Is there any chance that maybe someone on the forum could contribute one or more of his/her games from their collection to one on the forum to allow them to dump the games that have yet to be publically available ?

I think it would only be fair if :

1. We contributed money to the cause (or the VBer could just be a true friend 😀 )

2. Allow the game to only be downloadable here and only here to users registered 6 months or more w/ 10 posts(as i dont have yet.)

If you want to send me some of your rare games, I’d be glad to dump them for you 😉 .

DogP

see, we already have a willing person to dump ones rare carts. Someone with the 4 super rares, please contribute to the VB community!

oh, and protos are welcome too 😉

KJ4860, have you ever thought that the ultra rare games and prototypes might already be dumped, but their ROMs are not available to the public? For example, as you might know, the original Virtual Lab seems to have a bug which makes the Virtual Boy reboot, but I have read somewhere (I think it was on this vr32 forum more than a year ago) that they found the bug and fixed it to get the game to work correctly. Where do you think they fixed it? 😀 😀 I’m also waiting for the FlashBoy, so apart from my belief that those ROMs are dumped but won’t be made public, I would also like to have them and play with them on the FlashBoy (when FlashBoy is available, of course) 😎

i searched here and everywhere on the net a few nights ago and may have saw the same post you did. plenty of listings led to here and they mentioned private dumps of the 4. i imagine that these dumps are for their personal safety (if the original cart is lost) or they dump it for a group they are in, like one of those japanese game rings. i would hope that someone will share the games that are most wanted by the VB community after the flashboy is released. it isnt like we are gaining anything from a dump..we just get to play what they will bank off of one day. no reason to keep the game to yourself

Yes, but as soon as the game ROMs are publicly available, the ultra-rare games will lose some of their value, so I don’t think the owners of those games would like to see the ROMs publicly available. I own all except Virtual Bowling and SD Gundam (I’m sure you know this by the other forum posts I’ve made 🙁 ), and of course I’d love to play these two games just to see them, but I don’t think that private dumps will be made publicly available.

thats why i mentioned they should only be released here to people that have met the forum requirements. i dont necessarily see the carts losing value, i think the original carts are still way more collectible than the roms by far. the hardcore vb collectors will still shell out a heavy penny for the most sought after games even if they are available at the most public level. Look at neo geo for example. those roms are beyond easily accessible, yet there is still a giant fan following of collectors. The same goes for SNES, NES, etc….but when you look up earthbound or chrono trigger on ebay, they still have a high price tag.

I know, I’m a collector and I wouldn’t mind that the ROMs of the games were available to all, but not everyone thinks the same. Nonetheless, I hope we are lucky and get the ROMs available to play on the FlashBoy (but I’m pessimistic about it… 🙁 )

i guess theres only one way to know the outcome 😉

Of course you realize that once the ROM is here, it’ll probably spread everywhere. Somehow, it’ll get posted on other websites. You also realize that, of course, owning such a ROM without the original cartridge is illegal (not that anyone cares.) That being said, I would love to be able to play Bound High on my VB, but I doubt it’ll happen any time soon.

i think with the same basic rule applied to all users, where it cannot be downloaded unless the user has met the forum requirements, the persons whom will have access to the downloads will more than likely not be into passing roms onto other sites, but rather a VB gamer commited to the VB scene.

also, $ could be involved where users will pay a certain one time fee/per rom fee on their account. this idea may sounds unethical but it and the other one could stop the spead of the rom, which i dont see as a large problem if it does even occur. its not like the VB scene is THAT big..besides, theres nothing like having a game play on a VB rather than an emu, just not the same.

for the person(s) that decide to dump their games for this site, they could receive an all-access, free pass on their account to download any other roms that may be later dumped/already dumped here.

so…any say on the matter of Bound High for Flashboy Chris ? 🙂

I agree with Fwirt in that they would spread very quickly. Although not available everywhere, there’s a ROM package which is fairly easy to find using google or eMule, so they would spread very quickly. There are many people who would download it just to be able to say “I have the Virtual Bowling ROM” or something like that. It’s like the latest Harry Potter book, but with a bit less audience. Of course, I would also like to play games such as Zero Racers in my Virtual Boy.

An option I was thinking about was to get, along with the FlashBoy (when available, of course) a CD with all the existing ROMs (commercial and freeware). I wouldn’t mind paying more just to have that CD, but of course, it isn’t in my hands having that CD.

As for dumping the ROMs, I wouldn’t mind doing so with the ones I have, but:

1.- I don’t have the knowledge to do so.
2.- I don’t have a spare Virtual Boy unit to “cannibalize” and make the game dumper.

I know that the existence of the ROM doesn’t make the cartridge less valuable, but that’s my belief, not the general belief (my belief is backed up by the experience I have with the game Darxide for the Sega 32x, the existence of the ROM and the 232 euro I got for my copy some years ago.)

Nonetheless, IMO the first thing we have to do is wait for FlashBoy to be available for purchase, and then we can see what happens 🙂

Agree, but I would love to see Space Invaders Virtual Collection running on my VB 😎

definitely, nobody will ever have to pay for anything on this site, KJ4860.

one thing is for sure, if those roms get posted here or anywhere else, even if they’re hidden or if you have to pay for it, they’ll eventually leak. the question is if it’d be a bad thing, and hurt the value of originals. i don’t know. but if someone wants to dump his and release the files, i’d be glad to host them here.

another option would be to just share them privately with a few trusted individuals. if you really don’t want to see them on the internet.

in the end, the person who dumps his carts, or lets his carts get dumped, decides.

hmmmm….

but what if the person wishes to dump his carts but doesnt have the equiptment, as palacios pointed out.

either try to build a dumper or ask someone with the needed equipment to dump the cart(s) for you. dogp for example has all that’s needed, even a guide on his site if someone wants to attemp building a dumper on his own. ^_^

I didn’t say “I wish to dump” the games, I just said “I don’t mind dumping the games”, which is different 😎 if I wished to dump the games, I would begin by learning how to do so and by making myself a dumper as the one DogP describes in his webpage. If there was a general belief that ROMs should be publicly available, I’m sure everyone would unite to get them out. But the problem is that, in my opinion, the vast majority of owners of extremely rare carts and prototypes don’t want to make them publicly available, and the people as me, who don’t mind, don’t have the knowledge or time to get those dumps, so there you go.

Nonetheless, I still say that we are speaking a lot about this before things actually happen, since the first thing we have to do is wait until FlashBoy is available. In my opinion, playing ROMs in emulators -when talking about Virtual Boy- is a bit silly since you don’t get the 3D effect, which is the main attractive of this console. 😛

i agree in full.

the roms on vb emus are nonsense as you dont have anything remotely like the true experience except for the fact that your playing the game minus sound, controller, 3D effect, etc.

i think thats a good idea to wait for when flashboy is released. we should then begin to give more serious and organized attention to this matter.

Yes. Now it’s a good time to start thinking about what you are going to offer the people that have the games you want to play 😀 I want to play Zero Racers, so I think I’m going to have to offer something real cool 😀 I offer my complete GamePark32 collection for Zero Racers! 😀 😀

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uh…well if hurricane katrina didnt hit, id offer my proto copy of Propeller Arena for DC. Instead, i offer you a very unique ride: