Hi all, it’s fantastic to join up here and be amongst fellow admirers of this awesome system!

I’m in the UK and had been browsing eBay looking for one of these and as the prices are pretty crazy, I took a punt on a pretty basic looking listing for a japanese unit from a UK seller with a generic photo, which didn’t inspire much confidence to be honest but the price was okay.

So I was pretty delighted today when it turned up, fully boxed with instructions, perfect stand with no cracks, everything working beautifully.

We’ve been playing it in the office, everyone was very impressed!

I do have a question, apologies if this is a really old and tiresome question.

I’m looking to have this setup with constant power. I’ve just bought a japanese adaptor to replace the battery pack. Does it have to be the super famicom supply that plugs into this or would any generic power supply do? I’d really like to just plug something into this adaptor that ends in a UK plug.

I have the japanese adaptor with this, guess it’s pretty useless in the UK?

Many thanks, looking forward to getting more involved with this system!

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Howdy Fella and welcome to a top community.
Nice purchase, and great that other folks are getting to play in your office and liking this ace system.
I’m not 100% but i think you can use a generic transformer to power up, but i’m not sure if the JPN adapter needs AC or DC, DogP and many others here will know I’m sure.
I use a standard UK DC transformer and made up an adapter to take the plug, works fine on 9v (i have photos of it in my profile if you are interested)
Hope this is of help, but do check the AC or DC bit before you go plugging stuff in, I don’t want you to be cursing me when the unit goes pop, oh and try to find yourself a Flashboy, well worth it. 😀

I was hoping that whatever hole comes out of the japanese power adaptor, would just take an off the shelf kind of power pack with variable power selecter abilities.

It would be fantastic to hear that confirmed though for sure, I don’t want to frazzle this piece of history!! 🙂

I was pretty sure the japanese power pack itself would remain out of the equation altogether. Making your own part sounds awesome, I’d have zero idea how to do that though.

I’d love a flashboy for this. There was one on eBay a few days ago but I missed out on it 🙁

Will probably hold tight for one of those VBoot/VBSD devices unless I spot another flashboy for sale 🙂

I’d love a flashboy for this. There was one on eBay a few days ago but I missed out on it 🙁

I make those carts, and will be doing continuously while there’s demand.

VBoy wrote:
I’m looking to have this setup with constant power. I’ve just bought a japanese adaptor to replace the battery pack. Does it have to be the super famicom supply that plugs into this or would any generic power supply do? I’d really like to just plug something into this adaptor that ends in a UK plug.

Well, considering you’re in the UK, you might be able to find a ZX Spectrum power supply. It works with the Japanese tap; I’ve been powering my VB like this since I got it.

This is it, right?
http://www.planetvb.com/modules/hardware/?type=accessories&sec=images&id=2&page=3

Welcome, VBoy! (its amazing that username wasn’t already taken!)

I can’t help with your power supply question (sorry) but I just wanted to congratulate you on getting a Japanese Virtual Boy! (theres less Japanese units than US units) and its even got its box too which is pretty cool!

I also wanted to inform you that you put the stand on backwards… the pointed ends should be facing away from you 😉

MineStorm wrote:

I’d love a flashboy for this. There was one on eBay a few days ago but I missed out on it 🙁

I make those carts, and will be doing continuously while there’s demand.

And with the success of the FBoy+ and the tons of hours I still need to put into the VBSD project, it’s looking more and more like it’s not worth it to keep working on the project. 🙁

Hi Vaughanabe13,
I love my FB+, but you can only flash 1 ROM at a time and there is no way to back up the save data for that file. Also, as we all know, the internal flash has a limited number of writes. I would love to see a microSD solution that could hold the entire library and homebrew, allow me to back up saves, and in the future I could just pop in one of my msd cards if I ever had problems.

I hope you don’t give up. I was looking forward to your kit and hoped that I would be able to buy one soon.

