If Nintendo still has all the VB protos (or possibly no hardware, but still the source code/ROMs), I don’t see them getting out, unless they go under (look at all the crazy Atari stuff that has appeared from them closing).
I hate to say it, but given the success, or rather lack thereof, of the Wii U, the day Nintendo goes under might not be too far off. I will certainly make every attempt to be at that auction and throw my whole life into the VB carts!
Nintendo has over US$5 BILLION in cash as of the middle of last year — and nearly as much in short term investments. (Their next financial report comes up next Wednesday.) They can afford to weather a few bad years so long as they keep their brands relevant.
Gamecube didn’t sell super well, but its “Nintendo” brand games were good and kept those brands alive. Wii came around and sold something like infinity units (well, 100 MILLION, still a lot). It isn’t remembered super fondly by most internet gamers, but it had a lot of really great games. Wii U is more on target to be like the Gamecube… so maybe Nintendo is following the trajectory of Star Trek movies — every other one is good.
On top of that, the DS sold super well (~150 million) and the 3DS is doing alright (~43 million) and its library keeps getting better.
I don’t think we’ll see the end of Nintendo any time soon… though I think we’ll see the Wii U’s successor faster than you might think if this were a “normal” console cycle for them.
That animalnewyork link seems to be the source of it all — they have a brief interview with thunderstruck, too. I think it’s really neat, even if the only think people remember about the VB is the headaches. I’ve never had one from it, but everyone’s different… haha.
I actually spend a month or so on build a supporting tool first. It is basically a tool that allows me to convert images, define sprites, build animations, create levels and objects and assign actions to those objects (like moving/jump something around, flicker, trigger an animation and so on). Actions can trigger other actions so you can build allot of stuff just buy using the tool and not coding. The tool itself might have been a good submission as well but it is not in a state that I would be proud of it.
As someone who cannot program much, a polished version of this tool sounds like it would be very awesome to help make more games!
Of course, work on what you want, man. If you’re not having fun with it, then you’re doing “hobby” wrong, haha. 🙂
Great submission! Can’t wait to check it out on my VB! And thank you SO MUCH for including the source! I’m not a programmer, but I do aspire… 🙂
I’d *love* to see VB games running natively on the 3DS; like a Virtual Console release or something. It would probably take a lot more engineering effort, but I like to think that you can output each eye to each of the 3DS’ displays to get something started… But it’s really going to take someone that knows a lot about each system purpose-making an emulator for it.
Greg Stevens wrote:
My major set backs have been FPS. 20MHz gets used up real quick when doing graphics calculations using the CPU instead of the VIP.
I know very little about programming, and even less about the architecture of the VB, so sorry if this is a super nub question, but I’m asking out of curiosity: What is the relationship between the CPU and the VIP? Why would one use the CPU rather than the VIP in this situation?
I definitely think that the user interface for the GameStick is much better than the Ouya, but the device is definitely a little lower power. I’m also still waiting on my dock, which I no longer have any faith that they will actually deliver. :/
I kinda think Gamestick probably isn’t selling well enough for the company to continue. They’re certainly not communicating anymore, whereas they were fantastic during the Kickstarter campaign.
I’ve heard that it is possible to connect a second battery to the system while you’re replacing the original battery, similar to what RunnerPack says. I like his idea more, though — run power to the board in place of the battery, do the swap, remove the power source.
But really, yeah, look into a Retrode, heh.
Last time I replaced a battery, I looked into installing a socket onto the SNES cart board, so that (in 20 years lol) when I have to do it again, it’s a much easier process. I followed this video, which has part numbers in the description. The battery socket he picked out fits into an SNES cart without having to modify the case. I bought a 10-pack some years ago.
It probably takes away from the “purity” of the cartridge, which is why I did my Donkey Kong Country that wasn’t saving but haven’t done my Earthbound or Chrono Trigger yet, but I think about it…
I have both an Ouya and a Gamestick from their respective Kickstarters.
The Ouya’s alright. They’ve had a lot of customer communications issues, but they’re getting better. The device itself is perfectly cromulent at playing games. The controller is pretty crummy, but there’s supposedly a new revision out there that’s not bad.
If you’re looking to blow $100 or so, I’d say go for it. The “new” model with more storage space isn’t worth it as you can plug in external storage via USB.
It’s a great idea that they’ve embarked on, but I think they’ve fouled up in a few key ways… but the device itself is superb as a media player and not too shabby when it comes to playing Android games. I’m particularly fond of Super Mega Worm. 🙂
There’s also Spinrite, but that’s a tool that 1) costs money and 2) should only be used as a last resort (not sending out for data recovery). I’ve heard of miracle stories with it and I’ve also read a lot of people talking about it being pretty bad. I used it once and it worked, so that was good, haha.
Bummer to hear about the lost data… hopefully they’ll learn their lesson about backups, now!
These are more geared towards recovering files rather than repairing the filesystem, but might help:
R-Studio: http://www.r-studio.com/ — has a free trial but does cost money. I’ve used it here at work to recover a lot of data for people.
I’ve used other tools as well (I deal a lot with people going “OH GOD WHERE ARE MAH FILES??!??!!!”), but those are probably the most useful. R-Studio is super good, although I haven’t had to use it in a few releases.
I have one of these! I was given it years ago as a birthday present when they were still new. It was fun to try, but I never really found any games that really made great use of it.
