Coincidently, I wake up everyday to see mine sitting out with the new FlashBoy I just got in it as well. 😛
But that’s very odd the went and re-arranged everything at the store Alfissta. Did you notice cases lined up anywhere else? They must be using them for something! There was one for the NES, SNES, VB, 64, GC, and Wii in the ‘museum section’ they had on the second floor, to the back-right if you just had climbed up the stairs.
Love how Mario Tennis is still clinging onto the system for dear life though! 😛
Just as other have suggested, Wario Land is definitely a prime choice to get if you like platformers even a little bit. It’s more or less the killer app of the released games. Has great boss fights, plenty of secrets, and uses 3D in effective ways and not just for the sake of being 3D.
Vertical Force is also very excellent too, for a classic top down space shooter. The AI buddies add a nice twist too being able to swap and change them at will. Has a few nice 3D effects and plays nice. Just be sure to quickly pause when you die if you plan to submit a highscore screenshot, it doesn’t display it after nor has any highscore records.
Mario Clash does take some getting used to I feel due to how it controls a bit sluggishly and rigidly, and isn’t quite as polished as any other Mario game… but despite that still enjoyable in it’s own way. I find myself coming back to it from time to time. Has a nice 3D style too.
Mario Tennis is pretty fun too, plays fairly similar to others in the series. Has an excellent depth effect going on to really help with judging, though you do need to get an initial feel for it. The only thing that would have made it even better though was of course having link cable support.
Teleroboxer is also pretty exciting, though I haven’t played much yet so I can’t rate it too well. I feel it’s pretty close to Punchout though if you ever played it. All about learning the enemies moves, and timing yourself right.
Had a brief time with Jack Bros. via emulation. From what I played though was fantastic! Definitely planning on trying to get a cart one day… or use the FlashBoy. Been a little while so I have nothing in particular to say about it other than I had a lot of fun with it.
I just bought Red Alarm too so I can let you know how it is after I give it a try. 😉
Oh jeez, you’d think a place that carried older gaming consoles would be a little more knowledgeable on them. Especially the ones they are carrying in the store!
At least you were a nice guy and hopefully enlightened them a little about their own merchandise if nothing else. 😛
@Tauwasser
Oh yes! I saw that from the speed test. That comparable speed coupled with the potential addressable space address is what turned me on to it in the first place. But now that I have a better understanding of the SRAM area, I’ll likely be simply using it for save data like a normal VB programmer. 😛
@DogP
Mmm, gotcha. I wasn’t sure if there were larger carts then that or not. Very interesting they opened up that possibility for future expansion.
Thanks for reminding me of the extra space in the VRAM. noticed that before too but forgot about it. I actually might be just fine with using the WRAM as is, but I’ll certainly keep it I mind if I need to store something extra that wouldn’t matter having a bit slower access times.
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Thanks for all the information everyone! Definitely helped me out a lot! I’ll keep plugging away at my game in the background and eventually make a post about it once I have a little more playability involved. Armed with this new info, it shouldn’t be much longer till then… though might have to miss this coding competition sadly. 🙁
Thanks Guy Perfect! That was a very helpful and covering post! You should see about putting it or parts of it into the wiki, especially aspects related to the linker fo sure. Quite a few things in there I didn’t know, such as static actually lowering the ‘scope’ of it!
I had a feeling the stack started around there, but I wasn’t sure and I’ve been having a little trouble getting accustomed to Mednafen’s memory viewer to try and peak around for it…
I noticed too you also stayed away from the SRAM. The manual mentions it can go up to 16 MBytes so I’ve been highly tempted to use it because of that. I doubt I would need all 16, but I am just a tiny bit worried about using only 32-48KB to save room for the stack. Though I might be worried for nothing, still my first real game on the VB so still getting a feel for things. Currently am using roughly 2,500 KB for all useable “objects” (not the built in type, max 64 as of now), and “object” management system so it’s made me slightly nervous. Still need a management system for the actual built-in objects too so that’ll be another major one.
Oh, I wasn’t aware there were carts without SRAM chips! I thought they just didn’t included batteries, not missing the entire chip itself. I apparently don’t know a lot about the hardware! Maybe that extra 8K wouldn’t be worth it then… but I do intend for a saving feature, so a battery cartridge would be a good thing to have for this game nonetheless. But could be played without too in one sitting I imagine for those without one.
