Gaming GBA enhanced GBC games

[FAST6191]

If we are bumping threads then apparently that unreleased title that recently dropped (Towers II: Plight of the Stargazer) should have something as well.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/towers-ii-plight-of-the-stargazer-gbc-prototype-release.556594/

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I see no one mentioned Mega man Xtreme 2.

Yes, is true. I would understand that most people will forget about this game. No, it doesn't add any additional features when played on GBA like the zelda oracle games "Advance Shop" or Shantae's "Tinkerbat Transformation." But people also forget that the other feature of putting these games on a gameboy advance. It doesn't have "Enhanced" on the box, but extra unlockable content isn't the only feature of enhanced gameplay. These games altered color pallet to be brighter so it can be seen better, which indeed Mega Man Xtreme 2 does have just like the three aforementioned games.

While Ideally, I bet that it may not be prefered to use the GBA color pallet vs the original GBC ones for these games. But is worth noticing that all FOUR of these games had CAPCOM involved with them. Capcom published Shantae on Gameboy Color, They also was credited for both zelda oracle games, and they made Mega Man Xtreme 2, I'm surprised no one mentioned this either. Sounds like something to consider right?

 

[SaulFabre]

I see no one mentioned Mega man Xtreme 2.

Yes, is true. I would understand that most people will forget about this game. No, it doesn't add any additional features when played on GBA like the zelda oracle games "Advance Shop" or Shantae's "Tinkerbat Transformation." But people also forget that the other feature of putting these games on a gameboy advance. It doesn't have "Enhanced" on the box, but extra unlockable content isn't the only feature of enhanced gameplay. These games altered color pallet to be brighter so it can be seen better, which indeed Mega Man Xtreme 2 does have just like the three aforementioned games.

View attachment 195235 View attachment 195236​

While Ideally, I bet that it may not be prefered to use the GBA color pallet vs the original GBC ones for these games. But is worth noticing that all FOUR of these games had CAPCOM involved with them. Capcom published Shantae on Gameboy Color, They also was credited for both zelda oracle games, and they made Mega Man Xtreme 2, I'm surprised no one mentioned this either. Sounds like something to consider right?

Sorry for necrobump

The difference between GBC and GBA of Mega Man Xtreme 2 is huge.
But i couldn't find any patch for that so i started to try hacking the ROM for force GBA mode even when on GBC.

I saw @Vague Rant done that with Shantae in http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=16827.0

But i couldn't get it working for that.

Any help?

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Any help?

Here is a IPS patch. It should work.

By the way, the reason you probably didn't find a patch was because there wasn't much demand or need for it. This only had effect for the colors of the game. As far as anything else... like extra content like Legend of Zelda Oracle of Ages/Seasons or Shantae Tinkerbat transformation, I don't think most people cared or even know it has a "GBA Enhance mode." If they did, probably didn't care much about a saturated color palette that was only there to help make the game easier to see on the launch model gba "AGB-001" with the no back lit screen.

 

[SaulFabre]

Here is a IPS patch. It should work.

By the way, the reason you probably didn't find a patch was because there wasn't much demand or need for it. This only had effect for the colors of the game. As far as anything else... like extra content like Legend of Zelda Oracle of Ages/Seasons or Shantae Tinkerbat transformation, I don't think most people cared or even know it has a "GBA Enhance mode." If they did, probably didn't care much about a saturated color palette that was only there to help make the game easier to see on the launch model gba "AGB-001" with the no back lit screen.

Tested your IPS patch with my Mega Man Xtreme 2 ROM and it worked like a charm.
Played the first level and looks like it works. Cool, thanks!

Can I publish that in ROMHacking? (Obviously mentioning you for creating the patch and me for testing it)

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Tested your IPS patch with my Mega Man Xtreme 2 ROM and it worked like a charm.
Played the first level and looks like it works. Cool, thanks!

Can I publish that in ROMHacking? (Obviously mentioning you for creating the patch and me for testing it)

To be fair, that patch came from Romhacking.net. There was patches for oracle of ages/seasons & shantae that enable gba mode. (It works with mega man Xtreme 2)

So that won't be necessary.

 

[SaulFabre]

To be fair, that patch came from Romhacking.net. There was patches for oracle of ages/seasons & shantae that enable gba mode. (It works with mega man Xtreme 2)

So that won't be necessary.

but i couldn't find one for that Mega Man Xtreme 2 in ROMhacking, so i was wondering if publish it with your name in the credits.
Can you put a link of that patch in ROMhacking if it exists? If not, do you mind if I upload it?

(edited)

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

but i couldn't find one for that Mega Man Xtreme 2 in ROMhacking, so i was wondering if publish it with your name in the credits.
Can you put a link of that patch in ROMhacking if it exists? If not, do you mind if I upload it?

Well, considering I didn't do anything but use a already existing patch that someone else made for Legend of Zelda, Oracle of Ages (That so happens to work on Mega Man Xtreme 2) there isn't much "Credit" for me to have.

I'm glad it worked for you, but I can't take the credit for this.

 

[N7Kopper]

It's worth noting that there are no actual GBA "enhancements".

What happens is that different Game Boy models set a certain byte (I'm fuzzy on the exact one) differently on start-up.

There was one for the Game Boy (and Pocket and Light), one for the Super Game Boy (the inferior original or superior second version), one for the Game Boy Colour, and one for the Game Boy Advance (/Player). I don't think anyone knows what the Wide Boy CGB and AGB do, but I would assume they're identical to the Colour and Advance/Player respectively.

