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Understood
@vuefinder83Registered March 28, 2015Active 11 months, 3 weeks ago
390 Replies made

KR155E wrote:
Thanks for the images vuefinder83, that’s some nice large promo shots of the system! Do you have a chance to get these scanned in?

The same seller now also has the 1996 report for sale, which you might find interesting as well, since it will most likely contain Virtual Boy sales data. It’s also at only $5.50 right now: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nintendo-Employee-1996-Shareholder-Book-from-President-N64-SNES-Marketing-/252269316976?hash=item3abc6c4b70:g:Bt0AAOSwLnlWntQ0

I’m gonna take this Book with me to work today, I work in a big school so there has to be a scanner somewhere in that building. If not, I’ll definitely figure something out.

As for that other auction, I’ll try to win it and keep you guys posted…

I would like to just say something about this community real quick since we’re on the subject…

I’ve only been a member on this site for about a year, and if you were to look back at some of my very first posts in the Serial Number Inventory, or even my “new member” thread, you’ll notice some pretty horrific grammatical errors. This is because I HATE TYPING, always have always will. I was never any good at it and is one of the reasons why I never joined the community years sooner. When I did finally join, I was a little worried that there would be that one ass in the bunch that would say something stupid about my typing skills and make me change my mind about joining the community. But here I am a year and a crap load of more grammatical errors later, and not a single person has ever said anything to upset me in any way, and that is just one reason why I like and respect this community so much…

the people here are very respectful.

No problem guys, Thanks for checking it out!

Benjamin Stevens wrote:
I myself am very excited to see what all kind of financial data it has on the Virtual Boy.

Somehow I knew you would be.😁

frenchievb wrote:
yeah i made an offer on this book, glad i will be able to see what i missed

I didn’t even make him a offer, so I guess you know how much I paid for it. I was afraid someone was going to buy it and not post pics so I had to just buy it. But no matter how significant or not the info is, as long as we all get to see it, then it was worth it.

Lester Knight wrote:
one thing i love about the vb is that after all these years we are still uncovering new stuff.

The thrill of the hunt gives me such a rush.

Thanks for the replies! I’ll keep you guys posted…

speedyink wrote:
That’s a really cool demo, Krisse!

I agree! That little guy reminds me of that dude from Blaster Master on the NES when you exit the vehicle. good stuff, Krisse!

Benjamin Stevens wrote:

vuefinder83 wrote:

I work for the school department, and about two and a half years ago or so,there was a very old elementary school in the Riverside section of East Providence that was set for demolition. Myself and a few other guys were called to go there and help salvage any old furniture and desks that could be donated to other schools. Well, imagine my excitement when I walked into the old music room of the school and saw 3 TravelMaster case’s stacked on top of each other, yea I almost died…I opened up each case to take a peek inside and they were all filled with random speaker wires and stuff. I then asked my boss if i can keep the case’s, but he said there were still teachers that were supposed to return to the school to gather the rest of their stuff and said it wouldn’t be a good idea (agreed). Anyway, we didn’t finish the job that day so we all had to return to the school the very next day,but this time I brought my Blockbuster rental case with me for comparisons, and they were all the same cases,only the foam in the TravelMasters were completely ripped out of them. I left a note with my cell # taped to the case’s saying that i would buy them but I never received a call.

Wow… that’s incredible. Was there evidence that foam had originally been in the cases and was later ripped out, or could it be that the cases never had foam for the Virtual Boy inserted into them? I’m wondering now if, perhaps, those cases were originally intended to hold other things, and once Southern Case learned that one of the types of cases they had already been making would be a perfect size for the Virtual Boy system, they simply converted one of their existing cases into a Virtual Boy system carrying case.

Found another TravelMaster case in a school. Height wise, this one is just a little bit smaller than a BlockBuster or TravelMaster case. This one has different latches as well.

The ones mentioned in one of my previous post were the exact size of a BlockBuster case. (Wish I can find that damn phone)

Weird how I keep finding these cases in schools though.

Attachments:

Great stuff! Thank you for sharing!

Nanis149 wrote:

sjp2 wrote:
Nice Pictures!

Agreed

Thanks guys! These next ones might suck though 😛

Benjamin Stevens wrote:

Interesting. So the open question would be: Was it a last minute change of name by the developers, or just a typo on the back of the box? Since the “Doom” name appears on the commercially released box, I guess I’d have to lean towards the typo answer. Even if that’s the case, though, it could still show that the “Doom” name was discussed as a possibility among the developers.

I agree. Most likely a typo since it only appears on the box. This was just something that I noticed a long time ago and finally found a chance to bring it up.

