My old pediatric orthodontist had a game boy with exclusively a copy of F-1 Race that he'd let kids use if they were stressed out during dental work, so I associate this game with the ol' dentist's office
The subtle flex of a picture of you with Iwata-san from the LA Times is lovely. What a strange peripheral, but the kernel of the idea had to start somewhere, just like how SMB3 was the kernel of multiplayer Mario that wouldn't bloom until 20ish years later.
Oh, looks like I got mentioned in the video. Neat! I did a lot of research on the internal workings of the 4-Player Adapter last year (so much so that I got tired of it for a while). F1 Race was my go-to game for testing. Great to see this curious little accessory getting more attention. While I documented the accessory's protocol by reverse engineering, with zero knowledge about the device, it wasn't until I was finished that someone pointed out Nintendo's own patents from that period explained everything. At the very least, I managed to verify that real hardware works like the patents say it's supposed to. I think my clean-room notes replicated like 95% of how the adapter functions. Anyway, great video Jeremy! Definitely subbing to this from now on. Totally agree that the list of 4-Player compatible GB games needs to be verified and updated (e.g. I'm 100% certain Gaunlet II is not one, even though it's listed on Wikipedia). Looking forward to your next production.
Thanks for your research! It was really valuable for this video. I've seen those patents and they're quite extensive, but your blog breaks the tech details down in an easy-to-digest format rather than patent legalese, so it was a big help.
It's too bad you weren't able to get past the first course in Grand Prix mode, because there are various Nintendo cameos that appear before each race after the first. Here's the complete list... Course 2-Canada (Toad) Course 3-USA (Luigi) Course 4-Portugal (Peach Toadstool) Course 5-Japan (Link) Course 6-Brazil (Mario) Course 7-USSR (Samus Aran) Course 8-India (Pit) Course 9-Egypt (Donkey Kong) In addition, Bowser Koopa appears along with all the other characters in the game's ending sequence.
@@Suedeash Considering he completely glossed over the fact there you have Nitro, to which the "slow" car has the fastest top speed when using nitro, while the other one barely has much of a boost at all.
Great video! I had some great memories with F1 Race: the main one being playing 2 player with a friend when we had rainy days (and we had quite a few). The game really comes into it's own once you have someone with the same tools as you. I have only played one four-player match, and I remember it being a ton of fun. It captured the speed of a race better than any portable game before it (as you mentioned). I think that is what blew me away growing up.
Okay, nostalgia time. Remember when you could buy/rent video games at gas stations? I actually remember seeing this game all the time at this one gas station I went to. Never played it, though. Coincidentally enough, that same gas station is where I bought A Boy and His Blob for NES. Though I'm not sure it was worth the $10.
My grandpa gave me this game nearly at launch with the adapter as a gift. Good game, never played in multi, alas. Loved how at faster speed the background became of a lighter color.
I was waiting for you to get to this game. One of my first gameboy games I've played and somehow one of the games I remember most fondly. I just found out about yout channel a couple of days ago and pretty much binge watched both of the Gameboy playlists. It's pretty interesting to hear about EVERYTHING this console had to offer and how games like this evolved over time. Could even find some games I need to try out someday. Yup, good stuff!
You never mentioned the Jet so I assume you don't know, but those bursts of speed are in fact available to you as a player and not the NPCs. You see, the black bar on the bottom right is actually the meter that tells you how much jet (the speed boost) you have left and by pressing up on the D-pad you get a sustained burst of speed if held. However Jet doesn't replenish until a race ends, meaning you need to use your jet wisely through the laps to get ahead (though you've got a lot of it to work with as long as you don't hold that button down constantly); to help keep the car easy to drive it's best to use it on straight sections of track as otherwise you fly off turns. As you might imagine it makes the game less demanding, though it's still tough.
That explains why I suck at the game, but in my defense, all my production time was spent researching and setting up four-player recordings. Whomp whomp.
He also missed out on describing the feature where you can draft behind other cars to increase your speed and potentially slingshot past other racers, something most other racing titles of this game's vintage didn't have. (It's in the manual, Jeremy!)
