That’s pretty cool! Good for people that don’t have the know-how to do a solder-related video output (that is over my head at the moment heh…).

What will the controller situation be? Since the cord is so short and unforgiving :). I think I saw somewhere that one person (DogP?) modded an SNES controller to work on VB, and they worked a jack for the AC adapter into the plug that connects to the console. If you did that, you could plug the power directly into the console through that modded jack, but also use an SNES/NES cord or just more wires to make a controller extension.

Are your ribbon cables completely destroyed? Or can they be salvaged somehow?

Here’s my collection so far! There are still 2 games I need to get though, which ones hmm…

The US Mario’s Tennis case in the corner is something cheap from eBay- possibly a DS case with foam added inside, and a custom label insert. Low quality though :/.

I’m also proud to show off my CIB, like new Chalvo 55 game in the top corner near Bound High!

If anyone missed out on my previous self-indulgent posts, the pic of my actual Virtual Boys includes one with a harness fashioned from zip ties and a Petzl headlamp strap. Feels like wearing a tight baseball cap, but it works great when you put the original stand on the VB (“backwards”) and have the legs resting near your collarbone. The VB on the silver arm is that back-saving custom stand I made a while back, don’t know how I used to play without it!

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That’s a good idea- I wish it was like the old AIM program where you could raise their warning level to 100% and THEN block them 😉

I don’t do enough selling that repeat offenders bother me, and generally I think my long-winded descriptions describe product details adequately. I’m assuming you can filter particular sellers from search results too? That would be more useful, there are two in particular that I’m displeased with but they keep popping up when I’m on the prowl for VB items…

In case anyone (besides me) has been on edge wondering how this drama would end…I ended up being greedy and taking the better offer. Taking a bigger chance, I opted not to ship with the $25 registered upgrade which means no tracking was included with the First Class mail :/. Fortunately, everything was fine and I got that beloved positive feedback the other day :D.

That sale juuuust about filled the crater left in my PayPal account by my CIB Jack Bros heh.

What they all said…welcome to the site, it’s a great time to join! I arrived in August and am hooked, this place is a great collection of knowledge for all your VB gaming needs. Are you the first user from Ireland??

Regarding the AC adapter tap- I think all VBs are compatible with either the US or Japanese taps…it’s just the actual SNES adapter you plug into it that matters (and how it handles the power supply available in your region). The US AC adapter won’t fit into the JP tap. Someone else correct me if I’m wrong 🙂

Either way, you can usually buy the tap with or without AC adapter for ~$20 on eBay.

Brings back fun memories of when I got that issue in the mail way back in ’95. I thought I’d lost that envelope, but I found it tucked away under that foam piece at the bottom of my Performance bag 🙂

Jack Bros. uses the left D-pad to move the characters around (in a top-down view). If you push/hold B while moving like that, the character will use his weapon in whatever direction you’re running. If you move with the left D pad and use the right D-pad for the weapon, they will attack in whichever direction the right side is pressed. That way you can run one way but shoot in the opposite direction without stopping.

You may also look at the N64 and see how the yellow C buttons were used, since the right D-pad would be the same approximate setup :). I liked in Mario 64 when those buttons would pan/zoom the camera angle.

Wow I feel like an idiot haha. It’s so seldom that I read a manual for a game, let alone the cobnsole itself. Maybe I can give it a go in the morning, that never would have struck me as a dust cap holder. Bummer, I was hoping it was some hidden or untapped functionality.

I’m going to say Nester’s Bowling as well. I too love bowling in real life (got a 208 just the other day, thanks tp 5 strikes in a row 🙂 ). 3D Tetris feels like wasted potential to me. Those games never much appealed to me, ones like Panic Bomber or that SNES game Kirby’s Avalanche were always more fun. I’ve played Virtual Lab more than 3D Tetris…

If there was a way to stop that camera scrolling in 3D Tetris, it’d be way more fun…but I find that movement distracting to the point of not being tolerable.

Hey Jagman- I would agree that collectibility is the reason I bought the Proto version of Faceball. More specifically, I paid a paltry sum of $30 for the box/manual/hintbook package at Uncle Tusk’s store :). The box for the Proto one has the nice dark color scheme, and the hintbook is pretty comprehensive and interesting.

I love the quality of these packages too. For my US Mario’s Tennis display, I bought a “pro quality” custom case on ebay but it was terrible. Looked like the label was printed on a 1997 HP DeskJet or something O_o

Ps- does your username mean you’re an Atari Jaguar fan?

Jagman67 wrote:
Thanks everyone for the additional information on the differences between the 2 versions of Faceball. I ended up going with the remastered and just received it yesterday. I gotta say, everything looks awesome. It actually looks no different then an original release! Very nice job. So I guess besides collectibility there really wouldn’t be any need to get the proto version? I haven’t got to try it yet though, been working double shifts. Will definitely be giving it a try very soon.

