L___E___T wrote:
Is there any chance you’d consider making one or two for me if I sent the bits and paid you for your time? It wouldn’t have to be right away or anything, but I’d really, really appreciate it.
Sorry… I don’t have the parts on hand, nor the time/desire to do it. :/
Tauwasser wrote:
Basically, you would need a little adapter board that converts from SNES to VB format for you. Depending on the maximum clock rate of the VB joypad chip (BU3613F?), you can
[list]
[*]oversample the joypad
[*]sample way faster than the original VB[/list]
A little ATtiny would be able to do this trick, for instance.
The VB already talks the same protocol as the SNES, so there’s no need for another MCU. The problem is just that when the VB reads the SNES pad, the mapping has the left D-pad, L/R triggers, and Start/Select correct… but rather than A/B, it has A/B/X/Y as the right D-Pad. So, there are no A/B buttons. If you pulled apart the SNES pad, you might be able to fix it by jumpering some wires… depending if it actually has a chip with all the inputs exposed, or one of the 3rd party controllers with the epoxy glob (but then it’d no longer be usable as an SNES controller).
Hedgetrimmer and I have been going back and forth with changes and stuff… he recently sent me the model for the latest revision. It looks really good, so I ordered a couple professional prints to verify. They should be here by the end of this week. I’ll post pics when they arrive.
MineStorm wrote:
I think it’s possible to print the case for the link-plug in nylon. I’ve already tried PLA and ABS, but the clips which connect the two halves were a bit delicate.
Yeah, we’ve revamped the design a few times. We had one with clips, which didn’t hold up very well… I’ve printed several prototypes of the newer style in ABS on my printer at home, which have turned out pretty well (functionally, though not very pretty).
Making it isn’t too difficult, you just need a donor controller (for the cable) and a donor socket (SNES extension cord)… plus a power connector. It uses the same communication protocol as the SNES, so it’s just a matter of connecting the power, ground, clock, data, and latch pins from one to the other.
But just FYI… it’s not all that useful. The controller mapping has overlap, but obviously the VB has more buttons than the SNES. And IIRC, the A and B buttons aren’t connected, and instead, A/B/X/Y are the equivalent of the right D-pad. That really limits the usefulness.
Vectrexer wrote:
Wait a sec? You were there too? I should have said hi.
I think the Oculus Rift emulator was decent for what it was. Also got a chuckle out of the cardboard embellishment. 🙂
I think you did say hi… I ate really late (er… early AM) dinner with you at the Banana Leaf or whatever that place was in the Riviera. 😉 I guess I didn’t introduce myself… I’m Pat (the guy at the table that wasn’t Daryl, nor Lonnie). 😛 Lonnie and I were the ones in charge of the arcade at CGE.
Dreammary wrote:
Hey, it’s not nice to diss on R-Zone… It’s like Game & Watch mixed with Virtual Boy and I really like it a whole lot.
Heh, well I wasn’t exactly dissing the R-Zone… I was more referring to how they both came out around the same time, both were red, and both sorta trying to be “virtual reality”. When I talk to people about the Virtual Boy, quite a few say “Oh yeah, that was the one that was like those old handheld games strapped to your head, right?” Argh…
That said, I’m not really a fan of the R-Zone… IMO, they seemed to be pushing it as something it wasn’t (a real video game console). I played a LOT of handheld Tiger LCD games growing up, but from what I remember of the R-Zone (haven’t played one since ’98 or so), they had a lot of games that weren’t really suitable for that style (fighting games like Virtua Fighter and Mortal Kombat, racing games like Indy 500 and Daytona, etc). And why did they even try a head mounted version? It was FAR from an immersive experience.
If they would have just done games like some of my favorite handheld LCD games (Mouse Maze, Mini Golf, TMNT, etc), I would have been much more accepting of it. But even those had backgrounds. And I had those games in the late 80’s… I would have expected something better by the mid 90’s.
It’s been a long time since I looked inside the debugger, but basically is a large motherboard with a few small sub-boards. They’re all labeled (EMU CPU, EMU MEMORY, or something like that). There are a few chips that you’d recognize from the VB (VPU, VRM, etc)… but also a lot of other stuff (FPGAs, TTL chips, etc).
The scanner itself is completely different than a normal VB. There’s no VB motherboard inside, and instead it’s replaced with a board that has the white cable coming in, with a few TTL chips. IIRC, the displays, servo board, speakers, and amp board are all standard VB parts though.
The key is no problem… it’s just a standard desk style barrel lock. You can easily pick it with a small screwdriver and paperclip, and then you could either replace it… or post a picture of the lock, and if it’s the same as any of ours, one of us could probably send you a copy (I’ve done that for a couple people).
The most annoying part is that you really do have to have a lock, since the VB is held in place by the braket being locked, and to swap games, you need to unlock it.
Cool… I’d love to make it up for one of the NAVA gatherings, but I don’t go through NY/NJ very often, and have never been near there during a gathering. 🙁 I know a lot of the Digital Press people from Classic Gaming Expo… they’re really cool, and they’ve got a nice store.
Funny enough, I also picked up a California Games when I was there… except it was for the Sega Master System.
One of the vendors at Classic Gaming Expo had their Oculus Rift set up running a VB emulator… and my opinion – Meh. The graphics on the VB are much more crisp than they were on the Oculus Rift, and of course the contrast is much better.
