Virtual Boy homebrew?

[Tupin]

I've seen that there are a few homebrew Virtual Boy games, but are they actually played on a Virtual Boy using some sort of flash cart or are they played on a computer?

I don't think I've ever seen a Virtual Boy flash cart....

[norkusa]

There's a VB flash cart called FlashBoy. You can get them from Planet Virtual Boy for 80 EUR but they aren't mass produced and are usually out of stock. It's about time someone made one though:

http://www.vr32.de/content/hardware/flash_carts/flashboy/order/flashboy_thumb.jpg

I was going to get one but I have the entire US and JP libraries already (except for Virtual Bowling). Plus, most of the VB homebrew I've played was kind of lame. I heard someone was working on some kind of Super Mario World port/sequel though (DogP maybe?) but I haven't heard any news on in it in a long time.

Now if someone dumped those protos of Faceball and 007, then I'd buy one in a second. :love:

[Tupin]

Yeah, they aren't working on it anymore, Planet Virtual Boy says no work has been done on it since 2005. :(

I heard that the VB version of Goldeneye 007 was nothing like the N64 version, it was a racer.

Yeah, I'm surprised no one has dumped any of these VB prototypes. I know they exist because I've SEEN them, the person who owns them must want to keep it to themselves.

I know that Zero Racers, Mario Land, and V1 Racer, and Bound High have all been found by collectors, but none of them were ever dumped.

Goldeneye and Faceball however, have never been found.

[Mayhem]

I think Richard Hutchinson, who did the VecFlash, was working on a VB flash cart...

[tom]

Goldeneye and Faceball however, have never been found.

Faceball was found long time ago, according to Jason Moore of Retrogames.co.uk:
http://www.vr32.de/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=596

[norkusa]

Yeah, they aren't working on it anymore, Planet Virtual Boy says no work has been done on it since 2005. :(


No, they still are making them. The latest batch is on hold though because they're having problems with the PCB's. I was emailing the guy that makes them, KR155E, and he had some a few months ago. Maybe you're looking at the old forum?

Fat chance at seeing any of the protos dumped. There are still 3 or 4 commercial releases that haven't even been dumped yet. It's a shame too because Faceball and Bound High look great:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7ct01hQ2BQ

[Tupin]

No, they still are making them. The latest batch is on hold though because they're having problems with the PCB's. I was emailing the guy that makes them, KR155E, and he had some a few months ago. Maybe you're looking at the old forum?
I was talking about the Virtual Boy port of Super Mario World. It's been on hold since the end of 2005, neither DogP or KR155E have worked on it since then.

[norkusa]

I was talking about the Virtual Boy port of Super Mario World. It's been on hold since the end of 2005, neither DogP or KR155E have worked on it since then.

Ohhhhhh, gotcha. Yeah that sucks because it looked like it would have been great.

I haven't checked out the VB homebrew scene in a while. Is there any new stuff out that's worth playing?

[Tupin]

Ohhhhhh, gotcha. Yeah that sucks because it looked like it would have been great.

I haven't checked out the VB homebrew scene in a while. Is there any new stuff out that's worth playing?
I heard BLOX is pretty good.

[Tupin]

I just looked it up, the DP guide says ONE copy of the Virtual Boy Faceball has been found, with the box and everything.

This means that somewhere in the world, there is a guy with a Virtual Boy game worth more than a sealed Jack Bros that refuses to dump it. :angry:

[LucidDefender]

I just looked it up, the DP guide says ONE copy of the Virtual Boy Faceball has been found, with the box and everything.

This means that somewhere in the world, there is a guy with a Virtual Boy game worth more than a sealed Jack Bros that refuses to dump it. :angry:

So if you spent a pretty penny on it, you'd just dump it for public consumption and significantly drop the value of your item?

[Iroquois Pliskin]

So if you spent a pretty penny on it, you'd just dump it for public consumption and significantly drop the value of your item?
lawl owned

[rbudrick]

lawl owned

I certainly would. I dump all my protos. I don't give a crap because I don't intend on ever selling them.

-Rob

[Tupin]

I certainly would. I dump all my protos. I don't give a crap because I don't intend on ever selling them.

-Rob
Plus, if there's only ONE copy, won't it still be worth a lot even when it's dumped?