Same here. I played it sooo much with my dad, but that was taking turns trying to beat each other's times on Time Trials passing it back and forth. It was so tempting having the 4-player adapter, but then so frustrating not knowing anyone else with the game. 😢
Yesterday I received various gameboy's games (kof 95, fatal fury real bout, pokemon, etc) and the supergameboy 2. F1 race in supergameboy is another ;) ;) tournament that I like to do. This is the video that persuasive me to select this game.
This game takes me back to being REALLY young. I met Michael Jordan when I was 5 and couldn't care less because I was busy with this game, and I never hear it talked about. Thanks!
Yeah. Nearly everything else in existence for popular and even relatively obscure systems has at the least been disassembled and examined by someone at some point. Granted, sometimes you still run into really basic things that somehow aren't documented. For instance, I have an Atari 800XL - it had a drawing pad accessory called the CX-77 Drawing tablet. Given that the 800XL is a home computer, NOT a console, you would've expected that it's accessories would have enough documentation that you can write your own programs for it... But I couldn't find anything at all on how this device communicates with the computer. I'm not even talking about taking apart the CX-77 itself and figuring out how it works, no, just the PROGRAMMING interface for the thing! There doesn't seem to be any documentation, historical or contemporary that describes how a computer program reads the values! I mean, given how it connects to the computer it's no big challenges to guess how it works (standard atari joystick interface contains two analogue lines designed for potentiometers and 5 digital input lines designed for buttons. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume the X and Y position of the stylus feeds into the POT inputs, while the buttons on the thing feed into the standard 'button' input on the controller port.), but whether the interface logic that programs using it require is simple or not, you would have expected at least some minimal documentation describing how it works to exist - yet that doesn't seem to be the case... It can really surprise you sometimes what you can find online ('quickly hides copies of the official n64 and SNES programming manuals') and what you can't (you mean to tell me nobody has documented how to capture video from the Wii U's gamepad even though there were hardware mods for sale to do that exact thing for several years?) Yeah... Go figure.
I love that the time trial saves your highscores. With your name! Why don't modern race games do this anymore? It's such fun playing with a friend and beating each other's highscores.
I have been looking forward to this episode for a while. I bought F-1 Race on a whim as a kid, despite sharing with you, a relative lack of skill with racing games. But, I always loved Enduro Racer on the 2600, so this looked like a reasonable evolution of that. I was, sadly, never able to test any of the multiplayer, because none of my friends picked this one up. I have some fond memories of playing the game, though I was never very good at it, but I do remember how impressive it was, as you said. And your review reminded me of the punishing difficulty of the GP mode. I had honestly forgotten that you had to place first in a race to advance.
This game is more challenging and harder to master, in a good way, than any modern racing game with all the ultra realistic graphics and the gazillion polygons.
I believe 4-players Adapter may be originally intended for local multi-players mahjong using Gameboy. Mahjong are supposedly played with four peoples instead of two.
The first 4P mahjong game wasn't released for Game Boy until May 1992, so that would REALLY be playing the long game if so. Meanwhile, F-1 Race shipped the same day as the adapter and was made by the same team, so.
Have this game to this day with the full box and add in. Don't think I ever got past the first race and manged only one further person on the adaptor. Maybe I need to fulfill my dream of four human racers at a convention.
I don't understand why the 4 player adapter is that much of a mystery. I remember seeing a lot of ads that showed support for it as well as ads for it in my local "Radio Shack". The game that made me want a 4 player adapter the most of Yoshi Cookies who's ad really pushed the existence of the adapter.
Wario Blast doesnt support the 4 player adapter. You can only play with 4 players on a super gameboy using a multi tap. It also says this in the screen cap of wikipedia you used.
