Game Boy Mono "True" colors

[Black Zero]

Game Boy Mono "Accurate" Palette + SBG Palettes + Borders

This is a complete reboot as my old work was inaccurate.

I have for the last year been working on getting results as close as possible to the real Game Boy screen and now I finally have something to give you.

We'll start with Game Boy Mono (DMG)

This palette is what I believe is the closest thing you can get with minor error margins:

Add this line to the bgb config file:

ColorScheme=0F867F.457C57.485D36.3B452A.0F867F.457C57.485D36.3B452A.0F867F.457C57.485D36.3B452A.0F867F.457C57.485D36.3B452A.Game Boy Mono

This is how the end result looks:

  Spoiler:

You'll see when a game is running that everything is butter smooth.

As a little extra treat I'll also show you some SGB palettes taken from the real deal for some of the popular games which you can use in bgb:

Default 1-A palette

Add this line to the bgb config file:

ColorScheme=C8E8F8.4890D8.2034A8.501830.C8E8F8.4890D8.2034A8.501830.C8E8F8.4890D8.2034A8.501830.C8E8F8.4890D8.2034A8.501830.SGB Default 1-A

Kid Icarus

Add this line to the bgb config file:

ColorScheme=F8F8D0.5090F8.0000A0.000018.F8F8D0.5090F8.0000A0.000018.F8F8D0.5090F8.0000A0.000018.F8F8D0.5090F8.0000A0.000018.SGB Kid Icarus

Kirby

Add this line to the bgb config file:

ColorScheme=F8C0F8.8888E8.E83078.982828.F8C0F8.8888E8.E83078.982828.F8C0F8.8888E8.E83078.982828.F8C0F8.8888E8.E83078.982828.SGB Kirby

Mario Land 2

Add this line to the bgb config file:

ColorScheme=B8F8F0.78A8E0.00C808.000000.B8F8F0.78A8E0.00C808.000000.B8F8F0.78A8E0.00C808.000000.B8F8F0.78A8E0.00C808.000000.SGB Mario Land 2

Mega Man V

Add this line to the bgb config file:

ColorScheme=D0D0D0.E0A070.906840.302008.D0D0D0.E0A070.906840.302008.D0D0D0.E0A070.906840.302008.D0D0D0.E0A070.906840.302008.SGB Mega Man V

Metroid II

Add this line to the bgb config file:

ColorScheme=18E0B0.5820B8.001028.608000.18E0B0.5820B8.001028.608000.18E0B0.5820B8.001028.608000.18E0B0.5820B8.001028.608000.SGB Metroid II

Pokémon

Add this line to the bgb config file:

ColorScheme=F7FEFE.C0F7FE.9494E2.414141.F7FEFE.C0F7FE.9494E2.414141.F7FEFE.C0F7FE.9494E2.414141.F7FEFE.C0F7FE.9494E2.414141.SGB Pokemon

Wario Land

Add this line to the bgb config file:

ColorScheme=C0D8D8.70B0C8.1050B0.000000.C0D8D8.70B0C8.1050B0.000000.C0D8D8.70B0C8.1050B0.000000.C0D8D8.70B0C8.1050B0.000000.SGB Wario Land

Zelda

Add this line to the bgb config file:

ColorScheme=B0D8F8.78C078.408868.203858.B0D8F8.78C078.408868.203858.B0D8F8.78C078.408868.203858.B0D8F8.78C078.408868.203858.SGB Zelda

This is an example of the Metroid II palette with a nice SGB border:

  Spoiler:

As you can see I use bgb as my sole Game Boy emulator and it's one of the most accurate ones and the examples here are made for it.

However that's why I posted the palette images so you can use MS Paint to get the values for use in VBA-M or Gambatte, it's just that simple really.

As for the borders shown here they're attached to the post.

Enjoy!

 

[Black Zero]

Made a huge update to the main post so I hope everything is OK, it's looking fine here as far as I can see.

 

[Black Zero]

Got a little neat surprise for you all Game Boy lovers!

Check it out:

The zip file is attached and contains all these beauties ready for use in bgb!

 

[BigKong]

Could you make a pull request to https://github.com/libretro/common-shaders with these borders?

 

[Black Zero]

Could you make a pull request to https://github.com/libretro/common-shaders with these borders?

I'll post about it in the Libretro forums and see what we can do then we'll take it from there. I'm sure there's a solution for this!

 

[NES_player4LIFE]

Got a little neat surprise for you all Game Boy lovers!

Check it out:

The zip file is attached and contains all these beauties ready for use in bgb!

Great work.

 

[Black Zero]

Thanks man!

I do realize I left a couple of them out like Pokemon Red, Tetris, Bomberman, Super Game Boy 2 etc. but I'll do them later on.

- - - Updated - - -

OK I'm back with more goodies but try not to focus on what game it is that is played in these borders, it's just for illustration.

Bomberman border:

Cinema border:

Pokemon Gold border:

Pokemon Green border:

Pokemon Red border:

Pokemon Silver border:

Space Invaders border:

Street Fighter II border:

Super Game Boy 2 border:

Tetris border:

They are of course attached to this post!

