What a great gift during the holiday season! Perhaps there’s still hope for future releases of the still unreleased Virtual Boy games: Faceball, Zero Racers, and Dragon Hopper.
This old thread gives me even more hope that Faceball, Zero Racers, or Dragon Hopper could be released someday.
Jojobean, if you ever happen to come across these games, or already have, I would highly recommend taking the Fundraiser route that has already been suggested on this site. Doing things secretly only runs the risk of the games being leaked and you losing a lot of money that was necessary to acquire the games in the first place.
I am definitely willing to contribute a lot towards the release of any of the aforementioned games, and I’m sure that others on Planet Virtual boy would be too (except maybe for any who already secretly have any of said games and have been told to keep quiet about them. Such people probably won’t be seen contributing to a fundraiser for the release of the respective ROMs.)
Of course, the above statement applies to any prototype owner of the aforementioned games. In my opinion, if one has a prototype, having the ROM released does not reduce the value of the prototype at all, assuming it is, indeed, an original prototype. You still have a one of a kind item that cannot be duplicated, though the game contained on it can. If I paid thousands of dollars to acquire a prototype and knew that I could get a fundraiser to reimburse me for all of my expenses on the purchase of the prototype so that others could play the game and I could still keep my rare, one-of-a-kind item, I would certainly jump on that opportunity in a heartbeat.
TheForce81 wrote:
… hence the release to the fine people of this site.
Thank you so much for this release, TheForce81. To me, this day is as exciting as the release date of Bound High would have been had I been on the Virtual Boy scene at the time of its release. I’m glad I could be here for Space Pinball’s release.
This gives hope that I might also get to see the release of Faceball, Zero Racers, and dare I say it… Dragon Hopper.
My guess is that the main image was made from high resolution scans of the 3rd to last and 2nd to last pages of the Japanese instruction booklet, which doesn’t have the words overlapping the picture as the U.S. version does:
RayXambeR wrote:
Hello to everyone.
I am new on this forum and see with interest that a box for Bound High is on the way.
Is it always possible to buy one? I can pay by Paypal soon. Just let me know!
Bound High is a real great game!
I’m not involved in the actual making of the box, so I can’t say for sure, but from what I’ve read in the past, it seems that one batch of boxes and manuals (I’m assuming it’s just a manual cover) will be made once it is determined that we have at least 20 orders. Given the fact that very little interest has been shown in this thus far, I wouldn’t expect any more batches to be made in the future, so if you really want one in this way (you could print them off yourself, but hopefully these are coming from a professional printing company and the quality of these will be better than what one might get on one’s home printer), I would recommend adding your name to the list soon. Once you are on the list, you are saying that you will definitely send payment for the box, manual, and shipping costs once the notification e-mails are sent out.
I’ve actually been waiting for the notification e-mail myself and am ready and able to pay as soon as I know who to send payment to.
RayXambeR wrote:
sorry, I have just read another message in this forum with the same info.
But it is still a great news!
That’s okay. Repeat news is always a good thing. Plus, with this subject title, more people who use the search engine on this site are likely to find out about it in the future. A phrase like “brand new Virtual Boy game to be released possibly in 2012” contains good words that people who are searching for such things might use in a search engine, and thus, such a phrase is good to post in an online forum such as this.
I am, indeed, excited about this game being worked on by Revival Studios with the working title “EFX,” about which a little more information can be found here:
TheForce81 wrote:
Well, consider this to be my contribution to the site, Jojobean sold it to me, or better said, ripped me off on it with Bound High at the time.
Enjoy it!
Top job. I was a little worried someone might try that kind of ‘deal’ again, I had the ROM gifted to me a while back, but was asked to keep it quiet, pleased to now see it out there.
Well, unfortunately, the Space Pinball ROM isn’t “out there” yet because I don’t think anyone can get the download to work properly. I sure can’t. But now, everyone knows that you have a working ROM that could be put out there for everyone.
Man… with such clear maps of each level, one should now be able easily to form a strategy to beat my fastest times that are posted on this site. Please feel free to do so! 🙂
bigmak wrote:
Zaku is a great lynx game 🙂 I can say that much 🙂
Did you order a copy straight from their website? If so, when you ordered it, did it say on their website that they were out of stock but would send one to you as soon as one was available, and if so, how long did it take?
