I tried searching the whole site and cannot find the ROM to Bound High. If there is not a ROM available, then why are there passwords listed in the game’s profile? I’m confused.
The ROM isn’t available, but one or more people have a cart, so since the passwords are known, I guess KR155E decided to post them up. I don’t see why not… might as well compile as much known information about anything VB related as possible.
I’ve looked on the forum and it seems like the people who own Bound High don’t want it to be dumped because the value would drop dramatically for the people who own it. My question is why is that true? It seems like it wouldn’t affect the value at all because the people who have the cart would still own the cart. I’m sorry, I didn’t want to open a new topic for a question that’s been posed a lot of times, but I’m curious as to why the value would drop. I would understand if you wouldn’t want to dump the game because your precious game’s value would suddenly be nothing.
Yeah, basically someone paid a lot of money, some was for the actual cart, but most was because it’s generally not available to buy, play, download, etc. An official Bound High cart would be a Nintendo EPROM cart with a couple EPROMs. There were several official EPROM carts on Yahoo Japan that sold for ~$150 a while back, so if you had the ROM, all you’d have to do is burn the EPROMs and pop it in one of those carts and you have an “official” Bound High.
It’s similar to what the guy w/ the dev disks said… he knows the disks won’t be worth what he paid as soon as he releases them, so he wants to recoup part of the money from donations. Of course he only paid ~$350… imagine paying $3500 or more.
I think there’s also the hope of trade bait as well… imagine someone comes along with a Dragon Hopper or Zero Racers cart, and really wants to try out Bound High. If someone releases the ROM, the guy w/ the other protos is happy. If he doesn’t, the other guy has to track down someone with Bound High, and offer a trade.
These are just a few scenarios I’ve heard over the years in various collector communities. Keeping protos private isn’t just a VB community thing, it’s done in all communities. If you really want more reasons, go to http://www.digitpress.com/forum/ and search there. Arguing about it doesn’t really help though, since ultimately it’s up to the ones w/ the protos to decide what they want to do w/ them.
I can understand all the above reasons for keeping it private, but it is too bad a “Demo” or something couldn’t be released that would just be the first level or something. If you could find where the levels were stored, all levels after level 1 could just be 0XFFed out. Doing that would keep the original rom worth a lot but still allow the common person to enjoy the experience. I know it isn’t practical and wouldn’t happen, but that game looks really cool!
Yeah, a demo would be cool, or even a remote VB, where you could play a virtual VB where you just have access to the display and controls. Then it could be played, but access would be limited to just playing (kinda like demoing pre-release games at tradeshow kiosks).
i think the only thing keeping it from being released is the stalemate thats going on. a few people have bound high, a few have faceball, a few have space pinball (which isn’t really that amazing), and an even smaller few have a few other things, such as zero racers and possibly dragon hopper, though I have no hard evidence that dragon hopper is actually out there at all.
basically, the allure of having something rare and not wanting others to have it is the only thing keeping these things locked up. it also seems that any background trading of most of these things has come to a near halt because nobody wants to risk ‘their’ rom/cart being publicly released.
i truly think one of two things will happen eventually (probably so late that nobody really gives a shit anymore). the more likely scenario is that someone will finally say ‘fuck it’ and release most of these rare things, taking everyone down with them. at that point, i doubt anyone will want to trade anything at all. the other option is that what we’ve got is what we’ve got and nothing more will leak.
sad that those who have it dont want to share it with the community but i guess they dont want it to devalue their rare cart. Although i dont see that happening, after all gundam goes for £500+ and theres a dump of that… ok its naff but it proves my point that dumpping the rom doesnt really kill the real things value.
Space invaders is another good example thats been dumped and goes for a fortune CIB, and thats also a pile of rubbish…
The sad thing is, Bound High is bar none the best game on the Virtual Boy.
I’ve played all 22 unique VB games, and a few years ago I had the chance to play and beat Bound High.
The game reminded me of Jumping Flash, but in true 3D. It was completely finished, down to the ending credtis, very polished, and had some really entertaining boss fights.
It is a total tragedy that this game wasn’t officially released.
of course only those who have invested in a flashboy can really get to play this seeing as the emulators wont really show it in its glory. Still we can dream all we like but unless someone can find the rom its a no go…. i’m searching daily but no joy so far 🙁
Speedle wrote:
of course only those who have invested in a flashboy can really get to play this seeing as the emulators wont really show it in its glory(
but then the ROM I have seen & played didn’t play well on the Flashboy, first level was fine but then it started breaking down and after several more became pretty much unplayable, it seemed to be clean when it was run on reality boy, but you don’t get the true game without playing on hardware.
I have no idea if that ROM can be cleaned up, or if indeed there is another one out there that does play on Flashboy, anyone keen to let us know?
This thread/debate will last and keep returning until a ROM is released publically, and if it isn’t well then this will go on forever as I am sure like myself when i first got my VB and checked out the games and found a video of Bound high on youtube, I wanted to play it, pretty much above all other titles and I am gutted it never got released.
Of course if the ROM does get released then the thread will just change to dragon hopper or faceball or some other sort after title, and away we go again.
Speedle wrote:
of course only those who have invested in a flashboy can really get to play this seeing as the emulators wont really show it in its glory(
but then the ROM I have seen & played didn’t play well on the Flashboy, first level was fine but then it started breaking down and after several more became pretty much unplayable, it seemed to be clean when it was run on reality boy, but you don’t get the true game without playing on hardware.
I have no idea if that ROM can be cleaned up, or if indeed there is another one out there that does play on Flashboy, anyone keen to let us know?
This thread/debate will last and keep returning until a ROM is released publically, and if it isn’t well then this will go on forever as I am sure like myself when i first got my VB and checked out the games and found a video of Bound high on youtube, I wanted to play it, pretty much above all other titles and I am gutted it never got released.
Of course if the ROM does get released then the thread will just change to dragon hopper or faceball or some other sort after title, and away we go again.
couldnt agree more, i think its a basic human trait to want something we dont have 🙂 esp when it comes to unreleased games.
Well hopefully when the roms do finally surface (which i’m sure they will eventually) someone will still have a working virtual boy LOL!
I prefer to play full games of some non finished homebrew games like Super Mario, Mario kart: virtual cup (if creator adds original levels) and Silent Hill: Devil’s Lyric way more then bound high
DogP wrote:
It’s similar to what the guy w/ the dev disks said… he knows the disks won’t be worth what he paid as soon as he releases them, so he wants to recoup part of the money from donations.
thats an excellent idea! i know i’d be happy to donate some funds to those who were good enough to post these rare gems, I’m sure the rest of the VB community would do the same 🙂 of course dev disks dont apply to me I gave up programming once i left uni :p
