Gameboy Color DX Hacks (+GBC to GBA enhancement hacks)

[tacoschip]

Adding bells and whistles are good for hackers who are multi-yearly devoted to their games - Maxim of Phantasy Star, xenophile of Final Fantasy Adventure, Mugi of Zill O'll Infinite PSP.


Otherwise I'd say just toss everyone's suggestions into a readme and say go addendum it; I'd rather work on something more fun instead (like marc_max and Donkey Kong).

[xenophile]

There's another factor in play. Nintendo had a diverse market. Some players already owned the normal version of a game and a color system and needed to be enticed with extra features. Some players owned a B&W system and needed backwards compatibility. For maximum profit Nintendo would need games with new features and backwards compatibility.

Everyone playing DX hacks has access to the B&W game, and if they don't have access to a color system then by Nintendo's own rules they wouldn't get the extra features.

...xenophile of Final Fantasy Adventure...

I'm in this picture and I don't like it.

[Supergamerguy]

I feel as though already the community of people colorizing these games is small, and the expectation is now that the colorization hacks should have a billion bells and whistles and fix everything wrong with the original game and as someone working on these colorizations I do occasionally find this frustrating, actually. Sometimes the extra additions and QoL changes can be just as much as, if not more work than, the colorization process itself.

I dislike the DX moniker for other reasons as well (I personally dislike when improvement hacks modify the title screen, but this is a personal taste thing) but I definitely have thoughts on the expectations of colorizations to be a be-all-end-all definitive version; it puts a lot of unnecessary expectation on the hacker to make changes that could easily be addendums. The policy of making the colorized version not identical makes sense from a 90s Nintendo marketing standpoint, but I would prefer not to scare off potential colorizers by adding excess pressure for their projects over bells and whistles. I even say that as someone who very much has added those bells and whistles (playable characters, extra modes, whatever) that if any up-and-coming GB->GBC colorizer is nervous about lacking the experience/time/motivation to add these bells and whistles it's actually fine if your project wants to stay small in scope.

Wily's Revenge for me for example was meant to be a smaller, simpler project after DKL2 and due to circumstances outside of my control constantly gets compared to a project with 10x the dev time (I'm going to likely put "Not as good as Mega Man V DX" on my tombstone), and somewhere along the line it's a process of realizing that fan expectations for colorization projects do occasionally brush up on unhealthy and can be stressful to the hacker, and also I want to say that every game is different and to be wary of expecting each colorization to be able to use the same techniques/methods/process, even within the same series. For example, I constantly got criticism for not updating the pause screen enough compared to the other Mega Man project, but people don't realize that unlike MM5 GB the pause screen in MM1 GB doesn't cover the whole screen so you need to keep the level palettes loaded or do some absolutely nasty LCD interrupt stuff, but trying to explain how complicated that can be to someone who hasn't made one of these can be impossible.

If your hack gets panned for not adding enough new features/etc/whatever it's not always due to lack of effort, sometimes the project just hits snags in places where you least expect, and I do wish the expectation for these to fix every flaw or rough edge of the original game was given a re-evaluation from people playing these hacks. That all said, I actually think if someone wants to make a colorization hack that just adds colors and nothing else, go for it! If people want those sorts of additions and you don't want to implement them, they can use your work as a base and make the game look however they want, don't let fan expectations turn you off from starting what should be a fun hobby project.

I second this message, though I don't have much to add to it.

[wrangler500]