As for the question at hand, I also picked up the Japanese tap for my US virtual boy. Here is some of the responses I got which may help you.

http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=4252&forum=1

There is another thread on this if you search, I can’t seem to search right now my ISP is having issues tonight.

vboy, if you want a FB+ contact richard directly, he posted above under the username minestorm. he is really kind and got my kit out to me in about 2 weeks (including shipping). its worth eveyr penny. if you want the full experience you can also order a box from kr155e.

see here: http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=4258&forum=7

Vaughanabe13 wrote:

MineStorm wrote:

I’d love a flashboy for this. There was one on eBay a few days ago but I missed out on it 🙁

I make those carts, and will be doing continuously while there’s demand.

And with the success of the FBoy+ and the tons of hours I still need to put into the VBSD project, it’s looking more and more like it’s not worth it to keep working on the project. 🙁

Lester Knight wrote:
Also, as we all know, the internal flash has a limited number of writes.

What? So, the flashboy(original, not plus for me) will stop working after I’ve changed games once too much?? Thats…. really scary.

What? So, the flashboy(original, not plus for me) will stop working after I’ve changed games once too much?? Thats…. really scary.

The specs for the flash memory say at least 1 million writes / erases.

I was amazed that this username wasn’t taken, I just blasted it in and hoped for the best and there it was!

I guess a lot of n00bs will assume such names are taken and not even try.

Hilarious that I got the stand the wrong way around, only me eh!

I’m pretty much done for this month due to spending on this, a Gameboy, a Sega Game Gear and another bunch of things associated with all three. Next pay day though, I’m going to buy the box kit and then the Flashboy Plus, it would be ridiculous not to.

Everyone who sees this thing in my house can’t help but be attracted to it and I get to do the whole speech over again, it was only around for a year, never out in the UK, etc etc etc.

Thanks for the power pack tip too, I managed to find a boxed japanese adaptor tap so I’ll find a nice new spectrum power pack to go with it too.

Really looking forward to having an FB+ and doing all the things that you can’t otherwise do!!

@Protoman85: i am sorry, i did not intend to scare you. my point was just that flash memory doesn’t last forever. i wasn’t trying to make a point that the FB/FB+ would stop working after a few hundred writes. i can see how my comment can be read that way, again i am sorry.

MineStorm wrote:

What? So, the flashboy(original, not plus for me) will stop working after I’ve changed games once too much?? Thats…. really scary.

The specs for the flash memory say at least 1 million writes / erases.

VBoy wrote:

Hilarious that I got the stand the wrong way around, only me eh!

Actually no, most magazines etc at the time did just that, the stand logo then faces the camera when taking a pic of the business side of the VB, but the other way round means your arms rest on the legs while playing & your hands grip the controller underneath giving a little more sturdiness.

Making a power adapter wasn’t hard, but then i do have the tools and fellas who can use them here at work, so I just got them to do me a rabbit. If i ever get a small batch made i will post an ad here.

[VBoy]

I imagine they’d sell pretty easily on here and eBay!

Do you reckon this would do the job for powering mine via the adaptor tap?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-ZX-SPECTRUM-POWER-SUPPLY-PSU-16K-48K-SINCLAIR-/170634693479?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item27ba9ecb67

• This reply was modified 13 years, 6 months ago by VBoy.

VBoy wrote:
I imagine they’d sell pretty easily on here and eBay!

Do you reckon this would do the job for powering mine via the adaptor tap?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-ZX-SPECTRUM-POWER-SUPPLY-PSU-16K-48K-SINCLAIR-/170634693479?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item27ba9ecb67

Powerboys, they might sell but I’m kinda slack (got mine powered so motivation was wiped out) but i do have 5 or so of these half finished, they need some soldering and a resistor fitting, one day, one day.

Regarding the Spectrum supply, I’ll defer the answer to HorvatM or any other user who uses the Spectrum supply.

Top job that you are enjoying this top system.

VBoy wrote:
Do you reckon this would do the job for powering mine via the adaptor tap?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-ZX-SPECTRUM-POWER-SUPPLY-PSU-16K-48K-SINCLAIR-/170634693479?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item27ba9ecb67

It says it’s for a 48K Spectrum; since mine is for a 48K too, it should be OK.