Almost everyone was playing in one of the most uncomfortable positions, sigh. You have to hold the controller behind the VB, so you can rest your elbows on the table instead of relying on your back and neck for support.
Nice to see the VB (and VG heh) getting some love though.
I don’t know how Mario Clash ranks so high. No matter how long I play it, I can’t enjoy it. Everyone says it’s like Mario Bros. with a foreground and background. That is a lie, where did hitting enemies from under the floor go? Where’s the POW block?? Instead, you have to jump on Koopas and throw their shells from across the foreground/background gap. The problem for me is the VB’s 3D video makes it extremely hard to gauge distance. I constantly miss targets because of that. Why couldn’t there be little markers on the floor to help? Even making the floor a pattern of blocks would have been an immense improvement.
My Virtual Boy retail top 5 looks more like this:
VB Wario Land
Mario’s Tennis
Galactic Pinball
Teleroboxer
Vertical Force
(Also Bound High, but it was never officially released)
I’d still love to find 3D Tetris… Or maybe just get a Flashboy finally.
I can’t really help with this (among other things, I’m up in Canada), but I highly approve of some more VB love. Were you hoping to arrange something like with Hyper Fighting? Or more just a mutual collaboration?
Also, I know this can seem low priority, but was there any kind of project you had in mind? I know having a clear goal can make a big difference in making the best of time and money.
This is just my opinion, but if you want an ultra low-profile N64 system, just get creative and build a little ITX PC into an N64 shell, there’s tons of them out there. Heck, I have an N64 that, although works, has had some pretty bad corrosion from being left in a dumpster, the cart slot is in rough shape. That’s a good candidate for a PC build.
As for putting a game PCB in a capture cartridge shell, yeah it’s possible, but it’s not ideal. The big problem is the huge gaping hole in the back of the cartridge, it wouldn’t look too hot with RF shield or PCB in place of the original input jacks. Most likely all you’d have to do is remove the middle screw posts so the RF shields can fit inside, but it seems silly to waste a rare accessory on something like an Everdrive. The transparent red shell from retrogate looks way better.
As for me, I finally have Mario Artist: Polygon Studio and Talent Studio, also Doshin the Giant 1 from earlier though it wouldn’t work at first, the fix was cleaning the magnetic disk inside with alcohol and cotton swabs. The 64DD has certainly been a trip, I wish I had these creativity tools as a kid. Talent and Polygon are loaded with Mario Paint-y goodness as well as their own personality. They are definitely user friendly aside from the lack of an English translation.
It feels weird to finally play this beast after so long. It’s a side of the N64 most of us have never experienced. I admit, like most other opinions online, there’s not a lot we were missing out on, but the 64DD catalog still has that Nintendo magic that we all love. It was a wasted opportunity, but what remains is still fun to play.
All I need now is Mario Artist: Paint Studio and F-Zero X Expansion Kit, also a JPN copy of F-Zero X. Maybe I’ll get the Communication Kit anyway.
As odd as this may sound, I knew going into this that I might be disappointed, or feel that the entry fee wasn’t worth it. I told myself I’d give the 64DD until November, namely because retrogate runs their Black Friday sale that month. I might decide to eat the high price of the 64DD, or I’ll bail and get an Everdrive 64. Above all, I wanted to experience the 64DD, scratch it off the ol’ bucket list. Playing it right now, I can say confidently it is a really cool add-on. This is the Nintendo I will always love.
enfilade wrote:
I played the demo for quite a while last night. The game certainly is an incredible feat. It looks so good, the 3D is wonderful. It also plays just like the original, and I was surprised how many stages I was able to play in the demo. This game brings back all those feelings of wonder, and shows the true potential of the Virtual Boy. Wow, to think what could have been!
I want this game even more now 🙂
Honestly, I think the true potential of the VB would be expressed in a fully polygonal game like Star Fox, or something that uses the dual D-pads in a unique way (3D Tetris) or really utilizes the stereoscopic 3D. Hyper Fighting is nice, but I don’t think it completely hits those criteria. That’s just my opinion of the VB’s hardware though. Someone might consider the VB more like a more powerful red SNES. In that case, I would say Hyper Fighting is a good showcase of power. In some ways, I think it’s a better port than Street Fighter 2 on SNES.
You’re not the first to want Hyper Fighting. We even have someone with a “WTB: Hyper Fighting” thread over in the Marketplace. Maybe someone will post a copy here at a community price. You could also save up and buy one at the going rate. Just be patient, you never know what might float by.
