Why Isn't There a More Prominent Game Boy Scene?

[ninjainspandex]

This is why I love collecting Gameboy games, it is still so cheap. I was at the Midwest Gaming Classic convention today and while everyone was swarming over the Ebay priced SNES games I was digging through the Gameboy dollar bins, and found quite a few I was looking for.

The ones on the bottom row were all just a $1 each, Home Alone and Men In Black are not very good games but they were very nostalgic for me, and for $1 each why not? Hamtaro I don't know why I bought that game haha it was $1 and felt like taking a chance, turns out it isn't that fun oh well haha. Quarth and Motocross Maniacs are also really highly reguarded so I grabbed them for $1, not sure why I bought the Wrestlemania lol.

Pokemon Silver just needs a new save battery soldered in of which I have plenty and can do in less than 30 seconds.

Revenge of the Gator, thanks for mentioning this game. I saw it for $3 and I snatched it up. I have heard good things about this. Batman and Tetris DX were both on my want list and both $5 each so nice deal there, great games.

Also found a Gameboy Pocket for $15, already have two but I just love the color on this one. And the Pocket is my choice when it comes to playing the B/W games.

[Nintendork666]

Revenge of the Gator is ace, not quite as enjoyable for me as Kirby's Pinball Land but close.

I own this weird bootleg which I'd found at a pawn shop for $1.50 last summer:



Eighteen Game Boy games - mostly Pokemon related - are all in Japanese, including a Super Mario Land ROM-hack called Pikachu Land, and has Return of the Gator listed as Pokemon Pinball. There's also TMNT 3, Dr. Mario and Bomb Jack + others which is nice.

[fastbilly1]

So last weekend I helped settle an estate, during the down time I played around with visual boy and a couple games. While I am still not a fan of the GBC's limited color palette on the GBC, playing them on a PC screen is pretty boss. I played probably two dozen games, beat seven, and discovered the best deal on the GB is the Konami Collections. There are four of them, and they contain colored versions of four GB games.

Vol 1 and Vol 4 will be coming to me soon.

Copied from Wikipedia

Vol. 1

Gradius (originally released as Nemesis)
Dracula Densetsu / Castlevania: The Adventure
Konami Racing (originally released as F1 Spirit)
Contra / Probotector (released in North America as Operation C)
(the European version still features human rather than robot characters, despite bearing the Probotector name)

Vol. 2

(Vol. 3 in Europe)

Twinbee Da!! / Pop n' TwinBee
Ganbare Goemon: Sarawareta Ebisumaru! / Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
Motocross Maniacs
Guttang Gottong (originally released outside of Japan as Loco-Motion)

Vol. 3

(Vol. 4 in Europe)

Gradius II: The Return of the Hero (originally released in Japan as Nemesis II and Gradius: The Interstellar Assault in North America and Europe)
Dracula Densetsu II / Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge
Yie Ar Kung-Fu
Kekkyoku Nankyoku Daibōken / Antarctic Adventure

Vol. 4

(Vol. 2 in Europe)

Parodius Da! / Parodius
Quarth / Block Game
Konamic Sports / Track & Field (originally released in Japan as Konamic Sports in Barcelona)
Frogger

[Tanooki]

Around a half decade ago I swore off ever looking at GB or GBC stuff again. I went through a second run of buying some old games I had, and a scant few new games, but I ended up going I think too fast and just never used much of them a whole lot.

Amazingly I buckled last night, bought a GBC over the river for just $20, an original solid purple, adult owned, not a mark on the screen or body anywhere, with Tetris and KI(meh) in a fanny pack and 4 AAs supplied to be nice. I got it really just for Tetris, that game was my in system user/dust block up until Mario Golf dethroned Tetris after like a decade.

I've always loved the little thing, and one thing I'm noticing I don't see people saying here really unless I missed it, old GB and GBC games at least have fallen DOWN in price a little in the last few years. When I was last looking you could end up paying for example $10 each for a cart copy of Super Mario Land 1 and 2, and I poked at ebay last night as I was curious, and they were half that (not including shipping, wasn't before either.) I saw other stuff that I remember was getting like $20 like Gargoyles Quest not even hitting much better than $10. Castlevania Adventure was up last I cared as was TMNT1 and they're both down too.

I think the issue here is many things. People see it as old and with a cheap price, mentally figure it to just be outdated crap. They're not entirely wrong, they are very low color or black and white, but just because it's old doesn't mean it's garbage. I see it as their loss my gain. Even the retail stores around here don't put much on them, but they did a few years ago and they slipped a bit.

Right now I'm going back and forward in my mind do I or don't I want to go down that road again and how much. One side of me says get like Mario Land and little else, a desk toy to screw with under my LED lamp. The other says, go with care get a few dozen games, but be sure you'll play them and likely avoid RPGs and Adventures as you know you won't make the time. Not sure what I'll do.

