vuefinder83 wrote:

Nah you’re good Ben. I’ve been collecting these for at least a year now, and one thing that I noticed is that they’ve been releasing these games in two’s (except for 05, 06, and 07, those three were released at the same time). I’m quite confident that 08 and 10 will get another run, it’s just that with Joust and Rampage being the most recent to be released they’re probably just sold-out everywhere at the moment since collectors already have numbers 1 – 7. Now numbers 01 and 02 are a different story. I haven’t seen those restocked in almost a year, so eBay might be your best bet when it comes to acquiring those. I just received 01 Pac-Man in the mail today, so my collection is now temporarily complete.

Well, I wasn’t willing to risk it, so I now also have a currently complete collection, as I’ve ordered and received all the ones I couldn’t find in the store off of eBay.

I sure hope that these get restocked, and that Defender doesn’t get canceled. I fear that something has happened, which will cause Defender never to get released, in which case people would have to settle for homebrew Joust-hacks with altered cabinet art.

That is an awesome mock-up of Dragon Hopper. Love it!

vuefinder83 wrote:

I gotta hit up Wal-Mart before I go to work tomorrow to grab a few gifts for some co-workers, if I see that they have “8” and “10” I’ll buy them and ship them off to you along with the original receipt, and you can just pay me whenever.

Sound good?

Man, that would have been good. Too bad they didn’t have any.

I really hope that some Wal-Marts somewhere will still have them, or that they will come back in stock sometime soon. I really don’t want to have to resort to paying the higher prices on eBay for something so recently released, but it may end up being the case that I will have to.

I tried asking a guy at the Wal-Mart I visited today if he knew whether his store might get them in stock soon, but we all likely know how helpful the typical Wal-Mart employee is. :-/

When I go to visit my girlfriend this weekend, I’ll have to check the Wal-Mart where she lives.

pinmagic wrote:

It’s interesting that they use such a variety of technology for these games – some have 80s style static LEDs, and some have the latest active panels that look like a TV screen. Wonder why that is.

It seems that Wal-Mart wanting to exert its power has a large part to do with it. Based on the release history of these things, it seems that the classic static screens was going to be the original direction taken, but then when Wal-Mart caught wind of it, it seems that Wal-Mart wanted to introduce a “premium” line of the machines, so the vast majority in the Wal-Mart exclusive line gets the versions that are largely all slightly modified NES ROMs, it seems. Thus, everybody else gets the static screen versions to sell, while powerful Wal-Mart gets the versions that are closer to the arcade versions.

Here is solid proof that number 09 is going to be “Defender”:

I searched 3 different Wal-Marts in my area today and couldn’t find numbers 08 and 10 in any of them. It appears that the Wal-Marts in my area haven’t released them yet for some reason, as they definitely all still had an abundant supply of numbers 03 through 07.

[Benjamin Stevens]

pinmagic wrote:
Actually, many (all?) of the Arcade Classics are widely available at stores like JC Penney, BB&B, Amazon, Toys R Us, and others. But Wal-Mart may have an exclusive on the nice box packaging – all the others sell the games on blister packs.

From what I have learned so far, the nice packaging in the pictures I provided, which includes the special numbering from 01 to 10, is exclusive to Wal-Mart, but not only that, the versions of the video games for Centipede, Q*bert, Frogger, Joust, and Rampage are also exclusive to Wal-Mart. Thus, the versions of the games in the blister packs for Centipede, Q*bert, and Frogger are different, not to mention the styles of the cabinets themselves, while the styles of the cabinets for Asteroids and Pac-Man in color are likewise exclusive to Wal-Mart, and it appears that Joust and Rampage don’t even sell in the blister packs at all. So yeah, I’m considering the Wal-Mart exclusives as a line in and of itself.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by Benjamin Stevens.

A very recently released line of “handhelds” that I find to be very neat is the “Arcade Classics” line of mini-arcade cabinets, manufactured by Basic Fun, a division of The Bridge Direct, Inc. It appears that these are exclusively sold by Wal-Mart, so obviously resellers are already trying to snatch them up and sell online for higher prices. I currently have numbers 03 through 07 in my collection, and I’m hoping to get the whole line. Strangely, it seems that only numbers 01 through 08 and 10 have been released so far, but there are rumors online that number 09 is / will soon be “Defender.”

