Actually, the details of the link port have been out there for years. I personally have link port-related source-code files on my HDD from 2007, and they were probably a few years old when I got them. The only thing that has changed (relatively) recently is DogP finding out how to get the two VBs to synchronize their LED scanners through the cable, but that’s not even necessary for a multi-player game.

There’s nothing magical about HF that allows multi-player games to be made for the VB. It’s just the first major (read: “finished” :-P) homebrew VB project that includes support for it. If we see more (crowd-)funded VB projects, they will, most-likely, also support multi-player (as long as the game mechanics lend themselves to a multi-player mode).

Now, let’s all let this thread die and go away, please 😛

thunderstruck wrote:

Actually, a good software developer will always investigate the “why”. Fixing problems by curing the symptoms is a very sloppy way of doing things and will eventually backfire. You can only develop robust software if you know what you are doing.

I agree completely, and I didn’t really mean to be so flippant, but going by VirtualChris’s track record, I genuinely didn’t think he would care about a technical description of the problem. Since it seems that is not the case, I apologize.

Thankfully, Dan stepped up and wrote a succinct explanation of the situation.

The “why” is irrelevant. Your job as a programmer, upon finding out that your assumption about the behavior of the system was false, is to change your program so that it produces your desired output without relying on said non-existent behavior.

tl;dr: Write a startup routine that clears everything.

Some serious faux-finishing talent on display, there! I love the contrast with the silver, too.

The use of the smoked/clear cover on the expansion pak slot is genius! I’m thinking it would be cool to have a “breathing” (slow sine-wave fade in/out) red LED backlight inside. Something like an “engine core” effect from a sci-fi spacecraft.

I think the logo/power light should just be green, though. The rainbow effect doesn’t go that well with the wood theme, IMO.

Welcome to PVB, SuperRetroBrosBlog! Great job on the eyeshade! The quilting is a nice touch.

BTW, the official name, from the VB manual (which you can read on this site) is “eyeshade”, but “visor” has been used unofficially for as long as I can remember, so it’s all good 😉

SuperRetroBrosBlog wrote:
Hey everyone!

New to the forum but old fan of the Virtual Boy (and all things retro gaming). Just wanted to show you a custom “Eye Shield” I just finished and put up on ebay. Until reading this forum I had been referring to these pieces as visors, my apologies. Will fix that next time! Thoughts??

More pics can be seen at: http://www.superretrobros.com

&

Ebay link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/121568221395?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

D’oh! Thanks, guys; I don’t know why I didn’t think of looking in NP… 😛

Since I don’t own one, I’m not too familiar with the hardware layout, but it sounds like the battery might be loose or making intermittent contact. Does it also shut down when it’s on the charger?

If it is the battery, you should start by examining the respective contacts of the battery and its compartment. Does it use a leaf spring style contact, or a pin contact? If the former, you might be able to gently bend them out to make them fit more tightly against the battery. If the battery itself seems to slide around, maybe you could wedge some foam along the end of the battery to try to push it tighter against the terminals.

I really appreciate the effort, Ben. I was hoping you could use a digital camera instead of a scanner and get the round logo with no more than a faint version of another image, instead of the other way around, but I’ll see if I can clean this one up.

Cool pogs, Benjamin!

Would it be possible to get a high-res photo of that round VB logo? I’ve been wanting one ever since I first saw a tiny version on DogP’s site. Thanks in advance 😀

This looks like a great stop-gap solution, blitter; thanks!

I took the liberty of compiling it with Mingw, to remove any possible dependencies on the Cygwin DLLs (of which I’m not even sure there are any). While doing so, I got a warning about using a C++-only, implementation-dependent feature – the multi-character char constant used to test for the ELF signature – so I converted it to an int value.

Attachments:

1. jmptool_win32.zip

It’s just one of the symptoms of the “glitchy” display syndrome. You need your displays soldered. Contact me for details: RunnerPack [@] gmail.com

I watched a short video of the game-play, and I think it’s pretty doable on the VB, especially now that Greg Stevens’ wireframe library is available.

I found someone on eBay selling just the 4.5mm Silverhill driver by itself: http://www.ebay.com/itm/161091422520

If you also want the 3.8mm for opening carts, the Amazon one is cheaper per tool, but I’m thinking you probably only want to open the system.

I have both, and I use the 4.5 all the time, and the “teeth” (for want of a better term) still look like new on mine. It’s a very high quality tool, and it doesn’t require modification to work on the VB (although it does benefit from a slight shortening of the handle; see attachment).

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1. 

   handle_mod.jpg
   

If you live in Europe, you should contact TheForce81. If you live in the Americas, you can contact me at RunnerPack [at] gmail.com
If you live anywhere else, you can flip a coin. I call tails! 😉

1. Being a beginner is nothing to be ashamed of, but staying one, for fear of “breaking things”, most certainly is!
2. What cr1901 said (except the comma part; that’s not amusing at all :-P).
3. You don’t have to change it, I did it for you. You only have to copy/paste.
4. If you keep your old code in there as a comment, you can compare the two while you implement #2 above.
5. If mine does “break something” (which it won’t*), you can go back to your commented version (and please also post a reply/correction, so I can improve my programming skills).

*it’s not bragging if it’s true 😉

Yeah, no, it wouldn’t be worth the trouble at all. 1) it’s not the same connector, just very similar, and 2) unless you can see more of them in the Windows control panel, it most likely only supports eight buttons, so you’d only get the left d-pad, start, select, and two of the right d-pad directions (left and down, I believe). Even if they used the chip from an SNES pad adapter, you still wouldn’t get B and A.

I am, of course, glad to hear about PVB not only sticking around, but getting an upgrade, but the real take-away from his post is that KR155E is getting back into VB game development! That means more BLOX-caliber games are coming, woot! 😀

Put me on the “really looking forward to this” list, too 😉

@Chrisse: 3D scanning is still pretty primitive, so a hand-modeled version will be far superior – and that goes double for one modeled by Hedgetrimmer 🙂

What about a “Dragon Hopper-like” top-down version, where your character moves about on either a near or far plane, and can “fall” between the two? The near plane will have to be represented by some kind of “screen-door” pattern, to make it transparent, but I think it could work.

If heat’s the problem, and cooling the chip in question solves it, maybe you could put small heat-sinks and/or fans in, and make it work with no part replacement.