[PixelSmasher]

I certainly would. I dump all my protos. I don't give a crap because I don't intend on ever selling them.

-Rob

Half the reason most people want protos is because they want to have something other people want. "OMG LOOK WHAT I HAVE -- NO! YOU CAN'T HAVE IT, TOO! I WANT TO BE SPECIAL! Now I'll just tuck this away in a drawer and brag about it whenever I can shoehorn it into a conversation with the guys on the digital press forum."

I worked for several game companies and sometimes made the damn things myself in engineering services labs, so they have little intrinsic value to me. They're fun when they come from some mystical, magical place where they're created by fairies in pools of silicon and rainbows, shrouded in mystery, and it's been a dozen years since that developer went out of business, so it's some kind of snapshot of the past that you can gleefully rub against your genitals when nobody's looking. Not so much when it's the morbidly obese lab supervisor making them for you, while sweating on the N64 cart replicator station for a company that still exists. So many carts and discs were given to me by pudgy, clammy mitts... Man, I hated those days...

Anyways, if I'd not been so close to game companies and had gotten them through mysterious channels, then they probably would have had more charm to me.

The other half of the reason people don't dump them is monetary value. And there's nothing wrong with that. People in the classic community act as if they're somehow entitled to be able to play a game just because it exists somewhere in someone's collection. And that just isn't the case. I had several dozen unique prototypes and the reason I didn't copy or dump them is PRECISELY because it would devalue them. Over the years, selling them off privately to collectors has gotten me out of tough financial situations, and paid for part of my education. I wouldn't have gotten jack for them if they'd been publically accessible, such as Penn and Teller's Smoke and Mirrors.

So, what protos have you dumped, rbudrick, that are significant? Or are they just "missing sprite" or "slightly different hair color of protagonist" versions of commercially released Genesis titles you picked up off ebay for $60? I'm being facetious, of course. I don't know what you've dumped, and it's great if you contributed to the community, but it should your own choice, not the result of peer pressure and guilt.

[PixelSmasher]

Plus, if there's only ONE copy, won't it still be worth a lot even when it's dumped?

Not necessarily. All of the materials and equipment used to produce prototypes, such as EPROM burners, EPROMS, blank media, replication machines, and so on can be used to make convincing replicas of the images found online. A ton of this stuff has found its way into the hands of collectors over the years, in addition to the usual stuff like PSX debug units. Even proprietary boards could be reused if a prototype of an uninteresting, commercially released title were cannibalized for its parts, and an unreleased game were put into it instead.

Once it's out there, it's out there. Heck, we already see people making replica carts of stuff like California Raisins and putting it up on ebay. One could easily slap a fake internal company label on it, age it a bit with some scuffs and try to pass it off as an original prototype.

[CosmicMonkey]

It amazes me that there's a decent, readily available flash cart available for the highly obscure VB, but not for the slightly less obscure and much more popular NGPC.

[Mayhem]

Erm... Pocket Flash? Then again it was only 32MB in size, good enough for a few smaller games or one of the big ones (I think I still have the translated CFC2 on mine). Could do with a new one being developed that could hold all the games, under 100 were released.

[CosmicMonkey]

Not exactly readily available though, is it. And the software it came with was apparently crap. I'd just like something very similar to this VB flash cart, that I could go and purchase right now.

[Galpus]

I think Richard Hutchinson, who did the VecFlash, was working on a VB flash cart...
That's the FlashBoy

I'm just about to start building another 100. Contact Chris at Planet VirtualBoy (http://www.vr32.de) to get on the back-order list.

[ProgrammingAce]

Very happy to have my FlashBoy, the box alone makes the purchase worth it.

[Galpus]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2FKFqO8Kpw

[rbudrick]

So, what protos have you dumped, rbudrick, that are significant? Or are they just "missing sprite" or "slightly different hair color of protagonist" versions of commercially released Genesis titles you picked up off ebay for $60? I'm being facetious, of course. I don't know what you've dumped, and it's great if you contributed to the community, but it should your own choice, not the result of peer pressure and guilt.

I have nothing against those who don't dump their protos due to fear of losing monetary value. See, I don't care about bragging rights, and any protos I own I will own until I die, so I don't care about monetary value either. So, I figure, I'll just share them with everyone.