 

[Black Zero]

[MENTION=113758]BigKong[/MENTION]

Here you can read about it:
http://libretro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5451

 

[retroskyle]

Hello,

Do you happen to know if these codes also work for the VBA-GX emulator and how/where exactly do I add them?
I'd love to use a palette other than B&W but I can't figure out how the VBA palette editor works.

 

[Black Zero]

Hello,

Do you happen to know if these codes also work for the VBA-GX emulator and how/where exactly do I add them?
I'd love to use a palette other than B&W but I can't figure out how the VBA palette editor works.

I don't know actually, but you could use MS Paint or something to get the Red Green Blue values from the palette images I posted above each code.
Just open the palette image and select the color with the color picker, then edit colors to get the Red Green Blue values needed.

I don't remember if VBA named the corresponding Red Green Blue attributes to something else.

However I don't use bgb anymore either as I moved my GB/GBC emulation to the RetroArch Libretro gambatte core which does things more nicer:

I strongly recommend that for the definite GameBoy experience.

 

[retroskyle]

I don't know actually, but you could use MS Paint or something to get the Red Green Blue values from the palette images I posted above each code.
Just open the palette image and select the color with the color picker, then edit colors to get the Red Green Blue values needed.

I don't remember if VBA named the corresponding Red Green Blue attributes to something else.

However I don't use bgb anymore either as I moved my GB/GBC emulation to the RetroArch Libretro gambatte core which does things more nicer:

I strongly recommend that for the definite GameBoy experience.

Thanks for the reply.

I do have the RetroArch emulator but I admit I haven't used it yet. I usually stay away from multi-platform emulators and go for specific ones instead, but maybe I should give this one a try, since it also seems to emulate PCE-CD, WonderSwan and MAME games that I'm having a hard time with in other emulators.

One question: does it have options to select those SGB colours you listed here and remove filters and borders? As much as I appreciate the effort behind the "real feel" approach, I rather play the games on the TV screen with some image "enhancement" - maintaining the original color palettes as seen in the SGB, but removing the pixelated filters and borders.

 

[Black Zero]

Thanks for the reply.

I do have the RetroArch emulator but I admit I haven't used it yet. I usually stay away from multi-platform emulators and go for specific ones instead, but maybe I should give this one a try, since it also seems to emulate PCE-CD, WonderSwan and MAME games that I'm having a hard time with in other emulators.

One question: does it have options to select those SGB colours you listed here and remove filters and borders? As much as I appreciate the effort behind the "real feel" approach, I rather play the games on the TV screen with some image "enhancement" - maintaining the original color palettes as seen in the SGB, but removing the pixelated filters and borders.

It may seem strange but I have separate bare bone instances of RetroArch on my gaming rig which I treat as separate emulators depending on which cores I use (I'm not fond of multi-platform emulators either but this works fine)
I'm using an older version of RetroArch (1.3.0) along with RAEM, a frontend that simulates the Windows GUI experience. This let's me just update the cores along with the info files without hassle.

I guess you can do everything you said you want to do, but as I'm only interesting getting as close to the real thing I tend to not left things out.

I know you can get SGB colors with Gambatte through custom palettes, but also if you want the full experience of SGB you can also run bsnes mercury like this:

retroarch -L "C:\Path\To\cores\bsnes_mercury_balanced_libretro.dll" -c "C:\Path\To\config\config.cfg" "C:\Path\To\Super Game Boy.sfc" --subsystem sgb "C:\Path\To\Game.gb"

Most things is possible to do with RetroArch these days and it's really stable too.

 

[retroskyle]

It may seem strange but I have separate bare bone instances of RetroArch on my gaming rig which I treat as separate emulators depending on which cores I use (I'm not fond of multi-platform emulators either but this works fine)
I'm using an older version of RetroArch (1.3.0) along with RAEM, a frontend that simulates the Windows GUI experience. This let's me just update the cores along with the info files without hassle.

I guess you can do everything you said you want to do, but as I'm only interesting getting as close to the real thing I tend to not left things out.

I know you can get SGB colors with Gambatte through custom palettes, but also if you want the full experience of SGB you can also run bsnes mercury like this:

retroarch -L "C:\Path\To\cores\bsnes_mercury_balanced_libretro.dll" -c "C:\Path\To\config\config.cfg" "C:\Path\To\Super Game Boy.sfc" --subsystem sgb "C:\Path\To\Game.gb"

Most things is possible to do with RetroArch these days and it's really stable too.

Cool, I'll give it a try then. I'm using it on a Wii, since I got tired of playing emus on a PC a long time ago (I prefer to separate both worlds, one is strictly for work and the other strictly for play). I have other emulators but perhaps I should explore more this one and Mednafen, since they may have options the specific ones lack.

Many thanks!

 

[Black Zero]

I was watching an episode of AVGN today, the Virtual Boy one.

For a brief moment there was good footage of a Game Boy screen and I quickly came to think of this old thread so I made this image.

It kinda looks like a good match.

If you want to use this in emulators, just download the picture and use the pippet tool in Paint or something to get the colors (RGB values), lightest to darkest and then use them.
bgb is one of the easiest Game Boy emulators to test this with.

Good luck!