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That video alone earned my sub to the channel!

It’s very cool to hear from one from the team that did any work on that Virtual Boy title.

It’s oh so very exciting to see updates with this! 🙂

The seller appears to be a PVB member here.

Sorry to see the good ol’ collection have to go.

Bonehead Braixen wrote:
Oooooh, good luck with that… GC prices are rising about as much as SNES games have been for a while. It’s kind of gross, especially considering how cheap they are in Japan. And I don’t think there’s any good backup loader solution at the moment, unless I missed something. (SDGecko is like barely passable) So no Skies of Arcadia or Fire Emblem for anyone who isn’t rich as heck.

So many complete-in-box GameCube games can be gotten for about $8.00 or less, though, so if I have to pay some more for Skies of Arcadia or Fire Emblem, I’m okay with that. 🙂

I did decide, though, to get Gotcha Force as disc only, which I’ll also do for Cubivore, if I decide to get it at all.

Welcome to Planet Virtual Boy, and nice collection!

I myself like to keep it more retro and, hence, stay a few video game generations behind everybody else, so I’ve still been collecting games for my GameCube and probably won’t get a Switch for another several years.

SmokeMonster wrote:
Yeah, you’re correct that “freely distributed” or just “not-for-sale” would be a better fit since they are all still owned by their creators, unlike public domain which applies more to copyright expiration. I should have just called them “free”. I can’t edit the post though it seems.

Thanks, Ben, for that link. I had seen planetvb’s homebrew page, but I didn’t realize there were more titles listed under the different tabs. That seems to be every single VB homebrew in existence.

Perhaps “released” would be the best word, rather than “public domain.”

In any case, I created a list of “released” homebrew works that were not on your original list, as taken from the link I provided:

Title – Type – Release Status – Development Status – Developer
3D BattleSnake – Game – Released – Finished – DogP
Beginner Samples – Demo – Released – Finished – Fwirt
BitString Demo – Application – Released – Finished – Dan Bergman
Channel Sweeper – Game – Released – Finished – Jose Zagal
Chrono Trigger Run Demo – Demo – Released – Finished – MrSparkle
Column blitter / dithering library – Engine – Released – Finished – blitter
Cycle Test – Application – Released – Finished – Guy Perfect
F-Zero Maximum Velocity – Game – Released – Cancelled – Guy Perfect
Game Boy Emulator – Application – Released – In Development – M.K.
Game of Life VB – Demo – Released – Finished – KR155E
GameHero Midi-Player – Engine – Released – Finished – thunderstruck
Insecticide – Game – Released – Finished – VirtualChris (Program), morintari (Graphics support)
MIDI Music Player – Application – Released – Finished – Dan Bergman
(“Metroid VB” by Krisse was an April Fool’s joke)
Nice Mice – Game – Released – On Hold – VirtualChris
Pac-Guy 4 – Game – Released – Cancelled – VirtualChris
Pineapple 64 – Game – Released – In Development – VirtualChris
Platformer Demo – Game – Released – Cancelled – ?
Real Danger – Game – Released – Finished – Sebastian Mihai
Soviet Union 2011 Sound Engine – Engine – Released – Finished – HorvatM
Space Invaders Demo – Game – Released – Cancelled – ?
Speed Profiler – Application – Released – Finished – Guy Perfect
Tic-Tac-Toe ‘Ten – Game – Released – Finished – VirtualChris
VB Display Test App – Application – Released – Finished – DogP
VB Programming Introductory Demo – Demo – Released – Finished – KR155E
VB Screen Test – Application – Released – Finished – David Tucker
VB Sound Tester – Demo – Released – Finished – DogP
Virtual Boy Link Cable Test – Demo – Released – Finished – DogP
VUEngine – Engine – Released – In Development – Jorgeche, KR155E
Wireframe Library – Engine – Released – Finished – Greg Stevens

