what is overclocking a gameboy?

[what]

I see people mentioning overclocking their gameboys, but what is it?

[desertman123]

You replace the CPU with a Chrystal ososolater (sp?) with a high clocked one so it will process the data much faster altering the timings in everything thus creating a sped up game.

[joeyjoe9876]

it just speeds up gameplay sorta. very useful in slow games like pokemon

[bicostp]

You replace the CPU with a Chrystal ososolater (sp?) with a high clocked one so it will process the data much faster altering the timings in everything thus creating a sped up game.

You don't replace the CPU. You replace the crystal oscillator that came in the Game Boy with a faster one. The oscillator controls the clock speed the whole system runs at. Faster crystal = faster game (for those endless walks in Zelda and Pokemon), slower crystal = slower game (cheating at Asteroids ).

[what]

Oh. Thanks, that's a very interesting idea, I should try that for my gameboy color.

[argelfraster]

Not to thread jack, but exactly what kind of crystal would make it faster?

[Dr. Killjoy]

Here's a link to a tutorial (with pictures) that will help you understand:
http://gieskes.nl/underclocking_or_over ... _tutorial/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In that tutorial, it shows the mod being done to an original, but I believe that both the Pocket and Color models are also capable of being over/underclocked.

[argelfraster]

How many MHz should the crystal oscillator have?
Out of this list

[vskid]

How many MHz should the crystal oscillator have?
Out of this list

The stock one is 8MHz. I would use a 12-14MHz one. That'll get you a 1.5-1.75x increase in speed. I used a 14MHz one in mine, it was about perfect for Pokemon.

[64M320N3]

I never liked Pokemon until I did this mod.

[argelfraster]

would 16 MHz be overkill?

[64M320N3]

Well, it won't hurt anything, but unless you want every game fast (including the ones that were previously slow.)
I'd like to see one with a 20 MHz. That would be AWESOME.

[what]

Thanks for all the info. And yes, that would be awesome!

[palmertech]

Not really, the GBC maxes out at a certain point. I had one running on a 69mhz crystal, and it seemed about double speed, and a 24mhz crystal got the same result. I guess it can only go so fast.

[what]

Oh, too bad.