Isn't it kinda stupid to pack the game with the adapter? So... if I bought the game with the FPA and wanted to play the game, I would need three friends with a Game Boy and the game. These three friends would have to buy the game and it comes with the adapter... so... All four people have the adapter but only one is used in any given party? That means that even if everyone loved the game in four-player-mode, there would be three unused devices at every four-player-game. That's like bundeling a switch with every computer :D
Great video, but I disagree about the difficulty being a flaw. This game was perfect for me as a kid, and I was no racing enthusiast. It was tough, sure, and would take most kids a few days or weeks to beat, and it was super satisfying once you did. Those game you can beat in your first try or first handful of tries were almost always disapponting, and had little staying power. If thats the new game you for christmas.. sad. For this reason, back then, it was seen as a good thing to have a significant challenge, as we didnt have free flash games and steam sales and cheap games at flea markets and whatnot. We only had a few new games per year, thats the way it was for me and all the kids I knew lucky enough to have a console at all.
My neighbor got his gameboy before me, and Nintendo, and a super Nintendo lol. But at last ! I got the four player adapter bedfor him ( we did not realize then that we could play head to head without it and just a cable poor marketing or was it...). Then i got the four player adapter! Finally I won! Lol
Could have had the more uncommon small box for this game brand new sealed for $45.. I got outbid last second by $1.. 1 fucking dollar. I should have just bid 51 or even more. Still makes me sick to think about. Won't see that ever again......
He mentioned that SNES works would be updated less than the NES and Game boy versions and my best guess is that he will likely start NES Works 1987 when this year is finished for Game Boy.
Yeah. The plan is two wrap GBW's current phase in June, move along to finish up Super NES 1991, and then marathon the entirety of Virtual Boy World (if I can sort out the logistics)…
My old pediatric orthodontist had a game boy with exclusively a copy of F-1 Race that he'd let kids use if they were stressed out during dental work, so I associate this game with the ol' dentist's office
Joe Bush wow, dentist got a sclusey
@@LOCKEYJ tf is that?
@@Gameboy-Unboxings Sclusey, as in exclusive. I assume.
Both my dentist and eye doctor's offices had a Game Boy Advance with Battle for Bikini Bottom. It must have been a popular game for that sort of thing
The subtle flex of a picture of you with Iwata-san from the LA Times is lovely.
What a strange peripheral, but the kernel of the idea had to start somewhere, just like how SMB3 was the kernel of multiplayer Mario that wouldn't bloom until 20ish years later.
Oh, looks like I got mentioned in the video. Neat!
I did a lot of research on the internal workings of the 4-Player Adapter last year (so much so that I got tired of it for a while). F1 Race was my go-to game for testing. Great to see this curious little accessory getting more attention. While I documented the accessory's protocol by reverse engineering, with zero knowledge about the device, it wasn't until I was finished that someone pointed out Nintendo's own patents from that period explained everything. At the very least, I managed to verify that real hardware works like the patents say it's supposed to. I think my clean-room notes replicated like 95% of how the adapter functions.
Anyway, great video Jeremy! Definitely subbing to this from now on. Totally agree that the list of 4-Player compatible GB games needs to be verified and updated (e.g. I'm 100% certain Gaunlet II is not one, even though it's listed on Wikipedia). Looking forward to your next production.
Thanks for your research! It was really valuable for this video. I've seen those patents and they're quite extensive, but your blog breaks the tech details down in an easy-to-digest format rather than patent legalese, so it was a big help.
It's too bad you weren't able to get past the first course in Grand Prix mode, because there are various Nintendo cameos that appear before each race after the first. Here's the complete list...
Course 2-Canada (Toad)
Course 3-USA (Luigi)
Course 4-Portugal (Peach Toadstool)
Course 5-Japan (Link)
Course 6-Brazil (Mario)
Course 7-USSR (Samus Aran)
Course 8-India (Pit)
Course 9-Egypt (Donkey Kong)
In addition, Bowser Koopa appears along with all the other characters in the game's ending sequence.
Sure would have liked to see this. >_
I'll take him being terrible at games in return for these well edited videos lol
@@Suedeash Considering he completely glossed over the fact there you have Nitro, to which the "slow" car has the fastest top speed when using nitro, while the other one barely has much of a boost at all.
Great video!