Just in case anyone was wondering, the VB VidPro cards measure just under 5 inches wide and just under 7 inches high, so they can fit nice and snug in the actual 5×7″ clear pockets of a Pocket Plak System.
The only picture of these clear pockets that I can find, was from a Pocket Plak System dedicated to the SEGA Genesis. It should still give you a good idea of what they looked like.
(The picture was already blurry to begin with so please excuse the poor quality)

Benjamin Stevens wrote:
Very nice find! It’s amazing how scarce the Virtual Boy VidPro cards are. Practically impossible to find any of them these days…

Thanks! Yeah VB VidPro cards are crazy rare! Probably impossible to collect a full set. Unless someone stumbles upon a new unopened box of them, collecting them one at a time will take many many years…

Benjamin Stevens wrote:
VidPro cards were definitely made a good while before the release of the games they show…

Looking at this card now, I can see that it seems as though it was so early in production, that the overall layout of the front of it, later became the final layout for the back of the VB VidPro cards that we’re familiar with. With the Virtual Boy logo at the top, followed by a picture of a games box, and then the black rectangular text field with white text being changed from a games title, to the slogan “3-D Technology puts you in the game!”

Oh, looking at this Panic Bomber card reminds me…

Ever notice how the back of the PB box, refers to the Dracula boss as Count Dracu-“Doom” but in the actual game his name is Count Dracu-“boom”?

speedyink wrote:
Is that a picture from Space Pinball? The score text looks way bigger than the final version …

It’s definitely not space pinball. I noticed that the puck counter thats supposed to be under the score is missing. And what the heck are all those artifacts under and around the UFO? Stars? Meteors? Did they snap this photo just as the opening title sequence to the UFO stage was happening?

Even looking at this card in person it’s hard to tell.

I also noticed that the tube the puck shoots through is missing on the retail version. Pretty strange.

DrWho198 wrote:

If you wich to know if the led was ir or not, and if you still have it. Then you could hook it up and look at it through your mobile phones camera. If you see it light up in the camera then its IR… if not then it’s probably dead.

That’s a pretty neat trick. I tried it out on a few tv remotes. Unfortunately, the original light was disposed of because I forgot to tell him that I still wanted to keep it…😞

I wish I took a picture of the reverse side of the PCB so you guys can scope it out. Because I hope to never have to open this thing up again unless it needs new batteries as everything thats attached to the board is extremely fragile and brittle.

Well, if it was a infrared device that communicated with another separate device, then this item would be pretty much useless without the other device it was supposed to control. I doubt that I will ever find that other device, so maybe it was best I had him install the LED, at least this way I can actually see it doing something now.

I still believe this item was part of a store display, infrared or not, and I think the only other way we can find out what this item really does, without waiting for somebody to come forth with another one, would be to find someone that has either the 1st or 2nd half of 1996 retail rental display program (catalog). This catalog should show pictures with a description of what this item does. The catalog would be used by store managers to view everything that was in the 1st and 2nd half of the 1996 display order forms. The order forms were used to order store displays and signage for their location, so I really think this item should be pictured somewhere in that catalog. I’m sure the catalog is pretty rare but I bet somebody out there has it in their possession but doesn’t quite realize the significance of the Virtual Boy section.

Here’s the link to a thread I made about the 2nd half of 1995 display order forms, just to give an idea. There’s a screenshot image of a page from the 1st half of 1995 display catalog, on the third forum page.

http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=6093&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=0

DrWho198 wrote:
It’s hard to be sure looking at these pics. But if you look at the PCB then it seems like there is a blob at the other side. Which would mean there is an IC there. Not SEEING light doesn’t mean there is no light. I just wonder if it wasn’t IR light. What the purpose of this would be is unknown to me. But with an IC and a IR led you could send out a IR signal that can be received by another device.

Maybe some kind of stunt in which the badge is the key in making something happen.

Interesting, I never considered the possibility of it being a infrared device. The LED does kind of look like something you’d see on the front of a remote control or something. If it is, then I have no idea what this device could’ve possibly triggered. Maybe that’s why the technician couldn’t see the light. He told me that he thinks that some of the battery acid found its way in the lens of the LED and damaged it.

DrWho198 wrote:

I know this is a long shot… but it’s all based on it being a blob on the other side of the PCB and the led not giving any light. Although leds do die easily in some conditions.

Now, I dont know jack spit when it comes to circuit boards and junk, but I have a GBA promo button that has a pcb with what appears to be a blob between its two batteries, and this button coincidentally flashes a red LED as well. Im pretty sure it doesn’t send out any signals or anything so does the presence of a blob on a pcb always determine a ic is being used?

Nvm, just found a couple photos of one online.

I don’t need another copy of this game, but I just wanted to say, that is very thoughtful of you, speedyink.

It’s stuff like this and people like you, that make Planet Virtual Boy such a awesome place!

Benjamin Stevens wrote:

Well, it is very unfortunate, indeed, that we don’t know now what the original light did, but I very much like your reasoning for installing the flashing red LED. Nice work with getting this rare piece of Virtual Boy history restored as best as possible.

Thanks Ben.

As you can imagine, I was pretty bummed out when he told me he couldn’t get the light to work. I really wanted to show the community what this item actually did. I couldn’t leave it in my collection with a broken light, so thats when the gears started turning. Even though I feel in my virtual soul, that this is what the item does, I couldn’t lie to the community and say that it was the original light. Not only would that be wrong, it would be messing with the systems history, wich I’m not here to do.

But man, how cool is it that 20 years later we’re still finding new things from the systems past?