In the movie, “The Last Starfighter”, a watch pcb is exactly what they try to pass off as a “Universal Translator”. An alien girl fastens it to his collar (clearly visible is the epoxy cob, the pads for the LCD zebra strips, and the cutout for the battery!)

{8-/

(Oh — it works perfectly, she then BEGINS TALKING IN PERFECT ENGLISH; errr, uhm, he UNDERSTANDS as if she was talking in English. And her lips matched the words. Nifty device!)

I was watching DVD’s last night, an old tv show called “Sliders”. Where four friends traveled from parallel world to parallel world desperately trying to get back to their own Earth.

SUDDENLY a whoosh occurred behind me; before I could snap my head around I was sucked into a vortex — and was falling through a strange tunnel. I landed in a small park in the middle of town. I picked myself up and was brushing the grass off of my Levi’s, when I saw the video store — advertising VIRTUAL BOY GAMES! This must be a parallel world!

I raced into the store, and there was DRAGON HOPPER in the clearance bin for only 5 bucks! They had Zero Racers, Golden Eye, Night Landing, and several others I’d never heard of! The new promotion was STAR WARS games — exciting dogfights between the Rebels and Tie-Fighters, amidst Star cruisers. One called “Millennium Falcon Escape”. There was an exciting chase through channels on the Death Star, trying to fire missiles into the main vent, while Darth was in hot pursuit! In stereo, in one ear a tinny voice wheezed “I AM YOUR FATHER…” — and in the other ear a gentle voice encouraged, “Do not be afraid, USE THE FORCE!”

I reached for my wallet, and remembered I had left it on my dresser! Wait — had I? Or had it fallen out when I landed on the grass?

I tore back to the park and started searching everywhere; but another whoosh and muffled roar sucked me back into the tunnel. I fell out right back on the living-room-carpet, the TV playing as I had left it.

…my wallet laying jeeringly on my dresser!

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!”

vuefinder83 wrote:
Now here’s a interesting unit!

I found this Virtual Boy on ebay about 5-6 years ago. Check out the bottom of this unit, pretty strange aint it! According to the sellers auction description it was obtained through an estate sale of a longtime Nintendo Employee.

Another thing that was really weird was that included with this unit was a brand-new controller and a brand-new stand, both unused in their original baggies. Its weird because this unit obviously will not attach to a normal VB retail table stand.

It looks like something that the Employee was working on but then stopped in the middle of the project due to the VB being canceled. Its like the Employee decided to take the unit home but first stopped by the parts department and picked up a brand-new stand and controller.

This auction ended during a bad time for me, so I ended up losing the auction. To me, this is the one that got away.

(Sorry for the poor picture quality)

What do you guys think about this strange VB unit?

Pretty cool! Now if only the employee also had DH… :p

(Next time you can’t actually BID on something, just list it with a “snipe service”; I use one that allows 3 free bids per week, but the free function has been known to bid at 16 seconds; only when you bid at 5 seconds or less, does your competition have no time to compete!)…

bigmak wrote:

But, the idea was not to make hundreds of say ..bound high, and in a few years not have the material to make more games without donor carts (I want to end up with more games than were released for the system eventually).

-Eric

The big drawback is the finite number of “sacrificable carts available”. My Flashboy case is 3D printed (I think it’s really really neat!); the only additional thing necessary is a 2mm double-row socket that will fit the motherboard pins, and I think there are some that will work. That would make for an unlimited supply of “donor carts”!

I may have to learn more about 3D printing, went to a luncheon/show a local company put on two weeks ago, there were some spectacular samples! Everyone there got a keychain with a plastic ball-bearing (actually works pretty good!). I ran off with a Crescent Wrench, printed with disolvable plastic (a few minutes in an NaOH solution, the white plastic is gone, and the red wrench actually functions). They’re selling some really cool 3D printed toys on ebay, I’ve gotten a couple. There’s a way to take 50 photos of any object, and create an STL file to reproduce it exactly!

(I almost feel like I’m on Star Trek, standing in front of a Replicator!)

[vb-fan]

Benjamin Stevens wrote:

If you want to play these ROMs on your Virtual Boy system, there is no need to search long and hard for some reproduction carts that have been made for some of these, since you can enjoy all of them on a FlashBoy Plus. Thus, if you haven’t already done so, you can order one from Richard Hutchinson by following the instructions here:

There is another option — not that the flashboys aren’t excellent, they are — but — plugging a flashboy into the computer, flashing it (padding the game first), and then moving it to the VB, takes a little time.

