Only one DAT has Enhanced Roms?

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wilde219
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Only one DAT has Enhanced Roms?

Post by wilde219 »

Hi,

i have a little question. Why has only the NDS-Dat the info about the Enhanced Roms (NDSi Enhanced)?
The Game Boy- & Game Boy Color-Dats have Enhanced Roms too!

For example:

Donkey Kong (World).gb =>
Donkey Kong (World) (Super Game Boy Enhanced).gb or
Donkey Kong (World) (SGB Enhanced).gb?

Legend of Zelda, The - Link's Awakening DX (Germany).gbc =>
Legend of Zelda, The - Link's Awakening DX (Germany) (Super Game Boy Enhanced).gbc or
Legend of Zelda, The - Link's Awakening DX (Germany) (SGB Enhanced).gbc?

And sorry for my bad english!
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C. V. Reynolds
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Re: Only one DAT has Enhanced Roms?

Post by C. V. Reynolds »

Indeed, that is correct, wilde219. Also, some GBC games, very notably "Legend of Zelda, The - Oracle of Ages" and "Legend of Zelda, The - Oracle of Seasons", have enhancements for GBA built in.
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kazumi213
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Re: Only one DAT has Enhanced Roms?

Post by kazumi213 »

I agree as well. In fact some games in GBC DAT should be moved to GB DAT and tagged as (GBC Enhanced).
hydr0x
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Re: Only one DAT has Enhanced Roms?

Post by hydr0x »

kazumi213 wrote:I agree as well. In fact some games in GBC DAT should be moved to GB DAT and tagged as (GBC Enhanced).
No, the games you're thinking of were marketed as Game Boy Color games with downwards compatibility, not the other way around (NDS games with additional DSi features)
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kazumi213
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Re: Only one DAT has Enhanced Roms?

Post by kazumi213 »

Example:
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wilde219
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Re: Only one DAT has Enhanced Roms?

Post by wilde219 »

Hi again!

I have a another example for rom enhancements, Link Enhancend!?


Example:

Castlevania - Dawn of Sorrow (Europe) (En,Fr,De,Es,It) (NDS-GBA Link Enhancend).nds

and

Castlevania - Aria of Sorrow (Europe) (En,Fr,De) (NDS-GBA Link Enhancend).gba


or for kazumi213 ;) :

Pokemon - Yellow Version (USA, Europe) (GBC+Link Enhanced).gb


???
hydr0x
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Re: Only one DAT has Enhanced Roms?

Post by hydr0x »

kazumi213 wrote:Example:
That's GBC enhanced? News to me :/
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kazumi213
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Re: Only one DAT has Enhanced Roms?

Post by kazumi213 »

@hydr0x: see attached pic, some colors when played on GBC. Obviously such feature won't be there if the game was GB-only. Must be in GB DAT because it was sold on GB box (previous pic).

@wilde219: the idea behind (system Enhanced) special tag is allowing proper system allocation for games while keeping connections with compatible systems (and so avoid game duplication across DATs). There are common sense limitations: the advantages/enhancements of playing the game on the newer system have to be officially declared by the time of game release.

The NDS-GBA linkage feature and others like that have nothing to do with this tag as they involve interaction between 2 different games. The game having this kind of feature isn't suitable info for naming.
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hydr0x
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Re: Only one DAT has Enhanced Roms?

Post by hydr0x »

kazumi213 wrote:@hydr0x: see attached pic, some colors when played on GBC. Obviously such feature won't be there if the game was GB-only. Must be in GB DAT because it was sold on GB box (previous pic).
huh? Don't all GB games have colors on GBC and SGB? I see what you mean though, it looks like the pokemons have their correct colors etc. Not sure if this is actually GBC enhancement or just clever programming by the coders making best use of the GBC's own coloring mechanism.

Wikipedia:
In addition, 89 Game Boy games have a special palette that is enabled when no buttons are pressed. Any game that does not have a special palette will default to the dark green (Right + A) palette. Notable games that do have preset palettes are Metroid II: Return of Samus, Kirby's Dream Land 2, Super Mario Land, Tetris, Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly and the Wario Land series. The default palettes are stored in a database within the internal boot rom of the GBC, and not the game cartridge itself
I suspect this is just one of those but I'm sure BigFred will know for sure ;)
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Tori
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Re: Only one DAT has Enhanced Roms?

Post by Tori »

I wanted to point out that this Pokémon Game wasn't in the right DAT some time ago, but I thought that it had already been discussed about, being such a widespread and old game, but I see that I should have spoke about it...