I've dumped other folks' protos too, but as for MY protos, there's been a few NES, including Mickey Mouse III Dream Balloon(s), which was a one-of-a-kind unreleased proto. There was a Double Dragon II proto that turned out to be the same as the release (bummer), a Ninja Gaiden II proto that was used at the NWC 1990 Powerwalk (was also same as another dumped proto, but still quite different from the original), a Solstice proto from the same event...that was probably the same as released too. A Terminator II proto (probably the most common NES proto you can find), a Game Action Replay labeled as a Game Master Kid (rom and bios dumped), which is quite different than the release, as it has no menu, but the code for it is there, and there's probably a handful of others I can't think of right now. A couple GB protos too.

I dumped some SNES protos for others and a crapload of Sunsoft FDS (not mine) disks and also some undumped Gold Prize-copies of some released, but extraordinarily rare disks (also not mine). I also dumped some (released but very rare) undumped Hacker International FDS copying utilities and those of a few other unlicensed/pirate brands. I also dumped some FDS games that were undumped by these companies too.

I don't feel anyone has the right to feel entitled to play other people's protos, but I do think everyone should back theirs up for purely historical purposes. Letting them bitrot hurts every party. Playing them is nice too, but just knowing a game is backed up makes me feel better about any given proto.

In an ideal world, protos would fall into the hands of those that share them, like me, but I don't hold anything against anyone that has them. Unless they are dicks about it, HA!

-Rob

[DreamTR]

rbudrick: I agree with you except for the fact that if you pay $1000 for a game, and give it a away for free without getting donations to compensate for the cost, that's an extremely bad business decision. Even if you are "helping the community" for free by releasing it on your own, it's still a gray area in this day and age to be dumping ROMs on the web, so I never really buy that argument.

Anytime you buy something for $500 and give it away knowing you can't get the $500 back at all is just not something I would ever want to do.

There are so few proto collectors nowadays anyway, though...

[MrSparkle]

Oh wow here's an original conversation whether or not to dump protos! Lol that being said since someone else started it i'll say that i wish everyone with protos would dump them at least to have a back up and store it in a few places its like a species with only one member left your pretty damned close to losing it completely. I appreciate when people dump and release their protos, but if they don't want to they are private property and its completely up to them. That being said i would LOVE to see that Bound High! game get dumped it looks pretty cool.

[ProgrammingAce]

Heh, truth be known, i have no plans to dump most of my protos even for personal preservation reasons. I started the process once, but at 4+ GB each, it takes up too much time and space.

I've already lost a couple due to general attrition, it's just too much of a pain in the ass to do anything about.

[DreamTR]

Time is an issue. I would love to get all mine backed up, but good luck with that...Bound High you say? Heh.

[Sniderman]

In the eternal "to dump or not to dump protos" debate, the one thing that always irks me is the following Rule of Thumb:

"Those who claim that protoholders should dump the ROM "for historical archival purposes" are often the first to get pissed when that dumped file is not also immediately released into the wild for their enjoyment."

ROMwanter: "You have the only known proto of "AssSmacker" for the 2600? Wow, you should dump the ROM so it's not lost forever due to bit rot! Or what if something happened to that only known cart? Damn, you need to really think about making sure it's been archived. For historical purposes, of course."

ROMhaver: "Oh, I've already dumped it. It's been archived and is safe, don't you worry."

ROMwanter: "Oh. <lengthy pause> So when are you gonna release the BIN so we can all play it?"

:frustrated:

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

/me reads thread and hears Crosby Stills & Nash singing "We have all been here before..." in the background

I think I'm gonna go take a big ROM dump right now. Who's with me?

[MrSparkle]

I have no problem if they dont want to release their rom dump into the wild. BUT at the same time i think keeping it on a single hard drive is almost as risky as not having dumped it in the first place at least put it on a few private servers and don't give anyone access to it. As i said its a shame when a one of a kind game dies and becomes a none of a kind game.

[rbudrick]

rbudrick: I agree with you except for the fact that if you pay $1000 for a game, and give it a away for free without getting donations to compensate for the cost, that's an extremely bad business decision. Even if you are "helping the community" for free by releasing it on your own, it's still a gray area in this day and age to be dumping ROMs on the web, so I never really buy that argument.

