What happens when you put a GameBoy Color game in an Original GameBoy?

[arashikou]

Honestly pretty slick of Nintendo to indicate a game's with the physical shape of the cartridge.

[larhanfu]

The black ones are specified to be playable on both systems, but with full color capability for the Gameboy Color.

[SoshiTheYoshi]

The Legend of the Lost Spatula error screen for the Game Boy Pocket actually has a screencap from the episode, “Hooky”.

[DoomFinger]

The black cartridges were just gameboy games with color added to them. The clear ones were GBC exclusive.

[megamix]

That's sick. The GBC cart goes really well with the Play it Loud aesthetic.

Also, Game and Watch 3 is awesomesauce!

[lazzo]

One time, I actually used a razor to cut a notch out on the Residential Evil Gaiden cartridge to see what happens when you try to play it on an original Game Boy. It just shows a screen of text saying that it only works with the GB color. I just had to know!

[AlexandruLipan]

For the GBC there are 2 types of cartridge. The opaque one (every color, but mainly black) can be played on the original GB; the transparent ones cannot, as the game need the faster CPU and the bigger VRAM to run.

[MrDay-sdns]

For those that didn’t know usually the box would say on the back if it was compatible with older gameboys. I still felt cool as a kid putting a “only for game boy color” game in my advance sp

[LITTLE]

Yeah, only the ones that are SHAPED like OG Game Boy games, including Pokemon Gold/Silver, can work in the original handheld.

One thing to note an error, the Color is not an upgrade to the original Game Boy - it is actually its SUCCESSOR.

[zflipratorrrz]

Honestly, I'll always consider the GBC as a successor to the original GB until the day i die. It was it's own console, such as the 3DS is to the DS. There were 3 variants of original Game Boy's (original model, Pocket, and the Light in Japan). Then the Game Boy Color was the new console. Afterwards, game the GBC's successor, the GBA, then the GBA SP and the GB Micro was variants of the GBA.

And nobody can tell me otherwise, not even Nintendo themselves, and God knows they've tried.

[willbill]

I remember wanting SMB Deluxe to work on my original GB pocket, this screen was my bane lol

[RtroZone]

Makes sense. The non-clear GameBoy Color Cartridges are exactly the same as the original GameBoy cartridges.
The games themselves were made with color, it's the GameBoy screen that didn't show color.
Put a classic GameBoy game in a GameBoy Advance, or a GameCube with the GameBoy player and they play in color.

[HippyTesla]

There is at least one game that essentially gives us two games in s single cart: Conker's Pocket Tales. Depending on if you boot it up on the original Game Boy (including the Game Boy Pocket and Super Game Boy) or on a GBC /GBA, it will be a completely different game. But there is only one S-RAM (save chip), so only one version can have its saved game at the same time.

[TheBester]

I once saw a video of someone launching pokemon crystal on a regular gameboy (an emulator though), and forcing the game to boot with GameShark codes. The intro is broken, and the game completely crashes when the gameplay part starts.

[PixlDoesThings]

It just displays in the green monochrome colours I accidentally bought Tetris DX instead of normal Tetris for my gameboy pocket but I was glad it still worked

[Wlfenstrike]

Wario Land 2 was a black cartridge, but the saves were locked out to the system it was being played on, for example, if you played on a GBC and you try to boot it up on a DMG, it will prompt you to delete the save for it to work on the older GB. I wonder if that save has some content that can't be read by the older systems.

[Thelodis]

As people have mentioned, Conker's Pocket tales has different contents depending on what system you play it on, most noticeable different intro screens and different HUD placements. I'm also sure that you can't play on one system and then continue on the same save file on the other system.

[nikosdimitriadis]

Hey, when I was younger I broke the plastic that prevents GBC games being inserted in the Original Game Boy. Curiosity I guess. I put a GBC game in the Original Game Boy. The Original Gameboy also has a screen saying that the game was only created for the GBC, which means, nope, it wont run.

[Gonzie]

The shell of your game boy colour is amazing

[seanewing]

The physical difference, for those who forgot or don't know, is that there's a notch missing on the right side of backwards compatible carts. GBC only carts have four identical corners.