I don’t know everything that this forum can do, but I don’t think I’d want to clutter up the forum with a bunch of sub-forums related to art. If you can have one sub-forum for art on the main forum page, then a bunch of sub-sub-forums for the various sections… that’d probably be fine.
And I was thinking more than just uploading photos, but also entire projects with original bmp files, VIDE project, already converted c header files, and even example c code to copy and display it (kinda like the file you posted for the competition). Of course not all of those would have to be there, but the more stuff there, the easier it is for new people to get started, and more options for an advanced person to use.
The kind of functionality I’d like is something similar to the localarcade repository I linked to. It’d be nice to be able to browse through categories, look at the thumbnails, and if it has graphics I’d like to use, I’d like to be able to download the zip with whatever files are available. And with the work in progress projects, it’d be nice to be able to make changes and update it (if it was originally yours), or upload another version if you’re modifying someone else’s project. Of course searching (and keywords) would be really helpful if it ends up getting large.
I’m sure other people would have some other ideas, but these are the ones that came to mind.
Yes… I think you’re expecting too much out of homebrew if you expect them to compare to commercial games. Making games is very time consuming, especially with just one person working on it, and most of us have full time jobs and/or are going to school. Also, when you’re talking about the released homebrew games/demos… a lot of those were released as examples on how various things work, or basically as a “hello world” (and probably several years ago). Many of us are working on much larger projects, but they take a very long time to complete because we either don’t have the time to work on them, or we jump around from project to project (we do this for fun, so if we lose interest it goes to the back burner).
The VB scene doesn’t really have the wide audience like other scenes do, so most of us that do homebrew are low level coders rather than game designers, so we can make stuff that works really well, but it lacks the artistic and playability qualities you’d get from a commercial game with a whole design team. We also have only limited tools / hardware support functions, so we end up making a lot ourselves (which is time consuming), design everything manually specific for the project, or just leave it out altogether. Documentation is also pretty scarce, as is example source code, so until we build up the required tools, libraries, documentation, etc… we’re all kinda handicapped. Luckily, most of the people in the scene are friendly and helpful, so if anyone knows anything, they’ll usually share or try to help out.
But yeah… you’re free to post your opinion… I don’t take offense to you not liking them… I’d agree that most homebrew stuff is pretty boring. My favorite homebrew game would probably be 3D Battlesnake… unfortunately it requires a link cable since it’s 2 player only, so there’s probably only a few people who’ve played it. It’s hardly commercial quality, but I think the fun factor is there for head to head play (it has the old fun arcade game feel to it). Maybe I should add AI so it could be played 1P, although the fun may really come from playing competitively against another person.
Cool… it’ll be really interesting to see the engine when you release it. BTW, did you add any sound? I’m not at my VB right now, so I only tested it out in Reality Boy, just wondering whether I should burn it to my cart or not.
Galactic Pinball, Teleroboxer, Wario Land, 3D Tetris, and SD Gundam… of these, Galactic Pinball only saves scores, so that’s no big deal. Teleroboxer and Wario Land save game status, although Wario Land can definitely be beaten in one sitting, although getting all the items and stuff would be nicer with save. Teleroboxer can probably be beaten in one sitting as well since there’s only 7 or so enemies, although you might want to quit due to frustration on some of the annoying later ones ;-). IIRC 3D Tetris saves high scores as well as progress in the story mode. SD Gundam saves the progress, but I beat it in one sitting (~5 hours IIRC)… but the ROM isn’t available, so it’s probably not worth worrying about anyway.
I don’t think it’s that big of a deal anyway, since all of those games (except SD Gundam) are relatively cheap, so if you decide you really like it, just spend $10-$20 and buy the cartridge (if you don’t already have it).
And the games have battery backed SRAM. The only thing I’m unsure of is whether you’ll have problems playing the games, since I assume it writes all of the data to the SRAM and doesn’t keep a working copy, so you might beat a level and have it say you haven’t played it yet… or you might see some strange glitches from it reading from a floating input, which will give strange data.
Honestly… I don’t think it looks that fun. I’m not saying it wouldn’t be fun, but I haven’t seen anything from that game that gets me too excited about it. IMO Zero Racers looks much more exciting.
