Pro tip: Game Boy Player, not feature complete

Will — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:23:43 +0000

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.

Pro Tip: Mega Man 3: Extending Proto Man's whistle

Will — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 23:04:52 +0000

This is Proto Man.

There's a whole lot to his angsty story in the Mega Man universe, but I'm really not going to go into that here. In Mega Man 3 he just kind of appears every once in a while to fight you in a dead end for a few minutes and then he opens up a path for you to proceed. And his arrival is preceded by five very distinctive notes on a whistle.

But, if you've ever finished the game, you might know that there's more to the little ditty he plays. And, you can hear those extra notes pretty well any time you want, with a little timing.

So first, go to a stage where Proto Man appears, like Gemini Man's stage above. Then, once you get to the screen that Proto Man appears on, but before his song starts, hit the Pause button.

Done right (and you have an extremely small window of time to do it) the song will keep playing for a bit. Once it's done, unpause the game and then continue normally. And, this does work for both the original NES version and the Gamecube Mega Man Collection.

And, no, this isn't all that useful, really. But it is kind of neat, especially if you're a huge Proto Man fan... Those exist, right?

Pro Tip of the Day - game cube

Pro tip: Game Boy Player, not feature complete

Pro Tip: Mega Man 3: Extending Proto Man's whistle