[Goemon]

There is a document out there with lotcheck lists for the systems. This contains also Virtualboy.
This list mentioned 5 unreleased games. Since it is lotcheck this games in question should be final.
We have no names for those games but I think it should be easy to guess which games that could be.
The way I see it, if the leaks continue, we have pretty good chance to finally see more VB content this year.
I would say its a 50/50 chance now.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by Goemon.

That is maybe true but then again what we are talking about here is a generic plastic key chain. That is very standard marketing and merchandise material.
I would not be surprised if you still find the exact model or something similar like the key chain in merchandise stores like this https://www.budgetkeychains.com/Custom-Plastic-Keychains

In any case, the price in this auction is insane for such a items. If more people are interested in such a key chain, lets order a batch of key chains and let them print the VB logo on it = Win.

what kind of 3d printer you are using?
The prints look very nice

Well, the BA3A board is not a prototype cart. It is a development and testing cart and not uber rare. I had 2 of these myself when I was collecting VB stuff.
This kind of cart was used by Nintendo and 3rd party companies mainly for testing since development was done on a debugger. Also such carts were given to magazines for review purposes.
The Virtual Boy died quite fast so it is possible that a review copy was left with the press and found is way to collectors over the years.
It is also possible that a testing copy of the final version of the game was left on the board after development of the title was done. Pack-in-Video Co. Ltd. made only this one VB game. Some time after that, the VB development stuff was propably put in trash and maybe one testing copy found its way to collectors.
I would call it a Testing or Preview Copy/Sample if legit and rate it with maybe 800 USD max.
Preview copies and Samples are a common thing on the SNES/SFC/Sega and they cost far less than unreleased stuff or real beta version.

The Texas Instruments Eproms are a bit strange indeed.
The game and its developer are japanese. The game was never intended for a US release. The origin of this card must be japan. A other eprom brand would sound more plausible but it can still be legit. If we can not verify the maker date of the eproms it will be hard to find out.
The fact is, with a BA3A board in your hands, you can basicially put anything on it if you know how to program eproms. The backstory of this card is really missing here.
BA3A boards were on yahoo auctions from time to time.
Some came with games, some were empty. It is very hard to say.

In any case, I admire Schwancks efforts but he also took a great risk here. For that price there are way to less information available and also the seller was not even covering the windows of the eproms. How careless is that?!? A real valuable beta/proto could have been damaged. Even if just a few bits get erased, the harm is done. The not covered windows could indicated that the seller knew that nothing special was on it or he has just no idea how to handle such things.

The board is a official and genuine VB eprom board.
The Data on it… well it is hard to verify if it was flashed in 1995 or recently.
If the binary matches with the final version of the game you can not call that a prototype anymore. It would be more of a review version if legit.
With the final version of the game and no other content on it, the board is not worth 2000 USD. 🙁
The board alone maybe 350-500.
In my opionion, for that much money, the seller should have given much more proof of the content.

You should propably open a case in ebay.

That said, I dont think that even a real prototype (early version of the game) of Virtual Fishing would be worth 2000 USD.
That is way to much for such an “unimportant” title.
A prototype of Zero Racer or Dragon Hopper would be worth it or even some more.

You can put a repro of these titles in there 🙂

That is cool.
The Tutorial is also very good.
(What is you problem with the 6s? It makes very good pictures for its age. 🙂 )
However, the connections are really small/thin.
The cable itself is a absolute plus but the whole is not for a beginner as @RetroDan already pointed out. If you have never used a soldering iron before, please do not start with this job here. That would be very unwise XD

@RetroDan, for the tutorial it would be good to know what kind or soldering iron you have used and what temperature.

nmalinoski schrieb:

RetroDan wrote:

Fire-WSP wrote:
I am still in need for this Chip/Board to replace the Mirrior Unit. Is somebody out there who can make them?

Looks pretty simple – just an ATtiny25 on a small board. I could probably manage it, no problem.

