Ok I get what you’re saying – but at the end of everything, isn’t that just creating the same image dithering anyway?

The difference is that instead of having the chance to review the dithering amount and spread, then clear up pixels after that – you’d have an image with no optimisation.

If you take Photoshop for example, you could have it render any image into ten colours, then have more control over those colours by filling with a defined pattern, but you’ll still need to clear it up afterwards with a quick sweep.

If you want to skip that, you can dither as a pattern, or as noise, which sometimes helps the image representation – but it’s still better to have that control in an image editing program then put into code, rather than trust a machine to do it automatically in my opinion.

Unless I’m really off here and you’re talking about layering colours on top of each other to get a new colour (like Hellraiser NES) – what would be the actual benefit once all the work is done? Even in this example, I don’t think it would work on a VB because visuals are (depending on focus settings) pixel-crisp.

On a TV set you can interlace blue wirh yellow and try to get a green that isn’t in the limited palette. However, on a VB, the colours won’t blur because they’re the same hue and even if they did, you can only mix to a limited extent I’d say. I suppose the best you could hope for is an illusion that looks like 8 shades instead of 4, but I think it’s just as easy to do that directly in Photoshop myself.

Pre-ordered! I’ve waited ages for these books to be available in english, it was tempting to order them in French before.

As would I – Richard is top tier and entirely trustworthy.
He’s also mroe than fair, he’s generous and won’t overcharge on shipping, or even ask for shipping in some cases.

Don’t worry I had the same for a few minutes, it’s no biggie!

Did you click the ROM you want to flash first?

Sorry if that’s obvious, just trying to help as it took me a few seconds first time round and I could easily have missed that…

Can you post a screenshot?

I wish I’d known that, I have the IPD and focus set all the right, it’s all blurry and warped if I do different… Is this bad?

The solution you’re talking about is just dithering. It’s ok for blocks of flat colour, or a simple and regualr gradient, but you can’t really do images with it.

Best bet is (in the case of images) to just embrace the colour limit and work wonders with it using the very limited palette.

Now, the image above reduced to 4 colours (click to illustrate) doesn’t necessarily do this well, but every gameboy game had to do this and the VB does too. What’s challenging is that the gameboy was a simple small screenm, 4 colours was excusable, but the larger resolution of the VB makes things more difficult and challenging.

It’s this that I like most about the Virtual Boy, not the 3D feature.

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Wow, space invaders bundle went for over 170 bucks…

Oh, I should have clarified I have a Flashboy plus – Minestorm said it’s likely a dodgy contact so I need to buff that battery a little in case it was disconnecting etc.

Coleson beat me to it, but I got a full translation anyway from a contact of mine who was eager to help:

とびだせ！
Pop-up! (Or: Jump Out!)
(Literally it means “jump out!”, but this is referring to the 3D effect like in those pop-up books.)

ぱにボン
Panic Bomber

バーチャルボーイ３Ｄブック
Virtual Boy 3D Book

とび出す爆弾！
Bombs jumping out! (of the screen)

３Ｄギャグ大爆発！
Huge explosions of 3D gags!

月刊コロコロコミック9月号付録
Supplement for the September issue of (Monthly) CoroCoro Comic

…it’s a shame as Faceball definitely exists and someone’s just hanging on to it

Don’t get me wrong, the game looks tripe but I kinda see this topic as videogame archeology and I don’t understand that mentality, personally.

I’ll see if I can get this translated for you for free!

I didn’t mean anything personal or directly antagonistic, just thought I’d mention the point of keeping things in the open ideally.

– Akumie, could you do us a favour and clarify a little please. We’re all quite excited if what you say is true.

I think it’s best to keep the discussion central to this thread. I’d easily bid 200 Euros if it was a genuine cart and the real deal. I’d also like to discuss what I can/can’t do with it after that and the best place to do that is right here, surely.

If your cart is a proto/alpha for VB Mario Land / Mario Clash, then it’s something the community hasn’t seen yet as working code. I’d be upset if you’re really willing to sell and it disappears into the hands of another collector for the next 15 years.

I understand some people don’t want to dump carts as then the money it took them to spend in securing that cart is seemingly lost. That’s why I suggested best course of action for the small communtiy of VB fans is to chip in a set amount together and donate that to you in return for dumping the cart code.

The cart itself could then be kept by you or sold, but you’d have peace of mind taht you wouldn’t lose out financially.

I think what everyone is interested in here is the code contents of the cart, what it plays like or even if it’s playable code AT ALL. I’ll be honest and say that I think it’s very unfair for someone to try and pry discussion away from here and as such I’ve decided to bid 200 Euros just to keep the discussion on here.

What does everyone else think? Perhaps I’m overreacting but I’ve seen similar stuations on Assembler and NintendoAge, as well as all over DigitPress, sadly.

Collecting shouldn’t be selfish in my opinion, which is why I share the protos I have and have plans to share future protos I get exclsuive access to.

I like the chat, even in it’s buggy rendition. I find it really useful, as some of you may know

If you let us know exactly what it is, then I can make you a serious offer. That means an image ideally to back it up.

What I would suggest is best, is if you rally a fund together to replace the money you paid for the cart – then have it dumped. The physical example will still hold value and the community can take a look at the code too that way.

Would that kind of thing go down well with you? If I was able to buy it, it’s the first route I’d take anyway.

It will be interesting to see what it goes for in the end. I had my eye on it previous to posting, but it was the Virtual Fishing cart I wanted ironically. I think VB SI is pretty poor even in what it sets out to do.

I know it’s valuable etc because of rarity, but all I see is a piece of shovelware unfortunately. Let’s be honest, that’s ultimately what’s made this and Virtual Lab rare I suppose in the end.

What’s it worth in loose cart form, ignoring the others?

I have a copy of WarioLand on the way, probably the best way around it, but I was interested in the technical aspect as well – if Richard or Chris know what might cause this bug, or if anyone else is familiar with it.

What’s sad is that a lot of old games, source, carts and all sorts of stuff doesn’t get looked after.
What is incredibly valuable to us is usually junk to larger corporations.

NOJ/NCL are better at looking after old code and builds than Capcom were for example.

I play this every now and then in red and black, just because it feels a little like a VirtualBoy game. More Vectrex than VB, but still quite fun. Crying out for a GP mode though! Hope the 3DS release gets more features, the drift mechanics are quite fun but the game needs balance overall. It’s like a good proof of concept type release in my opinion.