gearfo's Hoard of the Rings is a platformer collect-'em-up for original Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Super Game Boy.

The goal is to exit each level as quickly as possible. When you start a level, all the exits will be locked. Once you've collected enough rings, the exits will unlock and walking through any exit will stop the timer.

The full game has nine levels, five characters, three minigames, and 28 trophies to unlock. A two level demo is available as a free download (at the bottom of the page), and is also embedded in the page above.

Warning:  This game contains flashing images. Viewer discretion is advised.

Controls

Game Boy Controls	Web Controls
D-pad	Arrow keys or WASD
A	X, V, or K
B	Z, C, or J
Start	Return/Enter

In menus, press A to select an option or move forward, and B to cancel or go back.

In game, press LEFT and RIGHT to move, and A to jump. Press START to pause and unpause the game.

Hold DOWN to drop through thin platforms.

While falling near a wall, you can press the D-pad in the direction of a wall to begin a wall-slide, which slows your fall. While wall-sliding, you can press A to do a wall-jump.

    

Press UP and DOWN to use stairs and ladders. You can drop off a ladder by pressing A while climbing.

    

Walk into switches to activate them. Your feet need to be on the ground, meaning you can't activate a switch by wall-jumping.

    

Press UP or DOWN where indicated to use doors, teleporters, and other objects.

         

Some characters have a special power that can be activated with B.

    

Thin arrows/chevrons denote bounce pads, which are activated by stepping on them. Small, triangular arrows invert gravity.

    

Playing in an Emulator

The ROM should work well in any accurate Game Boy emulator, e.g. bgb, Emulicious, Mesen, etc.

If your emulator has option to enable accurate colour correction and frame blending, those options are recommended.

To play the game in Super Game Boy mode, you'll get the best results by using an emulator like Mesen which can emulate SNES+SGB. NTSC (60Hz) is preferable to PAL (50Hz).

Playing on Hardware

I've tested the game on an original Game Boy and a Game Boy Color, but it should work on any console that can play Game Boy games. If in doubt, you can download the demo ROM to see if it's compatible with your hardware.

To put the ROM on a cartridge, you'll need a cartridge that supports 1MiB ROM and 32KiB RAM with MBC5. The game should run equally well original Game Boy and Game Boy Color. 

When I tested with an EZ-FLASH Junior on a Game Boy Color, the game did not work with firmware version 1.04e. It does work with version 1.05e. If you choose to upgrade the firmware of your EZ-FLASH Junior, that is done at your own risk.

Extras

hotr_extras.zip contains full map images for every level.

Development

Made with GB Studio + bespoke plugins. The sound driver is hUGEDriver. The emulator embedded in this page is binjgb.

Other tools used include Aseprite, Tiled, MuseScore, hUGETracker, grafx2, Blender, bgb, Emulicious, and Mesen. No generative AI tools were used in this project.

The soundtrack includes reworked versions of some tracks that first appeared in The Game with the Cerulean Blob.

The Ouroboros minigame uses graphics derived from Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer.

Inspirations and influences include: Myrrh's Edge, Action Henk, Sonic the Hedgehog, Pinball Illusions, Donkey Kong, Flappy Bird, Pac-Man, and Snake.

Thanks to the Sonic Physics Guide, the Pac-Man Dossier (Jamey Pittman), and Eldamo (Paul Strack) for reference material.