Regarding the SGB enhanced GB games, some have, in addition to the "good" palette, a frame around the screen...
They (GBC and SGB enhanced) also have more colors than the "colored" standard GB games (their palettes have more colors than the default palettes), IIRC...

Tori.
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kazumi213
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Re: Only one DAT has Enhanced Roms?

Post by kazumi213 »

Some more info. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Game_Boy

The Super Game Boy was compatible with the original monochrome Game Boy cartridges and black Game Boy Color cartridges, although it would display the latter in their monochrome compatibility mode. The unit could map the four shades of grey to various colors on the screen. Later Game Boy games which were optimized to use the Super Game Boy had additional color information and could over-ride the ability to change the on-screen colors, and the ability to display a graphical border around the screen as well as the ability to display special background sprites on the screen as seen in (for example) the Mario's Picross title screen. Those games would have printed a small "Super Game Boy Game Pak" logo on the box and cartridge.

Here is a list of SGB enhanced games: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Su ... _Boy_games but I'm not sure whether all of them should be tagged that way in DAT. I.e: Pokemon Blue JPN displays SGB logo on boxart (should be tagged for sure), but Pokemon Blue USA doesn't display logo, it however shows a screenshot similar to Pokemon Yellow on the back (see attached pictures).

Super Game Boy titles will work too. Despite compatibility with Super Game Boy titles, the Game Boy Color will not recognize the coloring header for Super Game Boy titles which have a color graphics system of its own.

Is this header something that can be used to identify SGB enhanced dumps?

A note regarding Yellow discussed above: even if the palette was in the GBC BIOS and not the in ROM data, Yellow should still be tagged (GBC Enhanced), as those 89 special palettes were assigned to certain games only (if I've understood your quote correctly).
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z.g
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Re: Only one DAT has Enhanced Roms?

Post by z.g »

kazumi213 wrote:Is this header something that can be used to identify SGB enhanced dumps?
if byte at offset 0x146 is 0x3 — supergb. so blue pokemons is sgb enhanced.
and offset 0x143: 0 - gb, 0x80 - gb/gbc (like dsi enhanced as i can understand), 0xc0 - gbc.
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kazumi213
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Re: Only one DAT has Enhanced Roms?

Post by kazumi213 »

Thanks as always for the info z.g ;) That should make the tagging easier and accurate.

I found a page similar to gbatek, this one is dedicated to GBx. From its header section:

0143 - CGB Flag
In older cartridges this byte has been part of the Title (see above). In CGB cartridges the upper bit is used to enable CGB functions. This is required, otherwise the CGB switches itself into Non-CGB-Mode. Typical values are:

80h - Game supports CGB functions, but works on old gameboys also.
C0h - Game works on CGB only (physically the same as 80h).

Values with Bit 7 set, and either Bit 2 or 3 set, will switch the gameboy into a special non-CGB-mode with uninitialized palettes. Purpose unknown, eventually this has been supposed to be used to colorize monochrome games that include fixed palette data at a special location in ROM.

0146 - SGB Flag
Specifies whether the game supports SGB functions, common values are:

00h = No SGB functions (Normal Gameboy or CGB only game)
03h = Game supports SGB functions

The SGB disables its SGB functions if this byte is set to another value than 03h.


I'm still unsure about (GBC Enhanced) tag for *all* 0x143 set to 80h (or 84h/88h according to note). This is going to depend on how these values are assigned to games (should be games sold in GB box of course), and what's the difference between a 00h and a 8xh (again in GB box) when played on GBC system.
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kazumi213
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Re: Only one DAT has Enhanced Roms?

Post by kazumi213 »

Ok, I've performed a mini test using no$gmb. It allows to set emulator mode to strict GB, GBC or SGB with accurate colors. Results:

Pocket Monsters - Pikachu (Japan) (Rev D) [0x143 = 00h; 0x146 = 03h; 0x14b = 33h]
When run on GBC: monochrome
When run on SGB: border + color
Conclusion: (SGB Enhanced)

Pokemon - Yellow Version (USA, Europe) [0x143 = 80h; 0x146 = 03h; 0x14b = 33h] + sold in GB box
When run on GBC: color
When run on SGB: border + color
Conclusion: (GBC,SGB Enhanced)
MikeHaggar
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Re: Only one DAT has Enhanced Roms?

Post by MikeHaggar »

Says it needs 2 different bytes to be set for SGB in the doc there:
http://nocash.emubase.de/pandocs.htm#sg ... bfunctions
146h - SGB Flag - Must be set to 03h for SGB games
14Bh - Old Licensee Code - Must be set 33h for SGB games
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