Can Game Boy games be played on the Game Boy Color?

Solution 1:

You totally can, and they should work fine. (I did this all the time.) If it is a dual mode cartridge (Typically dark grey or black plastic housing, in the same shape as the original Game Boy cartridge) it should have colour to it (a 56 colour palette), and if it is just the regular light gray plastic housing on the cart, it will have a 4-10 colour palette.

This chart from Nintendo shows you what Game Boy era carts work with what systems, which should give you a good idea.

Solution 2:

^{Source: http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/gameboy/compatibilitychart.jsp}

That should tell you all you need to know about the compatibility. Short answer: Yes, you can.

Update to point out main points:

• Firstly, inserting an original GameBoy game will display up to 4-10 colours. The colour scheme can be changed using special palettes.

• A small number is said to possibly not function properly as sometimes there may be scrambled images, sound problems or missing graphics.

To add to this, to change colour palettes, here a few key presses you can perform (you have to do this at the startup screen:

• Brown: Up directional key
• Blue: Left directional key
• Pastel mix: Down directional key
• Green: Right directional key
• Red: Up + A
• Dark Blue: Left + A
• Orange: Down + A
• Dark Green: Right + A
• Dark Brown: Up + B
• Gray: Left + B
• Yellow: Down + B
• Reverse: Right + B

Hope this was a bit more informative than my short answer :).