While the Game Boy Color can run original Game Boy games, the same isn’t necessarily true the opposite way around, with several games being exclusive to Game Boy Color, and thus being incompatible with the original monochrome (DMG) Game Boy.
However, this may no longer be the case, thanks to a new tool called GBC2DMG, which convers Game Boy Color-exclusive ROMs into ROMs that can, indeed, run on the original Game Boy. The catch? It is currently in beta and is only compatible with just one game: Pokemon Crystal (EU and USA versions). However, the tool’s developer, ItsJustBshawn, does intend to add support for more GBC-exclusive games in the future, but for nowm, if you’d like to play Pokemon Crystal on a monochrome Game Boy, you can download the current build of GBC2DMG via GitHub.
Excluding aftermarket homebrew titles, a total of 468 Game Boy Color-exclusive titles were released, so, who, knows? Perhaps one day, all of them will also be playable on the original Game Boy thanks to GBC2DMG. For now, there’s one down, with 467 to go!
Pokemon Crystal, which is currently the sole title compatible with GBC2DMG, was originally released on Game Boy Color between the year 2000 and 2001, later being made available for Nintendo 3DS, via the Nintendo ehop, in 2018.
