Well….where to start

Merry Christmas everyone

It’s close enough to Christmas..for me to announce something special.

I have acquired faceball, I have the ROM of the game. And I’m planning to release it for free.

That is the short story…now for the longer story and why I’m not releasing it with this posting.

I’ve been trying to acquire faceball for awhile now. Everyone talks about Dragon Hopper, but faceball is a ray-casting 3-d first person ‘shooter’ game. And, I’ve been wanting to play this game for years. I’ve wanted EVERYONE to play the game for years.

I talked to a guy that had the game..and he named a price. The price was ..let’s just say..I was forced to taste what I ate that morning.

I didn’t want to get a 2nd mortgage..I love my wife..and I want her to continue to love me. So, I explored my options. I talked to a very good friend of mine..Ben Stevens. And we came up with a deal. Ben would get the capital for the game, and in return..would receive the bulk of my virtual boy collection.

We sold all doubles (special thanx to foil lone wolf) to help with the financial hit. We received the game and with the help of mindstorm extracted the working rom from the game.

So, what now ? A copy of the rom is in safe hands..multiple hands. It will not be lost again and it will be released for free.

BUT…..

I know I will not get back the money from losing my collection. I did it for the community and I knew I would take a big loss. However, I would like to make some of the money back.

To do this, we plan to release the game in cart form first. The details are vague atm. With mindstorm and Tusk’s help, we are planning to release the game in Feb. Morintari (a great 3-d artist) has joined the team on this game to make the artwork. Ben is making the instruction manual. We are planning to make this a very special release. One that’s way overdue.

As for pricing..it will be more expensive then boundhigh. We are looking at 100 dollars per cart..but that’s subject to change. We are also planning on releasing a 2nd cart.. A donators edition that will be very limited and numbered with different artwork and other specials included. All of this is subject to change..

This isn’t a post to pre-order..or anything. After the carts are sold (or it looks like no more will sell hehe). I will be releasing the rom for free. If you can’t afford the carts..just wait..you will be able to play the game :).

I’m sure there is more I was going to post..but it escapes me atm :). Have a good holiday guys…smile..and enjoy life.

-Eric (Bigmak)

I must own this cart but I do not want a box and manual, just the cart. $60?

After reading this I’m truly sppechless,and excited. This really is a great and generous thing for you to be doing and it really gos to show how great the VB community is.

I remember the days when the thought of Bound High getting dumped seemed impossible, and now a ROM of the long lost Faceball is preserved. We’ve really came a long way.

Merry Christmas, and thanks for doing this.

Wow what a great Christmas present!

BigMak your the big daddy! This is great thing your doing and the same goes to you other guys. Thanks very much, it is very much appreciated.

Put me down for a complete set. 🙂

What a fantastic news!! . Eric ,if you need donations to release the game please send me your paypal account.I’ll try to sell all my doubles too. Merry Christmas !!

It is just great to see that all of these games finally make their way out of private collections to the surface for everyone to play.

I already told Eric that I will buy the complete set, not so much because I want this game so badly, but because I appreciate what he does for the community.

Now lets find that guy who owns Dragon Hopper!

That’s fantastic news and a great Christmas present!
Thank you very much Eric (and your team) for release this game!

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Well first of all I think it’s great that you’ve gotten your hands on Faceball, one of the lost Virtual Boy games!

Second, I feel bad for you that you had to give up most of your VB collection to get it…

Third, I think reselling it for 100 dollars a piece seems a little greedy… But on the other hand of course you want to recoup your own losses.. I think if it was me I would release it for free then ask for donations or something, but I guess I still understand your side.

Fourth, I won’t buy it myself because it’s expensive and I’ve played Faceball 2000 on Super Nintendo and it sucked, it’s probably going to suck on Virtual Boy too.

