I don’t really know what the protocol is around these parts for threadmaking and whatever, since usually I’d throw this kind of thing in another kind of collective thread that doesn’t seem to exist here, but I had a package arrive in the mail today and I am excited and want to post about it so here it is:

Been waiting aaaaages for one of these to pop up, but the few times they do they’re generally out of my budget, or end up that way by the end of the auction. Kind of felt like $80 was a reasonable price for it, but ended up splashing out with $105. Silly me forgot to check the price of shipping and it was about $33, but thankfully the guy on the other end was nice and changed down from Priority to First Class, refunding $22. So that was cool. It’s in really good condition though, the cart’s label doesn’t have so much as a scratch on it. So happy.

I’ve been wanting this one for quite a while, because the idea of a first person game on Virtual Boy just sounds like a cool idea to me. I got the old girl out for the first time in a good while to make sure it works (do they ever not work, really?), and… well, while it’s not quite what I expected, I still really really like it 😛

Only played through one and a half levels so far, but I think I’ve figured out how it works (times like this I could read Japanese). It seems like a simple enough concept, but that tight timer really keeps you on your toes. Also I really like the sprite work in it. Even just the foggy mansion at the start and that weird spinning foetus thing, they look so cool. Just seems amazing what they managed to do with what seems like so little compared to these days.

Anyway, now my right eye is starting to glitch out again so at some point in the next few days (whenever the new soldering iron arrives) I’m going to have a go at fixing it for good, put the screws back in the machine and start playing it some more.

Side note: Also love the box the guy posted it in. 6-pack of Sega Game Gears apparently – it’ll go great with the Dreamcast box my copy of Donkey Konga 2 was sent in 😛

Congratulations! Insmouse is IMO a very underrated game and really fun to play (though I don’t own it myself because of the price). When you get tired of the standard levels, be sure to check out Benjamin Stevens’ mod for it, which is called “Mansion of Insmouse – Mario Madness Edition”. Or, make your own levels for it with my editor, InsmEdit. 🙂

Gookanheimer wrote:

Only played through one and a half levels so far, but I think I’ve figured out how it works (times like this I could read Japanese).

I’m not quite sure what you meant by this comment, but if you are referring to the fact that you wish you could read the Japanese Instruction Booklet for this game, check out the translated manual that I made for it, and that should help:

http://www.planetvb.com/content/manuals/pdf/im_usa_trans_im.pdf

Haha, go me. Yeah, don’t need to worry about other languages when apparently I can’t even handle English 😛 There should have been an “I wish” in there, makes more sense with it.

But yes, that is what I meant. And I completely didn’t even think to check for translations, which is strange considering I’m pretty sure I went and found some kind of English guide for Virtual Fishing when that showed up. Must’ve been caught up in the excitement >.>

@HorvatM: Will definitely have to check those out at some point. And yeah, really sucks that with such a small library, a large proportion of the games are inaccessibly expensive. I’m quite intrigued by the Gundam game, since I recall reading that it’s a strategy game? I never really considered myself in any way a strategist or at all good at those games, but I had an absolute blast with Shadow Wars on 3DS so it’s now got me looking longingly at those overpriced listings.

Congrats!

You did get a good deal on it – I managed to score my copy for $80 as well, but they’re frequently on ebay for $200-300, which is pretty outrageous given that it doesn’t actually seem to be all that rare (more in the realm of Virtual Fishing than, say, Space Invaders).

I’ll have to dust this one off and give it another spin… it’s been a long time. 🙂