[8678D]

I found out a bit late that the Virtual Boy’s 30th anniversary is coming up,
so I rushed to get something out there in time.

It’s not perfect yet — it’s still EPROM-based and the board size is a bit non-standard,
but I’ll keep updating it.

All design files (PCB, 3D case, laser-cut shell) are fully open source,
and I’m planning to make a USB-flashable, single-board version in the future.

Check it out!

Happy Virtual Boy 30th Anniversary!

• This topic was modified 6 months, 1 week ago by 8678D.

Thanks again for your answer.
Yes, I have encountered the problem with the screws. Couldn´t find flathead screws and need to grind them down.
In the end I got one fitting cartridge, but it was a lot of work.

Thanks for explaining the ROM things. I created some ROMs that way and will program them tomorrow.
Hopefully everything works.

No worries. Glad you shared your knowledge, let´s see if everything turns out well 😉

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[abarth]

Got 8 EPROMs programmed.
Only one game works 🙁 Don´t know why. The EPROMs have been programmed the same way. The ROM files have been padded by copying and pasting the code to get 16Mbits. Soldering looks also fine to me. Don´t know what to do know.

EDIT: Pong is the game which works so far.

EDIT 2: Pong is not working anymore 🙁 Now I have no working game.

• This reply was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by abarth.
• This reply was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by abarth.

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This is how the soldering of my “A Wireframe Scenery” cartridge looks like.
In my opinion everything looks fine.
But the game only one worked once out of ~10 starts, and only with severe graphic glitches and no sound.

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After assembling several boards, I discovered one thing. The cartridge connection does not fit snugly with the Virtual Boy.
If the connection was slightly loose or too tight, the game would not be recognized properly.

At first, I thought it was a ROM issue, but after covering the ROM socket and swapping out the ROM, I confirmed that it was a problem with the cartridge connector.

It seems that among the many boards you assembled, there aren’t many with the “correct” connectors. I sincerely apologize, but in my opinion, the connector issue is the most severe.

If I could obtain a connector made specifically for the Virtual Boy, I think this problem would be solved, but it is unfortunate that, unlike other game consoles, they are not mass-produced in China.

Once again, I apologize. : (

Thanks for your reply and narrowing down a possible root cause.
Procuring real connectors or even reproduced ones from Vintex is quite expensive.

But I think with the current ones I won´t get happy. I sanded them down until they fit tightly into a dust cover. They are all roughly 0.42mm. They also fit well into my VB, but as I said, I get no picture.

I can confirm that the connector is the issue.
I sacrificed VLB (1 obviously 😉 ) and exchanged the connector on my Virtual Vibes opensource reprocard, which never showed a picture before with the old, unofficial connector.
And voilà, it works every time I put it into the VB 🙂 🙂
And the best thing: the FRAM seems to work here, it saves the general settings as well as the highscores.

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I tried to build another card, this time Test Chamber.
I split the 32MBit ROM into two 16MBit “portions” with exactly the same size and flashed them on EPROM 1 and EPROM 2.
But sadly, this game does not work at all, even with a genuine connector attached. It just does nothing during startup 🙁 Black screen and no sound…

Wanted to add another piece of information, perhaps someone is interested in this topic (I also posted this on the Virtual Picross release thread, hopefully this is okay):
I built Virtual Picross with a padded ROM (ROM was extended to 16Mbit via copying and pasting the original code several times via padding tool), genuine connector and FM16W08 FRAM.
The game works, saving does not work.

A side note: Virtual Vibes has the exact same setup, but it saves.

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Another reprocard completed today:
Virtual League Baseball 2!
ROM was from PVB (obviously ; ), genuine connector and FM18W08 FRAM.
It plays fine, FRAM seems to save correctly, at least what I could quickly check via “Team Edit”.

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Another reprocard, this time Formula V demo 12 (16MBit).
This time again with FM16W08 FRAM, which saves in this game again 🙂
So one can play against ghosts of your best lap in time trial.

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Another one, this time Fishbone (early rumble build).
In this case, the FM16W08 FRAM does not save 🙁

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Quick update:
I changed the FM16W08 FRAM to FM18W08 FRAM on the Fishbone and on the Virtual Picross cartridge.
Sadly it still does not save progress, neither for Fishbone nor for Virtual Picross.