It is my understanding that the nVidia stereo drivers are only for running 3D-accelerated programs in true 3-D. There is, apparently, a special SDK that can be used to alter certain properties of the stereo “camera”, but other than that, I’m not sure what can be done.

My shutter glasses came with a controller that goes between the video card and monitor and controls the glasses based on the timing signals. It accepts special color-codes in the first few lines of video that alter the operating mode, but other than that are completely separate from the software generating the images. Something like that would be easy to incorporate into a VB emulator, but if the nVidia system doesn’t work like that, there isn’t much hope without a major re-write, I’m afraid.

There’s also a convenient (but probably useless to a beginner) quick reference to the relevant I/O (well, technically just “O” ;-)) ports in the Wiki, thanks to yours truly 😎

DogP wrote:
…he statically linked the dll…

Ah, that explains why your exe was so much smaller than the one I replaced with it… (Actually, come to think of it, I think I had to move an Allegro DLL into the folder, too…)

Welcome to the site, DA!

Any friend of Al’s is a friend of mine 😉

It doesn’t work for me 🙁

In Mibbit, I get the following error:

Closing Link: 127.0.0.1 (You are not authorised to use this server)

In CGI:IRC, I get a chat window containing:

*** Welcome to CGI:IRC 0.5.4 (2004/01/29)
*** Looking up efnet.demon.co.uk
*** An error occured: Looking up address:

I tried in both Opera and Firefox; same errors.

Nice, informative post, KR155E. Thanks! Now, how about some info on the “star” ratings; e.g. what number of posts is associated with each rank? Also, are there any other “special” ranks besides “Administrator”?

Also, I would like to suggest another badge type:

Meta Coder (or whatever you want to call it)

It would be for people like DogP, David Tucker, Virtual-E, etc. who produce or improve programs that facilitate writing/debugging/etc. VB programs (e.g. emulators, compilers, graphics tools, etc.).

e5frog wrote:
The latest version (with the graphic “error” fixes) seems to ask for a file called alleg42.dll which it hasn’t been using before. I don’t seem to have it on any of my harddrives – what does it do, why is it new?

It is the Allegro game library. It allows RB to access graphics, sound, and input devices, and simplifies some other stuff. I don’t know why it hasn’t been using it before. It has always used Allegro. Maybe you accidentally deleted it?

I attached the one I use, but you can also download it (with a bunch of other stuff) from here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/alleg/files/allegro-bin/4.2.2/allegro-msvc6-4.2.2.zip/download

Hey, that looks really good, e5frog! I’m thinking about modding the power-supply connector directly into the VB, to reduce the cord tangles. I’m not sure how I want to do the power switch, though. My first idea is to just short the battery terminals in the controller (or make an external thingy like you did) and splice the DC jack into the battery line inside the VB. But then I probably have to do something with the battery monitor circuitry…

[size=x-small]Bonus English tip! 😀

Took/take is an extremely irregular verb. In this case, it should be “(It) didn’t take long…”

DogP wrote:

Oh… yeah, if I haven’t already posted it, here’s directly from my notes:

You know if you had posted it anywhere I wouldn’t be asking… I am the official VB dev digital packrat, after all! 😀

Of course let me know if you’ve got any ?’s about it.

I only have one question:

What does “GND” mean?

heh, j/k… Here are the real questions (based on studying the VB and RTI patents and the VIP docs):

1. Are the pin numbers listed with the PCB in this orientation (i.e. is pin 1 in the upper right of that image)?
2. Which pin is used by the VB to “select” the display? (Or is /Reset just held low on the “other” one?)
3. What is/are the function(s) of pins 1 and 30? (If the caps are for decoupling, they must be grounds, right?)
4. 16 (data lines) times 8 (serial bits) = 128. So, how are all 224 (256?) LEDs written?
5. What do the “D” and “L” in DCLK and LCLK stand for?
6. Are CLK(A,B,C) just (as I suspect) inputs to an OR gate that enables the LED drivers?

Thanks!

I’m sure it also depends on the OS, whether you have a “theme” installed, which one, etc.

Opera is apparently able to style them, since they look (vaguely) like the rest of the form buttons on PVB (except for the font).

If it was as you say, it should be a standard “Windows Classic” button for me. I use XP with no theme (i.e. Win9x/2K style) and I also have Opera set to use no “skin”. Also, other pages have standard “beveled” buttons on their upload forms. Here’s one from VirusTotal:

Attachments:

1. 

   exe_upload.png
   

KR155E wrote:

BTW Amos, your “Choose…” box looks weird. User JS again? 😉 Or is it how those buttons look in Opera?

I didn’t change it, so I guess that’s what Opera does. I never really thought about it… I just figured you were getting “artsy” with the form controls ;-). It’s the same way on the Post/Reply form.

Axs wrote:

USA retail : VN 10050420 3

I’m actually not sure about the 2 and the 0 at the end of US serial because it has ink all over it…

What kind of ink is it? If it’s standard ball-point or rubber-stamp ink, you could try lightly rubbing it with a cotton swab that’s dampened (wring it out after dipping) with isopropyl (“rubbing”) alcohol. It shouldn’t affect the original offset printing on the label (although, “at your own risk” applies, just in case ;-)).

Umm… did you try scrolling down to the bottom of the “Edit collection” page? 😛

If the box isn’t there, maybe you have to be a user for a certain amount of time before you can upload.

Attachments:

1. 

   image_upload.png
   

DogP wrote:
RP: What’s the difference between what you’re talking about and just searching a disassembly?

(Although I already answered on the IRC channel, I’ll reply here for posterity.)

The key benefit would be ease-of-use (no need to worry about making a regular expression that fits the particular disassembler’s interpretation of the code). But, as you proved with your “ROM mapping” tools, a disassembly listing is a lot to sift through, and disassemblers aren’t (yet?) perfect.

But, like I said, I’ll either do it myself or do without, so don’t worry about it ;-).

DogP:

Could you post the pinout that (I’m assuming) you reverse-engineered for your video-out device?

Someday, just for fun, I’d like to try driving the VB’s displays with some other computer.

This is slightly (okay, completely :-P) off-topic, but I thought of another “search” utility that would be really cool to have. I thought of it while reading in the “ROM hacking” thread about changing the key mapping in Mario Clash (something I’ve wanted to do since I first played it!). I don’t think it would be very hard to make, starting with DogP’s code.

The idea is, instead of disassembling the entire ROM (after first mapping out the location of code with RB ;-)) one could have a “searching assembler” which accepts a snippet of assembly language (perhaps with placeholders for register names, since they’re interchangeable) and searches for every occurrence of the different permutations of that code in a (ROM) file, showing the actual disassembly and the offset into the file.

I can’t really start on this now, and I can’t imagine anyone else wants to 😛 but I may get to it eventually. Well, at least the idea’s out there…

The first guy has already been banned, so someone signed up with the same display-name to get attention… I’m guessing it’s DanB 😉 Although, going by the typing skill and grammar, maybe it’s akumie… 😉 😛

I think it’s time to lock the thread…

I just ran across this thread again and had to LOL…

Excellent! This should jumpstart the ‘ol VB ROM-hacking scene!

That’s cool, Hedge. I can definitely wait for the cart shell models if it means also getting that sweet controller model :thumpup:

I personally want to be able to make cart shells that are longer, or with thicker sections to hold custom goodies, like on-board connectors (think Cardbus/PCMCIA cards).

One suggestion: it would be cool if you started an account on http://www.github.com/ (or used the one you have?) to share your models. That way, if you wanted to update/correct/add to them later, it would be easy for everyone to get the changes. Plus, we could download a ZIP of all your models with one click.