DogP wrote:
But getting the USB link just right is really the main reason for the whole delay.
Would it be easier/cheaper to make a RS-232 version (if the VB can even do one of the standard speeds) and have everyone buy their own adapter if needed? They’re quite cheap.
He’s obviously saying that to make the Rift appear better. Wasn’t VB criticized for being too expensive? The Rift costs even more and it requires a powerful computer to run. Sure, it is an impressive achievement but far from perfect.
The proper way to produce silence is to use PAU; the DoSounds function temporarily sets the volume to 0 when it encounters that value. But yes, several other constants (such as C_0) in notes.h have the same value (0) since apparently the VSU can’t produce anything below DS2 or above C_9. That file was created by DanB; I haven’t done any tests myself, so I don’t know whether it’s totally correct.
HP Lovethrash wrote:
Great looking site so far! I’ve mentioned before that I’m (clearly) a big HP Lovecraft fan, I’m glad the Virtual Boy was honored with a game loosely based on his works.
Thanks. For me, the game was an introduction to his works.
This may be a dumb question, but does your editor allow for adjusting how many hits you can take?
The editor only modifies data (not code), and only some kinds, but it can include IPS patches generated by other programs to modify other data and code.
It is very easy to change how many hearts you can pick up, but the HUD only shows 5 (modifying that would require larger changes and I don’t know how it works yet). I’ve attached a patch that raises the limit to 10, and also one that changes the starting health to 5 hearts. You can use both at the same time.
With that editor utility, one could almost see a PlanetVB original sequel at some point in the future!
Yes, that would be great. Maybe you should start a thread about it.
Also, Benjamin Stevens should be releasing a new set of levels in 2 weeks:
Maybe the gccVB startup code should clear the VIP RAM. While I like to keep things minimalistic (so in my opinion it shouldn’t initialize the column table; that’s vbSetColTable’s job), it does clear the WRAM and forgetting to clear the VIP RAM is a really easy bug to make. In fact, I’ve never cleared it in any of my projects (even though I’ve encountered the bug) because I always forget to.
Indeed, that would be quite simple. I suggest you use my program VBIMGC to convert the animation frames into VB format (note: you will have to use a batch file or something because it is not really designed for full-screen animations like this).
The tricky part would be getting the animation to fit on a 2 MB FlashBoy. If there aren’t many frames and/or the resolution isn’t very high, you might get away without any compression (the VB should be fast enough to load frames in real time). If the frames contain areas of repeating 8×8 patterns, then RLE would be a good choice because it’s simple and fast to decompress.
The engine should be able to play up to 5 sounds at once (see kMaxSounds in su11sfx.h). You are probably somehow calling PlaySound on the same sound more than once, which just uses up extra channels for no reason.
The text is OK, but some of your data is incorrect.
There isn’t that much RAM. According to Nintendo’s development manual (pages 2-3-2 and 2-3-3), there’s 1 Mb (megabit – that’s 128 KB) of video RAM, 1 Mb (128 KB) of DRAM, and 512 Kb (64 KB) of “pseudo-SRAM”. But if you add up the numbers on page 5-5-2, the VIP only uses 224 KB(?). The WRAM (“work RAM”), in any case, is 64 KB.
The sound is 10-bit when it hits the speakers, although the mixing process uses various levels of precision (between 4 and 13 bits) in different stages.
Where did you get the sales numbers from? That’s really interesting, I thought the VB was much more successful in North America. (If the VB sold better in Japan, there why is there no Japanese equivalent to PVB? Or is there?)
And we really need a better picture of a full VB setup, one that doesn’t have terrible lighting and has the stand set up correctly. Do we have any photographers on this site?
Benjamin Stevens wrote:
Speaking of which, there is currently a CIB copy of Mansion of Insmouse sitting at about 17 bucks, and its going to end in about 11 hours:
Yes, he was obviously very “inspired” by AVGN. Everyone I’ve showed Red Alarm to has been very impressed by the depth. And Wario Land being #1 was very predictable.
I have experienced a DK1 and DK2 and I agree with DogP that it feels like sitting really close to a TV, especially on the DK1, where you can easily see individual subpixels. The LCD is hard on the eyes and you can get motion-induced sickness really fast, but that of course depends more on the software than the hardware.
I’m surprised there isn’t the same amount of myths/criticism/superstition surrounding it as the VB, which, IMO, is for now simply a better product. Maybe because it’s got John Carmack behind it? Gunpei Yokoi apparently wasn’t a good enough celebrity.