I’m hoping to order one shortly after my next pay comes rolling around.
It looks like the one for sale on Ebay is missing the inserts, and the stand which holds the Virtual Boy is folded down and positioned strangely, which does, indeed, make it look like it should hang on a wall.
I have no clue what type of game EFX could be, but it doesn’t matter, ’cause it’s a Virtual Boy game. I’m on board for that!
It looks like even carts will be made for it, probably with boxes and/or manuals? Sign me up for that! 🙂
Stuff like this definitely needs to be made more easily accessible, since a lot of people who would buy such things if they knew about them, won’t do so simply because they never hear of them.
Another classic system I like to get original games for is the Atari Lynx. The system was basically off the market even a couple of years before the Virtual Boy came into existence. I had no idea until very recently that a new game, with box and manual and all, was made for the Atari Lynx just 2 years ago, namely “Zaku” (http://www.zaku-lynx.com). It took a lot of searching and digging with regard to the Lynx in general for me to even find out about this game, and I’m sure a lot of other avid Lynx collectors have never even heard of it.
If EFX ends up being a game for the Virtual Boy as Zaku is for the Lynx, that would be really cool.
VBrulez wrote:
Robert Molander is the only active member of the site who has the game, so hopefully he will read this thread and be on borad with it.
Given the fact that Srimok knows that 700 U.S. Dollars and a reputable person with the ability to dump it are all that is needed to get the game dumped, it would seem that he already knows someone who owns the game and who is willing to let it be dumped. Whether that person is Robert Molander, I don’t know. Also, the person who owns the game who is willing to let it be dumped might not have one of the prototype carts of the game. Reproduction carts of this game have also been made in the past, but I don’t know how many.
It is practically an entirely different game. Galactic Pinball can virtually be considered a sequel to Space Pinball, though it isn’t really, since Space Pinball would have had to have been released, which it might soon be, now, in the ROM world. 🙂
If a reputable person is found who can dump it, I would be willing to give 100 U.S. dollars towards this project.
This is a serious pledge that I can definitely commit to.
By the way… I’m thinking that Richard Hutchinson would be a reputable and trustworthy person who can get this job done, so I’m throwing him out there as a suggestion. Am I right, Richard?
This is the first time I’ve ever even heard about that system. Now that’s a classic! A separate website would be good to spread awareness of it. Of course, the only repercussion is that once awareness of it is spread, the selling prices for the games and system are likely to rise on Ebay, etc. 😉
All of the official release dates for Virtual Boy games only pertain to all of North America and Japan, so I would imagine that all 14 USA games would have also been released in Mexico. Thus, it could very well be that all 14 of these games also had Spanish instructions inserted into them after they originally left the manufacturers warehouses. I can’t imagine ever finding a copy of Jack Bros. with Spanish instructions, though. 😉
Those definitely aren’t original boxes, though. It looks like they were homemade, or maybe made by a rental store? Whoever made them did a very good job, though. They look very nice.
Yeah… I’m aware that the reviewer of Retrogames stated that the game seemed to be completed, but I don’t know if I regard his opinion as authoritative. To me, a “finished” game would mean that those at Bullet-Proof Software were satisfied with what they had accomplished and were ready to release the game as is, without there being any time restraints that were forcing them to release the game before it met their intentions. Based on what I’ve read about the current Faceball prototype, it doesn’t seem to me that it was “finished” in the eyes of those at Bullet-Proof Software. I’m sure that if they had more time and were actually planning to release it to market, there would have been more added and it would be more polished.
That being explained, I do believe that Dragon Hopper is a completely finished game. From what I’ve read, it seems that the makers of it were truly satisfied and finished with their product, it’s just that the product never got to be released. That’s what makes Dragon Hopper so special.
Heck… I actually don’t regard Virtual Lab as a “finished” game. Though it was officially released, there are many signs in it which indicate that the makers were truly rushed to get it to market and didn’t get the game completed as they originally intended.
