[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Super Game Boy Commander
April 7th, 2014 by Benj Edwards
Like a Game Boy outside your pocket on a leash.
Ah, the Super Game Boy. What an enchanting peripheral it was. (I wrote about my feelings for it in eighth-ever RSOTW entry back in 2006.)
In case you missed it, the Super Game Boy was a special cartridge that let you play Game Boy games on the Super NES using a TV set and a SNES controller.
Around the time the Super Game Boy came out in Japan (1994 I believe), the always-amusing Hori released a special controller that partially simulated the look and the feel of the original Game Boy unit itself — right down to the speaker grille in the lower right corner. The resulting product, the SGB Commander, never saw the light of day in the US, but that didn’t stop me from importing one about a half decade ago when they were on sale at NCSX for a very reasonable price.
As far as controllers go, the build is sturdy and responsive. It works as well as any decently-made controller with the Super Game Boy, although I’m not sure it was entirely necessary. For that reason it remains a very neat oddity in the history of game controllers.
By the way, here’s what the back of the box looks like.
Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your favorite game to play with the Super Game Boy?
April 8th, 2014 at 2:46 pm
That time when games were still games … 😀
April 8th, 2014 at 4:00 pm
Metroid II: The Return of Samus! Not necessarily a great game in its own right, but it definitely influenced Super Metroid very heavily, and SM is one of my top-five favorite games of all time.
I bought my Super Game Boy specifically for this title and for Zelda: Link’s Awakening and loved it.
I also bought a Game Boy Player attachment for my GameCube (AND a Hori SNES-style GCN game pad) for playing GBA games and loved it, too! I have Mega Man Battle Network loaded and the GCN connected as I type. No better way to play GBA games at home!
April 8th, 2014 at 4:33 pm
I got the Super GameBoy after I had sold off my GameBoy for some unknown reason (I let myself get talked into it — my bad). I used it to play the original Wario Land at first and then slowly expanded my GB collection again and finally replacing the GB I had sold off earlier. I haven’t looked back since 🙂
I still have all my games after all these years — brings back some great memories looking through them.
April 9th, 2014 at 11:04 am
the name…
Super Game Boy Commander
sounds funny somehow to me…
April 10th, 2014 at 12:03 am
I loved playing Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 and Final Fantasy Legend 3 on the SGB when I was a teen. It is a source of continual disappointment that the Game Boy Virtual Console games on 3DS don’t have the SGB features, not even Donkey Kong, which was basically the launch title for SGB!
April 10th, 2014 at 2:32 pm
Hey, Just came across this site as i have just put up an unboxing video of the SGB commander on my youtube page. how odd we’ve both done something about it! its a really great looking controller. you can check out the video here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bJ1fZJddzA
along with some high quality photos here
http://imgur.com/a/0jokv
its just such an odd thing i wanted to get some good shots of it online. couldn’t find much when i looked.
Thanks!
April 14th, 2014 at 5:00 am
I’ve always wanted a SGB for my SNES. However, my Gameboy Player will have to do for the time being…
April 14th, 2014 at 7:54 pm
I played Super Mario Land 2 – 6 Golden Coins on the Super Game Boy so much that it felt extremely weird playing it on the Game Boy itself.