Hello!

I’m Matthew Callis, from eludevisibility.org and superfamicom.org, a few months ago I submitted some new VB scans. Today I have something a little more interesting.

I have recently won this auction, http://page10.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/m64960608
for just what the title says, the VU Manual, Software, VUCC compiler and the official sample code v1.0, 1.1, 1.1a, and 1.2.

It was my hope that I might be able to get a sort of “community dump” setup (if you’re not sure what that is, please see those that drx has done at hidden-palace.org). If there is enough or any interest please let me know! If you’d like to see previous things that I have released, please see eludevisibility.org though none are for VB.

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Cool… I saw that auction… I think a friend of mine was planning on bidding, but apparently he didn’t win or changed his mind :P. I’m not totally familiar with community dumps, and it wasn’t immediately clear from reading the links you posted. Can you give us the quick run down on it?

I assume people donate some money and you release the dumps? Does it only get released to the donors, or do they get it first, or do you just collect all the money, then release it to everyone (what do donors get besides being credited as a donor)? What’s the reason for collecting donations… is it to recoup the purchase cost, make money, or…?

BTW, have you received the disks yet? I’m just curious how different each of the sample disks are (i.e. v1.0, v1.1, v1.1a, v1.2 of the same app, or different apps for each version).

DogP

A “community dump” is basically what you described. People donate towards something to help buy it and then get it released. Typically whatever is released is just generally released to everyone because it would be leaked anyway, not to mention it typically is only of value to a select few.

My reason for collecting donation is to help recoup the lost cost/value of the disks. They only sold for so much because no one can go online and download them and after they’re released, anyone with Photoshop/GIMP and the files can make them. That means I bought what turns into a few dollars worth of diskettes and labels after I share them with everyone. So in the end, I’m still out money no matter what as I am not after the full cost.

I haven’t received the disks yet so I’m not sure about the disks, but I imagine they’re mostly revisions to the same code.

Matthew Callis wrote:
They only sold for so much because no one can go online and download them and after they’re released, anyone with Photoshop/GIMP and the files can make them. That means I bought what turns into a few dollars worth of diskettes and labels after I share them with everyone.

I’m not sure how true that is… my friend was planning on just bidding on them for his collection (he’s already got a dev kit with software)… but he didn’t have that specific version of disks though, so he thought it’d be cool to get those as well. He doesn’t use any of it for functionality though, so it’d just be a collectable (having some more official development disks).

The contents of the disks don’t hold much technical value, since they really only work with the official debugger, and the homebrew scene has progressed well w/ gcc and has plenty of examples. It’s kinda like the NES tester carts and stuff… nobody actually uses them for that anymore, but because they’re official test/dev stuff, it’s cool. Don’t get me wrong though… it is still really cool to see official code and apps, just as it’s cool to have the official disks.

That said… I’d definitely donate… and like you said, it’d likely get leaked if you tried to keep it totally private, but you’d probably get more donations if you did something like donors of $20 (or more) get the disks at donation time… then the disks get released to the public in 30 days (and ask that donors not share until you release it). Knowing that the disks will be released shortly should make most people feel fine about keeping them private, but give some benefit to the (impatient) paying crowd. And the community is pretty small that only the hardcore people (that actually care about seeing the contents, i.e. dev’rs) would donate anyway. There’s very little on the dev kit disks that a casual VB fan would be interested in looking at.

DogP

That said… I’d definitely donate… and like you said, it’d likely get leaked if you tried to keep it totally private, but you’d probably get more donations if you did something like donors of $20 (or more) get the disks at donation time… then the disks get released to the public in 30 days (and ask that donors not share until you release it). Knowing that the disks will be released shortly should make most people feel fine about keeping them private, but give some benefit to the (impatient) paying crowd. And the community is pretty small that only the hardcore people (that actually care about seeing the contents, i.e. dev’rs) would donate anyway. There’s very little on the dev kit disks that a casual VB fan would be interested in looking at.

That sounds like the best route to go then. I didn’t know how big the VB “scene” was so I didn’t know if it would work or not.

Heh… yeah, it’s a pretty small “scene”… if it can even be called that. There’s a fair amount of fans, but as you can see from the popularity of this thread, it doesn’t seem that there’s a large number of people jumping up to throw money at this, or even really jumping for joy 😛 .

Hopefully there’ll be something cool on there that can interest the mainstream crowd (like a cool demo), but if it’s like the other versions I’ve seen, it’s just a couple lame demos which are less fun than even the most boring homebrew game/demo (except maybe Cooler’s Matrix demo 😉 ).

DogP

I was bidding on those disks, but unfortunately the final price was beyond my financial capabilities at that moment. It’s great to see them in your hands, Matthew. As talked about in our emails, I’d be very happy to chip in some money ($20?) to get those disks released! Who else is in?

yeah I think most people dont care..I think making vb games is way to hard so for now me and many others we just wait for new vb homenrew games, full version of super mario maybe? 😛

Like I said, I dont care at all about codes and such but I guess its good if people use them to make new vb games 😉

the problem is people like me who have alot of free time dont know how to make games even with the noob tutorial and people who make games have little time so they only release like 5 games ayear and most of the games are just smnall games u can find on a mobile phone

20+ years and I think the vb will still only have with luck 100 games and of the 100 only like 30 max will be considered true vb games (not vb small games like vmu snake)

Okay, I’m in for $20.

Today I paid for everything and once it’s all confirmed I will put in the order to have it shipped! If anyone is serious about donating towards it, my Paypal address is gapetto @ gmail . com and I hope to have them in a few weeks time. I am very excited!

Great news! Looking forward to it. I just made this the top story on the front page and advertised a bit on other sites to hopefully get enough people donating. I guess the more people donate the cheaper it gets for the individual? Is there the goal of total donations we want to reach and what is it?

BTW, could you scan in the disks when you receive them? I think it would be cool to release the covers along with the disk contents. Or at least have the disk covers on PVB. 🙂

Yeah, let us know when they arrive… I’ll send some money. Have you decided how you’re working it? Are you collecting money then releasing, or releasing to donors first?

DogP

Yeah I want in on this too 🙂 🙂 🙂

I like to donate when the disks will arrive to Matthew.

So a little status who wants to donate:
– DogP (?)
– KR155E
– dasi
– Deadly-D
– manwe

Makes a total of $100 already! 🙂

I can chip in $20 too.

Yup… I’m definitely in… I’m just saying I’d be willing to donate a little more to get instant access rather than just donating, then seeing the disks after a month of collecting money (kinda like ordering Girl Scout cookies to be delivered in a month vs. buying them from someone who has them in-hand to sell :-P).

DogP

Only just seen this, but I’d gladly chip in some money.

I’m in for 20.

Sorry to be dense but this is official nintendo samples? any of this in english?

Very nice people. We’re at $160 now. Hopefully we’ll hear some news about the disks soon.

Aackom: Yes, these are official Nintendo Samples. The docs and stuff will be in japanese, maybe some comments in the source are english. Tools like VUCC will most likely be english as well.

$20 DogP
$20 KR155E
$20 dasi
$20 Deadly-D
$20 manwe
$20 DanB
$20 Dave_
$20 Yackom

Matthew Callis schrieb:
Today I paid for everything and once it’s all confirmed I will put in the order to have it shipped! If anyone is serious about donating towards it, my Paypal address is gapetto @ gmail . com and I hope to have them in a few weeks time. I am very excited!

I am sure willing to sponsor 20$ just to support the more active part of the community – contrary to what I am representing. I would fancy having message that the discs have arrived save at your place and are readable until I shall make my payment. Pin me to the list please!

BenRPG