Probably the biggest hurdle you’ll face with Virtual Boy is trying to wrap your head around creating 3D graphics. The good VB games always make use of it, by giving some graphics more depth than others, or making then appear far away and close.

Well, it is a bit silly to expect so much from the Virtual Boy. This was 1995, with expensive LED displays and mechanical oscillating mirrors, not to mention the the manufacturing costs… There wasn’t much room to offer a Playstation here. It’s easiest to treat the Virtual Boy like a “16-bit” successor to the Game Boy, with a really big screen resolution.

You could still use your custom scripting language on Virtual Boy, but your games will lack efficiency and thus be sluggish. A JRPG would work quite well, a fast paced action game or shooter, no. Any game that would require a lot of calculations during gameplay would see a drop in speed with a high level language instead of C or ASM. You can hide calculations behind the JRPG’s normally slow nature.

What platform(s) are you porting from? Dreamcast? You’d get better speed from the Virtual Boy if you build the engine from the ground up, it’s not exactly a beast of a console.

Isn’t the source code for Wolfenstein 3D available? It’d be possible to make an unofficial port at least. I think licensing is the same as Doom if you want it to be a commercial project.

*Visual Memory Unit (VMU)

You should worry more about your ability to produce a Virtual Boy port than whether publishing is available. The tools and resources available for Virtual Boy pale in comparison to Dreamcast. If your game is good, publishing will find you.

You forgot 3D Tetris, both D-Pads are used differently to allow a Tetrimino to be moved and rotated in a 3D space.

If there was a VB Zelda game, it would have been cool to have Link obtain an item that could create a mirror image of himself, which would be controlled by the right D-Pad.

There needs to be a first person shooter, maybe Wolfenstein 3D. The two D-Pads would work great for moving and aiming. Somebody has to make one!

I remember somebody point that out quite some time ago, never got to try it for myself until recently. I only have one dust cover, the holder on the VB does work reasonably well.

What? Mario’s Tennis is really easy. As said before, all you do is just hit the ball into areas where the computer opponents can’t hit it. A good one is to hit the ball onto the right side of the net, without going into out of bounds. Most computer opponents will try to hit the ball but will end up walking backwards following it, without hitting it.

As for hitting the ball yourself, the game is really forgiving in that regard. There’s a wide area of margin that is acceptable with most characters.

That would require reprogramming games to work with the internet adapter. Most people have flashboys, so I guess that’s not a big issue. Still, the big problem is developing a wireless internet adapter. Not to mention having to build it and sell it for a decent price.

I think the market is too small for this sort of thing. One could definitely make a proof of concept plug-in for the link port though.

There’s also the other option, solder wires between the two Virtual Boys.

Probably a flatblade screwdriver, just be careful about it, but keep in mind that film is rather thick. Just scrape some off, then try tinning the via, and scrape/tin until you can.

I have also tried a hair dryer, overall the soldering method still looks better (as long as you don’t end up destroying the ribbon cable). Still, if it’s the only option, what worked best is holding the ribbon cable in place with pliers or something, then hitting the ribbon cable with high heat. The glue section being too hot to touch should be enough to get the glue gooey. Then you should find something to clamp and press down the ribbon cable. I have a quick grip set of vicegrips, very handy for Famicom cartridges. I haven’t tried it but it would probably do much better than other lousy methods I’ve tried. I’m not sure when you would want to apply some electrical tape to add some reinforcement. In fact, I wonder if it insulates the original ribbon cable glue.

On the one Virtual Boy I’ve tried this method on, the right display is fine while the left has the occasional error, usually horizontal lines… *sigh*. At least I can play Virtual Boy games.

The sunfaded Nintendo Power #1 is a nice touch.

I still say the Virtual Boy system looks really slick, with a lot more style than the USA Super NES, that’s for sure. How often do you ever see a red and black console?

Happy New Year! I took a nap earlier, so I should be able to play some New Years Virtual Boy.

Previous post was made before I checked the mail.

I’m just speachless really, I can’t thank MineStorm enough, this was really, REALLY nice of you! Man I’m gonna be glued to the Virtual Boy for hours.

Merry christmas all of you! I will find some way to give back to the community in the future. You guys are awesome. 🙂

Thank you so much Chaz! I can’t wait to try these out when I have some free time. These give me an even bigger incentive to (somehow) obtain a properly working Virtual Boy. 🙂

Is there any way to hold the ribbon cable in place in case the whole thing heats enough to lift off the board? Or does that usually not happen, or is one supposed to just go slow across the pins?

I suppose it’s not an issue either way, solder in most cases cools very fast.

That’s exactly what I don’t want to happen again, the ribbon cable warping from the heat. So just lead a ball of solder over the flux coated copper traces? That is, do not touch the surface with the iron tip right? Just lead the solder ball around? What’s a good way of getting the ball off without disturbing the traces? A solder sucker or just lead it to the edge?

Some new ribbon cables would be a massive help. I’d be able to repair one of my VBs, which needs a new pair.

To the people who have done the solder repair, have you had any success just melting/burning away the laminate at low temperature while tinning/soldering the traces? I got a third Virtual Boy (I must be crazy) and am thinking of attempting the soldering fix again. However, this time I’d be super ultra careful not to move the traces.

Will the ribbon cable suffer from any kind of heat? Or does it hold up okay with mild heat on each individual copper trace?