Capturing screenshots from handhelds -Game.com, GameBoy, etc

[pixelsnpolygons]

Is it possible to capture screenshots from these devices? I do it with my consoles all the time - it is simple as they have RCA cords that plug straight into my capturing device. Older systems simply plug into my RF modulator which plugs into the capturing device. I'm trying to get some screens of some of my games - most desperately Game.com and Virtual Boy, with sadly, no logical idea of how it can be done.

Can it?

[Ed Oscuro]

Before Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow was released, a guy working for an Italian game magazine visited the CV Dungeon Forums and showed us some screenshots (plus a picture of the game running on a GBA SP). A lot of folks were skeptical (...and rude), but he did tell us that they had a special device to get screenshots. Looked like emulator quality, really. I don't know anything more about what the device was or how it worked, though...

I will say that there is a Virtual Boy emulator out there; no idea how good it is but I've seen some pretty darn good grayscale images and red/blue glasses formatted stuff, apparently off it.

[pixelsnpolygons]

Thanks, Ed - that was more helpful than you probably assumed it would be.

[Bratwurst]

I'm most interested in the unholy marital results of a Game.com and a flatbed scanner.

[pixelsnpolygons]

I'm most interested in the unholy marital results of a Game.com and a flatbed scanner.

I might have to do that.

[evilmess]

I've used the ViBE v1.0b5 - Nintendo Virtual Boy Emulator for the mac (http://www.bannister.org/software/emu.htm) and was quite impressed with the quality and performance for the couple roms that I tried. You could screen shot that but it had a funky stereoscopic display in blue and red and I don't recall if you can turn that off.

So if you have a mac I'd give it a try.

[rbudrick]

Yes, you could set up a camera and a GB, and with the right distance, lighting, and shutter speed, it could be done. Or, get a hold of a developer's unit. :-)

Is there a game.com emu out there yet?
:puke:
-Rob

[DogP]

Yeah, the best Virtual Boy emulator (IMO) is Red Dragon (latest beta release, not the public version). I can't give out the link for public download (plus I don't remember it :P ), but if you go into #virtualboy on EFNet, I'm sure someone could send it to you. It plays almost every game, and accurately, unlike ViBE (plus it's for PC).

About a game.com emulator... no, there aren't any yet, although I had thought about making one... the only problem was figuring out the pinout of the cart so I can dump games :P . Almost all the chips in the system are the epoxy globs, so there's no way to figure it out by looking at that, so using my logic analyzer, I had started, but never finished.

DogP

[AFGiant]

I tried scanning my game.com right in, as said before. Here's what I got :o

http://img18.exs.cx/img18/3440/gamecom.jpg

[TRM]

I always just scan my Gameboy units. The quality of the pictures isn;t emulator quality, but it works for my purposes.

[pixelsnpolygons]

Wow, thank you so much for the fantastic responses, everyone. I'd like to respond individually, but I don't wanna jam up my thread - so I'll just give you all a generic, one-size-fits-all, thank you. ;-)

But I do have a lot to go on - and I'm surprised at how good that image turned out.

[Daria]

I tried scanning my game.com right in, as said before. Here's what I got :o

http://img18.exs.cx/img18/3440/gamecom.jpg

That doesn't look any more complicated then a gameboy game, I haven't seen the system but as long as the screens are 2D you could take a picture like that and then if you wanted emulater quality screenies reproduce the screen shots pixel by pixel in paint shop pro (or any similar program). It would be time consuming, but would have great results.

[TheRedEye]

I'm about to make a separate thread about this, but here's a scan of my Mega Duck's screen. I don't know if my unit's defective or what, but this seriously looks crisper than when I'm actually trying to play the thing:

http://www.theredeye.net/megaduck/blackforesttale03.jpg

[Flack]

For what it's worth, I've had good luck taking digital pictures of my handhelds. I usually tilt the camera slightly to avoid reflections, and I usually have to turn the flash off to keep from washing out the picture. That's if you're actually wanting to show the unit. Otherwise, yeah, the emulator route works pretty well.

[calthaer]

I would only do this on emulator. Just get a device from Lik-Sang to load your saved games (if the game has one) to the PC. The quality of anything else is so poor as to be almost unusable - unless you're just trying to get a high-score picture to post somewhere.

[TRM]

Here are some I did for Gameboy. They don't look bad at all, imo. I just used a scanner.

http://www.planetnintendo.com/thewarpzone/colordreamsshrine1/cd/swgb2.jpg

http://www.planetnintendo.com/thewarpzone/colordreamsshrine1/cd/swgb3.jpg

http://www.planetnintendo.com/thewarpzone/colordreamsshrine1/cd/swgb4.jpg

[Jive3D]

as far as GB/GBC/GBA goes - you best bet is using Visual Boy Advance (on PC) or Boycott Advance (for MAC). That's all that I can really offer though. I dont know if those emus have screen shot options, but if they dont, you can always use Gadwin Printscreen as a good screenshot grabber (PC)

[pixelsnpolygons]

Just wanted to thank those who responded after my last thank you response. I got some great input. :)

[whoisKeel]

so i'm gonna ask...why do you want to do this? just for kicks, or is there some deeper spriritual meaning?

[pixelsnpolygons]

so i'm gonna ask...why do you want to do this? just for kicks, or is there some deeper spriritual meaning?

its closer to a deeper, spiritual meaning.