If you’re good with soldering, make a “cart w/piggy-back ZIF” (perfboard and ZIF extends past the cart edge), and get an inexpensive eprom (or rom) programmer. Then save each game in a ROM. Simply flip the lever on the ZIF socket, swap out a ROM, flick down the lever, power-on, have fun! You won’t be able to save levels, but you can change games in 4-5 seconds…

Just sayin’…

Edit to add — you could also buy a few of your OWN “donor carts”, and find someone with a PCB made up to accept ROMS and buy a few (and buy a few roms). Swap out the game-pcb with the eprom-pcb, keeping the case & connector. Then you could make your own very passable facsimile carts, complete with labels! Necessity is the mother of invention!!!

• This reply was modified 8 years, 8 months ago by vb-fan.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 8 months ago by vb-fan.

speedyink wrote:
1. Wario Land
2. Jack Bros
3. Red Alarm
4. Bound High
5. Galactic Pinball
6. Hyper Fighting
7. Panic Bomber
8. Faceball
9. Mario Tennis
10. 3D Tetris

At the moment anyway, although the top 3 are fairly consistent. I’m a sucker for Mario style platformers, Jack Bros is just awesome, and Red Alarm was the first Virtual Boy game I played, and for me, just screams Virtual Boy in every way.

I forgot about Red Alarm — it’s one of my favorites too! I think I’ve found every “easter egg”, including both Bikini Girls. (Think I’ve found every “secret room” in Wario Land, too!)

I would agree to not include Hyper Fighting if there wasn’t the demo that’s available. My opinion of the game hasn’t changed between the demo and full version. It’s Street Fighter 2 on the Virtual Boy regardless of which version you play.

I confess I haven’t run the demo. It’s kinda like WL, isn’t it? Two-dimensional sprites at various 3D planes? I wish we had a game that really had 3D players. Red Alarm did, though it was “wire frame”. It would be easier to make solid players that don’t rotate, than to make solid fully 3D rotatable sprites…

VB Fan wrote:

“Vertical Force is better than Water World, but equally (obviously) unfinished. Insmouse has to be around the worst, though I’ve never been able to play “Gundam”.
”

HP Lovethrash wrote:
–Interesting, I don’t think I’ve heard that before about Vertical Force. What about it seemed unfinished? It’s been a while since I played, though I do remember it being fairly short…a few more levels would have upped the challenge somewhat.

‘Cause it just ENDS, suddenly! Several of the producers rushed to market to try to recoup some of their design expense, when rumors started about N dumping the system. Waterworld was like that; I remember a thread here about many unused images and features found in the ROM…

Even though I loved the idea/look of Insmouse, I was very disappointed in the gameplay. The non-fluid movement and the weapon system might almost be tolerable for me if not for the time limit. That just makes it a chore, in my opinion of course O:)

I agree; it coulda been sooo much better.

VB Fan wrote:

“Jack Brothers” is excellent, so is Space Squash — I never understood why it was “Japan Only” — the play is very good.

HP Lovethrash wrote:
— I wonder if they would have localized Space Squash later on? Seems like some games used to take years to make it over here. An updated North American version with a vs. mode sounds pretty sweet.

You may be right. There’s a lot of strategy in the game; it’s like playing pool in THREE DIMENSIONS — you hafta think about where the ball is going after hitting three walls. That’s especially true on the “bonus rounds”; you only have a split second to calculate the angle necessary to hit the SECOND star, or the second saucer, etcetera. Hit both same-images in sequence, get more points.

I think “Hyper Fighting” shouldn’t be listed in a thread like this, unless it’s available to the rest of us who would like to play it.

I would put “Bound High” as #1, though really “Wario Land” is excellent; perhaps BH doesn’t have its newness worn off. Starting from scratch WL would be #1.

“Water World” is worthless; it’s unfinished, would have been so much better if it didn’t have the same gameplay over and over. And over, and over. And over again…

Vertical Force is better than Water World, but equally (obviously) unfinished. Insmouse has to be around the worst, though I’ve never been able to play “Gundam”.

“Jack Brothers” is excellent, so is Space Squash — I never understood why it was “Japan Only” — the play is very good.