I had some great memories with F1 Race: the main one being playing 2 player with a friend when we had rainy days (and we had quite a few). The game really comes into it's own once you have someone with the same tools as you. I have only played one four-player match, and I remember it being a ton of fun.
It captured the speed of a race better than any portable game before it (as you mentioned). I think that is what blew me away growing up.
I had this game and played it endlessly back in those "You have 3 games so you play any of them a lot"
Atari missed out on the bad pun train by not calling their multiplayer cable a "Lynx Cable"
Dude, it's ComLynx. They dad-joked it to hell and back.
Okay, nostalgia time. Remember when you could buy/rent video games at gas stations? I actually remember seeing this game all the time at this one gas station I went to. Never played it, though.
Coincidentally enough, that same gas station is where I bought A Boy and His Blob for NES. Though I'm not sure it was worth the $10.
My grandpa gave me this game nearly at launch with the adapter as a gift. Good game, never played in multi, alas. Loved how at faster speed the background became of a lighter color.
I was waiting for you to get to this game. One of my first gameboy games I've played and somehow one of the games I remember most fondly.
I just found out about yout channel a couple of days ago and pretty much binge watched both of the Gameboy playlists. It's pretty interesting to hear about EVERYTHING this console had to offer and how games like this evolved over time. Could even find some games I need to try out someday.
Yup, good stuff!
Bob Mackey guest stars on a brand new Game Boy Works! What a time to be alive!
He's shy, and he saw his shadow, so I'm afraid we're in for six more weeks of Game Boy videos.
You never mentioned the Jet so I assume you don't know, but those bursts of speed are in fact available to you as a player and not the NPCs.
You see, the black bar on the bottom right is actually the meter that tells you how much jet (the speed boost) you have left and by pressing up on the D-pad you get a sustained burst of speed if held. However Jet doesn't replenish until a race ends, meaning you need to use your jet wisely through the laps to get ahead (though you've got a lot of it to work with as long as you don't hold that button down constantly); to help keep the car easy to drive it's best to use it on straight sections of track as otherwise you fly off turns.
As you might imagine it makes the game less demanding, though it's still tough.
That explains why I suck at the game, but in my defense, all my production time was spent researching and setting up four-player recordings. Whomp whomp.
Jeremy Parish I mean, to be fair the gas button makes you go forward anyway so I can hardly blame you for not thinking up would do anything.
Left, right, AND up? This news is gonna shake the racing genre to its foundations.
He also missed out on describing the feature where you can draft behind other cars to increase your speed and potentially slingshot past other racers, something most other racing titles of this game's vintage didn't have. (It's in the manual, Jeremy!)
To present the proper and authentic Game Boy experience, I always forget to read the manuals.
I had F1 Race and loved the game. Never got to play it multiplayer though.
Same here. I played it sooo much with my dad, but that was taking turns trying to beat each other's times on Time Trials passing it back and forth. It was so tempting having the 4-player adapter, but then so frustrating not knowing anyone else with the game. 😢
Yesterday I received various gameboy's games (kof 95, fatal fury real bout, pokemon, etc) and the supergameboy 2. F1 race in supergameboy is another ;) ;) tournament that I like to do. This is the video that persuasive me to select this game.
This game takes me back to being REALLY young. I met Michael Jordan when I was 5 and couldn't care less because I was busy with this game, and I never hear it talked about. Thanks!
Cool to see your Stang Boy custom Game Boys make some cameo appearances. Also I giggled at your choice of Iwata picture.
I thought your username was "Gamer going gay"
Hey! I'm Elliott from Stang Boy! They do look pretty good :)
No, The Gay Gamer is a completely DIFFERENT Game Boy super fan.
Kinda surprised at how no one’s reverse engineered the multi player adapter
People are working on it!
Yeah. Nearly everything else in existence for popular and even relatively obscure systems has at the least been disassembled and examined by someone at some point.
Granted, sometimes you still run into really basic things that somehow aren't documented.
For instance, I have an Atari 800XL - it had a drawing pad accessory called the CX-77 Drawing tablet.
