I made an attempt at digitizing the VB game box insert. It’s in Google SketchUp format here:

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=6e91daa4b6f6066310fd551246337d

I’ve attached a .PNG in case you don’t have SketchUp and want to give it a try. Cut on the solid lines, fold on the dashed lines, and discard the gray sections. It’s 302 dpi (it just happened to come out like that when I exported it from SU, so I left it; your printer should be able to handle it), and it fits on a U.S. Letter size sheet of card stock. Make sure your printer doesn’t scale it to fit the printable area. I suggest using IrfanView to print it.

If you do give it a try, let us know how it went, so I can make needed corrections. I did “virtually” fold it in SU, so I know it’s pretty close, if not perfectly usable, as-is, but YMMV 😉

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   vb-game-box-insert.png
   

Good idea; I love the use of custom tooling. If I had one of those stations, I’d try to actually solder the cable for a more permanent fix with less chance of damage compared to using an iron. If you have one of those, you probably have some solder paste, too.

BTW, your English is not bad. The only major error is the use of “heading” instead of “heating”.

KR155E wrote:
Here you go: http://www.ix.sakura.ne.jp/~yoshi/icon/game/ 🙂

Pretty sure that this guy is the original artist.

Yep, that looks familiar… Thanks, KR155E!

Nice to see that he’s keeping the set updated as new consoles/accessories come out. Too bad there’s no Flashboy in there 😉

Cosmoliner wrote:
Hi Runnerpack,your right.Your one looks perfect!:-)Thank you!

You’re quite welcome.

BTW, does anyone know who made the icon in the first place? I got it from a large .gif full of game system and cart/disc icons called (I believe) y_tvgame.gif. I seem to recall the page I got it from being in Japanese, so I don’t even know if it was the artist or just a fan.

It looks like something might have been lost in the translation. The black parts aren’t showing up for me.

Here’s one I whipped up. It has 8-bit and 24-bit versions, plus I tweaked the colors a bit (it looked a bit overexposed on my “unscientifically” gamma-corrected monitor).

I’m also confused about what you’ve been (un)screwing. Can you remove the screws and take good (well-lit, hi-res, non-blurry) pics of the back of the plastic Nintendo “medallion”? Also, have you compared the two metal legs to see if they’re still symmetrical (especially where they attach to the clip)?

The case, as with most consumer electronics nowadays, is ABS. I think the red windows you look through are PS (polystyrene) but they may also be ABS.

As for the rest, well, that’s your job to find out. Here are some hints: It has electronics (including electromagnets), mirrors, and lenses inside. If you have one, take it apart and look inside. If you don’t, there are quite a few internal photos here.

I’d be interested in reading whatever you find out, and in seeing what grade you get. :thumpup:

I haven’t played nearly enough games to be the least bit authoritative in this thread (in fact, I’d never even heard of many of the games mentioned so far) but I have played Vexx. It has to be the worst example in a genre that’s full of many other mediocre-to-awful games (3D platformer). Another one that’s nearly as bad: Starfox Adventures.

There has been some discussion, but nothing really came of it. Obviously the method is known, and the data that needs to be extracted is available, but there are currently no (publicly available) tools to do so, nor has a specific file format been nailed down (although one of the existing formats could probably be pressed into service). It’s an aspect of the VB that is definitely ripe for development.

Any time.

Also, FYI, there is a special sub-forum for PlanetVB-specific things like this. The main VB forum is for stuff about the VB itself.

Great work, as usual! I’m intrigued by the latching mechanism, but (as a tall guy who has to “slouch” over the stock VB) I don’t like the way it slopes away from the user. Maybe a “shoulder” could be added between the base and the extrusion.

Also, it shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with a VB-compatible clamp to avoid “cannibalizing” stock ones.

Try the menu with your name on it at the upper left corner of the page (see illustration).

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   user-menu.png
   

From what I know about MP3s and the VB’s sound processor, the existing recordings are virtually lossless, no pun intended.

Of course, any time you go from digital, to analog, and back to digital, there’s going to be some quality loss. The only way to get truly “lossless” audio, is to get the data before it gets to the DAC in the VB (or make a 100% perfect emulator and capture the data that way).

All that being said, I wouldn’t mind having some FLAC’d VB rips, myself.

Was it really easy, or did you just make it look that way? 😉

Either way, it works great! Thanks!

That’s a great idea I wish someone would have had a long time ago 😛

Someone should tell him about VBDE so he can update his page.

thunderstruck wrote:
But I can have a look for the theme music as well.

http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/index-gr.html#Kid_Icarus

D’oh! I guess I should have looked at how the .vbh is used before posting… That’s kind of a round-about way to do it, but oh well, whatever works, right?

Once again, great work, KR155E! :thumpup:

KR155E wrote:
…I also introduced a new version of the vbh file for ROM header information.

thunderstruck wrote:
…The vbh file is also something I always wanted to include in my project.

Actually, when I packaged the native gcc binaries, I also included my “vbid.exe” VB header editor. It can be used in a makefile/batchfile to patch the VB ROM header, without using a separate file. Run it in a “DOS box” with no parameters to see how to use it (or get the full download and look in the readme). Of course, its usage is purely optional, I just thought I’d mention it…

Note:

While testing, I found that the library I attached above is broken. Somehow I left out some commonly used functions and introduced errors that make it unlinkable. I’m working on the problems right now and will release a new version soon.

Thank you for your patience.

As I said in the comment on your blog post, it’s great to have you back and working on VB stuff! :thumpup:

The new design looks great! I hope you can get costs down as much as possible, because I really want one!