MineStorm wrote:
It’d be fantastic to have new connectors.

Unfortunately, over the years I have destroyed way more carts than anyone else 🙁

So what you’re saying is you’d like to donate to the cause? 😉

How many Mario’s Tennis’ souls have you destroyed… what’s that worth to ya, hehe….. I start the bidding at $1000! 😛

[S7AYONTARGE7]

I guess I’ll spill the beans early, then. Sorry in advance if this seems like I’m hijacking the thread, but this will go hand in hand with Kevin’s work:

I’m looking at getting connectors and cartridge shells produced. Devs and reproduction artists alike could purchase them in bulk for production runs of new games and of games that are too rare for most to buy in any reasonable capacity, and the destruction of donor carts would be a thing of the past.

The VB only sold 177k systems worldwide. Many of the games obviously sold less than even that. So even the most common game (Mario’s Tennis) probably only sold about that much (as it was a pack-in in the USA, and most every VB owner probably bought it in Japan).

That’s not a lot, and at the rate that homebrew titles will soon be produced thanks to a certain someone in our community (long live VUEngine!), I feel that relying on the destruction of retail carts will one day become infeasible.

I have contacts that have produced knock off Nintendo and Sega material that is the best quality around and is about as close to honest Nintendo and Sega parts as anyone has ever made (quality wise and when allowed by law, look wise), and at prices that are insanely cheap (systems/2 controllers/power/av as low as 14 bucks while still making a profit). With the connections they have in China, I honestly feel like it’s a huge possibility both cart shells and board connectors could be reproduced at a reasonable cost for everyone in the community.

The reason I’m not having the whole cartridge produced, is because I don’t want to kick Kevin below the belt. He’s worked very hard to produce these boards, and deserves to be able to keep producing them for the community. If the only other two missing pieces can be provided by me, that would be the easiest solution… as far as I can see… unless the whole cart can be produced for peanuts. If that’s the case, I’d contact Kevin directly (as I already have via email about other things), and talk it out with him before making any decision public.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by S7AYONTARGE7.

MineStorm wrote:

I’m working to resolve that issue.

Please elaborate ?

I’ll be making a thread with updates when the time comes, which should be soon. I aim to resolve all remaining issues with the homebrew situation (ie: needing donor carts). These boards are a huge help in the right direction, and inspired me to take care of the rest.

MineStorm wrote:

How many donor carts? :).

Not sure, what do you think is a fair deal – 2 donors ?

I’d gladly offer 2 donors for a cable!

Sold.

MasterOfPuppets wrote:
Definitely interested in the programmer should a solution ever be found for the edge connector.

I’m working to resolve that issue.

MineStorm wrote:
Here’s a pic of the kit (coloured squares indicating which wire to solder)

Although, I’m thinking of supplying fully built cables instead.

Not for money, but for donor carts (which I’m always needing).

How many donor carts? :).

Any chance on any other boxes being produced in the future? Say for some other homebrews?

Levine91 wrote:
No problem. I plan on making a set myself in the future. If you do so as well, be sure to share them!

On that note, does anyone have a recommended printer or paper type for printing the case arts out on? or do most just use normal printer paper?

I can help in that regard. A home printer won’t be good enough. You’ll want about 80 pound paper stock.

20 pound stock is regular copy paper you’d have at home, maybe even 10 pound. That stuff is thing, wimpy and honestly crap. 80 pound will be like a poster, flyer, etc.

As far as color/printer, you most likely don’t have a machine good enough at home or even at work unless you’re a designer. I’d go to a Kinkos, describe what you want to do, and print it there on the appropriate paper stock.

Wow, this is great. Thanks for the links!

Dumb question, but what’s the possibility of doing something crazy, like a Super FX style chip expansion or something weird like that. Just makes you wonder what this system could be capable of doing if something like that was made.

Lester Knight wrote:
I was very pleased to see this post. This is something I discovered for myself a few years ago. The cases do work rather well, however they are not all made the same. I found some are slightly smaller and will not allow me to close the lid, and others need slight modification for the lid to close smoothly. Just FYI if you start buying these up in bulk.

Thanks! And thanks for letting me know about that. Luckily, I’m buying them locally, so I’ll bring a Mario’s Tennis cart with me and test each case with it just to be sure.

I’m actually thinking of those DS cases though. Does Nintendo still offer them for sale? Is there a section here on Planet VB with the artwork?

Might have to make my own for a couple games. Double anyone’s done art for them.

Wow, those look amazing. I’d like a set of those, for sure. If only I had the time, haha. Maybe I can cut the artwork out here at work on a lunch break or something.

mellott124 wrote:

S7AYONTARGE7 wrote:
Ok… I’ll be the idiot and ask:

Do you need two copies of the game to play 2 player, or is it like the DS multiplayer games were only one person needed a cart?

Thanks, and beautiful work as always!

2 copies of game are needed. One for each VB.

Good to know, thank you.

mellott124 wrote:

S7AYONTARGE7 wrote:
I have over 10 years of professional graphic design experience, along with some sprite/background pixel artwork experience for this very platform on a never released VB game.

Willing to help anyway I can, be it for in-game graphics or for things like box or manual layout design.

Thanks.

Which VB game?

To be honest, I forget. It’s been at least 5 years since then, and the name never stood out to me. It was a homebrew project, didn’t mean to make it sound like a retail project or anything.

