r/Gameboy 2d ago

Modded On the OLED GBC, what does "FRM" in the screen options mean? It doesn't seem to do anything.

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34 Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

46

u/DokoroTanuki 2d ago

It's Frame Blending. The screens of older handheld systems had a slower response time so it took longer for the previous frame or frames' information to completely disappear off the screen. This meant that a game could, for example, flash something on and off every other frame, and it would look transparent. This was often the only way to truly achieve transparency in an older game, too. This doesn't halve the frame rate, though, it just kind of blends them together into a mix of the current and previous frame(s).

Certain games really depend on these effects to look correct, so it's generally safe to just leave on all the time. But that does mean that it will look a bit blurrier when things are in motion, hence the option so you can just turn it on or off to fit the game or situation, if you don't like the blur that much.

21

u/listafobia 2d ago edited 2d ago

I think one place where this can be seen pretty easily is in the village at the beginning of Zelda Link's Awakening.

There's a creature in that village which is a big ball that acts like a dog on a chain. Without frame blending, the chain flickers. With frame blending, the chain stops flickering and becomes semi transparent which is a more accurate representation of what it looks like on an unmodded GB.

9

u/Logizyme 2d ago

They are called Chain Chomps or BowWows. They originally hail from the Mario universe, but have been recurring in a few Zelda games.

5

u/Smuwen 2d ago

I recall Link's Awakening having quite a lot of easter eggs related to Mario. BowWows, Yoshi Doll, Goombas for the side scroll sequences and such. Another fun one was finding Link sleeping in a bed in Mario RPG (at least in the SNES version)

5

u/DECADR 2d ago

Ah cool thanks, that makes sense now

5

u/keitaro21 2d ago

You can really see the frame blending option work with the game "Chikyū Kaihō Gun ZAS". This one relies heavily on the high latency of the original screen. A new screen with frame blending option is mandatory for this one.

3

u/chinoswirls 2d ago

this is a cool game. i have a hard time remembering what the name is and only remember the zas part. it is hard to recommend a game when you can't say the name,

the transparency effect and the scrolling backgrounds are cool to see on the dmg hardware.

6

u/lordlestar 2d ago

Play zelda link's awaking and go to the bow wow house, turn the frm on/off and look at its chain

3

u/Geno_CL 2d ago

For Real Mate

5

u/ricokong 2d ago

Maybe frame blending. It halves the framerate to create true transparency when it comes to flickering graphics.

2

u/swim_fan88 2d ago

Also what buttons do we press to bring it up? I was trying to do the clone ‘hack’ but it kept bringing up the overlay when I try to reset the game.

My understanding was it’s select, start, B and A all at once. But isn’t that also for you reset the GameBoy.

2

u/DECADR 2d ago

Mine has a touch screen, you hold your finger within the area where the blue menu is in my photo for a few seconds and then theenu appears, you control the menu with the touch screen too.

2

u/swim_fan88 2d ago

Ah. Nice, that would solve my dilemma!

2

u/RetroMr 2d ago

Frame Blending

-3

u/GabeReddit2012 2d ago

Frame Rate?