NES Super Gameboy

A_Username · Post by **A_Username** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 4:17 pm

Is their a NES SuperGameboy?
I know the NES is more than capable fo playing Orig. GB games.
If any info. pleez post.

scherzo · Post by **scherzo** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 4:32 pm

A long time ago I remember seeing a picture of a prototype NES cart that could play GB mono games. I think it was used in actual development of the GB and that was it. There was never a commercially available cart like this though.

Klefmung · Post by **Klefmung** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 4:57 pm

you could get a converter and stick it in a cart with all of the hardware from the gameboy, get the pinouts for the Gameboy and nes carts and hook in the correct video and audio signals into the correct pins. >_>

hcmtnbiker · Post by **hcmtnbiker** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 9:08 pm

I was thinking about doing this myself, and it should be possible, the only hard part would be figuring out all the pinouts and such to get it to work, i dont imagine it would require a lot of moding to the cart itself seeing as it mostly only uses the SNES to do give it input and then outputs the display to the SNES so it can display it on the tv.

oversize · Post by **oversize** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 4:01 pm

No I do not think it is possible to play GB carts with a NES. I know though that there was a portable NES that almost looked like a Game Boy in 1990. But the company was shut down by Nintendo at the time.

Gunnex · Post by **Gunnex** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 3:06 pm

You could, but not for cheap. The NES and GBA use two different 8-bit processors, so there would be a HUGE cart.

wallydawg · Post by **wallydawg** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 5:44 pm

I remember reading in an old PSM magazine that there was a gameboy player made for PS1.

I never saw such a thing anywhere, but it was for the best I suppose because it was in the reader mail section about how the retail chain that he bought it from wouldn't return it (apparently it hardly worked at all, and when it did there was sound and graphic glitches).

I'm going to look more into this, because it's a neat novelty, no matter how horrible of a product it was.

atari2600a · Post by **atari2600a** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 6:08 pm

I think I saw something on Zophar's Domain about this. Try searching there...

Post by **gannon** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 6:14 pm

IIRC there were the Wideboy and Wideboy 2 that did this.

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 6:14 pm

Actually, there is one!

It was called the WideBoy 2, by the same company who made the WideBoy64. It's quite rare now, though, and very expensive when you do see it. You'd be better off somehow making your own cart, perhaps by duplicating the GB hardware and making it output composite video and interface with the corresponding NES pins. I dunno, just a though.

EDIT: Keep in mind that the Wideboy2 was a Famicom accessory, not an NES one!

CTFan

josh · Post by **josh** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 6:40 pm

I'll donate an Gameboy (Brick) to anyone who attempts it

hcmtnbiker · Post by **hcmtnbiker** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 12:57 pm

josh wrote:I'll donate an Gameboy (Brick) to anyone who attempts it

It would probobly be easier just to use a super gameboy cart and modify that then ripping apart an actual gameboy

nitro2k01 · Post by **nitro2k01** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 1:16 pm

Not exactly on topic, but related. Brian Provinciano has built a device for capturing video from GBA and GBP to a computer: http://bripro.com/low/hardware/vidcap/index.php
I've also seen some capture device for plugging a GBA into a monitor/TV, can't find the link now though.
Using your NES for this seems a bit senseless, but adding S-video out to a grey brick actually seems within reach.
Also, fore the record: The GB uses a Z80-like CPU, whereas the NES uses a 6502, so there's no direct compatibility between the two. In order to build a NES SuperGB, you'd have constantly copy display data from one place to another. Very possible, (And apparantly it's been done) but not feasible IMHO.

arfink · Post by **arfink** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 8:36 pm

Um, going back on topic now- You could theoreticly make anything interface to the NES, but here is how I would probably make the GB interface to the NES. I would need to make a circuit that would take the video output of the game boy and then digitize it, and then place all that into a memory bank, which would be broken up into peices which the NES could load into the background in peices. Then all you'd have to do is run the controls through the NES with a bios and interpreter and the sound could be put through the audio input in the expansion port. Also, you would need to update the video buffer at least 60 times a second to get good video, which would be hard and expensive. In other words, you would be making you NES into a complex yet crappy video player which would be getting a live feed from a gameboy mobo. So in other words, maybe it's time to just buy a gameboy and forget about making it work on the NES, it would be really hard and expensive. There are too many hardware differences to port the software, and emulating is basicly imposible on the NES.

hcmtnbiker · Post by **hcmtnbiker** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 8:56 pm

Both of you last two posters dont seem to know exactly what a super gameboy is, because it would do most of what you say needs to be done. The only problem with a straight pin mod of a SGB is how the video memory of each of them are layed out so you'd need to add a specialized video memory controller (line chassing is involved i think), and btw it has been done before it was called a 'Wide Boy 2'