That’s great, is it right in NYC? I go down from time to time to see my brother who lives there…maybe next time I’ll go through the exhibits. I could just Google the address, but I’d rather hear it from you :p

The next time you’re there, check out that Video Game Exchange NY store- they have a full sized VB store display, which is cool to actually see in person.

FedEx seems to think I will earn a refund once they investigate, provided they don’t find the package. They called me like 5 hours after I submitted a claim (which I did at 3am…) to ask if I had the package. The lady seemed surprised (??), then suggested I ask all my neighbors and landlords if they had seen it. I could try but man, like 50 people live in my building.

Ebay buyer protection is a huuuuge pain lol, it took weeks for me to get refunds on some poorly-packed and damaged goods a little while back. Plus, I feel like this is FedEx’s problem and I really hate making a seller refund and lose profit since I can’t imagine it was their fault…

Good advice all around, thanks! I actually called FedEx to open a case at 3 this morning (gotta love working overnights), so they’ll be calling later supposedly. After they do whatever they can, I’ll consider a police report. Some part of me wants to avoid getting police involved, but I know that apathy is something that helps petty thieves like this continue their bad habits.

The post office lost 2 packages in August, both still listed as “out for delivery”. 3 months later, and I’m still being blown off by their customer service. I’ve tried befriending the delivery people partially because my dad does that for work, and also because you’re right about staying in good graces with those who control the final condition of a rare game in the mailbox :). I’d consider a P.O. box, but this “never” happens to me- and usually they leave a missed delivery slip anyway.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nintendo-Virtual-Boy-Orange-Console-only-with-Red-Alarm-says-not-for-resale-/271334262065?pt=Video_Games&hash=item3f2cc84531

I was amused, then almost uneasy after reading this description. It seems like the seller has some grudge against eBay- two recent negative feedbacks could suggest that maybe he tried appealing them, was subsequently dismissed, and now he’s got a score to settle? Also, if my negative feedback theory is correct, he’s just asking for more aggravation by saying “it has to work” but that it’s untested and he can’t tell if it works.

That does seem like a harsh assessment. I feel that 4/5 people who talk so definitively about how much the VB sucks have never even played one. It’s just like the rumors at school that people start to haze the new or different student…everyone is likely to believe or repeat them because it’s easier than being unbiased until you “see for yourself”.

Not long ago I saw some person making comments on a similar (but older) “worst console” list. Regarding the then-upcoming 3DS, they said something about how people would go blind from it and ‘did we not learn our lesson from the Virtual Boy?’. That same person later had posted that they were mad because the XL 3DS was unavailable in his town. Personally, I think most VB haters just want to make an obscure reference to seem smarter, and sadly you guys are right about the VB being an easy target..

Still, everyone can have their opinion and maybe they just really don’t like it 🙂

It feels great- I realized that the shape of the old NES ones was bad enough but even a dogbone one is hard to use because it’s so small. The handles on the VB make it super easy to grip. Next up, I ordered some XBOX replacement thumbstcks that I’ll try to mount on the D-pad…

I’ve basically finished my SNES one as well, turns out you just have to attach the 2 extra wires that make A/B function in a different manner than for an NES. Also, you have to sever the original traces coming from A and B to the microchip, that’s what was screwing up the functions as I mentioned above…The B-button is like 97% responsive because I salvaged a PCB with prior failed mods, so I have to re-do it properly soon 🙂

Woops- lost the first draft of this post, and forgot to add the most important picture!

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That’s what I figured, but I’ll do some kind of paint too most likely. Maybe if you guys designed a less useful and less awesome product, I would never touch it and the paint would last forever 😉

Oh and, to my understanding there haven’t been any Doom ports yet…

Check your PM’s , I sent a reply to your message.

Also, I may come into an extra eye shade as well. I’ve accumulated an unspecified number of VBs that I plan to restore and sell or give to friends who have yet to experience true red and black. I have been working on a way to make new eye shades or perhaps some type of headstrap with hood that’ll provide for a better experience during daytime hours. Either way, stay tuned and enjoy the refurbished unit 🙂

That’s pretty amazing, quite a technological accomplishment! I think I side with the “black only” group, although it would be awesome to make your VB imprint stand out by making that red somehow (probably cost prohibitive though heh). I’ll take a USB and regular link one when available 🙂

I can happily and honestly say my reaction was “hmm, what’s a Google Glass?” O:)

Somewhere out there, I bet at least one person will read that website today and find themselves on eBay later this evening buying their first Virtual Boy.

Also, I forgot to mention- I haven’t played a GBA in a while but do remember them having a small and flatter D-pad. I’ll keep that in mind since the VB’s concave one does cause thumb burn after a while. Like after a 3-hour Bound High session yesterday.

