Original Post

Hi,

Posting a separate thread specifically about my VB cart programmer. As I mentioned in another thread this can dump the ram/rom space of any VB game. Also allows writing to ram/rom of my custom 16Mbit carts. I’m adding support for my larger 256Mbit cart as well.

I’ll be building a few of these programmers in the next month or so and I’m wondering if anyone has any interest in them. Some free ones will be going to developers for games that need the larger 256Mbit cart. This is really meant as a developer tool but putting it out there for anyone. PM me if interested.

You can see more info here: http://www.mellottsvrpage.com/index.php/virtual-boy-cartridge-programmer/

Thanks,
Kevin

129 Replies

I can get parts to build 5 more if people are interested. Send me a PM.
After that there are no more VB motherboard connectors available.

If anyone is on the fence about getting one, I say get one while you can. I’m very happy with mine and Thunderstruck’s GUI makes it easy to use if you aren’t as familiar with terminal interfaces or don’t have a good terminal application program installed. You can also use the programmer to backup your VB game saves. I successfully cloned my Galactic Pinball game onto one of Kevin’s 16 Mbit carts complete with my high scores! Plus, is just so damn cute on the shelf 🙂

mellott124 schrieb:
I can get parts to build 5 more if people are interested. Send me a PM.
After that there are no more VB motherboard connectors available.

PM sent

mellott124 wrote:
I can get parts to build 5 more if people are interested. Send me a PM.
After that there are no more VB motherboard connectors available.

PM from me as well, want one for sure now.

I just wanted to reiterate what everyone else has said. This is a great little product and I recommend you get one if you can. I did a video on how to set it up and use it in a basic form. https://youtu.be/nchMOo3Gm2k

retronintendonerd wrote:
I just wanted to reiterate what everyone else has said. This is a great little product and I recommend you get one if you can. I did a video on how to set it up and use it in a basic form. https://youtu.be/nchMOo3Gm2k

Nice video Candice. Laughed when you mentioned the Do-Do story. My son calls anything that looks like a VB Do-Do now. Or he says “Daddy made it”.

I’ll have a firmware update soon to fix the Japanese character issue when saving Japanese ROMs. A few other updates will be in there for devs as well. Code is nearly complete and I should be able to test this week.

Picture below of latest programmers I’ve built. They’ll go out in the next few weeks to people who ordered. They’re waiting for the 128Mbit carts.

mellott124 wrote:

retronintendonerd wrote:
I just wanted to reiterate what everyone else has said. This is a great little product and I recommend you get one if you can. I did a video on how to set it up and use it in a basic form. https://youtu.be/nchMOo3Gm2k

Nice video Candice. Laughed when you mentioned the Do-Do story. My son calls anything that looks like a VB Do-Do now. Or he says “Daddy made it”.

I’ll have a firmware update soon to fix the Japanese character issue when saving Japanese ROMs. A few other updates will be in there for devs as well. Code is nearly complete and I should be able to test this week.

Picture below of latest programmers I’ve built. They’ll go out in the next few weeks to people who ordered. They’re waiting for the 128Mbit carts.

Glad I was able to do a good enough video that showcased it 🙂

I had to add the Do-Do story. I found it so cute. Knowing your son calls all of them that is just too cute. <3

My husband is also writing a padder for Mac users now, since he saw me working on the video and needed to brush up on his python lol

There’s a firmware update now available for the batch 1 VB cart programmers. I’ve emailed the people who purchased a programmer.
This update adds:

1. General bug fixes
2. Update menu with commands that were missing
3. command which is a short erase/program command for faster development
4. User file name selection when saving ROMs or RAM files
5. GSN/SSN commands for setting/getting serial numbers of VB cart programmers.
6. SD ROM file to serial dump command.

The last command on the upgrade list is a serial to SD ROM file write that is still being worked on.

Batch 2 programmers will already have all these updates. The #4 update above is a work around for the Japanese file ROM saves.

Kevin

Out of curiosity do you still have any plans on developing a multi-cart?

These look so awesome, really great work 🙂

TiredKorok wrote:
Out of curiosity do you still have any plans on developing a multi-cart?

These look so awesome, really great work 🙂

It’s on hold. I’ve completed all my other planned VB projects and this one is the last on the list. I even have the tools and dev kits to get started. However the multicart is also the largest project in terms of development effort and time. Currently I don’t have any spare time to devote to this at the moment.

mellott124 wrote:
There’s a firmware update now available for the batch 1 VB cart programmers. I’ve emailed the people who purchased a programmer.

Kevin

Kevin,

I dont think I received an email. Can you please resend?

mellott124 wrote:

TiredKorok wrote:
Out of curiosity do you still have any plans on developing a multi-cart?

These look so awesome, really great work 🙂

It’s on hold. I’ve completed all my other planned VB projects and this one is the last on the list. I even have the tools and dev kits to get started. However the multicart is also the largest project in terms of development effort and time. Currently I don’t have any spare time to devote to this at the moment.

Just glad to hear it lives on, it’ll be worth waiting for

Good luck and don’t forget to play games too with some of your free time! 😀

I found a few more parts for 3 more programmers if anyone is interested. PM me.

I would be extremely interested if you have any further plans for production! I’ve been looking for a solid way to contribute to the VB online community and make an impact locally, and this tool is simply outstanding. Please reach out anytime day or night Kevin, exceptional and inspiring work!

I found parts for two more units if anyone is interested. I think I’ll do these last two in the VB mini case.

mellott124 wrote:
I found parts for two more units if anyone is interested. I think I’ll do these last two in the VB mini case.

I PM’d so quickly I nearly broke my keyboard.

I have another programmer available in a VB mini case. PM me if interested. Thanks.

It’s been just over a year for this project. Hard to believe. So please find attached the design files for the VB mini case for my programmer.

These were designed in TinkerCad. At one point I was thinking of modifying these files to house a Raspberry Pi for a software VB console. Then later was thinking of modifying it for a VB motherboard to use with the Furrtek video out mod for a hardware VB console. Not going to do that anytime soon so maybe someone else can.

You’ll probably want to reference this page with the part names to assemble one:

VB Cart Programmer Build

I’ll eventually update that page as well with the same models.

-Kevin

mellott124, I feel that the best way to pull this off in the foreseeable future is to use the VB itself as a cart port and HID, and a separate box that plugs into the link cable port that does the actual programming.

boye wrote:
mellott124, I feel that the best way to pull this off in the foreseeable future is to use the VB itself as a cart port and HID, and a separate box that plugs into the link cable port that does the actual programming.

Cool idea but it would be very slow compared to the current programmer. The link port is 250kHz at best. You’d also need a boot loader in every cart as the VB runs off the cart code.

A few more motherboards have become available if anyone wants me to build a programmer in a regular case.

 

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