Compare your list with what you see here, and it should cover just about everything:

http://www.planetvb.com/modules/games/?ht

For any who might be having a hard time getting the best ending in the new “Mansion of Insmouse: All Hallows’ Eve,” or for any who might be having difficulty beating it at all, here now are the level maps for the game, which can be used to help you formulate a plan of attack for each level as you are entering it. The numbers shown for each “Layout Index” and “Password Index” are the index numbers that had to be used to create each map in its proper location with InsmEdit 1.2. These would be very helpful references for any who might decide to make their own new level maps for a whole new version of the game. Also included are the total time in seconds to complete each level and the “Intense Time” for each level, where in order to make it to the next higher level on the spear-shaped level chart, you must have more time left on the clock than the Intense Time when you exit a certain level. The green square with the arrow shows your starting position and the direction you’re facing when you begin the level; the red squares show the corridors that you can walk through; the brown squares indicate doors; the light red squares represent breakable walls that monsters can plow through if you are near them and on the other side of the wall; and the yellow square with the “x” represents the level exit. I’ve even included the starting positions for every monster in each level, which is most helpful for creating your starting approach for each level, especially the harder ones. “S” stands for “short,” “B” stands for “bright,” “T” stands for “tall,” and “D” stands for “dark,” with regard to the monsters’ attributes. The numbers next to each monster represented by an S or T and a B or D are the specific x and y coordinates that I used to place each monster using InsmEdit 1.2.

Attachments:

1. mansion-of-insmouse-all-hallows-eve-level-maps.pdf

KR155E wrote:
Awesome, thank you for the great scans, Ben!

Since we know from magazine articles that Coconuts were at E3 1995, and announced exactly these 5 VB games at the show, I do believe that this was handed out at E3 1995. I have often seen people confuse E3 and CES and the same is likely true for the seller of this catalog. Don’t know about the date, E3 started on May 11th. Maybe “May 1” is yet another typo and they meant to write “May 11” or the catalog was also handed out at another show that happened on May 1st. Could also be just the date the item was produced.

I too think that “War Simulation” is the same as “Star Seed”. They probably did not have a proper title (for the US market) at the time of writing.

So, I also conclude it’s “Intercept” then, not “Interceptor” as we previously referred to. Also, it seems to be “Sunday’s Point”, not “Sundays Point” (note the whitespace between “Sunday” and “s”).

Yeah, E3 makes much more sense.

I always thought that Sunday’s Point should have the apostrophe, but I never really caught the mistranslation of “Intercept” before. I guess I had just assumed that its English translation had been verified, but at least now we know!

RetroDan wrote:
I’m betting it’s a mistranslation of the word “VIDEO”, meaning the graphics, not cutscenes. Ahh, Engrish.

Yeah, I agree with that assessment. Based on what I’ve seen in other Japanese articles that I’ve translated for the Virtual Boy and based on the rest of the context of that particular sentence itself, I think the original Japanese words that they would have used before translating them into English would have been “迫力の映像.” In other contexts that I’ve seen these in, “impressive visuals,” seems to work as a proper translation in just about every case, and in this sentence, where the words in question are directly connected to the “magnifying and reduction,” which most probably refers to zooming in and out, it seems that “impressive visuals” works nicely once again.

speedyink wrote:
That is cool!

Looks like the working title for Jack Bros was Monster Busters? I can’t read Spanish, but that’s what I got out of it =P

Hmmm… it would be hard to confirm from this that “Monster Busters” was definitely a working title for Jack Bros. We know that “Devil Busters” was, indeed, a working title for the game, so the “Monster Busters” appearing in this article may have simply been an improper translation of the Japanese “Devil Busters” working title.

Here is another place where one can download the game for Windows for free until December 24th, which includes instructions:

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.atlus.co.jp%2Fnews%2F5854%2F&edit-text=&act=url

(Click on “Original” in the upper right corner to see the page in Japanese once you locate the download button and then try to download it, if the download link button doesn’t work on the translated page.)