Original Post
Profile Photo
May 19, 2016 • 16:31 Profile Photo TheForce81

Since I am repairing lots of them the past few years, I have a pretty good imprint of how they look in my mind. That made me spot the display used in the movie Stargate Ark the of Truth just yet, very cool to see they used it.

I think it is a cool find 😉

Attachments:

  1. vlcsnap-error473.png

  2. vlcsnap-error601.png

13 Replies
Profile Photo
May 19, 2016 • 19:02 Profile Photo Lester Knight

That definitely looks like a VB display. I wonder if it would be possible to track down who used that on set and get confirmation. Cool find!

Profile Photo
May 19, 2016 • 22:54 Profile Photo TheForce81

It would be very cool to get confirmation on who and why, though I am a 100% sure it is a VB display board. It is indisputable if you have seen as many as I have haha.

Profile Photo
May 19, 2016 • 23:52 Profile Photo RunnerPack

Wow, well-spotted! Sad to think about that VB wandering around Canada wearing an eye-patch, though… 😛

It’s very odd that the prop-master would happen to have VB parts to hand when looking for bits to make Asgard Acrylic Techno-thingies(TM) out of O_o

Makes you wonder if he made anything from any of the other parts.

Profile Photo
May 20, 2016 • 18:50 Profile Photo TheForce81

Yeah, my first thought was: “How cool that they used this as a movie prop!!” and my second thought was: “I hope it the display was a lost cause anyway.”
But I find it very intriguing that they used this VB part, there has to be a story behind it, I am sure of it. You never accidentally run into a VB display board, it is too unlikely.

I am curious if the person whom used it, is active on this forum or has been.

Profile Photo
May 22, 2016 • 19:22 Profile Photo Benjamin Stevens

I bet one of the main reasons why they chose to use a VB part was because they knew they wouldn’t even have to ask Nintendo for permission to use it. They also probably figured that nobody would ever recognize it, but such has been proven wrong now. 🙂

Profile Photo
May 31, 2016 • 05:51 Profile Photo HP Lovethrash

Yeah with so many circuits in existence, that does seem like a very odd choice to make at random. Even if they had to find something to fit perfectly in that clear thingy, why not like a Timex PCB or something square-ish that’s more common?

Maybe Sanyo or whoever offered “promotional consideration” to the props department and happened to have a surplus of these displays left over.

Very impressive microscopic observational skills, people must hate playing that game “I Spy” with you haha…

Profile Photo
Jul 17, 2016 • 20:15 Profile Photo vb-fan

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!)

Profile Photo
Jul 20, 2016 • 01:39 Profile Photo enfilade

That is crazy you noticed that. But you are right, there is no disputing the fact. The shape has the same notch in the display and even the holes where you mount the display are correct. The octagon shape of the plastic is perfect and you can just barely see the rectangular part inside of the octagon.

It is nice that I just had the pleasure of cleaning a pair of these. Cool find 🙂 I would think the person who made this prop must be a fan, and thought no one would ever notice.

Profile Photo
Jul 23, 2016 • 16:00 Profile Photo thunderstruck

Here is an interesting Q&A with Mark Nicholson, who did build allot of props for Stargate (also Ark of Truth):
https://josephmallozzi.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/february-1-2013-stargate-prop-builder-mark-nicholson-answers-your-questions/

It’s quite interesting. You can see on his website (http://confracto.com/actual.html) that he made some props that look quite similar. I think there is a good chance he or one of his colleagues did build it.

According to his linkedin profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-nicholson-3869ba94) he is working for Piranha Games now.

Profile Photo
Jul 25, 2016 • 22:43 Profile Photo HP Lovethrash

Hey guys- I was killing time at work overnight and decided to follow the links Thunderstruck posted. I sent an email to Mark Nicholson to see if he would in fact remember anything about this. You can read his reply below, which is very helpful and came back in record time!

“Hello,

first off, thanks for letting me know about this!
second, please feel free to share my response with the forum thread.

well, you came to the right person, as I was in fact the one who built that prop.
huh…it DOES look like a virtual boy display chip!
and it might have been? I’m not even sure, and I built it. (pair actually, because in film, you always build a spare)
I can’t recall if I got the pair of chips out of a parts bin, or whether they were handed to me by someone else (likely the propsmaster) who would have gotten them out of a parts bin full of old chips and stuff.
they would have been chosen based on 3 criteria.

1. does it look like a chip?
2. is it the right size for the crystal thing around them, which was already a fixed and defined size that cannot change.
3. do we have 2?

I’m certain no virtual boys were harvested specifically for this prop.
It’s likely the shell of one was used for some other reason, without the hardware, which was saved for a parts bin.
that’s the best I can recall on something I made 9 years ago.

I also know there’s a better screenshot of Merek(?) holding it right up to the camera, which can be found on gateworld.net

Mark Nicholson”

If you follow the link to Gateworld.net, I think I saw the screenshots of the prop on page 15 for this particular film. (http://www.gateworld.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=250&page=15)

Profile Photo
Jul 26, 2016 • 19:07 Profile Photo TheForce81

Thanks for that! Very cool information and gives us some insight in how these things get made. Especially knowing they are made in pairs, I am a 100% sure now that it is a VB display. Nice to read this while being on vacation in beautiful Ireland! (going on a trip to Skellig Island tomorrow, visiting TFA spot where Luke is introduced).

Profile Photo
Jul 27, 2016 • 04:20 Profile Photo enfilade

I thought it was so cool that Mark Nicholson replied in good time and made mention to share his message with the forum. He provided a great concise response, kudos to him.

I can’t help wondering how those VB displays ended up in a parts bin? Maybe it was true that Sanyo had a bunch laying around and donated them. Maybe it was a fan… or maybe someone gutted a VB for parts…

I find it a little disturbing that somewhere out there, an empty virtual boy shell is laying in a ‘parts bin’ in some studio. Which means an official Nintendo eyeshade, and eyeshade holder are probably batted around and overlooked, like some piece of garbage. At least the displays were re-purposed as a prop.

TheForce81, thunderstruck, HP Lovethrash are the real heroes of this thread. Nice work boys.

Profile Photo
Jul 28, 2016 • 07:52 Profile Photo HP Lovethrash

enfilade wrote:
I thought it was so cool that Mark Nicholson replied in good time and made mention to share his message with the forum. He provided a great concise response, kudos to him.

I can’t help wondering how those VB displays ended up in a parts bin? Maybe it was true that Sanyo had a bunch laying around and donated them. Maybe it was a fan… or maybe someone gutted a VB for parts…

TheForce81, thunderstruck, HP Lovethrash are the real heroes of this thread. Nice work boys.

Well I’m just glad to get some credit after making no major discoveries on my own :). I suppose it’s possible that some new in box VBs were purchased wholesale/liquidation style as a cheap source of high tech parts. From now on I’ll be looking closely whenever I see something resembling a visor or black spraypainted VB shell in a late 90s movie.

 

Write a reply

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.