My GB to GBC hack wishlist and my thoughts on existing ones

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Kwyjor

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The colorization process is often difficult and non-trivial, so it's hard to imagine why anyone would proceed with some of these. Yoshi and Yoshi's Cookie both have NES ports. (Also, Yoshi isn't really very good.) Castlevania II famously got a GBC release in Konami GB Collection Vol. 3. I guess GB Street Fighter II has a few unique things to offer, but did anyone really like that one..?

Final Fantasy Legend 1/2/2
Ultima: Ruins of Virtune I &II

Final Fantasy Legend might be best enjoyed in its Wonderswan Color port; the DS remakes of the other two games might arguably be a little too different. Runes of Virtue II had a SNES version.
 

ShadowOne333

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Both of the Castlevania Adventure games already have colorized ports for GBC under the Konami Collections Vol. 1 & 4. Castlevania Legends is the one that doesn't have a color version, I'd love to see one for it.
Aside from those, I'd also love to see proper colorizations of Sword of Mana (or FF Adventure iirc, one based on the Wonderswan port), Kirby's Dreamland 2, Wario Land 1 and Donkey Kong (the one based on the arcade game, not the Land series).

I think only with Dreamland 2, Wario Land 1 and Donkey Kong I'd be happy.
All the main Nintendo games from that era should have a proper colored version.
 

ShadowOne333

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But why, when you could play it in SGB mode? (Yes, SGB mode wasn't so great for most games, but that is the singular case where SGB mode was employed for maximum effect.)
Well, the same can be said for a lot of other GB titles on SGB.
Dreamland 1, Mario Land, Donkey Kong, Metroid 2, etc., but nothing beats having a proper defined palette per asset on the screen.
Even with Donkey Kong having some color on SGB, the game still has a lot of dull levels and colors. Just look at the backgrounds being mostly white, it gets really boring after a couple of levels.
 
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Kwyjor

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Well, the same can be said for a lot of other GB titles on SGB.
Dreamland 1, Mario Land, Donkey Kong, Metroid 2, etc.
No, none of those were made with the SGB in mind. Donkey Kong is unique in that regard.

Just look at the backgrounds being mostly white, it gets really boring after a couple of levels.
Multicolored backgrounds would make things harder to see. (They would also be extremely time-consuming to colorize.)
 

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The colorization process is often difficult and non-trivial, so it's hard to imagine why anyone would proceed with some of these. Yoshi and Yoshi's Cookie both have NES ports. (Also, Yoshi isn't really very good.)
Did you know? I actually don't like monochromatic games, I like them being in color. Even if those games have already a NES port, and I know that, I like playing the GB ports more. With the fact that sprites can have up to four colors instead of three, and that tiles can be colorized individually (also with 4 colors per tile), graphically-wise GB colorizations would look much better. Take a look at Mario's sprite in the Yoshi puzzle game for NES - he has got a white face, which definitely doesn't suit him at all.
KNriz5f.png

With proper colorization programming on the GB, you would be able to make Mario's face in the natural color, and the overalls blue instead of black. Same thing goes for Luigi, who looks even worse with 3 colors only.
 
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ShadowOne333

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No, none of those were made with the SGB in mind. Donkey Kong is unique in that regard.
What do you mind "weren't made with SGB in mind"?
If they weren't made with SGB in mind, why do they have special palettes when played on SGB?
All of those games I mentioned have special code/palettes exclusive for when they're being played on the SGB.

Metroid 2 (SGB):
iu

Kirby's Dreamland (SGB):
iu

Multicolored backgrounds would make things harder to see. (They would also be extremely time-consuming to colorize.)
The fact that a lot of GBC games use different colored backgrounds just makes that point mute, and being time consuming is pretty much the Modus Operandi of every hacker out there.
That's one of the perks of having a properly-colorized GB game, having an abundance of color to choose from or glance at.
I mean, just look at this:
iu
That looks awful and really bland, almost everything is filled with white, and the only other colors aren't much better either, and that's already the Super Game Boy running Donkey Kong. The only parts where the game looks decently colorized is in the menus or in the level selection, but in the actual game, it's absolutely horrible.

Here's a comparison that really shows why SGB colorizations doesn't really give justice to a lot of games, compared to a proper colorization hack:
Super Mario Land (SGB) VS. Super Mario Land DX (toruzz) [Yes, the 2nd image is the actual colorization hack he made]:
upload_2021-7-19_11-58-50.jpeg
iu
[.spoiler]
 
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Kwyjor

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What do you mind "weren't made with SGB in mind"?
How could they have been programmed with the SGB in mind when they were developed years before the SGB was released!?

If they weren't made with SGB in mind, why do they have special palettes when played on SGB?
All of those games I mentioned have special code/palettes exclusive for when they're being played on the SGB.
They have exactly one palette that the SGB is programmed to apply when the SGB recognizes the game. This is absolutely not the case for Donkey Kong.

