Color mixing doesn’t work like that here. If you change the red lenses to something else, you won’t see any color, because it’s subtractive.

Famicom, Master System, Genesis Model 1 and also 9v Neo Geo all use compatible AC adapters. Never confuse any of these with the American NES AC adapter, which outputs AC and will kill other DC consoles.

The AC tap is region free. It uses a SNES AC adapter, so just find one within Europe and you’re good to go.

I wasn’t sure what else to suggest besides power input.

Perhaps he’d find the alignment test screen more useful? Go to a title screen, then using the right D-Pad, A and B, press Left, B, Down, A, Up.

Are you using the AC adapter or battery?

It’s also possible the left mirror is wearing out or has been knocked out of alignment. You may have to disassemble your Virtual Boy and watch the two mirrors oscillate in-person. Watch the known good one (right), then look at the left to see if it acts any differently, like if it slows down or speeds up, or is not moving in the same way.

There’s finally a Virtual Boy emulator for Wii? About time, I’d love to try it out.

norty wrote:
One quick question :

will the wiirtualboy system will work on a Wii-mini ? (given that it got no SD cart connection, and only one USB connection)

And will the Gamecube Pad work on the Wii-mini (using wiirtualboy system) ?

The Wii Mini has no SD card slot, no Wi-Fi support and it can’t mount storage on the USB port. As of right now, the Wii Mini is unhackable (unless someone can hack a Mii character, transfer to the Wii Mini through a Wii Remote and run homebrew code from the Mii Channel).

As for the GC controller, the Wii Mini has no GC ports and it cannot be hacked to run any homebrew software to get around that limitation, so no you can’t use GC controllers either.

Guy Perfect wrote:
I dunno, Earthbound doesn’t exactly push the system to its limits. You could probably emulate it on Virtual Boy.

If by emulate you mean like the Game Boy emulator, then no that’s impossible. It would run so slow it’d be pointless. Even the N64 isn’t enough to emulate the SNES at full speed. Dreamcast just barely manages.

EarthBound seems like a strange game to put on Virtual Boy anyway. Why not Doom or Wolfenstein 3D?

Guy Perfect wrote:
Waaaaaaaaaah! *Sobs*

My apologies. 3 onscreen reds + black out of a total palette of 128.

norty wrote:
ok thanks, so i don’t really know anything about development, but how difficult would it be to port the SNES version on virtual boy ? is that even possible ?

The only thing common between the SNES and Virtual Boy is the controller protocol. Everything else that actually matters is completely different. The CPU, PPU, APU and even the cartridge bus designs are nothing alike. You would literally have to re-create EarthBound on the Virtual Boy from scratch.

Well I’d rather not spread a misconception, so thank you very much for clearing all that up.

Also, that VB programming guide. How accurate is it? Can I pull tech specs from it?

Okay… Now correct me if I’m wrong, but does this statement sound better?

“The Virtual Boy can display black and 3 shades of red onscreen out of 128 possible shades. With careful programming, it’s possible to have 128 unique shades onscreen at once.”

Got it, thanks for the awesome writeup.

I’m also trying to factor in all that you said though. Before you said, basically, you can have 128 unique shades of red onscreen. Are there any limits to that?

What does that mean to a non-programmer though? What is the total number of unique “shades” possible onscreen? What is the effective limit most games use, not counting special effects?

That explanation is much appreciated, but it’s difficult to condense into simpler terms, without having to dedicate an entire paragraph of explanation. Would you say most released games used color variation anywhere between 32 and 128 “shades”? By your description, is the “master palette” the same as what’s allowed onscreen?

Please explain the correction and it will be implemented.

If 4 shades out of 32 is wrong, then how come it’s in the specs page here on PVB?

http://www.planetvb.com/modules/hardware/?type=vb&sec=specs

We try to be accurate with everything on Micro-64.

norty wrote:
Is there anyone that is skill enough with the technical “Moonside palette” of the virtual boy, and can try to contact this guy ?

A virtual boy version of Earthbound can be an extremely exciting news

What he meant by “Moonside palette” is an area in the game called Moonside. It’s a spoiler to speak of to anyone who hasn’t played EarthBound, so I can’t say more. Basically, the palette of Moonside is very simple, good for the groundwork of a Virtual Boy theme.

