Being an American, I have no idea what a “shaver outlet” is. If you did connect a N.A. AC adapter to 220V, you probably put 18V (or twice whatever the adapter lists as output voltage) into the VB. This probably burned out the voltage regulator. As these have been successfully replaced with off-the-shelf components, the VB is probably worth having repaired.

Paulygon wrote:
On the crosseye one, you cross your eyes the other way XD

I got a good chuckle out of that one 🙂

I swapped it around and followed the instructions as written, and it looks great. I don’t think following my advice will make your works any “cooler”, just less confusing 😉

Turns out this controller was also used for the X68000 port of Crazy Climber (that link has the schematic of the pad).

Good job, Paul! The use of an actual stereoscopic screenshot of Wario Land on the VB was a nice touch :thumpup:

The rest of my post is going to sound very critical, but I assure you that it is all meant as constructive criticism! 🙂

First, am I really the only one who noticed that the “cross-eye” one is actually “inside-out”? For cross-eye images to work, the left eye image should be on the right, and vice-versa.

Is everyone (including Paul) simply ignoring the instructions and looking at it like a “Magic Eye” poster/book? I’ve never been good at the “wall-eyed” viewing method you need for those, and this image is technically too big to comfortably view that way, anyhow, unless you print it as a poster, or stand well back from your PC, but the instructions to cross your eyes would still be wrong.

Also, regarding your anaglyph: I looked at it through two different pairs of glasses, and the 3-D effect is there, but even without wearing any it’s pretty easy to see that the right eye (cyan) image is far too dark. I would be interested in seeing the combination of glasses, monitor, and display settings that led you to that color choice.

I’m assuming the red lens on your glasses leaks a lot of green light, as I’ve seen quite a few (mostly cheap ones) do that. If that’s the case (and/or you want to allow for people who own ones like that), you should only darken the green channel (or eliminate it altogether), but leave the blue intact. If your glasses have ghosting even for blue objects, you should get new ones 😉 or, failing that, darken the red to compensate.

BTW, if you run Windows, and if you don’t have it yet, you should look for the “Stereo Photo Maker” program. It has a lot of anaglyph adjustment settings, and it can even make different kinds of anaglyphs from a standard stereo pair.

Other than these few small issues, you did a great job, so please keep sharing!

VirtualChris wrote:

    if (punch==1) punchtimer2++;
	if ((punch==1) && (punchtimer2==1) && (punchtimer==1)) PlaySound(youpunch);
    if ((punch==1) && (punchtimer2>2)) punchtimer2=0, punchtimer++;
    if ((punch==1) && (fighterxsight>opponentxminus) && (fighterxsight4)) punch=0, punchtimer=0, opponenthitcounter++;
    if (opponenthitcounter==2) opponenthitcounter=0, endhealthbaropponent--, vbTextOut(3, endhealthbaropponent-1, 1, " ");

if (punch == 1)
{
  punchtimer2++;
  if ((punchtimer2 == 1) && (punchtimer == 1))
    PlaySound(youpunch);
  else if (punchtimer2 > 2)
  {
    punchtimer2 = 0;
    punchtimer++;
  }
  if ((fighterxsight > opponentxminus) && (fighterxsight < opponentxplus) && (punchtimer > 4))
  {
    punch = 0;
    punchtimer = 0;
    opponenthitcounter++;
  }
}

if (opponenthitcounter == 2)
{
  opponenthitcounter = 0;
  endhealthbaropponent--;
  vbTextOut(3, endhealthbaropponent-1, 1, " ");
}

Now, isn’t that much easier to read (and, thus, maintain)? It also runs faster, because the “punch == 1” test is only performed once.
Assuming the ‘{‘ and ‘}’ keys on your keyboard work, you should start giving them something to do 😉
Give the semicolon and enter keys some love, too, and we might just make a C programmer out of you, yet! :thumpup:

What game(s) are you playing, SuperMew?

I tried out that “Libble Rabble” game that was being sold with the pad, and it takes some serious reflexes and 5th-dimensional brain gymnastics!

It’s sorta like Qix, except there’s no place to hide from the baddies, and there are twice as many things that can get killed (and about 20 times as many things to do the killing)! You also have to be able to associate “red thing” with “left hand” and “blue thing” with “right hand”, even when the blue thing is to the left of the red thing! It seems to be an arcade port, since it asks for coins. As an arcade game, it has to be the king of all quarter-eaters!

With some improved controls (possibly dual analog sticks or mice/trackballs), and a less steep learning curve, it might actually be a fun game.

It looks like a good way to kill a little time, but if you make it too fancy, it won’t work on my ancient phone 😛

I’m definitely not your target audience if you want to make money on this, though. I’m a tight-wad, and I usually disable WiFi on my phone when I play games, which disables the ad banners (although that’s not why I do it, it’s just a side benefit ;-))

LOL, the resemblance is striking 😛

Somewhere in “Off-topic” there’s a thread for Red+Black pictures, but I can’t find it… It should have been made sticky, I guess.

The graphics look nice in either mode, and the idea of having a power-up that changes the “camera angle” is very clever.