Super Mario Land (SGB) VS. Super Mario Land DX (toruzz) [Yes, the 2nd image is the actual colorization hack he made]:
But neither of those have multicolored backgrounds either.
 

ShadowOne333

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How could they have been programmed with the SGB in mind when they were developed years before the SGB was released!?
They have exactly one palette that the SGB is programmed to apply when the SGB recognizes the game. This is absolutely not the case for Donkey Kong.
Perhaps for Donkey Kong yes, it does have specific palettes for certain stuff, but the in-game still suffers from the same bland palette most of the time, and it's still far from being on-pair with a GBC or DX release of the same game.

But neither of those have multicolored backgrounds either.
I think this one is a misunderstanding.
I didn't mean multicolored backgrounds as in a sole background with multiple colors, I meant variety in the background colors from level to level, or in different parts of the game, like in the SML DX image, where the underground parts have black background, and the main level has blue back, like that.
 

SDA

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@ShadowOne333 I agree. Super Game Boy palettes aren't way too advanced in color. I remember Tetris Attack for Game Boy which has a palette that consists of brown scale colors, which isn't the best.

So this is the reason I want several monochrome games to be colorized - simply because the Game Boy Color hardware is much more capable of the SGB hardware. Plus, if you play a GB-only game on a GBC console, there will be four colors (shades of orange for Nintendo games and green and blue for other games) slapped on every sprite. Like here in Yoshi's Cookie:
xdPgdNc.png

Seriously, would you ever play a game that is supposed to be monochromatic and instead has got shades of a single color planted everywhere? The default GBC palette is even poorer in colors than SGB's.
 
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Titney

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A new challenger appears, @Specialagentape on twitter working on a Donkey Kong Land color hack
https://twitter.com/SpecialAgentApe/status/1413466648015560711

E52hn5LUcAcSVDe
E52hpZtUcAAVAAP
E52kVXwVkAELTl2
This has now been released!

"Description:
This is a GameBoy to GameBoy Color conversion for Donkey Kong Land. It also includes some new features: A Time Attack mode, level names from the manual displayed in the corner of the screen on the overworld, unused music restored, and quality of life updates: an icon now appears in the bottom right of the screen when you have a Kong in reserve, and you can change your Kong’s palette. Some new features are accessed by pressing Select on the overworld. Please see the readme for more details."

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6076/
 

SDA

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This has now been released!

"Description:
This is a GameBoy to GameBoy Color conversion for Donkey Kong Land. It also includes some new features: A Time Attack mode, level names from the manual displayed in the corner of the screen on the overworld, unused music restored, and quality of life updates: an icon now appears in the bottom right of the screen when you have a Kong in reserve, and you can change your Kong’s palette. Some new features are accessed by pressing Select on the overworld. Please see the readme for more details."

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6076/
I'll try it right away.
 
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Titney

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Nice! I think Toruzz background colorization is far more sophisticated, so that+original sprites might be the ultimate colorized SML for me.
Looks like my dreams might come true:

 
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SDA

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I do also like the new Mario sprite though, so I hope there will be separate patches, one with the original sprite.
Wait, is Toruzz active? I need to report some bugs like the glitching spacecraft in the ending cutscene and this mistake:
ocRsHie.png

The pyramid in the background in that section is like, colored incorrectly. EDIT: No, that cannot be fixed. Oh well!
 
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Titney

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I do also like the new Mario sprite though, so I hope there will be separate patches, one with the original sprite.
Wait, is Toruzz active? I need to report some bugs like the glitching spacecraft in the ending cutscene and this mistake:
ocRsHie.png

The pyramid in the background in that section is like, colored incorrectly. EDIT: No, that cannot be fixed. Oh well!
Well he did say people can choose, so I guess it should be either separate patches or some way to choose within the game (like how you can pick Luigi in his SML2 hack)
 

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Well he did say people can choose, so I guess it should be either separate patches or some way to choose within the game (like how you can pick Luigi in his SML2 hack)
I understand. I also have reported the bugs in the DX hack, he said they will all be fixed. Except what I mentioned above, obviously.
 
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Titney

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Another DX hack from kkzero, Faceball 2000. The colors look pretty intense in the screenshots but they look fine on original hardware.

EY7qaBm.png
RScMQkh.png
JYagm7S.png
auCphf5.png


Description:
This is a color/enhancement hack of the technological marvel that is Faceball 2000.

FEATURES:
  • HIGHER FRAMERATES - This hack takes advantage of the GBC’s extra hardware to increase the speed of gameplay.
  • FULL COLOR - Multiple palettes have been utilized to add some color variety to the game.
  • FIXED AUDIO - Sound channel 3 now actually gets a waveform loaded, making the music sound as intended.
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6107/
 

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