A news game, aka on a real cartridge, will be released in 2012 on our believes Virtual Boy.
The info comes from a developer who is wellknown for its development on Vectrex and Videopac (Odyssey2), ReVival Studios.
No more info but it could be a great start for new physical VBoy games.
I think the closest we’ll get is the 2mm spacing. The PDF* file lists the external dimensions as 59.87mm (2.357″) by 3.84mm (0.151″). There are three KEYS on the official VB connector, two tabs on one side, and the end-block with its centered square hold.
Measuring an actual cart, its connector (neglecting the “keys” is about 2-13/32 (2.406″) by right about 1/8″ (0.125). It wouldn’t be a lot of trouble to sand a connector to fit, but I’d really like to have an actual “console connector”.
I don’t have a console connector (anyone have one I could buy?), but I have one that I MADE by putting 60 pins in a cart and pouring epoxy over the pins. I used epoxy-putty to make an “inline cart connector”, two rails that extend up the sides of a cart and preserve the keying of the cart. But to test connectors, I’d like to have an official console connector, if anyone has one to sell please send me a PM. Surely there’s a dead console or two out there…
I’ve also talked to another couple companies about similar 2mm connectors; I could get some samples and (if I come up with a console connector) see if any fit, without modifications. The “keys” are irrelevant; once assembled into a cart, the cart itself provides all the necessary keying…
There’ve been posts here about fixing vb’s where one or two are “beyond repair”; alternately, why wouldn’t the one I made be close enough? The pins seemed to be the right size — I had to sand every pin, each had a wide section towards one end — the “wide sections” were too wide to all fit together. Then I plugged 30 pins into one row of a cart, put a little piece of paper between each pin, and then poured epoxy over the whole row of pins. Next day repeated the process for the second row, then glued both rows together. Finally, coated the whole cart with paraffin and molded epoxy-putty around the cart and the “connector array” I had made, forming the putty into two “cart guides” going up the sides.
The cart-guides preserved the keying of the cart, and of course the three connector keys were also faithfully reproduced.
The pins were exactly positioned by the volunteering cart, so that a new cart slides easily into the “cart guide” and all pins make perfect connection. What my connector doesn’t have is the little 60-hole spring loaded “door” (gate?) that I’ve seen inside my VB cart slot.
Let’s see if someone has a couple extra to sell us; else I can make two more. Would you want the “card guides” feature?
