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The Nintendo Thread of Existential Doom

Interesting way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Donkey Kong Country, but okay.

It's a generally good game, albeit not so much on its hardware of origin. I enjoyed it on 3DS Virtual Console with all that entailed, let's just say. But it could really do with a remake of some kind... even just a colorization beyond the Super Game Boy type.
 
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look, the super game boy might not change this game *that* much, but the color variety does a lot to help mitigate the monotony of the graphics, and on that basis I think not having super game boy support in their official emulators is criminal
 
muteKi said:
look, the super game boy might not change this game *that* much, but the color variety does a lot to help mitigate the monotony of the graphics, and on that basis I think not having super game boy support in their official emulators is criminal
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Oh, absolutely agreed.

But if that's in response to what I was saying, I mean... have you seen what people are doing to colorize Game Boy games these days?
 
I really wish these companies would contract Frank Cifaldi or Chris Kohler/Digital Eclipse or someone like that to teach them how to add value to these retro rereleases to incentivize us to pay money for them/their services. Online play for old GBA games was a great start, but yeah, colorizing games like Donkey Kong Land would be so cool. I am not playing that game in monochrome in 2024, I'm sorry.
 
Colorizing a GB game can be a solid couple months of full-time work for an experienced hacker, especially if you add the requirement of maintaining monochrome compatibility.
 
Why would you need to? I mean, at that file size, you could probably just include two versions, rather than a one-size-fits-all.

Or in a case like NSO, just have them as separate options.
 
You wouldn't need to (especially in the cases you outlined) but the lack of cross-compatibility seems to be one of the more common complaints with these recent colorizations (people greatly underestimate the additional effort it entails).
 
I mean, Super Game Boy was a hack? It's just mapping the 4 shades of green to other colors. I can't imagine it would take any real amount of effort to include that functionality, at a minimum, in the NSO GB emulator. This is simply One Of Those Things that Nintendo doesn't want to do.
 
otakujeb said:
I mean, Super Game Boy was a hack? It's just mapping the 4 shades of green to other colors. I can't imagine it would take any real amount of effort to include that functionality, at a minimum, in the NSO GB emulator. This is simply One Of Those Things that Nintendo doesn't want to do.
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Definitely. Some of the NSO uploads are just a crime without it.
 
I assume that Nintendo would want to do an accurate Super Game Boy emulation if the did Super Game Boy, which would mean emulating an SNES cartridge emulating a Game Boy cartridge with the additional features that entails like unique sound effects.

Not expecting Nintendo to make it compatible with every Game Boy ROM on the service, but it would be neat to have a separate Switch Online app for Super Game Boy stuff. Some of these games did cool stuff with borders and backgrounds and audio.
 
The fact that Super Game Boy does more than just put colors and a border on a game is exactly why I would want it to have its own dedicated Switch Online app. You're not just emulating Game Boy games, you're emulating Game Boy games with additional features (some had single cart multiplayer, some had borders that would change, Space Invaders had an SNES version on-cart) through an emulated SNES cart.

It's emulation on top of emulation
 
Yeah, again. I'd like to see value added to these old games. The people who care - likely everybody reading this - have been emulating these games for decades now. Adding features/improving the presentation would no doubt cost resources, but would get me far more interested in the official rereleases than just loading these games up on my Retroid Pocket Mini. Putting online play in Iggy's Reckin Balls, for example, is rad as hell. Yes, that can be done via emulation, but is far harder to set up than just texting my buddy who has a Switch and saying "hey, let's play Iggy or Four Swords" or whatever.
 
To be clear, when I say "It's just remapping 4 shades of green" I'm only talking about the basic SGB function for regular GB games. SGB Enhanced games are surely complicated, to say the least, because of the combination of hardware to emulate. I'm not sure a completely separate app is called for, but perhaps multiple roms at least-- kind of like the SP selections in the NES app. But that's assuming Nintendo even wants to open that can of worms, which is unlikely. At that point you're approaching a higher level of Effort than NSO has demonstrated-- seems more like something a paid collection would do.
 
I believe Luigiblood has dug into some of the Game Boy emulators and found some code referencing Super Game Boy functionality and turning it on, but there's plenty of stuff buried in those emulators that Nintendo never uses or hasn't yet. Stuff is getting a bit unwieldy with so many NSO Apps, would be nice if they could just have a singular unified app down the road or something.