Given that the 800XL is a home computer, NOT a console, you would've expected that it's accessories would have enough documentation that you can write your own programs for it...
But I couldn't find anything at all on how this device communicates with the computer. I'm not even talking about taking apart the CX-77 itself and figuring out how it works, no, just the PROGRAMMING interface for the thing!
There doesn't seem to be any documentation, historical or contemporary that describes how a computer program reads the values!
I mean, given how it connects to the computer it's no big challenges to guess how it works (standard atari joystick interface contains two analogue lines designed for potentiometers and 5 digital input lines designed for buttons. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume the X and Y position of the stylus feeds into the POT inputs, while the buttons on the thing feed into the standard 'button' input on the controller port.), but whether the interface logic that programs using it require is simple or not, you would have expected at least some minimal documentation describing how it works to exist - yet that doesn't seem to be the case...
It can really surprise you sometimes what you can find online ('quickly hides copies of the official n64 and SNES programming manuals') and what you can't (you mean to tell me nobody has documented how to capture video from the Wii U's gamepad even though there were hardware mods for sale to do that exact thing for several years?)
Yeah... Go figure.
I love that the time trial saves your highscores. With your name! Why don't modern race games do this anymore? It's such fun playing with a friend and beating each other's highscores.
One of my first new purchases! Damn on the authoritative sourcing!
The classic game, Roadblasters, had a delayed soundtrack too. Not a bad thing at all.
Very good episode! But you forgot to speak about the boost system present in the game (and the differencies it gives between the two cars).
Actually, there is an accessory called the Game Boy Pocket Conversion Connector meant for using accessories designed for the DMG on later models.
As far as I can tell, it was released only in Japan.
This episode confirmed that I'm not a nearly snappy enough dresser. Unless you consider an endless supply of black heavy metal t-shirts to be snappy.
TheChrononaut1 Wear a bow tie and you're set; what could go wrong?
I spent too much time on this game. One of the cool features was that the gamepak would save your times, so there was always a time to beat.
Where were you going to find 8 people who owned a lynx to get together in the early 90s?
Prison?
I’m pretty sure this is the first GameBoy game my brother and I owned.
A favorite of mine!
Great episode!
"has a tendency to drift" now we know where nintendo got the inspiration for the joycons
awesome! I always wanted this game and the 4 player adapter, but never saw it or knew anyone with it back in the day
I have been looking forward to this episode for a while. I bought F-1 Race on a whim as a kid, despite sharing with you, a relative lack of skill with racing games. But, I always loved Enduro Racer on the 2600, so this looked like a reasonable evolution of that. I was, sadly, never able to test any of the multiplayer, because none of my friends picked this one up. I have some fond memories of playing the game, though I was never very good at it, but I do remember how impressive it was, as you said. And your review reminded me of the punishing difficulty of the GP mode. I had honestly forgotten that you had to place first in a race to advance.
This game is more challenging and harder to master, in a good way, than any modern racing game with all the ultra realistic graphics and the gazillion polygons.
It's also the first game boy game released with a battery save backup
Final Fantasy Legend from 10 months earlier would like to have a word with you
@@JeremyParish google lied to me.
Google always lies, trust only Game Boy Works
I believe 4-players Adapter may be originally intended for local multi-players mahjong using Gameboy.
Mahjong are supposedly played with four peoples instead of two.
The first 4P mahjong game wasn't released for Game Boy until May 1992, so that would REALLY be playing the long game if so. Meanwhile, F-1 Race shipped the same day as the adapter and was made by the same team, so.
Isn’t the plural of Lynx just Lynx?
It's a GAMEBOY today!! Hooray!
I had F1 Race & Balloon Kid, lol!
Man... You went to Midwest Gaming Classic this year? Damn I could have met you. Your channel is great, keep it up.
Our third year! We had a live panel and a meetup and everything! Where were you, man?
Have this game to this day with the full box and add in. Don't think I ever got past the first race and manged only one further person on the adaptor. Maybe I need to fulfill my dream of four human racers at a convention.
What’s this “convention” you speak of?
