Zelda Oracle of Ages/Seasons Black Multicart - Does this actually exist?

[nusilver]

Back in the glory days - when I worked at Funcoland in,say, 2001 - there was a security guard we were all friends with named Howard. He came in one day with a black Gameboy multicart with both Zelda: Oracle games on it. I've never seen it since, though I haven't really looked. I always wanted to know if I could play that version in non-Color Gameboy hardware - i.e. a Super Gameboy. Has anyone ever seen this?

[satoshi_matrix]

If such a cart exists, it's a bootleg. And no, clear case GBC games are not backwards compatible with the earlier GameBoy line because the GBC has almost twice the specs in every way. Early first gen GBC games didn't use the extra power of the GBC. The games aren't compatible with the Super GameBoy at all.

[L___E___T]

I have seen this, on a GBC multicart.  I don't think it was on there with other games, but I can't quite remember.  I've seen the Rockman X games together on a multicart with other games but I don't think I've seen them on their own.

[P]

Just note that if both games are on the same cart there's no way to link them for ring trading.

[nusilver]

Thanks, all. Satoshi_Matrix, I know they're clear case GBC-only games in their official releases, but as they're visually almost identical to Link's Awaking, I've always wondered whether they were *really* GBC-only or just cased that way to sell GBC systems.

I've got the official releases, so I'm not worried about it. Really, just curious. Would love to see this again.

[satoshi_matrix]

the graphics engine is heavily based on the established work with Zelda DX, but if you play through the Oracle series you'd find countless visual effects not possible on the older GameBoy models, and the sheer size of the games should give something away as well.

[nusilver]

the graphics engine is heavily based on the established work with Zelda DX, but if you play through the Oracle series you'd find countless visual effects not possible on the older GameBoy models, and the sheer size of the games should give something away as well.

Confession time - I've never finished Oracle of Ages.

[P]

Me neither.

[satoshi_matrix]

Both games are well worth trotting through, especially linked. The oracle Zelda games I feel are the most underrated. People looked at them and thought "nah, they're just Link's Awakening rehashes" and walked away.

If that's true, then Link to the Past is a rehash of Zelda 1.

[P]

What bothers me is probably the differences from the main series being too big as all Capcom Zelda games are. I usually get bored of it and stop playing it for a long time. Then when I go back to it, I've already forgotten the story so far and such things and almost feel like I need to start over again. I really wanna finish it some day though.

[L___E___T]

I really loved Minish Cap, got stuck on the last Dungeon though and then lost the cart.  I'll have to start again.  I really enjoyed Oracle of Ages, but it didn't seem as polished design wise as some others and had a few difficulty spikes from what I remember, or some cryptic solutions that put me off.  I have both carts so will go back to play them.  Is the whole linking stuff worth it at all?  I saw through and didn't bother with it.  I've never bothered with it on any Zelda, Pokemans or Rockman games actually.

[P]

I also liked Minish Cap even though it had a different feel to it. Especially the turning into minish feature and gaining the power to speak to animals (I liked that in Twilight Princess too).

If you don't even care about linking in games like Pokemon then I guess you don't really need it in the oracle games. The main reason to link is to trade rings I think. I'm not sure how it works though, as I haven't successfully done it. I tried it on two GBAs but it didn't work. You need two GBCs to link.

Another reason to link is to transfer your completion data to the other game and continue the story after finishing one of the games (only way to get to the real ending). But this can also be done with a very long password that you get at the end so you don't really need two Gameboys for this AFAIK.

[nusilver]

I definitely WANT to finish Ages. At this point, it's just, do I play on Goomba Color on my GBA flash cart, or with my real cart that is bulky and forces me to carry around my GBA SP, or just use the 3DS Virtual Console. I'm not a Virtual Console fan, mostly, but I'll probably just end up doing it that way since the 3DS XL screen is the best of all possible (legal) solutions for these games.