“Mario Clash” is okay, but the game gets boring after “winning”; I was the one who discovered the trick of “hitting the 1-UP sign” to get an extra-extra man. Getting the most extra-lives is the only way to win any of the “rocket-speed” levels…

Lester Knight wrote:
when i have mine set up i’ll play it for hours at a time and i’ve never had a problem. what i found works best is a height adjustable chair (like a computer desk chair) and to angle the VB downwards, towards the desk.

I always play mine laying on my back, VB resting on my face & stand on my chest. It’d be fun if it wasn’t for all that terrible eye-strain, raucous headaches and subsequent speech-slurring that continues for HOURS!!

Kidding; I’ve never had ANY of that, idiots who talk about those things have never played a Virtual Boy!!!

>:(

DogP wrote:
Here’s a video of someone doing a solder repair, to get an idea of what’s involved: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQC4c9Lylg4 .

You can see that the cable is attached the whole time. In that video, he burned away the coating on the cable. I personally don’t like doing that, as it applies too much excess heat IMO. I originally used NaOH, though anymore I use a fiberglass scratch brush to carefully peel back the lamination, leaving the copper exposed.

You can see pics/details in this post: http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=24012#forumpost24012 .

DogP

Thanx, Dog — very helpful!

Yeah I know what you mean about “too much heat”; gave me the willies on that you-tube video seeing how long he had the soldering iron on the board; either the temp was set very low, or he was lucky not to start lifting traces. And I woulda brushed away most of the solder before using wick, you use less wick. I just bought a kit that has a couple of very-fine pitch IC’s (one a PLCC, the other dual inline); solder wick is the only way I can imagine soldering it. Steamed that he sent those two chips in a non static-protected pouch…

PS — where does one get a “fiberglass brush”?

DogP wrote:

vb-fan wrote:
So when the displays are “dead” and submitted for repair — the flex cables still have to be dissolved off of the LED pcb’s?

No… when they’re to be soldered, they just need a little bit of the copper of the cable exposed somehow (heat, abrasive, or chemical), so the solder can bridge the connection between the cable and the display. But if you were to use Z-axis tape, you would need to remove the cable from the PCB, since the new tape would have to go between the PCB and the cable.

DogP

I guess I hadn’t realized the cable wasn’t totally removed when making the usual “repair”.

So you leave the cable ON the display PCB, and use NaOH to remove a little of the cable insulator and just solder-bridge onto the display PCB. My VB hasn’t died (yet), but I imagine the one I got from ebay needs the repair; I’m pretty good with a soldering iron, I’ll try that!

Thanx!

RunnerPack wrote:
I recently worked on a display with a detached cable (not peeled off; it seems to have just fallen off :-?), and I was dreading it, but it was surprisingly easy to solder. Given what DogP mentioned above, it was probably easier than the “Z-tape” would be, and, just like soldering any display cable, it will no doubt last as long as the display and cable themselves with no clamping and whatnot needed.

Clearly soldering is the best “fix” — I’ve never used the tape, didn’t know how easy it would be.

Although, for the other products you mentioned, which involve attaching a cable to ITO-coated glass contacts, it’s probably a pretty good idea.

BTW, for cleaning the oxidation off of copper, I suggest a fiberglass scratch-brush.

I saw a post on another forum where a guy was trying to reconnect a glass LCD — but he removed the residue with a knife, and managed to SCRATCH the tin oxide (ruining the connection). I’ve used alcohol, but for aggressive glue lacquer thinner (toluene and methanol) would work if careful.

I don’t have any experience with Tinnit, but if your copper and its substrate are heat-proof, you could just tin it with a soldering iron and solder.

Solder by definition won’t accomplish a glass-smooth surface, to mate with the tape. Tinnit is just two powders dissolved in water, then you submerge copper in it for a few minutes. It’s great when making printed-circuit boards — rinse the ferric chloride off of the newly-made board, then throw it in Tinnit, and all your traces are shiny silver (colored)!

Although, for the alarm clock I made in college, I used nail-polish for “etch resist”, and just left it in place (scratching it off only on the solder-pads). It was cheap clear-red, and looked great.

But I’ll hafta get a girlfriend or wife before I buy nail-polish again! 😯

DogP wrote:
We’ve talked about that stuff in the past… I think that’s similar to what they used at the factory (which obviously fails over time).

It could probably be used to fix a VB display, but I think you’d want something to continue applying pressure (bracket and foam or something) to prevent it from coming undone again (the datasheet suggests that, and it seems to work best when you press on it).