Lovethrash, please don’t kill a Capture Cassette for an Everdrive 64 shell. 64DD anything is very rare. You should also be aware there’s no way you’d be able to use the Capture Cassette using the Everdrive 64 method, they both use the cartridge slot.
Once I’ve set my mind on killing a rare gaming accessory, the excitement is too much to go back on :). Actually I’m not TOTALLY set on doing it. I know that a cheaper option is to get some crummy game in a black shell, strip the labels off and make another N64 logo for the front. It depends on how much modding is needed for either shell. If I could do this without external cutting, the capture cart would just look more official. I’m also not opposed to hard-wiring the Everdrive inside the system for a super low-profile look.
Speaking of 64DD, I just scored one finally! Got a great deal on a complete in box Randnet starter kit :). It should arrive in the next week or so. I plan on ordering that Doshin game and some of the Mario creative suites since they all sound fun.
Which of those Mario titles would you recommend?
Seeing how Recruit made the Modem cartridge and keyboard, I wouldn’t be surprised if they (or Alps) made the capture cartridge too, rather than Nintendo. Given how different those cartridges look, it’s possible they have different PCB mounting inside. When I get my copy of Mario Artist: Talent Studio in, I’ll investigate the capture cartridge and see if it would accept a game PCB. I doubt it though.
I cringed when you said you’d consider hardwiring the everdrive into an N64…
Did you win that recent Randnet starter kit that appeared on Yamatoku? Definitely a nice price. Technically it was a better deal than 350 EUR on my loose 64DD, but I don’t care one bit for boxes, I’m happier to be without it.
Given how few games there are for the 64DD, I recommend you obtain every game that is cheap.
Buy these:
Doshin the Giant 1 ($50 – $70)
F-Zero X Expansion Kit ($70 – $100)
Mario Artist: Paint Studio ($40 – $60)
Mario Artist: Talent Studio ($40 – $60)
Mario Artist: Polygon Studio ($40 – $60)
Mario Artist: Communication Kit ($30)
SimCity 64 ($40 – $60)
Maybe not the communication kit, it’s apparently just for moving content between the other Mario Artist games and the Randnet service which has been dead for the past 15 years.
Avoid these:
Doshin the Giant 2 ($500+)
Japan Pro Golf Tour 64 ($500+)
Randnet disk ($30 – $50)
The Randnet disk in particular is not a game, it was just the client program for logging onto the online Randnet service.
70 copies? For aftermarket releases that’s nothing to sneeze at, but when there’s hundreds – maybe thousands – of people fighting for those 70 copies, most of which are unavailable, it’s easy to see how the price shot up so much.
It is definitely a really amazing game, both in a programming effort and in hardware as well. It’s the only 32Mbit Virtual Boy game, it even saves your data. The PCB inside is pretty neat.
Yes, I really did purchase a 64DD console, so far I have SimCity 64 and Doshin the Giant 1, just watching for additional disks to appear. Of the 10 disks, I just want 6 or 7, depends if Mario Artist: Communication Kit any good. I never thought I’d spend so much on a console. Oh well, it was my only other big want (the other was Neo-Geo).
Even if I had heard before hand that the Everdrive 64 supported 64DD ROMs, I’d be very skeptical of how complete the support is, even just going by the accessories used by 64DD games. I’m the kind of person to want the real deal, even if it’s kind of expensive.
Lovethrash, please don’t kill a Capture Cassette for an Everdrive 64 shell. 64DD anything is very rare. You should also be aware there’s no way you’d be able to use the Capture Cassette using the Everdrive 64 method, they both use the cartridge slot.
I’ve been thinking of buying a 64DD, I’m really missing 64DD.net now, it was a great resource. I haven’t found a 64DD info source that’s comparable. Archive.org has backups of 64DD.net but they are often broken, missing various pages.
Anyone here into 64DD? Know of good sites on it? I suppose on one hand there isn’t much to say about it, but I hate waiting, I like to read while I pass the time.
I thought the demo version only works on the Flash Boy, which isn’t that commonly owned it seems.
I do notice that a lot though, people get the name wrong all the time. It’s not Hyper Fighter, it’s not Street Fighter II (the game yes, packaging and title screen no), it’s just Hyper Fighting.
Seeing how NWC Grey has been selling for over $10k lately, I’d be very suspicious of a craigslist posting. Odds are very good those are just stolen pictures.
Not really, V-Tetris and Vertical Force are still available in sealed cases. Others like Mario’s Tennis, Teleroboxer, Red Alarm, Panic Bomber and the like are very inexpensive. Wario Land is an odd exception where the Japanese version is more expensive than the US version.
