tcr9315 wrote:
who won

The Game Boy Emulator made by M.K. won the competition:

http://www.planetvb.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=381

L___E___T wrote:
Looks nice, I’d love to have one, but I personally find even half that BIN an insane price when TV out kits are already possible.

I meant to say – that other Intelligent Systems 3D or multiscreen capture kits indeed have that option for side by side screens, with various dipswitch settings and accompanying PC software, so I’d like to think that this does also.

Based on what appears in the VUE Debugger Guide, I would not expect that the Video Boy could show side-by-side screens or have any other options besides what is listed in the guide. It seems to be able to show red and green anaglyph images, as RunnerPack mentioned, and it can also show the left-eye image alone and the right-eye image alone. That is probably all that it can do, so its uses are very limited.

Actually, now that I looked at the Japanese text more closely, it seems that the left-eye screen is displayed on the TV in red and that the right-eye screen is displayed on the TV in green, which is the opposite of what I wrote earlier, and I wrote that based on the rough English translation of section 11 of the VUE Debugger guide, which appears on this site. Nevertheless, since “左目用画像と右目用画像” is in the same order as “赤色と緑色” in the guide, I would conclude that it is the left-eye screen or image that would appear on the TV in red, and the right-eye screen or image would appear on the TV in green. Here is how I would translate section 11 of the VUE Debugger Guide:

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

11) ビデオボーイVUE
ビデオボーイVUEにPAL方式ビデオ入力またはRGB入力が用意されているテレビモニタを接続するだけで、バーチャルボーイの立体画像を擬似的にテレビモニタに表示します。バーチャルボーイのゲームカセットをビデオボーイVUEに実装すると、左目用画像と右目用画像をそれぞれ赤色と緑色でテレビモニタに表示することができます。また、左目用のみの画像や右目用のみの画像を選択して表示することも可能です。
複数人数で同一画面の確認ができるので、デモンストレーション時、仕様打ち合わせ時、デバッグ時などに威力を発揮します。

11) Video Boy VUE
Simply connect a television monitor, which is provided with a PAL format video input or RGB input, to the Video Boy VUE, in order to display the Virtual Boy’s stereoscopic images on the television monitor in a simulated manner. When you insert a Virtual Boy game cartridge into the Video Boy VUE, it will be able to display the left-eye image and the right-eye image on the television monitor in red and green, respectively. In addition, it is also possible to select and display only the image for the left eye and only the image for the right eye.
Since the same screen can be checked by a multiple number of people, this will be quite useful during debugging, during a design meeting, at the time of a demonstration, etc.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

So with the very limited instructions and possible uses, combined with the fact that the eBay seller doesn’t even seem to know about the two-screen option (and he mentions that he has never used the RGB port), combined with the fact that the only switch on the outside of the Video Boy is the on/off switch, it would seem that the green screen would be displayed by plugging in the green cord of the RGB connector and the red screen would be displayed by plugging in the red cord. If you want to remove one of the Virtual Boy’s screens from the TV, then you would simply unplug the respective cord. Of course, it seems that the AV port doesn’t allow for the two-screen option, since all of its video input goes through a single cord. It also seems that there would be no way to use the Video Boy itself to adjust the parallax of the two stereoscopic screens or at all set them up side-by-side, so such would have to be done prior to flashing the test ROM to the cart and inserting it into the Video Boy, which would simply display what is already flashed to the cart.

By the way, my previous conclusion about the 2-screen option was based on the information found in the VUE Debugger guide on this site:

http://www.planetvb.com/content/hardware/vue_debugger/guide/guide_jpn.pdf

A rough English translation of this guide appears here:

http://www.planetvb.com/content/hardware/vue_debugger/guide/guide_eng.pdf

The Video Boy is discussed in section 11. In that section, after mentioning the RGB port, it mentions that the left eye screen appears on the television monitor in green and that the right eye screen appears on the television monitor in red. It also says that you can make just the left eye screen appear on the TV or just the right eye screen. It doesn’t give any special instructions for how to do so, and it also does not mention the need to have the VUE Debugger to change the option, so whoever wrote the original Japanese instructions must have thought that how to make solely the green left eye screen appear or solely the red right eye screen appear would be self-evident after mentioning the RGB input.