I’m a huge fan of virtual reality, and 3D things in general, but every time I’ve tried out the Oculus Rift, I’m very underwhelmed. The graphics are kinda blurry (or maybe overly stretched is the effect), much like they were on 90s VR headsets. It is immersive, but kinda has the “sitting REALLY close to a TV” feel to it. The head tracking is definitely WAY better than the old VR stuff (no more lag induced motion sickness), but for VB emulation… that doesn’t really matter. 😛 Personally, I think 3D computer monitors (or even shutter glasses) look better.
I’m really hoping that the new version of the Oculus Rift is a substantial upgrade. I really want to like it, and I think it’s almost there… but for now, I’ll stick to 3D monitors and the 3DS.
Cool link RP. I’ve been working on a project like this on and off for a while now… if I can get some of my other open projects finished up, I’d dedicate a good chunk of time to it. The VB cart really is quite a bit smaller than the Genesis cart though, so it’ll be much more dense, and I’d guess at least 4 layers (I’d want it all to fit inside a standard sized cart).
vbsteffel wrote:
I remember reading on this site there was a Virtual Boy also spotted on Frasier. Seinfeld and Frasier were both NBC. I wonder if it was the same Virtual Boy? I don’t really know very much about Frasier. Were they both on in the same year? I am going to research.
That’s an interesting observation… I didn’t think about both of them being on NBC. NBC was part of the Must See 3-D thing: http://www.planetvb.com/modules/advertising/?k2 , so maybe they were sneaking them into the episodes for some subliminal advertising… or maybe they made a deal with Nintendo to give it air time.
cr1901 wrote:
Search appears to be busted right now, only returning results on the last page.
Are “sporadic horizontal lines that are at max red brightness” indicative of a faulty LED cable? If so, looks like I’m buying a longer security bit XD.
I honestly can’t tell if it’s an issue with some games drawing objects at the wrong time, reading “incorrect” data the cartridge/FlashBoy (particularly acute with Jack Bros sometimes), or a bad ribbon cable.
The lines range from sporadic lines of various lengths at various y-positions, to a nice even horizontal stripes every 8 pixels or so.
Actually, I’m not sure if I’m precise enough to do this soldering without screwing it up… :/
But the LEDs are interchangeable? Meaning if I broke it, I could buy another broken VB and scrap it for the LEDs inside?
Yes, that’s almost certainly a bad cable connection.
And yes, you can swap displays from any other VB… but if you’re buying a broken VB for the displays, the displays are likely what’s broken on it, so you’ll still need to repair them first. 😛
I’m (t)here. I saw Bound High on the Flashboy, though I was busy running the arcade, and didn’t really hear what people were saying about it. I didn’t realize you were swapping out games on the cart during the show or I would have pointed it out to a few people.
It was quite busy, and actually, they had an Oculus Rift playing the VB emulator at one of the booths, which was kinda amusing. Honestly, I didn’t think it looked very good though (kinda blurry… way less crisp than a real VB).
And yes, Steve Woita was there… I talked to him briefly, though he said he was fighting a bit of a cold or something.
Yep… I got mine the day before I went out of town, so I didn’t really get to check it out. But the outside looked really awesome… thanks to those that made it happen!
Yeah, I’ve never seen anything that says the pipeline stall only occurs if there is actually a hazard, so I assumed they didn’t put the logic in to detect dependencies… basically just blindly preventing the worst case. In the case of something like MIPS, the assembler detects dependencies and selectively adds NOPs, but doing that logic in hardware would probably have taken up a good chunk of real estate.
I think it’s just a typical pipeline data hazard situation. Wikipedia has a pretty good description ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazard_%28computer_architecture%29 ). Consecutive loads are good, since there’s no hazard… but writing and then reading does have a hazard since it can’t read until it’s been written, or it’d possibly pull stale data. So it stalls the pipeline (bubbles) to verify the data has been stored before allowing the load.
While I don’t think the pipeline is described in detail anywhere… I have a feeling that it’s similar to the standard 5 stage RISC pipeline. The V810 seminar shows a generic diagram (looks just like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_RISC_pipeline ). And Pg. 7 of the programming document gives a hint on the operation: “Load invokes data read bus cycle before execution”, and “Store invokes data write bus cycle after execution”… you can also get some hints from the notes on the execution cycles on pg. 108 if the V810 Architecture Manual.
I believe the interlock comment is just saying that it automatically avoids hazards by having the hardware interlock (on architectures without it, you’d need to add NOPs to avoid hazards). But of course due to the interlock, the performance is affected.
Dr.Crackers wrote:
Has anyone figured out what was causing those faint moving black horizontal lines in the display?
It’s usually something on the clear window over the LED bar. Try removing the LED PCB and carefully wiping the window. A quick way to verify is to swap the left and right PCBs… if it follows it, it’s gotta be dirty windows.
DogP
Well, I’ve taken it apart and wiped the window clean and the display is better now, but there are still a couple of those lines left on it. Any idea what could be causing this?
Try swapping the left and right display PCBs, and see if the problem follows them or not. If it is them, then you need to clean them better, or maybe the windows are slightly scratched.
If it doesn’t follow the display, then it might be some dust or something on the lenses, mirror, etc. But I’ve never seen it be anything other than the display PCB windows.
