

[FAST6191]

No idea at this point, however you might be interested in http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,16827.msg252793.html#msg252793
It has some patches to force GBA mode but with GBC palettes as some of those also gained washed out palettes to cope with the GBA's less than stellar screen.

 

[IAmCaptPlanet]

hmmm, not exactly what i was looking for. that patch forces GBC palette, but you have to have the emulator set to GBA to start with.

i'd very much appreciate a full patch, that has the (better) GBC palette and the GBA bonuses

for all 4 of these games actually (and more, if there are more)

i actually never knew about the brighter graphics for the GBA release (it says it's because of the dim GBA screen, but the GBC was not back/front lit at all right?)

anyways if VBA GX had a "GBA mode" option where the GB, GBC, SuperGB and Automatic "modes" are then all i would need is that patch in the link, to have Shantae enhanced, but not brightened

i actually tried renaming the file from Shantae.gbc to Shantae.gba, hoping that it would put it in GBA mode (where L and R change the aspect ratio) but that didn't work


------edit------

not that i am ungreatful for the patch, though! at least i can play it on my computer that way now. i had checked RomHacking.net for patches in the games section, but there was nothing

where do you go there to suggest stuff like that be put in the hacks section
there are a lot of "simple" hacks that should be displayed that are not

 

[FAST6191]

There was a later Japanese model with a backlight called the gameboy light. These days it is very rare and very expensive if you can find one, though there are mods available for those that want them and of course the GBA SP if you want to go that route.

You might also try stacking patches if you have another (or a game genie code) to force GBA mode, I thought the patch did both at the same time.

romhacking.net is entirely user driven, however I don't know if these will be accepted as they might be deemed too insignificant.

 

[IAmCaptPlanet]

i've been using a 8BitDo NES30 Pro (
8Bitdo NES30 Pro Wireless Bluetooth Controller Dual Classic Joystick for iOS Android Gamepad PC Mac Linux(Black)

) for not64 in Wii Classic controller mode

it works fine if it's the only controller synced, but you have to re-sync it every menu until you get into the game

 

[Jayro]

Wendy: Every Witch Way and Shantae are two games I know that are GBA enhanced for the GBC, and romhacking.net has patches to enable them on GBC hardware and emulators.