Has anyone noticed how on the back of Chalvo 55’s box where the screenshots of the game are, the pictures are in red and black? Gets me thinking since this game has the same main character as the unreleased Virtual Boy game Bound High. Coincidence?

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Huh, I never really thought about it like that. I suppose so, since the game by default in the super gameboy uses the standard super gameboy color scheme instead of this VB-esque red black theme.

Actually you’re right! Both games are by the same company and use the same character. Chalvo 55 is the sequel to Bound High, but unfortunately Bound High never got an official release. Chalvo 55 was also rumored to be in development for the Virtual Boy as well, but changed over to the Gameboy when Nintendo cancelled production of Virtual Boy.

Good game by the way,i think they choosed the color scheme for the images to symbolize their VB roots.

I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but my theory is that the colors of the screenshots are the same as those in the Japan System Supply logo, to make the box cheaper to print (and possibly to make it look a bit more cohesive).

I would agree with the cost point, as the box seems cheesier than most gameboy boxes, it’s even smaller than the standard size, possibly to use less cardboard? As for color, though, the ‘Charubo 55’ logo features gradients, which look to possibly include colors close to the Super Gameboy scheme. And it’s printed on every single side of the box, bar the bottom. I definitely agree with the cohesive look though, as it certainly does make it cohesive, and also the sameish color scheme Chalvo himself uses.

Who knows, really. Someone should try to contact the devs =P

speedyink wrote:
I would agree with the cost point, as the box seems cheesier than most gameboy boxes, it’s even smaller than the standard size, possibly to use less cardboard?

I agree with the printing cart point, but on the cardboard part, most Japanese Game Boy games come in boxes of that shape I believe. I was doing some internet searching on them, and also my local game store has a Japanese Game Boy game in a smaller box.

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Chalvo 55 is even smaller than regular Japanese Gameboy boxes. I had a pic on this site somewhere…maybe I’ll look after work if I remember.

speedyink wrote:
As for color, though, the ‘Charubo 55’ logo features gradients, which look to possibly include colors close to the Super Gameboy scheme.

In offset printing (as well as most other printing technology), gradients and multiple colors are done using dithering. I guarantee that only four colors of ink were used on that box; black, yellow, pinkish red, and dark purple (the white is the base color of the card-stock). There’s probably a color test pattern on one of the hidden flaps that shows the colors used.

It’s possible that they chose those colors for the reasons speculated on above and didn’t care what colors the logo ended up using, but the logo has those colors in plenty of other places with no direct VB connection, such as in this animated logo from the N64.

And it’s printed on every single side of the box, bar the bottom.

Since the box started off as a single sheet of card-stock, it wouldn’t cost any extra to print on every side (in fact, it would have cost only a bit more to print on the inside).

Well there ya go, I don’t have much knowledge in the printing field. I can’t find a test pattern on the box, just the number 12 (?).

There is blue on the box as well, and the “55” gradient is like a brownish color on white. Does that mean it uses black and brown as well? Or would that be achieved by mixing?

I mean, you’re probably right as for why it ended up those colors. I’m just curious about printing at this point =P

speedyink wrote:
Well there ya go, I don’t have much knowledge in the printing field. I can’t find a test pattern on the box, just the number 12 (?).

There is blue on the box as well, and the “55” gradient is like a brownish color on white. Does that mean it uses black and brown as well? Or would that be achieved by mixing?

I mean, you’re probably right as for why it ended up those colors. I’m just curious about printing at this point =P

I’m by no means a professional printer, I just tend to pick up bits and pieces of knowledge here and there, especially concerning technology. The light blue is likely just the deep blue printed with a sparse dither pattern. The brown is likely a combination of the red and the yellow.

If you want to see what the dither patterns (traditionally called “halftones”) look like up close, get one of the cheap, plastic microscopes they sell to parents of nerdy children 😉 I have a 30X made by “Uncle Milton” (the ant farm people) that is actually quite well-made. It served me well when I needed to examine solder joints on display PCBs.

I think I know what you mean, it’s like when you see small, sparse individual dots to represent lighter tones in black and white cartoon books. It would be neat to look at through a microscope.

Looking closely at the box though, it appears like there is a lighter blue and a brown, at least to my eyes. I took a picture though, which hopefully you can make out what I see. Again, I’m not totally sure, not sure how well they can mix colors to create other ones.

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Yes, that does look like a light blue (cyan), rather than a dithered dark blue. Now that I think about it, it makes sense that this is a standard CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, key {black}) print, just like those produced by standard inkjet and color laser printers, rather than using custom mixed inks. If that’s the case, then it’s the darker blue of the screen-shots that was produced by dithering.

Ahhh, ok, that makes sense. Cyan and black to make the dark blue I presume.