[HP Lovethrash]

Hey check this out: http://s9.zetaboards.com/Nintendo_64_Forever/topic/7368828/1/

…came across it while searching for pics of the controller’s inner workings. My next question was going to be about soldering a new wire from the A/B traces to the ones for the right D-pad to get the proper button layout on NES 🙂

I’ll update everyone as my project evolves, add some pics. Looking forward to the official PlanetVB controller Wiki too 😉

• This reply was modified 11 years, 2 months ago by HP Lovethrash.

I had the foresight to give the clear covers a good wipe with a microfiber cloth before screwing them back in. I can see some kind of smudge or faint smear on the left mirror though. However, I got to wondering if that’s not part of the issue- would a fleck of dust on the mirror create little black lines on the display? Once the mirror oscillates, the dust would appear more as a small line than a speck, or so my brain would think. Maybe I will try using an air can to blow out any stray particles.

The little lines I see are only noticeable over brighter red areas, the title screen for 3D Tetris is a good example. They aren’t huge, straight lines like the original display problem…just little annoying ones that seem to move or shrink somewhat if I move my head to the side slightly while playing.

Still kind of curious why the mirror looks streaky at a certain angle, maybe it’s a non-issue…

DogP wrote:
Yeah, the clear lens on the front of the display board.

DogP

That racing game looks like the VB Goldeneye prototype right??

The other ones look like maybe the sequel to Virtual League Baseball, some kind of Virtual Mahjong, and the last maybe a hybrid of Space Squash and Bound High!.

I finally managed to “level up” my soldering skill and fix one of my displays :). After applying NaOH per DogP’s instructions, and putting it in the oven for a short time (along with some rosemary sprigs and a dash of salt), I was able to peel away the remaining plastic on the cable to get at the copper contacts.

It took me a while to get this whole project done, partially because of my lack of soldering experience, but also because I messed up when cleaning the bared contacts with a fiberglass pencil. Some copper from the flex cable was getting peeled up instead of just being polished clean on the first PCB I did. I also think perhaps not all of the plastic from the cable had dissolved. So on the second one, I very carefully used a pushpin thumbtack to peel up the remaining plastic. I held the pushpin over the PCB, with the needle end facing up towards the flex cable. Then, just gently worked the tip under the remaining plastic of the cable (between the copper contacts of course).

After a few times powering on the VB to test my work, the displays were somewhat working until I finally found an area with an obvious short circuit/sloppy solder job. Now, that display works almost like new!

One final question (sigh…)- how should I clean the oscillating mirror?? I know the right answer is “I shouldn’t clean it”. There seems to be a smudge or something on it, which at first seemed like tiny scratches on the red plastic lens my peripheral vision would pick up. But, I can see now it’s actually on the mirror >:|. Not sure how it got there either, I was always careful not to touch it and always wore an N95 respirator mask when the VB unit was opened up so I didn’t blow any dust in.

In case anyone was wondering, I bought a Kendal 937D soldering station on Amazon for like $50. Comes with 5 tips (two are tiny ones, perfect for this project), and has a very accurate temperature knob/display. Heats up VERY fast as well.

Enough rambling- thanks to DogP for the great post on how to carry out this project! Also thanks to TheForce81 and RunnerPack for their advice in the matter as well 🙂

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Fascinating…well maybe I will experiment with that idea- personally I feel like using the right D-pad for A/B in a game like Mega Man on NES may lead to epic thumb fatigue, but maybe not. And the “guts box” idea is clever, I may give that a shot first so I can customize and use A/B as intended. Or, experiment using L/R triggers for A/B??

Now, how much of a pain would a VB>N64 conversion be? I always found the N64 controller to be cumbersome. Maybe the left D-pad on the VB could be swapped for the joystick, the right D-pad becomes the C-buttons, select becomes Z, triggers and A/B are the same…I forget if I had mentioned this one before in a previous post :p

First things first, do you know off-hand what wires I swap/connect when doing VB>NES? Hopefully they’re color-coded somehow.

Thanks \m/

Wow, thanks for the replies everyone…I for some reason never noticed these before!! I’ve been getting around to this project more since my glitchy display tinkering is at a stand-still for a little while heh.

Assume that I know nothing about this controller mod project and that I’m already in way over my head…do I need to do some kind of adjustment to coding or data protocols or whatever? I figured it wasn’t as simple as affixing VB wires to NES controller cables, but I read some of the stuff on the links you posted and it’s daunting to a beginner like me.

If you do an item+description search on ebay for “flashboy” or “flash boy” (with quotations) you may find an auction. I saw someone selling a group of VB games recently, and one of the carts was the FlashBoy Plus. I think it was within the last week, so there’s a chance you could still see it 🙂