I truly believe that Sky High Caper is one of the hardest platforming levels in the world when attempted on original hardware. Just an absolute blurry mess of pixels on a level that demands precise jumps with NO margin for error as the game is ready to kill you the millisecond you fall below the tiny resolution of the screen, even if there's a platform you should be able to land on.
 
Looks like they also just stealth dropped Donkey Kong Land 2.

Now, DKL1 was an original game so sure, some merit there. DKL2 is a Gameboy port of DKC2 so… harder sell.

However!!

DKL2 was a game I owned as a tiny child, so it is therefor beyond reproach and shame on you for thinking otherwise.
 
Was it 2 or 3 that was like a remix of the SNES version, rather than being as close to a straight port as they could manage?
 
Pretty cool. I'm interested to see if they put the Game Boy Color port of DKL3 on the Japanese NSO app. I'm absolutely certain other regions will only get the original GB release, but Nintendo has surprised me before.
 

Japan and NA get Mercs, Vectorman, and the second Toejam and Earl today...it's been a year or so since the last Genesis update! O_o
 
Toejam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron is a gem of a game. While it isn't a masterpiece mechanically - it's a platformer with basic "attack" abilities - it is stunningly beautiful aesthetically. At least, you know, if you're into 90s aesthetics. I very much am. Play it a few minutes, see if it grabs you. I like it a lot.
 
Nodal said:
DK'94 is doing a lot more than mapping the 4 shades of green to other colors though.
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Sure, but anyone who's been playing these games on fan-developed emulators for literally decades at this point has been able to play the SGB-enhanced versions. It's frankly embarrassing that Nintendo has such a disregard for their own history that they can't include the full experience of games that were literally marketed quite heavily with these features in their day. The tech exists, fans have been doing it forever for Not $60+ a Year for years, and when they choose to do SOME things like putting all the stupid e-Reader levels in the GBA Mario 3 and not stuff like this, it starts to read like they really don't give much of a fuck.
 
ShakeWell said:
Sure, but anyone who's been playing these games on fan-developed emulators for literally decades at this point has been able to play the SGB-enhanced versions. It's frankly embarrassing that Nintendo has such a disregard for their own history that they can't include the full experience of games that were literally marketed quite heavily with these features in their day. The tech exists, fans have been doing it forever for Not $60+ a Year for years, and when they choose to do SOME things like putting all the stupid e-Reader levels in the GBA Mario 3 and not stuff like this, it starts to read like they really don't give much of a fuck.
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This. So much this. All of this.
 
ShakeWell said:
Sure, but anyone who's been playing these games on fan-developed emulators for literally decades at this point has been able to play the SGB-enhanced versions. It's frankly embarrassing that Nintendo has such a disregard for their own history that they can't include the full experience of games that were literally marketed quite heavily with these features in their day. The tech exists, fans have been doing it forever for Not $60+ a Year for years, and when they choose to do SOME things like putting all the stupid e-Reader levels in the GBA Mario 3 and not stuff like this, it starts to read like they really don't give much of a fuck.
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Oh I totally agree.
 
No doubt there's emulators for it but I wonder if there's one that's up to Nintendo's standards. Like, I tried emulating Donkey Kong 94 in the past ala SGB stoof and it just would not play the enhanced sound effects.

But that said, Nintendo still has a long way to go with their emulation of stuff. It's nice they unlock some stoofs locked behind stuff like Game Boy to Nintendo 64 connectivity (see Mario Tennis GBC's roster) and found a way to link cable, but things like Controller Pak emulation still remain unused and the Pokémon Stadiums would be better if they could interact with the handheld Pokémon games which yeah I know they're not on the Switch Online Game Boy service.
 
MetManMas said:
No doubt there's emulators for it but I wonder if there's one that's up to Nintendo's standards.
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I haven't tried it, but there's a SGB core for the Analog Pocket (and, presumably, the MiSTer) that should be pretty accurate by its nature.
 
Donkey Kong Land III dropped. And yes, they did put the GBC version on the Japanese NSO app. Neat. Looking forward to giving it a go.
 
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