None of the gameboy color launch titles in North America took full advantage of the gameboy color's more powerful hardware. They was rereleases of gameboy games( with the exception of Game & Watch Gallery 2) with no changes(except that they was in color). They was all cross compatible with the original gameboy. Only true dx game was Tetris dx. It wasn't just in color, it also had a few new play modes, different music, and saved your high scores, but was still cross compatible with the original gameboy and didn't take full advantage of the gameboy color's more powerful hardware. The game Centipede was sort of a down grade, it was not only cross compatible with the original gameboy, but the gameboy already had a dual release of Centipede and Millipede on the same cartridge. Why they didn't just rerelease Centipede and Millipede on the same cartridge is beyond me. Wario 2 and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX got a rerelease a little later (both games Nintendo property). Both games are cross compatible with the original gameboy, but The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX added extra color puzzle dungeons that you couldn't access if you played it on the original gameboy. Wario 2 had no extra features. R-type DX was cross compatible and had extra play modes you couldn't access if played on an original gameboy. Imo one of the only gameboy color games worth playing on the original gameboy was Conker's pocket tales. The plot was the same, but the level layout was completely different depending on which system u played It on, almost 2 different games.( Maybe someone will try to colorize the gameboy version someday). I personally think that the gameboy color was it's own system and not just a simple upgrade. At least 70% percent of it's game library was gameboy color exclusive games that couldn't be programmed to run on the original gameboy, because the gameboy color had more powerful hardware. I know I'm getting beyond the scope of this thread again, but just thought I would mention a little bit about gameboy color's history and why I and most other people consider that it's its own system and not just an upgrade of the original gameboy. The gameboy color was the most powerful 8 bit system.

[ReyK19FC]

Hello, I am new to the romhacking.net site , I have read all the forum conversations about game boy dx hack roms, it caught my attention when I saw the most recent hackrom MMV dx created by (marc max), and also MM dr wily revenge, which was created by (SpecialAgetApe), to whom I give my thanks, was an almost impossible feat :Pulgares hacia arriba:

About SpecialAgentApe listen that the last thing I read is that he is still thinking about coloring mega man World 2 , but I am not insinuating anything, but when I found out, I wonder if it would be possible to color the game, but even though MM World 2 is a less loved game, I think it would be great in the future :Pulgares hacia arriba:

but I do admit that your dx project is also there but I can't show it for personal reasons, but I not only had fun with the mega man dx hacks, I enjoyed metroid 2 dx, wario land dx, and donky kong land 2 dx, and I said By the way, I would try a castlevania and against dx

and with respect to other issues such as Nintendo America and Japan, I could not limit the gbc because in the world of video games it is always a business, although in its time in 1998 the gbc was the most powerful console but there was no way to see its potential until today, because it is regardless of the time and effort we all have the right to create dx hacks of the games we like so much  :Pulgares hacia arriba:

[ReyK19FC]

thanks wrangler500 for telling me the castlevania dx hack information

[wrangler500]

Castlevania: The Adventure DX  www.romhacking.net/hacks/7604/

[ReyK19FC]

I hope 2023 will be the best year for coloring

[ReyK19FC]

I have a message for Specialagentape, it's about support material, for mega man world 2, even though I know that you haven't considered it with respect to your previous project, I saw that you had some difficulties with the designs and color on my part it's a little help, as orientation in coloring hack

support link for Specialagentape

[ReyK19FC]

Hi everyone, good morning, as I said before, I'm new to the forum and I liked the gb dx colorization section. Anyway, I wanted to know what the process and instructions are to create a gb colorization to convert it into gbc and activate the double speed mode for small and large games, that is, what resources are needed to create a (rom hack) dx and also to create a gb ips of the game, I would appreciate anyone who could provide me with the information in a document, or a link for a video or page to guide me please

[ReyK19FC]

And if it is difficult to understand the information I will keep trying

[2mono7]

Castlevania: The Adventure DX  www.romhacking.net/hacks/7604/

This rom hack sadly does not work on the 3ds Gameboy color injector. 
Edit: used the wrong rom version whoops..... everythign works beautifully!

[wrangler500]

Another rom hack y'all might want to try for wario land 2. 
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6351/

[tobiasvl]

Hi everyone, good morning, as I said before, I'm new to the forum and I liked the gb dx colorization section. Anyway, I wanted to know what the process and instructions are to create a gb colorization to convert it into gbc and activate the double speed mode for small and large games, that is, what resources are needed to create a (rom hack) dx and also to create a gb ips of the game, I would appreciate anyone who could provide me with the information in a document, or a link for a video or page to guide me please

Although I've never used it, and I'm sure it's pretty limited, there's the Gameboy Colorizer tool, which you can find here: https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/30/

But if you want to got all in, then you need to learn how to reverse engineer Game Boy games, how to program for them (at least the basics), and how the Game Boy Color hardware works. It's not the simplest kind of ROM hack, so I recommend you play around with easier hacks first.

