this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2026
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GB and GBC (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works to c/retrogaming@lemmy.world
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I had my mind blown yesterday, twice.

First, at the local game store I saw one of my favorite childhood PC games: Jeff Gordon XS racing, but in Game Boy form! Had no idea it was ported to GB. Had to get it.

Side note, XS racing on PC is a killer game, sadly very few have heard of it, go play it!

So it worked great in my OG game boy. Super fun but ofc not as good as the PC one.

I decide to look the game up. Everything about it says gameboy color. It is NOT a gameboy color cartridge. However, it WILL play on a gameboy advance SP in color! So i learned there are some backward compatible GBC games.

Also someone told me years back OG GB games dont work on an SP. Well, they do!!

Just some fun weird facts!

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[–] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Reminds me of when I discovered I could put playstation 1 CDs in an audio CD player and they were often setup to play the soundtrack

[–] Durandal@lemmy.today 4 points 1 week ago

"track number one contains computer data so don't play it... but you probably wont listen to me anyway..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF2htc3XDaw

[–] missingno@fedia.io 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Gray cartridges run in GB mode. The GBC can apply some limited colorization, the firmware has a database of game IDs to apply specific palettes to, or you can select one manually with a button combo on startup.

Black cartridges are dual mode, they'll run in GB mode on original hardware or GBC mode on a GBC.

Translucent green cartridges are GBC-only. If you try to boot them on an original GB you'll get an error screen telling you this game is only for GBC.

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

Had no clue the color mattered!

[–] Redkey@programming.dev 6 points 1 week ago

Not only do GB and GBC games work on the GBA, but some of them even have special GBA-only content. I know that at least one of the Legend of Zelda Oracle games has an extra house in the village on GBA. When you play the game on a GB/GBC, there's just an empty lot in that place.

[–] Toes@ani.social 4 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Fun fact, while the gameboy is turning on you can press a specific button combination to change the colour palette being used by the legacy gameboy games.

You can read about it here: https://yuhao-c.github.io/gameboy-user-manual/docs/changing-screen-color/

[–] DmMacniel@feddit.org 5 points 1 week ago

just like in the instruction manual stated: :)

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 2 points 1 week ago

If you're playing pokémon red and blue there's one colour palette which makes it quite simple to navigate rock tunnel without flash

[–] audaxdreik@pawb.social 2 points 1 week ago

I used to have a little notebook when I was younger where I tried out every option for every game and wrote down my top 3 favorite choices for what looked best on each one.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 2 points 1 week ago

Pokémon gold and silver were also GBC games but in a GB cartridge