@@JeremyParish it's like a game of Sokoban but you move the convention boxes around on your calendar until a whole year disappears.
I don't understand why the 4 player adapter is that much of a mystery. I remember seeing a lot of ads that showed support for it as well as ads for it in my local "Radio Shack". The game that made me want a 4 player adapter the most of Yoshi Cookies who's ad really pushed the existence of the adapter.
I think the mystery was more how it worked internally.
I thought you hold up for speed boost
You do
Next episode? Oh yes.
I found one of these adapters at goodwill for $2.25.
I got this game new at Walmart back in 95 and it was only $10 plus link cable box was includee
Wario Blast doesnt support the 4 player adapter. You can only play with 4 players on a super gameboy using a multi tap. It also says this in the screen cap of wikipedia you used.
Isn't it kinda stupid to pack the game with the adapter? So... if I bought the game with the FPA and wanted to play the game, I would need three friends with a Game Boy and the game. These three friends would have to buy the game and it comes with the adapter... so... All four people have the adapter but only one is used in any given party? That means that even if everyone loved the game in four-player-mode, there would be three unused devices at every four-player-game. That's like bundeling a switch with every computer :D
Haha, that's a very negative view, it was also sold without the 4 player connector.
7:05 Jeremy, is that you that dashing fella in the bakckground with a gampad? 🤗
I am a person in a photo holding a game pad, yes.
And is that Bob Mackie?
You're my favorite retro gaming RUclipsr hands down.
Did your RUclips portfolio help you land your job at Polygon?
It very definitely did not.
HAHA I got this game when it first came out and still have the adapter but still never used it.
Why was the Link Cable a technical challenge?
I had *2* Gameboys, multiplayer adaptor and only *1* copy of all my games ;(
I will get the 4-player adapter so me and my friends could play F-1 race. 😀👍🎮
I had this game, unfortunately the game didnt have very good controls
You jest about Pack-In-Video, but they are still around to this day (in some form). You might have heard about a company called Marvelous, right?
I mean… it's not like Pack-In Video has existed as an entity for a couple of decades.
Great video, but I disagree about the difficulty being a flaw. This game was perfect for me as a kid, and I was no racing enthusiast. It was tough, sure, and would take most kids a few days or weeks to beat, and it was super satisfying once you did.
Those game you can beat in your first try or first handful of tries were almost always disapponting, and had little staying power. If thats the new game you for christmas.. sad.
For this reason, back then, it was seen as a good thing to have a significant challenge, as we didnt have free flash games and steam sales and cheap games at flea markets and whatnot. We only had a few new games per year, thats the way it was for me and all the kids I knew lucky enough to have a console at all.
My neighbor got his gameboy before me, and Nintendo, and a super Nintendo lol. But at last ! I got the four player adapter bedfor him ( we did not realize then that we could play head to head without it and just a cable poor marketing or was it...). Then i got the four player adapter! Finally I won! Lol
Where is your next episode preview music from? I know it is from an anime but I can't remember which.
I HAD THIS GAME
Could have had the more uncommon small box for this game brand new sealed for $45.. I got outbid last second by $1.. 1 fucking dollar. I should have just bid 51 or even more. Still makes me sick to think about. Won't see that ever again......
3:39 A first person Game Boy game?
June The Fox A first person shooter to be specific
Atomic Robo Tesla Impressive nontheless.
Are either SNES or NES works ever returning?
Why wouldn't they?
Just observing that the last 14 videos in a row have all been Gameboy, I was worried that NES/SNES weren't coming back.
He mentioned that SNES works would be updated less than the NES and Game boy versions and my best guess is that he will likely start NES Works 1987 when this year is finished for Game Boy.
Ah okay. My apologies for the misunderstanding. orz
Yeah. The plan is two wrap GBW's current phase in June, move along to finish up Super NES 1991, and then marathon the entirety of Virtual Boy World (if I can sort out the logistics)…
Comment 💯
No 16 person faceball? now I'm sad, maybe you should have ended the video with that fact...
つづく…
*quietly waits while holding a GameBoy, 2 GB pockets, and a GBC*