Now Dragon Hopper is another story, if that turned up I think I would pay 100, 150 dollars to get ahold of that…

So now my final thoughts are, will Faceball ever be released as a rom? After you made your money back? And, why wasn’t Bound High sold this way at first? Maybe that didn’t cost as much to get, I don’t know.

Hrms.. well. I said I was going to release the rom..so yes..it will be released.

I don’t understand why getting donations to release it is ‘not greedy’, and selling the carts is ‘greedy’. I guess I wanted people who donated to get it released to actually have a piece of the game, and the people who donate more to have a special edition of the game.

I mean jeez..i don’t know what else to do. If someone wants to write me a check for 5 figues..I guess i can release the rom and never make the game.

I’m with you Eric , so before you start to make carts please send me a paypal account to donate the more I can.

This is really good news and 100 $ is absolutly nothing to talk about…
Tell us where we pay fore one card.

Great fing to do. If there are any complaynes well skip the release and let etch one of us pay 4-5 diggits to get one :S

I’m in fore one.

😀

Writhen from My phone so the spelling mess fings up 🙁

I don’t see the problem. Buy the game if you want to support the project otherwise wait for the ROM. It is that easy.

[Super Bros.]

I am pretty excited about this, but I am very saddened about you wrecking your collection for one game. I recommend dumping the rom (for your personal enjoyment only), selling the prototype cart and then never releasing the rom.

I know you expected to take a loss but I am against you causing yourself that much money loss.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 10 months ago by Super Bros..
• This reply was modified 11 years, 10 months ago by Super Bros..

bigmak wrote:
I don’t understand why getting donations to release it is ‘not greedy’, and selling the carts is ‘greedy’.

I mean jeez..i don’t know what else to do. If someone wants to write me a check for 5 figues..I guess i can release the rom and never make the game.

Eric, it’s because of you that this community is as great as it is. You are an inspiration and a leader.

Alfista wrote:
What a fantastic news!! . Eric ,if you need donations to release the game please send me your paypal account.I’ll try to sell all my doubles too. Merry Christmas !!

I feel the same, I want to help as much as I can. Plus, it’ll be nice to add another game to the collection. It’ll put me at 22/24 games 🙂

Eric, this is a huge thing to do and one of the reasons this community is as great as it is. Thank you! I just hope you can make your money back and won’t have to pay this release out of your own pockets in the end. Let me know if there’s any way I can help you with this, like featuring a fundraiser or something.

Since you’re working closely with UncleTusk, you know that a cart release of Blox is planned. Well, I don’t know what the profit is from every cart sold, but it would be great if every single cent of it would go in your direction.

Truly incredible news, and something I never thought we’d see happen. Put me down for a complete set!

This community truly goes to some great lengths to keep the VB feeling fresh. 🙂 Who would have thought that so many years later, we’d be seeing “new” releases again?!

Eric what you have done for this community is beyond words=D May God bless you without measure for your generousity.:)

Freaking awesome: the news, the release, Bigmak, all freaking awesome.

And seriously people moaning that you are selling carts and being greedy, you could have done all whats been mentioned, and keep it all for yourself but no, you stepped up and have made many many VB gamers happy. Kudos to you my friend.

I hope I can get some funds raised to get me a cart copy, I’d be up for buying later next year one even once the ROM is released.

Stunning, just a stunning. Its Monday, I’m at work, yet happy……..:)

People is just me on this one… And I didn’t even call him greedy, I just said that it felt a little greedy to me. But if he really spent 5 figures on this (which I didn’t know until after) I can’t blame him at all. The one I would call greedy however is the original owner of the ROM/cartridge/code or whatever.

Whenever the rom does get released, I’ll make a review of it.

This is GREAT news! I can’t wait until its release, though I will obviously have to 😉
I think a “no strings attached” (where the money goes to the people who paid for it, without anything back for it but the ROM eventually) fundraiser would be a good idea to try to cover the costs as much as we can for now. I think that would be a good idea. Just to encourage the potential release of perhaps (if it really exists) Dragon Hopper.

Great news guys!