I was famous for this when in the Era of the N64 (shoulda bought more VB stuff…. darnit):-(. I would often set the music to mute while having the sfx blasting while Playing Star Fox 64 and Wave Race. My personal fav was playing Star Fox 64 to Star Wars themes… Radical!:-)

Wow, I never would have thought of doing Star Wars music to get into a spacey mood for Star Fox! That’s great :). I did figure out the ‘mute game music’ function eventually, that was a game changer so to speak.

Nowadays, platformer type games usually have decent music or are too weird to play with my own mix in the background. Sports and driving ones need some assistance though. The other day I was playing some ATV Quad Fury thing on GameCube, and chose a rather aggressive mix to get into a competitive mood- Fleshgod Apocalypse, Hour of Penance, Allegaeon…

Otherwise, here are some bands I’ve been listening to a lot lately:

Iced Earth
Mystic Prophecy
Lykathea Aflame
Blaze Bayley
Fleshgod Apocalypse
Arsis
Inquisitor (I hope their singer goes on American Idol hehe)
Snot
Mushroomhead
Slipknot
Cryptopsy
Alchemist/The Levitation Hex
Decrepit Birth
God Dethroned
Anthrax
Necrophagist
Obscura
Fifth Season
Origin
Paradox (great German thrash!)

…just a lot of metal. I don’t really like jazz either 🙂

morintari wrote:
to me the game that blows me away has got to be Vertical Force. I mean really they have complete 3d backgrounds any chance they get, and they didn’t have any tools to draw them just freehand using a paint program incredible!

Really, they Paint’d all of that?? Why do it that way, just a lack of high-powered software back then?

As for my WOW games, hmm…definitely Bound High! The individual graphics don’t have a huge 3D effect, but the motion and sense of being miles above Chalvo’s city do for sure. I think Virtual Bowling is a great game overshadowed by its impossible collectibility. Those graphics (especially the backgrounds/scenery) look gorgeous, and the music is awesome too. Jack Bros music also had me wowing a little bit.

Insmouse No Yakata gave me a wow sensation, but more in theory. I am a huge fan of HP Lovecraft, and for my favorite little console to have a game based indirectly on his writings, WOW :). The grim cover art and overall storyline are great. To be honest though, the game is kind of ‘meh’.

Haha, Virtual Girl indeed 🙂

Reminds me of my days collecting Hot Wheels, they would call this a “variation”. Sometimes the old Redline cars were most valuable when in the hot pink color, since no young boys bought them at the time- maybe that’s why Virtual Bowling with its pink box is so valuable now heh…

Not to get too off-topic, but this could be the value of your FlashBoy some day: http://www.thetoypeddler.com/cgi-bin/ttp/ttpdetail_2.cgi?item_id=841391

Hmm that’s odd, though I feel like I’ve read elsewhere about someone else having the same issue. I kept having trouble where there were either flecks of dust on the oscillating mirrors inside, or perhaps smudges from accidentally touching the clear case over the LEDs. Either way, I get these really fine black lines where the red light is probably not shining in certain areas. These lines look like tiny slash marks, and sometimes are in groups of maybe 3 or 4; as opposed to glitch lines, which tend to be more obvious and symmetrical, at least for me. The fine black lines come and go depending on my angle/proximity to the Virtual Boy.

That’s funny, because I’ve owned 4-5 boxes over the years and none of them had it. My original N64 does, but who cares :p

I think it’s definitely harder to find than the torn cards, but not necessarily rare or valuble as DogP mentioned.

Still, it does add an aura of “newness” to a box.

Good call on the hairdryer! Let us know how it works in the future, I’ve heard that sometimes the heating method works for a while but that at other times it goes back to glitching out soon. Sounds like you were thorough enough with applying pressure too that you have a longer-term fix 🙂

I had some luck with one of those hair flat irons that my ex left behind heh. My thought was that its heat is concentrated on a small, flat surface that you could apply some pressure with too. Eventually I just decided to solder since I wanted to practice working on electronics anyway…

Treated myself to a Space Pinball and the Faceball proto box/manual set because I want that awesome hint book 🙂

Talked my friend into getting Bound High as well…

That’s funny- but at least yours were original characters, you won’t face a class action copyright suit from Coconuts Japan and Japan System Supply ;-). I hope you make that sometime, it would be great to start making use of the VB Link Cable eventually. I’m gradually starting to learn the ins and outs of programming, so I hope to start experimenting with making games this year!

PS- RunnerPack would be a good name for one of the characters, he could be the one who is able to run faster and do more agile movements (and solder VB cables in some kind of bonus mini game heh…).

I should add that I don’t like their new “buyer has all the power” feedback/returns/refunds system. Someone paid me $115 for a CD in August, but right after they paid, eBay deleted the entire listing alleging it was a bootleg copy. That made it predictably IMPOSSIBLE to try and contact the buyer or complete the transaction. It took a month of fussing and fighting with them before I was able to mail the CD, apologize to the buyer, and verify that I was getting the $$…in spite of the customer opening an ‘item not received’ case. The problem was that eBay fixated on the fact that the buyer had an issue. I about lost my mind trying to get the message through to them that THEY were the ones causing the problem in the first place, and no normal person would interpret my listing as being for an illegal copy like they did.