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gbdev / pandocs

The single, most comprehensive Game Boy technical reference.
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Link ports on different SGB models? #22

Open avivace opened 4 years ago

avivace commented 4 years ago

On "Separating between SGB and SGB2":

Reportedly, some SGB models include link ports (just like handheld gameboy) (my own SGB does not have such an port), possibly this feature is available in SGB2-type models only ???

Bananattack commented 4 years ago

I have a Super Game Boy 2 at home, and it contains a link port. To my knowledge, the SGB2 is the only model of Super Game Boy with the link port, and it was a Super Famicom-only release.

Maybe someone with more knowledge can weigh in, if there are other models with this? This was my general understanding though.

(The SGB2 also runs at the proper GB clock speed, which fixes the audio in games, but at the cost of frame tearing. This can become extremely evident when playing a game like Chikyū Kaihō Gun ZAS, which is very hard to look at on a SGB1 due to the background flicker every frame, but looks like a complete mess on a SGB2 since the screen will exhibit tons of tearing and dropped frames due to desync of the SNES and GB)

So we could probably rephrase this, and fix the "As far as I know the SGB2 doesn't have any extra features which'd require separate SGB2 detection except for curiosity purposes." sentence too. The reasons you'd want to detect SGB2 are for the link cable presence, and to potentially disable any audio pitch fixes or other timing changes you'd add to a SGB1 game (if any -- since these adjustments are not needed on an SGB2).

avivace commented 4 years ago

@LIJI32 said, on Discord:

IIRC this is a ancient rumor from the dark ages when getting Japan-exclusive models was hard I remember seeing a video about it some time ago, about the mysterious "US SGB2", which ended up with the conclusion that it doesn't exist and never existed

port does not exist on SGB1.

avivace commented 4 years ago

@Bananattack maybe we can prepare a table with these "problems" and "features" exposed? Clock speed, frame tearing, audio problems/audio fixes needed, link port for GB/GBC, SGB1, SGB2

JL2210 commented 4 years ago

I have an original SGB and can confirm that it does not have a link port.