Anytime you buy something for $500 and give it away knowing you can't get the $500 back at all is just not something I would ever want to do.

There are so few proto collectors nowadays anyway, though...

I'm actually not in disagreement with you at all, D. I'm all for protecting your investment. However, in my case it's not a business decision. Like I said, I don't intend to ever sell any of my protos, so I lose nothing. In your case, it's totally different because you do occasionally sell them.

As for the gray area, yeah, most folks technically don't have the legal right to distribute such things. However, most folks don't have the right to buy or sell them either. Most, not all, but you get the point. It goes both ways. Is there a lesser of evils? Debatable, but profiting off protos is still a little closer to the darker side of gray, I might opine, but I'd be a hypocrite to be against it, because I'm not.

-Rob

[norkusa]

Woah, looks like the final 4 VB games have been dumped over the weekend (Virtual Bowling, SD Gundam, Space Invaders, Virtual Lab). That means the entire VB game collection has FINALLY been dumped. Now I think I have to buy a Flashboy so I can play some Virtual Bowling.

Anyone know the story about how these roms got dumped? I always thought it was odd that these roms were never available, but then they show up all of a sudden out of nowhere. I always considered them the holy grail of roms.

[MrSparkle]

good luck getting that flashboy i've been on the waiting list for a few months now, Not exactly easy to come by.

[norkusa]

good luck getting that flashboy i've been on the waiting list for a few months now, Not exactly easy to come by.

That's what I figured. Last couple times I looked at them, they were sold out. For a while I was emailing the guy that makes the Flashboy to work out a trade (he wanted my case of new Virtual League Baseball carts for Flashboy parts) but shipping was a killer and the deal fell thru.

Guess I should have tried harder to score one. If I knew these roms were finally going to be dumped, I would have.

[MrSparkle]

Just jump onto that waiting list, I'm sure sooner or later i'll wind up owning one of these things. I read into developing on the thing a bit seems kind of confusing just given the display technology and the variety of methods you can use to generate the 3d graphics. But i would still love to take a crack at it, this system really never got the love it deserved i'm sure if it had the support nintendo has given to all of its other products it would have had some truely awesome games come out. (i think alot of the titles that did come out were pretty awesome actually)

[Galpus]

I was emailing the guy that makes the Flashboy to work out a trade (he wanted my case of new Virtual League Baseball carts for Flashboy parts)
Do you still have the carts ?

[tubeway]

That's what I figured. Last couple times I looked at them, they were sold out. For a while I was emailing the guy that makes the Flashboy to work out a trade (he wanted my case of new Virtual League Baseball carts for Flashboy parts) but shipping was a killer and the deal fell thru.

Guess I should have tried harder to score one. If I knew these roms were finally going to be dumped, I would have.

Well, VB carts are pretty small and light. Seems like if you just stripped them down to just the cartridges then you could ship those for relatively cheap. And then offer the manuals and packaging to those of us with loose or damaged copies of the game.

[kedawa]

I wonder how difficult it would be to swap the red leds in the hardware for something that's easier on the eyes, like white or cyan.

The key to balancing proto collecting and dumping is obviously to release the ROM dump after reselling the proto. ;)

[DogP]

Heh, swapping the red LEDs with others would be next to impossible without creating a new display (and then you might as well just output to a TV, Monitor, or if you want the goggles kinda thing... a VR headset).

http://home.comcast.net/~virtual.boy/projectvb/tech/displayfix/heated.jpg

There's 224 LEDs in the middle of the area covered by the clear plastic cover, which is about 9.5mm tall... in other words, each LED is about 42um. What I think would be cool would be to buy a few hundred laser pointers and wire them up as VB displays (I'm sure you could get a bulk lot on ebay for cheap)... it'd be massive, and would probably take a pretty powerful motor to oscillate at 50Hz like the original mirror, but playing a game of game of Wario Land on that setup would rock!

DogP

[rbudrick]

Are there any stereoscopic LCD headsets that an emulator could be run to? That'd be a way to change the color.

Hell, I'd pay for a modded VB with video out coming from each side so I could make my own.

-Rob