The Super Game Boy was great, it let me, for the first time, play Game Boy games on my television via my Super NES. It also, with certain games, allowed for way more colors than the 4 that most Game Boy games supported. I mean, take a look at this Donkey Kong screenshot.

Isn't that great? Extended color palette, custom screen border, and when Pauline gets yoinked away at the end of the stages, she actually calls for help.

Now, if we take a look at the same game in the new-fangled Game Boy Player for the Game Cube

The enhanced palette is gone, the custom border is gone, and Pauline's cries are reduced to a sad little squeak (sounds kind of like a goose blowing a kazoo).

So you might want to keep your Super NES and Super Game Boy around if losing access to those things means anything to you.

The Super Game Boy let you play games that normally were about a quarter the size of an average postcard, and blow them up so that they were almost as big as a sheet of notebook paper. And, since they didn't take up all the room on your screen, you get these snazzy borders to take up the extra room. They don't really do much, though, other than just look kind of neat.

If you let them sit for long enough, though, stuff starts to happen. Little screen savery kinds of things. But, what if you want to see the screen savers without sitting there not touching the controller for several minutes at a time?

Easy. Just grab your controller, press L, L, R, R, L, L, L, L, R. You'll hear a 'ding' sound and the border's animation will start... assuming it has one.

A few of them, like the plain black border, don't do anything, though.