Back in college when I was friends with martin at NES World, I was a partner with him for a time on that running the NES World Jukebox posting MIDIs and XMs I'd make weekly. I began to seriously add some stellar GB tracks too I'd gussy up some, very proud of FF Adventure I did a set which sounded more SNES like. I also for around a year and a half ran a splinter site called GB World which was daily news and weekly reviews of newer GBC games and some GB stuff too. I wish I could remember the domain as I'd check the internet wayback machine but I don't as it's long gone. I do still have the XM music though.

[Tanooki]

So last weekend I helped settle an estate, during the down time I played around with visual boy and a couple games. While I am still not a fan of the GBC's limited color palette on the GBC, playing them on a PC screen is pretty boss. I played probably two dozen games, beat seven, and discovered the best deal on the GB is the Konami Collections. There are four of them, and they contain colored versions of four GB games.

Vol 1 and Vol 4 will be coming to me soon.

Please tell me you imported the UK versions. Right? They also came out in Japan first as even lower color SuperGB releases. The UK got the prime copies and the games are in english too. I've owned the lot of them TWICE since the 90s. They are no down pound for pound the most required gaming experiences for Konami fans if you have a GB or GBC (they're black hybrid carts.)

I agree with you on the wash out, it's by design since the GBC used that light collecting TFT display instead of a front or back light to save on battery (bad move.) The games only look really good on a computer color wise or even a GBA SP(backlit) or using Goomba Color+flash cart on a later GBA(micro) or DS system.

[ninjainspandex]

So last weekend I helped settle an estate, during the down time I played around with visual boy and a couple games. While I am still not a fan of the GBC's limited color palette on the GBC, playing them on a PC screen is pretty boss. I played probably two dozen games, beat seven, and discovered the best deal on the GB is the Konami Collections. There are four of them, and they contain colored versions of four GB games.

Vol 1 and Vol 4 will be coming to me soon.

Copied from Wikipedia

Vol. 1

Gradius (originally released as Nemesis)
Dracula Densetsu / Castlevania: The Adventure
Konami Racing (originally released as F1 Spirit)
Contra / Probotector (released in North America as Operation C)
(the European version still features human rather than robot characters, despite bearing the Probotector name)

Vol. 2

(Vol. 3 in Europe)

Twinbee Da!! / Pop n' TwinBee
Ganbare Goemon: Sarawareta Ebisumaru! / Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
Motocross Maniacs
Guttang Gottong (originally released outside of Japan as Loco-Motion)

Vol. 3

(Vol. 4 in Europe)

Gradius II: The Return of the Hero (originally released in Japan as Nemesis II and Gradius: The Interstellar Assault in North America and Europe)
Dracula Densetsu II / Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge
Yie Ar Kung-Fu
Kekkyoku Nankyoku Daibōken / Antarctic Adventure

Vol. 4

(Vol. 2 in Europe)

Parodius Da! / Parodius
Quarth / Block Game
Konamic Sports / Track & Field (originally released in Japan as Konamic Sports in Barcelona)
Frogger

Did you get the Euro or JP versions of the Konami GB collections? The JP versions are not colorized and have different games on them they swapped them up a bit between volumes. I had a hell of a time finding the Euro Konami GB collection vol 1, doesn't come up for auction very often, I had to pay $20 for just the cart.

[fastbilly1]

Euro version ofcourse. I have a buddy in the UK who had two of each and is about to send them to me for a decent price. He is waiting since he has a lead on copies of 2&3.

[alienjesus]

Euro version ofcourse. I have a buddy in the UK who had two of each and is about to send them to me for a decent price. He is waiting since he has a lead on copies of 2&3.

That's cool. I've only gotten around to picking up Volume 2 myself - they can be fairly uncommon on eBay and the price can fluctuate a lot.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I delight in all of this love for the Gameboy. I think it is a great system, and due to the system's capabilities, I actually think the games have aged very well.

Currently, I have 200+ Gameboy and Gameboy Color games, and I still have nearly 200 on my "want" list. (The depth of the system's library is comparable to the PS1.) Like many of you, I also love the fact that you can still buy games for very little money. This past week, I picked up:

* 4-in-1 Fun Pack

* 4-in-1 Fun Pack II

* Arcade Hits: Super Breakout/Battlezone - the last of the "arcade hits" games I needed for my collection

* Atomic Punk - a/k/a Bomber Boy

* Chase H.Q. Secret Police - one of the three(!) Chase H.Q. games release for the Gameboy, and the only one I needed for my collection

* Microsoft Pinball Arcade - the last pinball game I needed for my Gameboy collection

* Sports Illustrated Golf Classic - I am apparently collecting Gameboy golf games now...

* Ultra Golf - See SI Golf Classic...

Some of them cost as much as $5, but many were only $1.50!

[Gunstar Green]

I have Super Chase H.Q. I had no idea there were two other games.