Anyway, to preserve the photos of this special auction:

(By the way, I know the seller of this auction and know that 2.5 years ago, he was willing to accept $17,000.00 for this Video Boy. I also know that he loves to jack up the prices of his items a great deal as each year passes, so if you want to have a chance at being considered a serious bidder by him, you will probably have to offer at least half of his $36,000.00 asking price.)

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RunnerPack wrote:
He mentions that you can play in red, but I’m sure I saw images of it displaying red/green anaglyph (and perhaps even read about that option, somewhere). Is that only available from the RGB port, does he just not know how to enable that option, or were there different models with different capabilities?

There only seems to have ever been one model, and since there is a very limited number of switches on the outside of the Video Boy, I would have to guess that the two-screen option can only take effect by using the RGB port, with the green cable showing the left screen and the red cable showing the right screen. Thus, the AV output must only be able to show the right screen.

nova1313 wrote:
Videoboy – Kind of rare as I haven’t seen one at auction before. Price is crazy high though.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nintendo-Virtual-Boy-TV-Boy-ULTRA-
RARE-DEVELOPER-Play-Games-on-your-TV-/111766036044?hash=item1a05c65e4c

I am only aware of 2 of these being accounted for, so unfortunately, it is a case where the 2 collectors who own them get to decide what the market must pay to acquire one of them, or else the 2 units remain in the collectors’ hands indefinitely.

vuefinder83 wrote:
… But a sellers “Buy it now” price doesn’t determine what a item is worth. Its auctions with actual bids that will give you a good idea on what people are willing to pay…

Speaking of sellers that foolishly put Buy-It-Now prices on extremely rare Virtual Boy items, did anybody else see that a Virtual Boy alarm clock sold on ebay at a Buy-It-Now price of only $20.00?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Virtual-Boy-Nintendo-Clock-RARE-/201373066803?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ee2c52633

I wish I was the lucky person who saw it while it was listed for probably not even an hour on ebay.

Seriously… sellers need to let bidders bid up rare items, if they have no idea of what those in the market are willing to pay for such.

vuefinder83 wrote:
If your asking if his Demo unit includes a White boxed USA Demo tap, then I would have to guess it comes in a standard USA retail VB AC adaptor set box, minus the colors and graphics, so the adaptor set box would be all White and probably with some text written on it.

See, my USA Demo tap that was recently discovered, was packed in with my “used” White box Demo system. The tap was placed in the spot of the cardboard insert where the stands support brackets lay. Included with this Tap was an AC adaptor, and that was crammed underneath the cardboard insert, indicating the Tap was most likely Not originally packed in the box that the Demo unit was packaged in, but later placed in there by the original owner.

Did you happen to check out the preproduction unit that I acquired?

http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=31069#forumpost31069

The preproduction tap was packed inside the white-box system in the same place as your USA demo tap, but the preproduction tap came inside its own white box, which is certainly an official one. To me, it seems highly likely that your USA demo tap would have also had its own white box, the same as mine, at some point in time, but it later got thrown away.

Also, as I understand it, when the Virtual Boy was originally released commercially, there was a period of time when a person had to use batteries with the system because no adapter set or tap had been commercially released. Nevertheless, preproduction taps were definitely included with the preproduction systems, and demo taps were included with the very early demo systems. To me this is evidence that while Nintendo did have a prototype tap made and included with its early white-box systems, it was not ready to release that tap commercially. Once the tap and set were ready to be released commercially, the tap itself took on a new form as compared to the demo taps and preproduction taps that preceded it. This is why I would not at all expect an adapter set box to have been included with a white-box system, since adapter sets would not have been finalized at the time that Nintendo was shipping out its white-box systems.

GEZ wrote:
What does a white box VB (with box of course) go for these days, might put mine up for sale. Haven’t seen one available in years…

Completeness would certainly be a factor. Does yours come with its own adapter tap, and does it include its own white box?

Even without the adapter tap, I wouldn’t let mine go for anything under $500.00, and yes, I paid more than that for it.

mawa wrote:
hello,
i have recieved this virtual boy whit this serial number : V 10100000
my question is this the first one produced or number 100.000
i whas eeing this and looks like a special number 😉
here a picture :

It is definitely number 100,000. If it were number 1, then the second “1” would be all the way at the far right. It is still a very cool find, nonetheless.

vuefinder83 wrote:
Does the metal plate behind the visor of your platform display look exactly like the one in the attached photo?

