Right, they’re not prototypes, but they’re rarer than some prototypes, so it similarly applies. There are very few games for any system that were released, but are so rare that very few people have them, and that one of the ROM releasing groups couldn’t get ahold of one to dump and release. These games are so rare that for the first few years nobody even know whether they actually existed (read some old VB sites, they always talk about rumors of these games existing). And like I said, Space Squash and Insmouse values plummeted when their ROMs were released.

DogP

It would affect the owners, when they try to sell their carts. Look for previous examples of where this has happened. Every prototype that I know of, the games like I already mentioned in my previous post(s), and just look around for other examples. Obviously people will still buy the games, but they won’t be willing to spend as much on it as they would if it were the “only one”, or “only few”.

DogP

It has nothing to do with the companies… it has to do with the rightful owners of the carts that were dumped. I’m sure that they would have liked to have gotten the games for free (instead of almost $3000 worth of carts), but instead they bought the carts. For that, they get to have something that only them and a few other people have. If the games get dumped, and the ROMs released, their really expensive games drop in value (less buyers, since some people would be happy enough buying something else with the money and just playing it on an emulator/flash cart), especially Virtual Bowling and SD Gundam, and they lose at least $1000 in worth of their carts.

I completely understand their point, I’ve seen it many times, and it’s been argued tons of times whether releasing ROMs lowers values, and I have never seen one come out where people agree that releasing a ROM doesn’t affect the original’s value. You just have to look at it from the original owner’s point of view… what does that person have to gain from the release of their ROM? If they knew that their cart was going to be dumped and released, they wouldn’t have let it get dumped in the first place. I’m sure it was hard enough to mail something that expensive to someone you’ve only met over the internet anyway, and then the risk of it being damaged in the dumping process.

DogP

It’s not so much that people pay $1000 to play a game, it’s more that collectors will pay $1000 to own a game that almost nobody has played. And yes, rare VB carts seem to be dropping in value, but when the ROMs of the semi-rare games were released, their prices dropped a lot (they were going for around $300, they dropped to about $100).

It is a really weird market… even though emulation isn’t that great, and there’s no sound (not worth listening to anyway 😉 ), somehow those 4 games have become the holy grails of VB collecting, since they’re what everyone wants, but only a few have.

I guess it doesn’t really matter anyway, the person who dumped the carts isn’t going to release them, since they made an agreement with the owner (s?) of the carts not to, and it’s their choice to make. But at least you agree that the value will drop, and if the value is going to drop, the collector that was generous enough to allow the cart dumped wouldn’t appreciate a massive drop in the value of their collection for being nice.

DogP

o_O I’m a ROM Nazi? Controlling whether or not you can illegally pirate games? What obligation does anyone have to you to give you a dump of a game that you don’t own? What I said is completely true… the person who dumped the rare games borrowed them from a collector who paid LOTS of money to have a complete collection, and those were the owner’s rules. The person who dumped the games had two options, either dump the carts and keep them private, or not dump them…

Feel free to buy the carts, dump them, then sell off your carts again… if you can get the same amount of money back after the ROMs are public, then you just got a free dump of the ROMs, but look at the values of every other game before it’s been dumped and after, the value drops drastically. That happened with Space Squash and Insmouse in the Virtual Boy world, but I’m talking more generally, such as Earthbound 0, Dreamcast protos (Half-Life, Prop Arena), and lots of others. Collectors are strange people… they want to have something that nobody else has… if every bum on the internet can play a game, they’re not interested, but if they can be one of the few to be able to play the holy grail of a system, they’ll pay BIG for it.

I’m not trying to be a dick about it, I’m just trying to explain why the “real owners” don’t want the ROMs available on all the ROM sites.

And I find it amusing how true this is: http://members.tripod.com/~goodwin_2/law.html 😛 .

DogP

The reason people with the ROMs don’t share is because the people that they get (begged) the carts from are usually collectors, and they don’t want the value of their cart to go down (it’ll go down if anyone can play the game, nobody is going to pay $1000 for a game that they can just download), so the only way they’ll allow the cart to be dumped is if they can guarantee that the ROM will always be kept private.

Personally, I half agree with the logic… I mean I’d love for everything to be public and anyone can play any game, but if someone wants to play a game bad enough, dish out the cash… oh, and since you now own the game, dump it and release the ROM! (yeah, right). Honestly, none of the rare games are worth their price (notice how the 4 expensive games happen to be the 4 that aren’t available to download). I guess some are fun, but none are worth more than $50 for the game itself.

And there are people with protos, and they’re not willing to share the ROMs, so we all do know how it feels to want something, but can’t have it. And no, there are no IRC channels that have the unavailable ROMs for download.

DogP

I mostly use Fedora Core 2, although I also use RH 9, Mandrake 8, and RH 6.2. I have used others, but those are the main ones. BTW, Fedora Core 3 is available.

DogP

Progress on this has been slow, mostly updating the innards of the game, not much with how it looks :/ . I will definately be releasing it when I’m done though.

DogP

Yeah, I tried it a long time ago using a gameboy magnifier, but I couldn’t get any light to actually shine… just a magnified screen (which was okay, but nothing worth actually using). The LEDs would have to be a lot brighter, or possibly using a fresnel lens might do something, but I don’t have one laying around to try 😛 .

DogP

The latest Red Dragon beta is really good, but there’s no shutter glasses support… To get it though, you’ll need to come into #virtualboy on EFNet and ask for it there, as it’s not a public release. Of course, it is open source, and if you want to add shutter glasses support, feel free 🙂 .

Personally, I have never really liked shutter glasses, although I haven’t tried any in a long time, and maybe with higher refresh rates that the newer monitors can do, it’ll be more bearable.

DogP

Hmm… well, since this post got bumped by a useless post, I guess I’ll post a new screenshot 🙂 .

DogP

Attachments:

1. 

   mariovb3d.jpg
   

This site is great! You guys are always updating the look, adding more features, and most importantly, keeping the content up to date! Way to go, keep it up!

Another small Japanese store display listed… except this time a lot cheaper! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3056537962

DogP

POAH!!! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3053822609&category=49237 . That is NICE! The small rare Japanese store display… I want it!

DogP

Hmm… I started one a while ago… but I never got around to finishing it… I’ll try to work on that again sometime soon… http://www.vgchat.com/showthread.php?threadid=10264 is the start of it. I’d suggest that you try setting up the compiler and post your questions here or visit #virtualboy on efnet and ask… I’m sure we could help you…

DogP

Here’s mine… it’s a 94 Chevy S10… I’ve done a lot to it, and I’ve got a lot left to do to it 🙂 .

DogP

I just bought another VB with Wario Land, Pinball, Teleroboxer, and Tennis… $30 shipped from ebay (I couldn’t pass up 3 SRAM carts 😉 ).

DogP

I’d have to say Zelda for SNES would be one of my favorite games… although I have always liked the Mega Man series, and VB Wario Land is amazing…

DogP

DOH!!!!!!!!!! I wasn’t able to get what I needed at the computer show today, so it looks like it’s getting pushed back to Monday :(.

DogP

Rammstein’s Du Hast has got to be my all time favorite song 😀 😀 😀 . No… sorry, I’m kidding, I just know how much you germans LOVE Rammstein :P. I’d have to say my favorite all time band is Black Sabbath, I couldn’t really give you a favorite song, although Master of Reality is probably my favorite album. About new music, most of it sucks IMO…

DogP