While the SGB and GBC needed this for the extra things they could do, GBA exclusive features were a marketing gimmick. The GBA has no special backwards compatibility enhancements. Even the Game Boy Player can't use its enhancements in compatibility mode. (Game Boy Interface can use SGB palettes, but the GameCube does all the heavy lifting there, and it needs to be manually set) The only appropriate uses of this were palettes (pre SP and Player) and locking out features or games due to a lack of infrared or sound inconsistencies.

 

[marc_max]

Sorry for necrobump

The difference between GBC and GBA of Mega Man Xtreme 2 is huge.
But i couldn't find any patch for that so i started to try hacking the ROM for force GBA mode even when on GBC.

I saw @Vague Rant done that with Shantae in http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=16827.0

But i couldn't get it working for that.

Any help?

Thanks for letting me know about Xtreme 2 GBA palettes, I played it a bunch of times already and I wasn't aware of this.

Though, I am not exactly sure why forcing GBA palettes would be useful lol. It made sense with Shantae since it unlocked extra content, but MM Xtreme 2 it was just for palette purposes.

Anyway, just in case is there someone interested... I've done the exact opposite patch, so users with GBA SP, GBA with backlight mod and even GB Player can now enjoy the game without the over brightened colors. I've submitted it to RHDN, should be available later today.

 

[SaulFabre]

Thanks for letting me know about Xtreme 2 GBA palettes, I played it a bunch of times already and I wasn't aware of this.

Though, I am not exactly sure why forcing GBA palettes would be useful lol. It made sense with Shantae since it unlocked extra content, but MM Xtreme 2 it was just for palette purposes.

Anyway, just in case is there someone interested... I've done the exact opposite patch, so users with GBA SP, GBA with backlight mod and even GB Player can now enjoy the game without the over brightened colors. I've submitted it to RHDN, should be available later today.

thanks but that MM Xtreme 2 GBA enhanced patch i've submitted few months ago before you attempt to do this:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6500/

 

[marc_max]

thanks but that MM Xtreme 2 GBA enhanced patch i've submitted few months ago before you attempt to do this:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6500/

They are not the same, I've done the opposite patch ;-) My patch forces GBC palette to show up even while running in GBA, which make the game look much better in GBA SP, AGB-001+backlight mod and GB Player.

 

[SaulFabre]

They are not the same, I've done the opposite patch ;-) My patch forces GBC palette to show up even while running in GBA, which make the game look much better in GBA SP, AGB-001+backlight mod and GB Player.

oh ok

 

[SaulFabre]

They are not the same, I've done the opposite patch ;-) My patch forces GBC palette to show up even while running in GBA, which make the game look much better in GBA SP, AGB-001+backlight mod and GB Player.

Your patch is now on ROMhacking
Look here https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6720/

 

[SaulFabre]

@marc_max @Sonic Angel Knight

sorry for bumping

i've noticed that the GBC game "Wendy: Every Witch Way" has a forced GBA enhanced patch, but however the palette is being adjusted for GBA... and i've looked in the net and there's no patch for Wendy: Every Witch Way that forces GBC palette even when in GBA, but without affecting GBA enhanced features (just like Shantae and TLOZ Oracle of Ages/Seasons) have.

Any chance for see in the game how to force GBC color palettes even when on GBA or using GBA enhanced patch?
THANKS!

 

[KeeperCP1]

I found this list https://cheapergamer.co.uk/gba-enhanced-gbc-games/

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Any chance for see in the game how to force GBC color palettes even when on GBA or using GBA enhanced patch?
THANKS!

It's simple. Just use the patch from the other games. Oracle of Ages/Seasons has Force GBC palette patch. Just use that on the game, it works the same on Mega man Xtreme 2 as well. Which is exactly what marc_max put on Romhacking.net

 

[SaulFabre]

It's simple. Just use the patch from the other games. Oracle of Ages/Seasons has Force GBC palette patch. Just use that on the game, it works the same on Mega man Xtreme 2 as well. Which is exactly what marc_max put on Romhacking.net

i will try this, thanks!

 

[SaulFabre]

Okay, my wrong, Wendy: Every Witch Way GBC didn't have another palette for GBA, it just uses GBC colors by default even if played on GBA.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Okay, my wrong, Wendy: Every Witch Way GBC didn't have another palette for GBA, it just uses GBC colors by default even if played on GBA.

Yeah, I guess they didn't feel the need to do that like they did with shantae. Probably cause the game was too far into development by the time GBA was even relevant. Released in september 2001, 3 months after GBA which probably didn't have time for those kind of "Finishing touches" Unlike Shantae which was released in 2002. (Also oracle of ages/seasons as well)

To be fair, the reason for the color palette changes was just for people who had used GBA to make it easier to see on the original launch model. Though most argue that the original GBC palette is better than the Advance palette. More funny, some GBA games actually had alternative palettes for different GBA systems.

Playing Super mario advance 4 on Gamecube's gameboy player will make the palette look similar to the SNES super mario all-stars version. (And yes a patch exist for that one. Sonic Advance 3 also has other option for palettes. By pressing R button on title screen, the game can cycle between "Standard GBA, GBA player or GBA SP" palettes. So far, these are the only two games on GBA I know has such things. The whole idea is interesting.