Yes, it sure does.

Jeez… the first thing I see is the alleged August 21st release date of the Virtual Boy instead of August 14th, which most likely came from the contradictory information in the Wikipedia article. I have since changed all of the August 21 dates in the Wikipedia article to August 14. I guess time will tell if my changes remain unaltered.

That is very interesting indeed. I’ve previously thought, even with the knowledge of what was written on the platform display’s instructions, that maybe Nintendo would have simply had complete-in-box retail systems placed inside the shipping boxes that also included the platform displays, especially since the platform display’s instructions state that it included a Virtual Boy system with “Mario Tennis” (interesting that it was spelled without the apostrophe and “s,” as was the case with the later games in the series). So to me it seemed that it would have been easy for them to have just packed a complete retail system box, which already would have included Mario’s Tennis in addition to the system, inside the shipping box that had a separate compartment for the platform display. Of course, this would mean that the standard retail stand for the Virtual Boy included inside the retail system box might never be used for anything, since it served no purpose with the platform display. Nevertheless, I did not realize that the metal plate behind the visor is something that appears on all store display units. I actually thought that the store that used to have my relevant head unit cleverly added it themselves to prevent theft, since they evidently must have made the alteration to the base plate themselves. Therefore, it does make sense that if Nintendo itself took the extra step to add the metal plates to the head units for the store displays, then they probably also did not originally package those head units inside the retail system boxes along with Mario’s Tennis, in which case the specially made head unit got its own place inside the platform display’s shipping box and, therefore, no retail stands had to be possibly wasted.

As for the white-box systems, I would have to say that the Virtual Boy Serial Number Inventory probably helps to show that the white-box systems had their own separate purposes than just to be for the store displays, since the serial numbers for all of the known white-box systems fall below the first two thousand systems mass-produced, while the serial numbers for the store display units reach up into the thirty thousands. Thus, the white-box systems were probably used solely for much earlier purposes, such as for tradeshows prior to the Virtual Boy’s launch, and there, as you said, they could have stood on their own for interactive display purposes, and that literally, since they came with their own stands that are the same for the retail units. The store display units, on the other hand, would have been used for somewhat later purposes, perhaps right before and certainly shortly after the Virtual Boy’s launch, and if it’s true that Nintendo made their own unique head unit for each store display, without simply using up an already-packaged retail system with the standard stand, then it could very well be that white-box systems were not at all intended to be used with the store displays, since that would have caused their stands included with them to be possibly wasted.

Attached is a scan of the only altered base plate among all of my Virtual Boys. It came on the head unit included with my USA Platform Display. In this case, it is evident that somebody just cut out a square piece of metal, which has gotten a bit rusty over the years, and drilled 3 screws into it, attaching it to the standard base plate that came with all retail Virtual Boys. It serves no purpose for the platform display itself, so I can only guess that the store that once had my platform display also had some other custom-made mount that once held this VB unit, and the Virtual Boy got attached to this mount using the 3 screws. This is actually the kind of thing that I’d expect with a custom mount. An entirely different base plate takes things to a whole other level.

Speaking of store display units, has anybody ever seen a complete-in-box platform display or counter version or floor model display? I imagine that they probably came in a shipping box of sorts, which likely had official markings on the outside and compartments and packing material on the inside. Nevertheless, I have never seen such a box or inner materials. Also, am I right that all Virtual Boy systems used with such displays came in the standard retail system boxes, or were these systems specially packaged inside the boxes for the displays, along with the large displays to go with them?

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e5frog wrote:

Meaningless…

What else can we do, an addition to Mozilla that shows all YouTube videos in red shades?

Yeah, I can’t tell if the red and black is an actual in-game option or if they simply did it by altering the colors on their PC. Since the description on YouTube says that it’s Möira’s VB Shader, I’d like to think that it’s an in-game option, but the description could be misleading.

Heh… I like how the article thinks that “Virtual Boy” was a videogame.

tcr9315 wrote:
Id love to get one. Please PM me.

