Is Metroid II playable in color under VBA-M?

banjo_oz · Post by **banjo_oz** » Sat Mar 30, 2013 3:02 am

Hi all!

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I've finally decided to play through Metroid II and was deciding between dusting off my old Super Gameboy or using VBA-M. I'd probably rather the latter, but when I loaded it I noticed that nothing I try seems to result in anything but monochrome graphics.

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Obviously the original game is monochrome (Gameboy only, no DX ever released), but I clearly recall my real cartridge playing with a limited color palate in my SNES/Super Gameboy. I thought this was simulated in VBA (I tested with Game and Watch Gallery, which indeed displays in SGB color) but I can't get it to work.

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What's more, I figured "well, if I try something else..." and downloaded two separate "colorization" ips patches but one causes a whitescreen while the other displays STILL in monochrome (even though the other changes of the patch are evident!).

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I'm sure I'm just missing a setting or something here. I've tried setting to SGB, SGB2, Automatic, GB, GBC, GBA... all keep Metroid 2 in monochrome. I've tried enabling and disabling GB bios, and I've even tried renaming the roms to .gbc or .sgb but all to no avail.

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Before I go mad, I'd love to know if anyone can get Metroid 2 to play on VBA-M (what seems to be the latest version, SVN1149) or if this is 'broken' and I'm wasting my time?

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If so, fair enough (I'll just bust out my SNES/SGB), but VBA-M is so great that I'd love to play in that instead if I can get color working!

Squall Leonhart · Post by **Squall Leonhart** » Sat Mar 30, 2013 3:33 am

Metroid 2 does not have a SGB mode.

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The patch you are trying to use must be applied to the game itself, it cannot be auto loaded by the emulator

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However the colours are scrambled in VBA 1.8.0 cvs and thus also in VBA-M.

banjo_oz · Post by **banjo_oz** » Sat Mar 30, 2013 3:58 am

Thanks for the quick reply and help!

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Does that mean VBA/VBA-M has no way of displaying the SGB color palatte for Metroid 2 (as attached below)?

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I guess I'm just confused because it does display Game & Watch Gallery's SGB colors correctly (though perhaps because it's a more enhanced cart, with a custom border too?). If VBA only supports that kind of "enhanced specifically for SGB", carts (i.e. games like GaWG that came out after the SGB) that makes sense.

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I did try the fan-made color patch you mentioned and noticed the scrambled colors too. Tried another fan color patch (ips from romhacks, if I recall) and got a white screen. Tried Redrum's color (and other stuff) patch and it runs fine (has the altered copyright line on the startup screen) but the game still in monochrome, ignoring his color changes! This happens, incidentally, whether I let the emulator apply the patch (include an ips of the same name) or inject the patch with Luna IPS myself into a rom and play that (this one confuses me most of all and is what made me think I had a setting wrong somewhere).

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"Real GB on GBASP" color (setting) is good enough to play with, thankfully, but I'm still confused at how SGB support works in VBA-M and why the patched versions still display in black and white.

Squall Leonhart · Post by **Squall Leonhart** » Sat Mar 30, 2013 4:02 am

In the case of Metroid II, the SGB colours were provided from the SGB bios's ability to manually remap colours for games run with it.

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Like all original Game Boy games, the Metroid II cartridge is also compatible with the Super Game Boy accessory for the SNES, manually remapping the color scheme to a maximum of four different colors.

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we don't currently have support for this, so your best off trying to use another emulator that supports SGB.

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The ips file from romhacks is what has been applied to the unofficial DX rom.

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the kind of patch it is, it cannot be autoloaded by the emulator, it must be applied to the actual game binary.

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The Redrum patch doesn't appear to work on NoGBA either..... so i dunno about that one.

banjo_oz · Post by **banjo_oz** » Sat Mar 30, 2013 4:06 am

Ah-ha! Thanks! That makes sense... thus, the only GB games that will show color under SGB mode are those like Game & Watch Gallery that had extra color info on the cart itself.

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I'm not sure how that explains the Metroid 2 DX (redrum) ips not being in color (even when the rom is patched), though, but at least it answers my original confusion.

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Thanks again for the help clearing this up, as it was driving me nuts trying to figure it out.

Squall Leonhart · Post by **Squall Leonhart** » Sat Mar 30, 2013 4:27 am

VBA-M(based off 1.8.0cvs) vs VBA 1.72

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banjo_oz · Post by **banjo_oz** » Sat Mar 30, 2013 4:31 am

Oooh, interesting!

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I've used nothing but VBA for years after falling in love with it. I upgraded to VBA-M this week, assuming it was "VBA, just maintained and improved". Well, it IS, but seems like there are still reasons to keep old VBA around... for now.

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Thanks again!

Squall Leonhart · Post by **Squall Leonhart** » Sat Mar 30, 2013 4:58 am

As for your other topic, Azure Dreams does work - though it hangs on a white screen for a few seconds

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but i figure since you deleted the thread you worked that out.

banjo_oz · Post by **banjo_oz** » Sat Mar 30, 2013 6:03 am

Yup, I did! Thanks for the reply, though. I tested AD in another emulator, and when it loaded up after a short pause, I figured VBA-M just had a much longer delay and sure enough... that was the case! [img]<fileStore.core_Emoticons>/emoticons/smile.png[/img]/emoticons/smile@2x.png 2x" width="20" height="20" />

VideoGeemer · Post by **VideoGeemer** » Thu Apr 18, 2013 12:26 am

Oooh, interesting!

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I've used nothing but VBA for years after falling in love with it. I upgraded to VBA-M this week, assuming it was "VBA, just maintained and improved". Well, it IS, but seems like there are still reasons to keep old VBA around... for now.

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Thanks again!

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Indeed, I keep VBA 1.8.0 beta3 around JUST for Metroid 2 Color. So basically I use that one for Game Boy, and the new VBA-M for GBA, since it runs those better.