Mmm, gotcha so basically it just goes systematically down from WRAM with variable creation, and avoiding any specifically addressed variables, yes? I might just create a few global variables for loop counters and the like so I can layout the memory without worry of it. And yes, that’s how I was doing my arrays. I realized there would be no way to be able to tell after I posted haha.. whoops!
I’m not exactly writing a memory management system per say, more just chunking off memory saying this will be used for this in a typical older game fashion. I won’t be changing much and figured I could save the processing and like involved doing typical memory managing.
This question isn’t exactly related, but I figured I’d ask this too real quick. Is it good practice to use SRAM for just typical RAM use even if there is no need to save such data? I saw the profiling done by Guy Perfect and noticed there isn’t any speed penalty using it and potentially much bigger addressable space. I was planning to use WRAM for space to do decompressions at, and storing sprites/instruments at and using the SRAM as the main RAM. Would that be a good idea?
If you’re ever in Chicago, there is a place called People Play Games on Clark Street in Lakeview. That’s where I got my copy of Teleroboxer from! They tend to have a few VB games at least, roughly about $20 for them too depending on the game. ALWAYS seem to get another copy of Mario Tennis after it sells too haha.
Haha I remember that one well too SirGuntz. Actually that one in particular is somewhat close to home, it’s what really made me start picking up my interest in the system.
I had one friend who had a VB very briefly, but I didn’t get to play it more than once. Really can’t even remember which game I played, but I remember thinking it was awesome of course! Outside of that though, that’s the only experience I had with it up until that Microgame of Mario Clash.
So thanks to Wario and his greedy game making plans, I’m now on my own greedy game making plans for the system. 😛
Funny you mention that Lester Knight, I was thinking along the same lines! Nintendo keeps seemingly bringing up the Virtual Boy all on their own… with many of the references being recently. The interviews (typically related to the 3DS), the ROB costume, the previous smash bros had small nods, along with the Wario Wares and the Super Paper Mario too. Animal Crossing on the 3DS also has a Virtual Boy home object you can own… and if I remember right, is actually the only Nintendo system you can own in it! I feel there were a few more references too that are escaping me at the moment… but there is certainly a lot more relatively recent buzz of it I feel.
Not sure if anyone else knows about this as well, but I visited the Nintendo World in New York and they have a mini Nintendo museum in there. Not only do they sport an actual VB system there, they have nearly all the games and have a complete cabinet dedicated to the display along with some Nintendo powers showcasing it as well inside.
What’s up with Nintendo and their recent Virtual Boy interest? Is it a sign of some sort? Passing phase? Growing appreciation?
Man, as awesome as it would be to play Wario Land on the 3DS… I doubt they will end up putting them on there, very sadly.
I just think Nintendo will feel it’s not worth the effort and time. The Virtual Boy is very niche and not as well remembered compared to NES, GB and others, and combine that with the very few games it has, means it’s a small pool of games for a small pool of players… not exactly something I imagine a company would like to put resources into. :\
Though I could be wrong (I hope!), Nintendo does tend to throw a lot of curve balls after all!
Ah yes… the Dreamcast. I too got pretty obsessed with mine once I got it just about two years back. Definitely get Jet Grind Radio, Seaman, and Skies of Arcadia. Some crazy awesomeness between those right there!
@ Matt Fisher
Oh man, I feel your pain. I bring my VB to my college to show off and everyone thinks I’m crazy… but then they try it out. 😛
That’s awesome though you got the Block Buster case. Isn’t it super convenient? Everything all together, nice, neat and cushioned. 🙂 And how is Red Alarm? I’m kinda thinking about getting that as my next game along with Jack Bros.
Score on the army of VBs! When you fix them, you should definitely try out making a link cable. 😀
Well if it makes you feel any better, I definitely won’t be posting anything up until I’m much further a long into a game myself. Though mostly that’s because I go mad style ADD and constantly switch around what projects I work on.. resulting in not much actually getting fully completed.. eh he he he.. aye. :rolleyes