Richard might not check this site as often as he checks his e-mail, so if you want a quick response from him, I would suggest e-mailing him at the address that he gave in the first post of this thread.

thunderstruck wrote:
Figured out what the problem was. Just need a couple of changes in the original code. I can now replace many sentences in the rom without problems. The attached screenshot shows one screen I use for testing. Just ignore the messed up Japanese.

I replaced those sentences by getting their addresses from the debugger. Next step will be to automatically search the text in the rom.

Very nice! You’ve certainly got some great patching work going on there.

Here are some of my thoughts, which help to confirm vuefinder83’s determination that the unique base plate was likely something that the Nintendo employee him- or herself was working on:

If one looks at the picture of the Virtual Boy on this thread with the unique base plate for mounting, one will notice that to the left and right of this base plate, to which some sort of stand should attach, there are the two square-shaped indentations which appear on the later Virtual Boys. It’s hard to tell for sure if these sections contain any written information molded onto them, but the early prototypes had absolutely no moldings on these sections whatsoever and were, therefore, completely flat. I do see what appears to be certain moldings on the two sections in the picture, so if I had to guess, I would say that this Virtual Boy does contain the written information molded onto them, as did the later Virtual Boys, which helps to show that this Virtual Boy was made at least further on into the pre-production phase, but it could also be a regular retail unit that got altered.

But in any case, the very first Virtual Boys made during the pre-production phase did not contain these two square-shaped, indented sections. The Pre-Production Model (JPN) shown on this site doesn’t have them, and the Shoshinkai 1994 prototype shown on this site doesn’t have them either, while the later Pre-Production Model 2 (JPN) and Pre-Production Model (USA) do have them without moldings, and all the regular retail units have them with the moldings. At the same time, the two earliest prototype models known, the Pre-Production Model (JPN) and the Shoshinkai 1994 prototype, do indeed have the same base plate, to which the current retail stands attach. From this evidence, I think we can safely determine the origin of the unique base plate pictured on this thread, to which some sort of stand should attach.

Now, if this base plate were an official one made by Nintendo, this would mean that Nintendo would have had the current base plate’s concept decided for the time of the Virtual Boy’s showing at the Shoshinkai Software Exhibition in 1994 and would have also produced several systems with such base plate, before it decided to add the two squared-shaped indentations to the bottom of the Virtual Boy. Then, for a very brief time during the pre-production phase, Nintendo would have changed its concept for the base plate to the one pictured on this thread and would have also decided to add the two square-shaped indentations, after which at least one Virtual Boy system was then also manufactured as such. However, also a very short time later, while still in the pre-production phase, Nintendo would have then reverted back to the original base plate’s concept while still retaining the concept of the two square-shaped indentations and then also produced several pre-production systems accordingly.

To me, all of that seems rather unlikely, so I would have to say that the presence of the two square-shaped indentations on the pictured Virtual Boy with the unique mounting plate, regardless of whether or not the two square sections contain any written information on them, is strong evidence that the unique mounting plate must have simply been the work of the Nintendo employee, who wanted to make his own mount, and so he had his own base plate custom made for such by some means. If it wasn’t for those two sections, I would have been tempted to conclude that there was the possibility for it being the earliest prototype of the Virtual Boy ever discovered. The unique base plate certainly looks like it was made very professionally.

vb-fan wrote:
Space Squash — I never understood why it was “Japan Only” — the play is very good.

I believe that is best explained by Coconuts Japan only developing games for Japan and publishing games for Japan. I’m pretty sure that in each case where there is a North American counterpart for a game that Coconuts Japan published in Japan, the North American counterpart was developed by some other company and/or published in North America by some other company. Thus, in order for Space Squash to have been released in North America, some other company would have had to have taken it upon itself, since it wasn’t Coconuts Japan’s thing to try to publish games in foreign markets, and by the time any company may have had the thought of releasing it in North America, the Virtual Boy’s sales would have certainly discouraged them from taking the initial steps to do so.

1. Hyper Fighting
2. Faceball (thunderstruck’s build-your-own-game version)
3. Insmouse No Yakata (HorvatM’s build-your-own-game version)
4. Galactic Pinball
5. Panic Bomber
6. Space Squash
7. Virtual Boy Wario Land
8. Jack Bros.
9. 3-D Tetris
10. V-Tetris