I’ve put out an offer of over $5000 for Dragon Hopper, but no takers. Supposedly there’s one out there, but it seems like it’s not available at any price :-(.
Heh, that reminds me of Domino Rally! 😉 But yeah, that’s similar to a game I’ve been wanting to make one of these days… I dunno how many of you have ever played it, but Falldown for the TI calculators was awesome (here’s a flash game similar to it: http://www.2flashgames.com/f/f-1220.htm ). I could see a 3D version using Affine to look similar to Bound High, except the point would be to avoid the blocks and keep falling rather than bouncing on the blocks.
Everyone is different. Typically collectors don’t want to be named publicly as owning the games because they know they’ll get harassed by people wanting the game, or more likely, people wanting the ROM for free. But most of the time they don’t mind posting anonymous pictures/videos, or letting a friend post the stuff for them, as long as they keep who owns it private. Like on my site I have pics of Faceball and Virtual Bowling prototypes… I was told that posting them on my site was no problem, but I can’t say who the owner is. There are others who like to keep the games completely to themselves as well though. And of course there’s others who love to show off their massive prototype collections. If you do come across Dragon Hopper though, as much as I’d hate to be teased by seeing the game without being able to play it, please do post pics/vids… I’d really like to see the game in action.
If you listen closely, do you hear a faint hum, or feel a faint vibration, or if you shine a light into the eyepiece, do you see the mirrors move? If you don’t even see that, I’d say you’re likely not getting power to the system at all (bad AC adapter, bad connection at the tap, broken wire in the controller). I’d check the output of the AC adapter w/ a multimeter first, it should be ~10V DC IIRC.
If the mirrors are moving, then you’re getting power, so try pressing start a bunch of times and turn the volume up to make sure it’s not playing “blind” (as in the displays are dead, but the rest of the game is working). If the game is playing, but no display, then it’s possible that both of your displays are dead (the common cable problem). If nothing happens, I’d try a couple different games, and make sure you didn’t leave the cap on one of the games, which gets jammed in the slot (make sure the game goes all the way into the system).
virtualboyfreak wrote:
I like it a lot, it’s very simple and things are found more easily than in the previous web. There’s an image in the “cartridge ROM transplant” section that doesn’t show. I think it’s a Wario Land cart image, but I’m not sure.
I also miss the old logo, I liked the look of the blue-red combination. Maybe you’re working on a new logo for the page? 🙂
Okay, I think the search should be working now. I also fixed the broken ROM transplant pic. I am considering creating a new logo, but I can’t say that I’m “working on it” ;-).
Angry_Sun wrote:
Kick ass site *Bookmarked*
Want to affiliate / Link with Nintendoland?
Thanks… I don’t do affiliates, but if you’ve got a VB section, I’d be glad to add that to the links page.
Hmm… it sounds like you’ve got a broken wire in the adapter. I personally like that AC adapter better than the official ones because it’s smaller, and you don’t have to worry about the power cord falling out the bottom of the tap (which I’ve had happen sometimes, especially if I accidentally tug on it a little bit). But yeah, the wire is thinner than the official one, so I can see it breaking easier… I’d pop the case open, cut it after the break, then resolder it to the connector. You could also find the break, cut the wire, strip it, then reattach them (with a butt end connector, solder, etc). That’s actually the one I used many years ago when I made my rumble pack… so you can see what it looks like inside in the (crappy) picture here: http://home.comcast.net/~virtual.boy/projectvb/rumble.html .
To be completely fair, it has to be mentioned that the Gold NWC cart is the same ROM as the gray NWC cart… and the whole cart is a small collection of extremely common NES games, so it’s very unlikely that anyone would buy that to play, except for fun as a competition or something. It’s also worth imagining what it’d be worth if it had never been dumped. When you compare that to the rare VB games, which are completely different than any of the other VB games, and hardly anyone has played, then it’s pretty easy to see that it’s not really a good comparison.
Thanks… yeah, I thought it was easier to read, and a lot cleaner (and no stupid frames :-P). But yeah, the site search doesn’t work yet… I’m trying to figure out how to get the XML indexer to work.