One suggestion, though (based on knowing nothing about the game mechanics, so ignore if it makes no sense): Since the wizard is in the middle of the visible area (in this case, the screen) in the 2D mode, you might want to move him “into” the screen in the 3D mode. Otherwise, it’ll probably make the game (whatever it is) harder, since you wouldn’t be able to see over half of the “board” (although I assume there’s some way to pan and/or dolly the “camera”).

I’ve come across another error likely related to the server software update. I’ve seen this a few times, but it’s not consistent, and I can’t tell what triggers it (I assume you can figure it out from the line numbers given).

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   pvb_deprecated.png
   

KR155E wrote:
Are you able to post on that thread now, RunnerPack?

Indeed I can, sir, thank you for that and the other fixes.

Fr0st wrote:
Thanks for that, i will definitely head that route the next time some glitches show up, i got about 8 months out of the last oven fix, but yea i guess its not something you would want to be repeatedly doing!

To Fr0st, and anyone else who has a VB with currently-working-but-not-soldered displays:

I would suggest contacting someone about soldering them sooner, rather than later – especially if you’ve done the “oven trick” at least once (note: even if you heat the cables with a hair-dryer, etc. it’s the same thing as the oven trick).

First, it’s only a matter of time before it breaks again, so you might as well get it done and not have to worry about it again. Second, and more importantly, the cause of the glitches (the failing glue) is often a symptom of a more serious problem – deterioration of the silicone strain-relief – which, if left untreated, can fatigue the wires to the point of breaking, making soldering the cable extremely difficult, or even impossible. It also happens to be easier to solder one that’s still firmly attached (for me, at least), which may or may not be of concern to you.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that none of the IRC clients seem to be working.

To Fr0st, and anyone else who has a currently-working-but-not-soldered VB, I would suggest contacting someone about soldering them sooner, rather than later – especially if you’ve done the “oven trick” multiple times.

First, it’s only a matter of time before it breaks again, so you might as well. Second, and more importantly, the detaching of the glue is often a symptom of a more serious problem (deteriorating strain-relief) which, if left untreated, can make soldering the cable extremely difficult, or even impossible, to solder. It also happens to be easier to solder one that’s still firmly attached (for me, at least).

Or… you could just take a couple pairs of cheap, cardboard, anaglyph glasses, cut them in half, and tape the two red halves together. Put on the result, set the SGB to plain greyscale, and enjoy! If you set your TV’s saturation control to 0, it even works with the PlayBox or XStation! In fact, why not just walk around like that and make EVERYTHING look like a VB game?! 😉

3DBoyColor wrote:
You’d be better off with a Genesis 6-button controller, now that was designed for Street Fighter and the like. The SNES controller is weird having some of the buttons moved over to triggers.

Now that would require the use of a microcontroller.

Custom controllers for the VB suffer the same problem as the link cable: proprietary connectors. You have two basic choices:

1) Get a VB pad and swap cables with an SNES pad.
2) Build a copy of the VB controller’s plug.

(In either case, you’ll obviously have to include some provision for powering the VB and switching it on/off).

I’ve made a passable VB controller socket using the socket from an NES. The SNES connector is basically an unfolded NES connector, so it may be possible to use parts from an SNES (or NES) plug to build a VB-compatible plug. I’ve never heard of anyone doing it, but that’s probably where I’d start, if you don’t want to use a donor controller.

As for whether to modify the controller or build an adapter, I’d say build an adapter.
1. the SNES pad remains stock, and can be easily replaced when worn out.
2. You can swap it out for a wireless pad, arcade stick, etc.
3. If you use an SNES extension cable to get the female connector for the adapter, you can use the male end of said cable on the donor VB pad, plug it into the adapter, and still use it. (You could even plug the modded VB pad into an SNES, but I’ve heard there may be compatibility problems with some games).
4. It makes the power-supply and switching problems easier to solve.

Attached is a photo of one I made. The black blob closer to the SNES end is a lamp switch. It’s made to be wired in-line with the lamp’s power cord. Besides providing the power switch, it doubled as a usable (if a little cramped) housing for all of the wiring connections. Power is supplied through a standard barrel jack.

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1. 

   snes_pad_adapter.png
   

It’s been an honor being a part of this project (as the Virtual Girl’s “ophthalmologist” ;-)). Besides the metaphysical rewards of “a job well done”, I also got some nice physical rewards. On top of a handsome gratuity for services rendered, retronintendonerd also sent me this lovely, hand-made gift!
Thanks again, Candi! 😎

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   virtual_girl.jpg
   

Thinking out loud, here: would it be possible to “post-process” the ROMs made by gccVB 4.x to fix the badly generated code?

Greg Stevens wrote:
Android 4.1.2 Samsung Galaxy S2. I like to ride that line between practical and cheapskate 🙂

I’m so far on the “cheapskate” side, I can’t even see the line 😀

If you can believe it, I’m still rockin’ Gingerbread (2.3.6) on an HTC MyTouch 4G. Yeah, I know…

So, if anyone has a semi-recent, T-Mobile/unlocked, Android phone kicking around a drawer or closet they’d be willing to let go for, say, $25-50, I’m just a PM away! 😉