I was finally able to have a Virtual Boy system link experience- I brought my system and Hyper Fighting to a friend’s place for some versus mode fun! The link cable I made is pretty ugly looking, but held its own surprisingly well. There is a great article on this project in the Workshop (http://www.planetvb.com/modules/workshop/?02). This article helped me fix a goof where I just had each pin on one EXT port going to the corresponding pin on the other port- the systems recognized each other in versus mode on Hyper Fighting, but everything save for your own fighter was a scrambled mess. That’s because I had pin 4 (receive data) connected to the other receive line, same with pin 8 (send). Once I flipped a couple wires so each pin 4 connected to the opposite system’s pin 8, it was perfect!

If I’d seen that Workshop article before starting, I probably would have just used an SNES AV cable instead of that ugly green Playstation controller extension cable. I also had an extra Playstation 1 Gameshark lying around, and noticed that the black connector that plugs into the PS parallel I/O port could be cut down in size to fit in the VB EXT port. There are a lot of pins on the Gameshark, but they’re spaced just right so each pair of two will line up on a single VB EXT port pin. It was just a matter of figuring out which two pins would be paired up in each case, and soldering a wire from the green cable to each set of pins.

…this is just a placeholder though, I’ll be first in line when that official link cable comes out.

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that is a pretty cool project. how was 2 play SFII? any slow-down or other issues?

Wow, that’s really cool! I think you did well, not official looking but it also doesn’t look chintzy. I’m also curious as to how 2 player HF was like =D

Lester Knight wrote:
that is a pretty cool project. how was 2 play SFII? any slow-down or other issues?

Thanks! It was great actually- besides a few quick sessions here and there, I’ve never really played Street Fighter at all if you can believe it. But from what I remember, the gameplay mechanics were spot-on. Versus mode functioned flawlessly as far as I could tell. The only issue was that one side of my link cable (the one without the silver DB9 casing in the pics) would cut in and out a little bit. This is because when I fixed the two send/receive lines, I had to strip some very thin wire without tools, then twist the connections back together carefully. If the VB was moved at all, sometimes there would be a minor graphic glitch.

Everything worked great once my cable was cooperating though…things will be fixed once I solder things back up properly. That, and when I make the connection with the EXT port more snug. For some reason my test VB at home gripped the cable much tighter than the two that me and my friend were using. Not sure why, since we can assume that most EXT ports have the same amount of wear and tear ==> none :).

I also wanted to add that when looking for something which might be converted into a link cable, I noticed that a USB plug has four pins in roughly the same spacing/layout as one side of the EXT port. If anyone wants to try making cable, you might consider taking the metal casing off a couple USB plugs and finding a way to sandwich the EXT pins between the two USB pieces…might try it myself anyway :). Try holding a USB plug up next to the EXT port in bright light and you’ll see what I mean.

That’s a great design and it’s awesome to read that you got it functioning completely.

Dreammary wrote:
That’s a great design and it’s awesome to read that you got it functioning completely.

Heh, nobody was more surprised than me when it worked 😉

[HP Lovethrash]

I’m working on an updated and better version of the cable. This time I’m taking apart male USB plugs for the connector. Each USB has 4 pins, facing two of them together works pretty well since the pin spacing is almost exactly right for the EXT port :). The two center USB pins aren’t spaced equally compared to the outer ones, but it doesn’t seem to affect this project.

After peeling the black plastic casing off each plug, the silver shielding underneath should be removed as well. This leaves the actual cable attached to the little white plastic thing where the 4 pins terminate. After Dremeling away some of the excess plastic, I managed to get each side spaced perfectly to fit snugly into the EXT port.

This time I’m soldering 8 wires from the plug to a standard ethernet jack. The pictures show my first one, I just need to put heat shrink tubing over the electrical tape and add something to make the USB pieces wide enough to fill the EXT port. I figure using ethernet cable will allow for more flexibility since you can get a longer or shorter one as needed. Then, making a special ethernet to USB attachment means this same link adapter could be used for online play. I’ll upload more pics as it develops…

• This reply was modified 8 years, 8 months ago by HP Lovethrash.

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Fantastic design idea! You really have a nice skill level at creating cool stuff.

HP Lovethrash wrote:
I’m working on an updated and better version of the cable. This time I’m taking apart male USB plugs for the connector. Each USB has 4 pins, facing two of them together works pretty well since the pin spacing is almost exactly right for the EXT port :). The two center USB pins aren’t spaced equally compared to the outer ones, but it doesn’t seem to affect this project.

After peeling the black plastic casing off each plug, the silver shielding underneath should be removed as well. This leaves the actual cable attached to the little white plastic thing where the 4 pins terminate. After Dremeling away some of the excess plastic, I managed to get each side spaced perfectly to fit snugly into the EXT port.

This time I’m soldering 8 wires from the plug to a standard ethernet jack. The pictures show my first one, I just need to put heat shrink tubing over the electrical tape and add something to make the USB pieces wide enough to fill the EXT port. I figure using ethernet cable will allow for more flexibility since you can get a longer or shorter one as needed. Then, making a special ethernet to USB attachment means this same link adapter could be used for online play. I’ll upload more pics as it develops…

oooh, nice thinking. I’ll be very curious to hear if this works — I’ve got lots of everything required laying around. 🙂

jrronimo wrote:

oooh, nice thinking. I’ll be very curious to hear if this works — I’ve got lots of everything required laying around. 🙂

Thanks, I’ll let you know if it works out! No time to finish up and test lately but I borrowed my friend’s Hyper Fighting cart so I should be able to soon 🙂

Do you need 2 virtual fighting carts to make this work?
What about the demo version ? does it support multiplayer?

virtualnoob wrote:
Do you need 2 virtual fighting carts to make this work?
What about the demo version ? does it support multiplayer?

Yes. Unfortunately, you need 2 Hyper Fighting carts plus a link cable to be able to play the 2-player mode.

As far as I know, the demo version does not support multiplayer, but somebody can correct me if I’m wrong.

I doubt many people will get that chance.
Still cool though 🙂

This is my try to make a Link cable.

http://www.retrocomputers.gr/forum/mastoremata-montes-ktl/14012-link-cable-virtual-boy

The trick with the USB cable is awesome.

😎

Im currently making a link cable using your usb connector method, im just about to wire it and just wanted to confirm that pin out on this site is correct.