Heard of Solomon, but haven’t played it. I also recall Elevator Action was remade into a Dexter’s Laboratory game and a puzzle game into a Yogi Bear game too.
@matt shared this interesting video with me earlier today:
I Bought 5 Broken GAMEBOY Games on eBay | How Many Can I FIX?! - YouTube
What the presenter finds surprising is the solder around the same chip seems to be the issue with most of the carts. There are some interesting remarks under the video about the potential for wear and tear of that solder:
the design of gameboy carts means that repeateded removal from the system flexs the pcb making the chip legs cracking free from their pads an extremely common occurance. it’s sad to think the amount of GB carts that have been binned because of what was likely an easy fix.
And this response:
Also worth noting the way the cartridge is removed from a GBA is very different from a GBC. When the cart is pulled from the GBA you are alot more likely to grab it from the front and back since it is exposed. Removing it that way applies a tremendous amount of pressure right on the part where the chip is. With GBC the cart was not exposed so you had to remove it by the edge where there was no pressure applied to the center of the board. I wonder if that area was not reinforced better cause they did not anticipate the backwards compatibility for the GBA.
Is anyone able to share further insight? I’ve always removed GB/GBC carts using the embossed (grey/black carts) / raised (clear carts) segments on their front - would that be potentially bad compared to using the top edges of the carts with the grille texture?
Thankfully none of my childhood carts have had any issues like this so far, but it does worry me. Even if it is repairable.
Tetris Blast is definitely one of the best and most underappreciated Tetris follow-ups. Manages to be worthy of the Tetris name while also being more distinct by adding in an explosive POW factor to it:
Doesn’t really add up to me as explained. What is ‘exposed’ on GBA? they sit flush with the system, except for the DS Lite.
GBA games have a ridge to pull too.
I guess they mean a GBC cart on a GBA sticks out from the system, so when you remove it you’re more likely to squeeze the middle(?) of the cart and apply pressure where the soldering joints are around that chip?
Guess that would explain why I haven’t had the issue - at least to my recollection I rarely played GBC games on my GBA at the time.
Yeah once you went GBA GBC usage dropped a lot. I played very few GBC games on GBA. And it was worse due to the smaller (but still not backlit) display so I just used the GBC.
I guess this would therefore mostly affect games kids played as they would still be on GBC Pokemon and Spongebob or whatever on the GBA for a couple of years maybe. And kids are just rough with everything anyway, I remember an N64 controller which had gone the whole console lifecycle remaining perfect condition (adult usage and no Mario Party). My brother loaned it to a kid for two days, and it came back as a limp sticked ruin.
Would love a wide format DMG
4 Likes
The dimensions remind me a ton of the neo Geo pocket color.
1 Like
Oh man, if you watched my Battle of the Ports videos, you would have known about Solomon. Think I covered that in June.
Very neat project!
But the DMG is so chunky and has no shoulder buttons so it works great vertically IMO. Most comfortable handheld still for me.
3 Likes
The DMG does feel nice in the hands, don’t really have any problems with it. I think the landscape format can feel a little nicer on the wrists…I’m playing around with my DMG and holding it sideways lol
Beautiful… not sure I would prefer the landscape mode or not, I’d have to try them out
1 Like
Never had a DMG but I presume the Analogue Pocket apes its design and I have rather been enjoying playing GB/GBC games on it.
Having just a D-Pad and two face buttons really helps eliminate my impulse to tightly “grip” it, so the form factor works well.
Yep, shoulder buttons really hurt handheld games IMO.
The only one that ever felt semi-comfortable to me was the GBA SP because you hit the shoulders under knuckles, rather than fingers. Otherwise it’s a weird balancing act of supporting the machine and hitting shoulders.
Finally got a grip for 3DS which alleviated it somewhat but it kind of defeats the purpose making the machine awkward and chunky, have to take it off when putting the console away.
2 Likes
Yup… pretty much hate shoulder buttons on almost everything.
I feel like they’re always too far toward myself, they should be tucked in back where your hands naturally rest.
I’m definitely not a shoulder button fan unless they’re triggers, but I never minded the OG Game Boy Advance. If only that screen had been better out of the box… it still has its charm though.
I like shoulder buttons but it’s somewhat paradoxical for me - I just prefer them on thinner devices I can wrap/grip my hands around. The chunkier the device - Wii U was especially bad for this - the less comfortable shoulder buttons are for me!
Game Boy Micro has some of my favourite shoulder buttons despite its diminutive size, because the generous width of the shoulder buttons means you can activate them rather easily (it’s like GBA SP but better!)
The eternal question: do you categorize black cartridge/dual boot games as Game Boy or Game Boy Color games, if you had to choose one 
Game Boy Color. They just have a backward compatible mode.
Though it is a unique format where it has content available only on one platform and not another. They’re true dual format games. Eg the games with Super Game Boy backgrounds in black and white but there is no Color hardware to view them on. Also the shades of grey for each pixel is technically unique for black and white, since they’ll be be colours in colour.
Do you feel the same way about Neo Geo Pocket Color games? Feels a bit murkier.