As said above, this wouldn’t mean the game would work on a real Virtual Boy. It’d be a SNES game limited to red, maybe not even actual VB limitations (4 onscreen reds + black, out of a 32 red palette).

If you wait long enough, you could save up and just buy Jack Bros for its going value. If you are only collecting Virtual Boy, there isn’t really anything wrong with splurging a bit to finish the collection.

vb-fan wrote:
Different processors, but it generates two parallaxed images, which are combined for the “lattice display”. Suppose a game came out that embodied the same theme, layouts, treasures etcetera; one could write assembly from machine code, and then programming a VB cart from assembly should be possible.

With no code to port, what you described is just as difficult as creating a game from scratch.

Better, talk someone out of the source-code.

That’s an even bigger “if” than finding a prototype cartridge. Very seldom has source code ever been found. The most notable source code discover I know of was for Star Fox 2 (SNES), which the playable prototype was compiled from. Almost never does that happen though.

Surely the novelty of owning something no one else has, in the case of Virtual Boy games, has worn off. That nothing has surfaced implies that no cart has gotten out of N’s control.

A lot of private collectors don’t think about such things, hence why you never find them online in communities. The only hope there is for the private collector to sell off or drop dead.

At the risk of sounding pessimistic, there is a time limit. I’m in America — we’re heading towards 20 trillion debt, which many spokespeople and offices have recognized as “unsurvivable”. I think everyone is only a couple years at most away from a big global collapse. No one will be interested in playing VB games then. It would be nice if I’m wrong, but it sure seems like stuff is building.

There are always rumors about games like DH, and Zero Racers, and Goldeneye existing as carts (or ROMS) in private hands; wish we could know if there really are. I knew for years that a real Faceball proto existed, I knew someone who knew the owner; and that very prototype gave us the games here on PVB.

Still, you’re right, all we can do is wait and hope.

As I said before, there are are plenty of examples to prove my point. Prototypes can always surface, no matter how late. Bio Force Ape on Famicom was one such game. There was never any evidence of the game’s existence on a cartridge, it was only known about in a couple issues of Nintendo Power. It had been hoaxed before on Digital Press, before eventually being found for sale on a Japanese auction site. There was no rhyme or reason behind the game surfacing, nobody specifically went out and bought it off someone. The exact same thing could happen to Dragon Hopper in the future as well. Someone may very well put a prototype cart of it on eBay or other such auction site. Someone might come to PVB saying they bought it at an estate sale. Anything is possible. Going by historic prototypes, there are better odds of the game surfacing on its own than through deliberate searching.

morintari wrote:
vb-fan wrote

Very cool — I wonder how many other fans of “Virtual Boy” are girls!

I can think of a few we have
gunpaiyokifan
mednefen
kit23

But don’t worry kit23 is taken she’s my wife;)

Perhaps someone should do up a Virtual Boy in pink automotive/plastic paint and call it Virtual Girl.

vb-fan wrote:
How hard is it to make a 3DS game compatible with VB (that is, dump the ROM and modify the code)?

Would they have access to the original DH storyline? It’d be nice if their accomplishment (should they try) be as close to the original as possible. Same hidden stuff, easter eggs, etcetera…

If a remake was made for 3DS, it would be 100% incompatible with the Virtual Boy as it would most likely be built from the ground up. Even if it was done as a 3D Classics release, it wouldn’t work on Virtual Boy. The only option would be a Virtual Console re-release, where yes the original ROM is being emulated.

This hope for a Dragon Hopper remake for 3DS is rather dumb I find, it will never happen under normal circumstances. The only hope is to find the Virtual Boy prototype.

Sure it’s 2014 and there’s still no sign of it, that doesn’t mean it won’t ever be found. Many prototypes for other systems have only been found recently. In fact, most prototypes surfaced through natural channels, such as auction sites or through public collectors who chose to release the ROM. Many happen beyond the control of common people like us.

Others still haven’t either, like nearly any first party proto for N64 and 64DD. Nobody has found Mother 3 disks yet, or any Zelda 64 protos. It doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Most likely, any proto that hasn’t been found yet is in the hands of a private collector who refuses to release the ROM.

We must all be patient, Dragon Hopper could still be found.

I highly recommend Tiptopjames on NintendoAge, he soldered up my two Virtual Boy units and they work great.