The other thing I don’t like is that peeling the cable off the display is a bit risky. It’s very thin and tends to curl, and sometimes leaves copper from the cable attached to the display. I think you’d want to chemically remove the old adhesive, rather than simply peeling. But you’d need to make sure you didn’t get any chemical on the clear window. And then you need to line it back up and re-attach.

So… IMO, it’s an inferior fix to soldering, and not any easier. I have some of the tape, and plan to try it if I ever come across another detached display cable, but haven’t yet. If you give it a try, I’d certainly be interested in how it works out.

DogP

Interesting — I guess I hadn’t realized they had some kind of conductive adhesive; I thought it was more “stuck on and held in place with hotglue”.

So when the displays are “dead” and submitted for repair — the flex cables still have to be dissolved off of the LED pcb’s?

There was a project to make one, with an “SD” card slot. But after re-affirming intent to finish it, it simply disappeared.

Bummer.

DogP wrote:
He’s probably referring to the Dragon Hopper that was on half.com . I’m assuming someone put it up as a joke or something… AFAIK, it’s always been listed as “out of stock”.

DogP

Welllll, once there was a “dolphin demo” on ebay. I was tempted, but it was hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

Let’s assume that it (DH) does show up on ebay some day; it would really, REALLY suck (swamp water through a straw!!!!) if someone bought it and HOARDED it again (disappearing it for another decade or two)! >:(

But it would equally suck if someone was a member HERE and participated in the “community fund”, secretly bidding against the rest of us to fleece us out of the most bucks. Perhaps we could have a “private thread”, those who actually INVEST would be the only ones who could see it, and we would each sign an agreement making us legally prosecutable should anyone try to scam the rest. >:( >:( >:(

…it’s the best I can think of….

:-/

PS — if one shows up, it absolutely would HAVE to go through escrow. I bought “Gundam” through escrow; it was over 800 bucks, well worth a few dollars to protect myself…

L___E___T wrote:
…it’s a shame as Faceball definitely exists and someone’s just hanging on to it 🙁

Don’t get me wrong, the game looks tripe but I kinda see this topic as videogame archeology and I don’t understand that mentality, personally.

It’s fun looking back at old threads like these, when we were pining for “Faceball” and “Bound High”. Well, I have Faceball and Bound-High carts; they are very fun!

That gives credibility to the dream of some day having “Dragon Hopper”, and possibly Zero Racers and Goldeneye…

Morintari wrote:
Ok I’m reluctant to post this, but here it goes I did see it on E-bay once. But unfortunately it was before I knew what Planet Virtual Boy was and at the time low on cash :p . Yes it exists and it is definitely out there.:)

What time period was that?

We need to set up a group committed to buying it if-and-when it ever shows up again, dividing the price between us. (And somehow making sure that none of us is the actual OWNER, bidding PRIVATELY against us to maximize the price!) >:(

Lester Knight wrote:
hopefully never. LOL. that “rad” design wasn’t even cool in the mid-90s.

now a PVB shirt…. that i would wear.

We could do that!!! Confidentially, I don’t really like T-shirts. I like simple cotton sports shirts, full-buttons, and a pocket — hasta have a pocket.

Maybe we could come up with our own, full color graphics on the back, maybe a “Planet Virtual Boy” embroidery on the front. Actually, the “full color graphics” wouldn’t be that expensive. They make an “iron-on” sheet 8-½ x 11, printable from an ink-jet, and you can simply iron it onto material.

Just a thought…

Sooooooo — when are the “reproductions T-shirts” gonna be available???

I could wear one with my black “VIRTUAL-BOY” cap…

Welcome! This is a fun place, and everyone here is really nice!

I don’t recommend playing VB in “high water” (nor do I recommend the other place!) 😯

But I seriously recommend getting one of Richard’s “Flash boy”, and playing some rare games, homebrews, etcetera. Especially Bound High — a very frustrating but fun game which always elicits screams and epithets (especially when fighting the wind!)…

Welcome! I’m sure you’ll have fun here!!! 🙂

It’s too bad if you’ve missed some of the more excellent games, which have been briefly available from Tusk; but with the Flashboy you’ll still be able to play them. I never thought I would get to play Lab or Bowling (too expensive!), but have played them with the flashboy. I seriously recommend “Bound High”, arguably one of the best games ever made for the VB.

There’s a you-tube video about 30 seconds, of the 1995 3E show — featuring Bound High and Dragonhopper prototypes. It’s sooooo much fun HAVING the Bound High cart.

…and all of us are still longing for Dragonhopper!