Basically, you'll need to write subroutines for setting the different palettes you want to use, and then you need to change the code that writes to the video memory so that it also writes those palettes at the correct time. There's some information here: https://gbdev.io/pandocs/Palettes.html#lcd-color-palettes-cgb-only and https://gbdev.io/pandocs/Tile_Maps.html#bg-map-attributes-cgb-mode-only

This all takes time, which you don't have too much of on the Game Boy (the video memory is only accessible during a short window, when the screen isn't being rendered), so using double speed mode is smart (although, depending on how the game is programmed, then you might need to rewrite some code so it doesn't actually go twice as fast): https://gbdev.io/pandocs/CGB_Registers.html#ff4d--key1-cgb-mode-only-prepare-speed-switch

On the GBC you also have DMA that can write this stuff faster: https://gbdev.io/pandocs/CGB_Registers.html#lcd-vram-dma-transfers

I'm currently colorizing a pretty simple game; maybe I'll do a small writeup of my experience when I'm done. It's a pretty static puzzle game, which I suppose makes it a good candidate for teaching because of its simplicity, but of course advanced colorizations (like Mega Man V DX) are much more work and not really feasible for a complete beginner (or me).

[ReyK19FC]

wow thanks dude tobiasvl

[ReyK19FC]

In truth, you are very considerate in providing or providing the information, well, regarding GB Colorizer, the program does say, I tried it in a certain way, but it is limited in the color palette, because I saw some tutorials and I verified that it works for certain simple GB games or little ones to add color.

[ReyK19FC]

Honestly, I'm not that professional in colorization, but I have a question and about the codes that come in the links on how to do a disassembly to change the format from gb to gbc, I don't know how I can insert the codes, I have a doubt if it should be used an emulator or special program to do it, and the thing is that I would like to do a colorization like (Specialagentape), the truth is that I would need more instructions

[ReyK19FC]

That is to say, Mega Man dr wily dx, I was wondering if it was possible to try to make one of the 3 Mega Man GB/Mega Man world games, because I was very curious because if it was possible to color the first game, why not? the others?, I know I don't know how to do dx hacks but in fact, although dx hacks are not done, I knew another method like Brunni's ColorIt Painter visual editor and Visual Boy Advance C.E. emulator, which are programs to edit the color palette of some games but in the same way the color was very limited in certain games and that's where my idea came from and interest in how to make a color GB game, you'll see with respect to mega man was thinking about coloring mega man world 4, but it's an initial idea that is not confirmed.

[tobiasvl]

I have a question and about the codes that come in the links on how to do a disassembly to change the format from gb to gbc

To change the game from a GB (DMG) to a GBC game, you just change one byte in the cartridge header: https://gbdev.io/pandocs/CGB_Registers.html#unlocking-cgb-functions

I don't know how I can insert the codes, I have a doubt if it should be used an emulator or special program to do it, and the thing is that I would like to do a colorization like (Specialagentape), the truth is that I would need more instructions

Colorizations like that are pretty advanced, like I said.

I prefer to disassemble the game into assembly code (I've used a tool called mgbdis for this). Then I just edit it in any text editor (I use VS Code, but you could even use Notepad, although it's much more clunky). Then you need to assemble it into a ROM again with rgbds. This is just like regular programming.

The other way is to edit the machine code of the ROM directly. As you say, that can be done in an emulator with debugging capabilities (or a binary file editor such as a hex editor). It can be harder to relocate code using this method though. This is more suitable for smaller hacks IMO. For something like a colorization project I personally think the disassembly route is easier.

Both methods require you to understand Game Boy programming, but other than that they have different pros and cons.

[ReyK19FC]

once again thanks tobiasvl , I just have another question, look at the games that maybe gb will pass to gbc, they would be mega man world 3 and world 4 but, here I ask you if it would be to convert it into dx