I wasn’t really let in on a lot of what the overall project was supposed to be as that was all decided upon by the small group developing it long before I joined the team. I simply was asked to make assets for the game based on what they were looking for. I did a large dragon boss, an owl character, and a slew of background artwork.

Don’t see it in the homebrew section, hence why I don’t think it was ever released. If you want more details, feel free to email me on the email we already have started with each other.

Owned it, and sold it.

I’ll try to keep myself from sounding too negative, but I get passionate when talking about this system, so please forgive me in advance.

In a nicely put way, the tech isn’t there yet for the price. And not in the same way the VB wasn’t “there yet”. It technically is a fully functional VR system, to its own credit.But there are both development and quality of life issues ABOUND that make this thing reek of 2019 bargain bin fodder.

First, the resolution is SO ridiculously low, that it often feels like I’m inches away from a CRT display, trying to make out detail in a grainy mess. (yes I know how to adjust the headset, and did so perfectly) Games like Battlezone work stylistically because of the low detail, but then the problem with that game and many others is the lack of game.

Which leads me to my other point. The tech isn’t there yet because these aren’t games. They’re expriences or glorified tech demos. I owned over 10 games, and I wouldn’t consider a single one as a full fledged game, least of all anything that would compare with the playability and depth of even some of the VB’s better titles. And after all this time, that’s really quite sad.

Once you get past the joy (and it is joy) of looking around 1:1 in a video game world, the soul crushing reality of what little you can honestly do in said world starts to dawn on you.

Then you start to notice the mechanical imperfections. First being, and most notably, the PSVR has a TERRIBLE time of head tracking. You will CONSTANTLY be resetting this in-game, and it rips you out of the experience.

Issue 2: The headset’s lights turn off when not in game mode. So if you want to watch a movie (in ultra low resolution) as if you’re sitting in a theater, be prepared to keep MASHING ON THE ****ING CAMERA RESET BUTTON a thousand times during the course of the movie, as it’ll very quickly, repeatedly, not know where center position is in relation to your head placement.

Issue 3: Setup and comfort. To say cable management feels like an afterthought is an understatement. The breakout box, the cords going everywhere… it’s all terribly inconvenient, and if you have pets, you NEED to put it all away. The repeat setup isn’t convenient, and is quite cumbersome. But once you get the headset on, you’ll also notice it’s not fun inside after a while either. It gets very hot inside, and in order to keep the headset well set I found I started to get headaches from the pressure of the strapping system (not from the display). So after a while, you’re sweating and your head is pounding, and you just want out.

I could forgive some of these issues, but at the end of the day there’s not enough power, and dev costs too high, coupled with a severe lack of prolonged interest in VR games. So what you end up with are short “experiences”, or samey-on-rails games that all feel very similar, or games that simply won’t even let you move without the screen blacking out for a few seconds as it places you in another location. I don’t FEEL like I’m in any of these worlds past the initial excitement of being able to move my head around.

If feels like a baby step from what we got from the Virtual Boy, and frankly, the crisp picture the Virtual Boy provides, despite lacking head tracking, at least is easier on my eyes than anything you’re going to see on the blurry mess than is the PSVR. The best games for the system are also non-PSVR games, and for something like this to truly be a break out success, it needs PSVR ONLY games that are in the lines of the next Zelda, Halo, etc type title. And without developers able to push the limits of VR graphically/gameplay wise, and without the developers having access to more cash to make said experience for a reasonable price (making VR games, even simple ones, is CRAZY expensive) we simply aren’t going to get that.

Couple that with the fact the PS4 Pro simply isn’t powerful enough to really do too much more to help in the matter, and games feel stifled, hardware limited, game releases limited (like many non-home-console-sony products)… and you get to a point where one day you just aren’t bothered to want to get it all setup, and that’ll likely be the last day you play your 300 dollar plus paper weight.

Beautiful work. In awe of what you’ve been able to accomplish!

D-

Ok… I’ll be the idiot and ask:

Do you need two copies of the game to play 2 player, or is it like the DS multiplayer games were only one person needed a cart?

Thanks, and beautiful work as always!

[S7AYONTARGE7]

Glad I could help!

Custom DS cases would indeed be the better route, but this is far more cost effective, and like mentioned before, at least protects your label.

I get ultra paranoid about opening Nintendo’s cheapo cardboard boxes too many times as you increase the likelihood of creasing the side flap. So I try to keep my Nintendo game carts outside the boxes at all time.

This at least protects them while they wait to be played again.

My local store agreed to sell me these cases for a buck a piece. Seems to be the rough going rate, and I only need 15-20 for now.

That being said, if you ever are successful with DS style cases that hold the larger VB cart, please post them and let us know if you start to sell them. I’d also be more than happy to help with the artwork, if need be.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by S7AYONTARGE7.

L___E___T wrote:
Loved my Game Gear when I had it, and remember the carts and cases also having a nice design, so glad to see this works.

Tricky for VB, the rotated cart would bother me and I need dust caps on all my carts for semi-OCD reasons.

So I just used little baggies myself, but I love that this works!

Yeah, I know the feeling. I’m the same way, and now I have a stack of dust covers that won’t fit, and that bothers me a little.

That said, with that niggle aside, I feel like the cartridges are better protected in here, especially some of my really rare titles I’ve accumulated so far. Anything that sorta-kinda protects against what little sunlight that creeps into my gaming room (AZ sun is deadly for anything printed) and helps prevent any scratches or marks to the label is a win win for me.