Super Game Boy

The Super Game Boy is an accessory for the SNES that allows playing Game Boy games on the big screen! It was released in 1994.

There were two versions of the Super Game Boy; the first one had a hardware timing bug that played the games in fast motion (including pitching up the sounds). This was fixed in the Super Game Boy 2.

In Batocera, the Super Game Boy is in a bit of a weird spot. It's considered its own system despite requiring another system to function, that uses the ROMs of a portable handheld system which can also be run inside of a different handheld system. So, where should this system go?

The answer is no one can really agree. The default behavior is to group it with the SNES games, such that all Super Game Boy ROMs copied to their own directory will appear in a subfolder. Ungrouped, the SGB will appear as its own system.

This system scrapes metadata for the “sgb” group and loads the sgb set from the currently selected theme, if available.

Grouped with the “snes” group of systems.

MD5 checksum Share file path Description
d574d4f9c12f305074798f54c091a8b4 bios/sgb_boot.bin
e0430bca9925fb9882148fd2dc2418c1 bios/sgb2_boot.bin
b15ddb15721c657d82c5bab6db982ee9 bios/SGB1.sfc
8ecd73eb4edf7ed7e81aef1be80031d5 bios/SGB2.sfc

Place your Super Game Boy ROMs in /userdata/roms/sgb.

RetroArch (formerly SSNES), is a ubiquitous frontend that can run multiple “cores”, which are essentially the emulators themselves. The most common cores use the libretro API, so that's why cores run in RetroArch in Batocera are referred to as “libretro: (core name)”. RetroArch aims to unify the feature set of all libretro cores and offer a universal, familiar interface independent of platform.

RetroArch configuration

RetroArch offers a Quick Menu accessed by pressing [HOTKEY] + South button (B SNES) which can be used to alter various things like RetroArch and core options, and controller mapping. Most RetroArch related settings can be altered from Batocera's EmulationStation.

Standardized features available to all libretro cores: sgb.videomode, sgb.ratio, sgb.smooth, sgb.shaders, sgb.pixel_perfect, sgb.decoration, sgb.game_translation

ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value
Settings that apply to all cores of this emulator
GRAPHICS API sgb.gfxbackend Choose which graphics API library to use. Vulkan is better, when supported.
⇒ OpenGL opengl, Vulkan vulkan.
AUDIO LATENCY sgb.audio_latency In milliseconds. Can reduce crackling/cutting out.
⇒ 256 256, 192 192, 128 128, 64 64, 32 32, 16 16, 8 8.
THREADED VIDEO sgb.video_threaded Improves performance at the cost of latency and more video stuttering.
⇒ On true, Off false.

libretro: mgba

A GBA emulator that also supports the SGB palettes of Game Boy games. It does not support the borders nor their animations.

libretro: mgba configuration
ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value
Settings that apply to all systems this core supports
SHOW BIOS BOOTLOGO global.skip_bios_mgba Requires BIOS file to be present.
⇒ Show False, Skip True.
Settings specific to gb
SUPER GB BORDERS gb.sgb_borders Only for Super Game Boy enhanced games.
⇒ Off False, On True.
COLOR CORRECTION gb.color_correction Simulate LCD color inaccuracy.
⇒ Off False, On GBA.
Settings specific to gbc
SUPER GB BORDERS gbc.sgb_borders Only for Super Game Boy enhanced games.
⇒ Off False, On True.
COLOR CORRECTION gbc.color_correction Simulate LCD color inaccuracy.
⇒ Off False, On GBC.
Settings specific to gba
SOLAR SENSOR LEVEL gba.solar_sensor_level Value to use for the emulated solar sensor (Boktai).
⇒ 0 0, 1 1, 2 2, 3 3, 4 4, 5 5, 6 6, 7 7, 8 8, 9 9, 10 10.
FRAMESKIP gba.frameskip_mgba Skip frames to improve performance, at the cost of choppy motion.
⇒ 0 0, 1 1, 2 2, 3 3, 4 4, 5 5, 6 6, 7 7, 8 8, 9 9, 10 10.

libretro: mesen-s

A SNES emulator that fully supports the SGB features of Game Boy games. This includes the neat borders and animations of SGB:

libretro: mesen-s configuration
ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value
Settings that apply to all systems this core supports
BLARGG NTSC FILTER global.mesen-s_ntsc_filter Core-powered video filter.
⇒ Disabled disabled, Composite (Blargg) Composite (Blargg), S-Video (Blargg) S-Video (Blargg), RGB (Blargg) RGB (Blargg), Monochrome (Blargg) Monochrome (Blargg).
HIGH-RES BLENDING global.mesen-s_blend_high_res Blur high-res mode, allowing for better transparency effects.
⇒ On enabled, Off disabled.
CUBIC AUDIO INTERPOLATION global.mesen-s_cubic_interpolation Enhancement. Swap from SNES' guassian interpolation to cubic. Improves sound quality.
⇒ On enabled, Off disabled.
GAME BOY MODE global.mesen-s_gbmodel Change behaviour when emulating GB games. Auto uses SGB for GB and GBC for GBC.
⇒ Game Boy Game Boy, Game Boy Color Game Boy Color, Super Game Boy Super Game Boy.
SUPER GAME BOY 2 global.mesen-s_sgb2 Emulate the Super Game Boy 2 for SGB. Runs games at the correct speed.
⇒ On enabled, Off disabled.
OVERCLOCK (UNSTABLE) global.mesen-s_overclock Enhancement. Reduces system slowdown. Causes issues in some games.
⇒ None None, Low Low, Medium Medium, High High, Very High Very High.
OVERCLOCK TYPE global.mesen-s_overclock_type Prefer “Before NMI”, change to After NMI only if needed by the game.
⇒ Before NMI Before NMI, After NMI After NMI.
SUPER FX OVERCLOCK global.mesen-s_superfx_overclock Enhancement. Reduces slowdown in mode 7 games.
⇒ 100% 100%, 200% 200%, 300% 300%, 400% 400%, 500% 500%, 1000% 1000%.

Here are the default Super Game Boy's controls shown on a Batocera Retropad:

For further troubleshooting, refer to the generic support pages.

  • systems/sgb.txt
  • Last modified: 2 years ago
  • by atari