If you want to do a small run, I’d be in for two.

I would take two aswell 🙂

I am still in need for this Chip/Board to replace the Mirrior Unit. Is somebody out there who can make them?

What is such a Rental Case worth today anyway?

If you do a upgraded version, try to implement a 50hz Scart RGB mode. VB is 50Hz and all PAL TVs are. The official Video Boy was also only in PAL. (Can 50Hz work with VGA too?)
That “native” mode should avoid most side effects the 60Hz conversation has.
Also while I can solder myself, I do not really like it.
The solder pads for the RGB/VGA cable on the VirtualTap were quite small. Maybe you can make them a little bigger. 🙂

Optional:
– maybe it should be possible to choose any color for the picture
– board with input for both screens and two VGA outputs to connect for example 2 projectors in order to get a 3D picture.

Optional crazy:
Take a new 3DS XL screen and hook the VB up to it 😀

BTW, does somebody here is able to burn one of this small chips
for me, so that I can disconnect the mirror unit from the board?

Propably a half size mockup.
To show an idea this would be enough.

That Easter Egg is maybe a way for Nintendo to eiter tease possible VB content in the future or they want to check and see how much interest it creates for the VB. I am sure many people have not even seen a Virtual Boy or know the name.

There was always some tiny VB stuff in some games like Smash Bros or Animal Crossing. But that were only statues or items for your decoration. Wario Ware had some VB inspired stuff but that Video above is the first time that Nintendo is really demonstrating the System in 3D. I think that is a big step, because so far Nintendo tried to avoid bigger VB content. I have hope to see some official VB emulation at one point.
Afterall, emulation have become a quite easy and cheap way to make older games run and Nintendo had great success with the NES and SNES Mini.

Good work as usual but I have to say Bye Bye 3DS VB Emulator.
Reading the last post this will never happen anymore.
Shame.

And you entirely missing the point. There is and was interest in the Emulator but as I said from the beginning, the people today do not care so much about the next PC emulator or debugger. That is only us here who care about such stuff mostly. And if people care for emulators they want it to work with stuff like retroarch as libretro compatible emulator.

The Patreon page was not going too bad for a while but now it is almost to zero after such a long time of nothing. And if somebody would have listen to me from the beginning, patreon would still go strong. But without any 3DS stuff it is no wonder that is not working.

Sorry, I am very disappointed!

So okay, who is next in line for doing finally the right thing???

The person who baught that Debugger and Video boy on yahoo is basicially now in posession of a Space World Prototype Head Unit. Check the pictures. One of the two head units is dark indigo and the eye shade is also prototype material. The Speaker also miss the rubber.
Remarkeble is the very low price considering whats on the table.

A loose copy would be enough for me.
I never liked the US BOX design for the Virtual boy and Games anyway. It is beyond me why all the homebrew is always using this ugly US design 😀
If I get a copy, I will make my own japanese style box for it.

Would be in for one.

mellott124 schrieb:
Fingertips? Looks like fresnel lenses to me. Still probably mobile phone based.

I was about to write the same.
It is probably a cheap plastic headset in a VB design were you have to put your phone in. When it comes to resolution all the HDphones should be enough to display both eyes without scaling and have 3D
I think they also need to deliver a fitting controller.
There should be also a app containing emulation.
I bet they used code of existing emulators.

Having a proper emulator on the 3DS would be still a much cooler solution.

@furrtek
do you consider also a scart PAL version?

I ask because in this very case PAL 50Hz would make sense.
The VB also works with 50 Hz so we could display it native.

The funny thing is, in 2005 or so, I always wondered why the official Nintendo Video Boy and I also think the other DevBoxes with TV Out had only PAL. This was also mentioned in the IS documents for this stuff.
Back then I was just not realizing the thing but yeah Nintendo just did it in PAL and just ditched any Pre or Post Processing with that move. So a Dev (back then) in the US would need a Multi Norm TV to display it correctly.

Any news on the emulator? 🙂