Lester Knight wrote:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-Non-Working-Nintendo-Virtual-Boy-Headsets-Only-/350720082449?pt=Video_Games&hash=item51a88bc211

(12) Non-Working Nintendo Virtual Boy Headsets Only
Buy-it-Now for $72.

The shipping cost is rather ridiculousness. $217.15

Otherwise, it would be a rather cheap way to get some units that need a few ribbon cable fixes. He listed them all as having display “issues”.

Huh — my page says $195 shipping. Still, it would be tempting to travel to Michigan to pick it up. Wonder how much a “non-rev” plane ticket would be?

Bet you’re right, but they’re all ribbon cable issues curable with a pinch of solder…

I have both; can’t recommend “Boxer”, I didn’t find it that fun to play. Pinball has some strategy; and it’s really fun like if you can get the ball to fly off of the table and sink in the hovering basket — mucho points.

I’m also looking forward to playing “Space Pinball”, and comparing the differences…

vb-fan wrote:
…These social misfits…

Gadget on Joystick wrote:

RE “eye-strain” — there are THREE ADJUSTMENTS that completely eliminate problems; one sets focus, one matches “eye distance”, and the third increases the IQ of the operator.

…see if you can find the third one, “CantBAN” or “Roto”…

Oh I just couldn’t resist…

😀

VBmills wrote:
I don’t understand these people, if your not a fan of something why try mess it up for others (Not that they could anyway)? I’m not a big fan of PlayStation but if someone wanted to release a prototype of resident evil 1.5 or whatever else I would fully support them.
Silly people, still its all publicist I guess.
Sorry rant over.

Your rant is well taken. These social misfits sit around on cardboard towers, thinking they have some kind of standing. It’s the same with the “Dragonhopper” (or “Zero Racers”) hoarders — at the end of time, what will it matter? Will they look back on life and say, “Hah hah I made someone’s life less fun”?

What’s the point?

Thunderstruck wrote:
You can be pretty sure that none of those guys is older then 16 years (at least mentally).

That’s very true. And they’re likely still living in Mommy and Daddy’s basement. The whole thing is gaining (in their twisted views) a sense of power and validation.

I would rather not base my validation on putting others down or hindering their fun, if they like things like — oh, three dimensional virtual reality games.

Sigh.

Vaughanabe13, you put job and family ahead of this???
Heh heh, very much teasing. I’m very pleased there are people working on these things — flash-cart, sd-cart, home-brew programs, prototypes (love “Bound High” except for level 3-10!), etcetera.

Sadly, the “FlashBoy” didn’t come in my mail today; something about a stupid holiday, they forgot to ask my permission.

Wish I had more experience at working with this stuff. I’ve worked with a Xilinx, really sucks that you have to keep PAYING to use the development software — what a scam. I slapped together an EEPROM that plugged into the ROM socket, it was far cheaper than $5 per pop for the OTP. I even put a light on the “loading clock”, so we could see when the Xilinx got fed on power-up and was happy (clock shuts off). They even sprung for some little PCB’s for the eeprom board.

Looking forward to hearing about your progress, or your ski trip, or your family, whichever comes first.

;-P

I’m excited about the “multi-cart” project:
http://brennanthl.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/vbsd-update-1112013/

He says he has a connector that fits — I bet it’s the one from 3M that Mouser lists, linked in above post:
http://brennanthl.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/vboot-update-9152010/

bigmak wrote:
I didn’t think the connector problem has been solved…

Currently i’m trying to get enough carts to make sure we have repro’s for the next few years…after that..prices will have to go up…

-Eric

Do you think this connector would work? The specs are close…

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/3M-Electronic-Solutions-Division/150260-6002-RB/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtsLRyDR9nM1xDirw3Go%252b0QYpHyMAtoWmw%3d

MineStorm wrote:

I think we will run out. I don’t think there’s many more boxes out there. The one’s that are left, are being sold at very high prices (on Ebay etc).

I thought there was a connector found that works? How hard (or fast!) is it to make “printed cases”? I’d think new cases and new connectors would be workable…

Is “Jack Brothers” jp any different (program-wise) than the US version?

I didn’t know about these when I fixed my stands; I just used two screws, and cut four slots to form two “stop tabs”. Bending the tabs up makes a very solid “stop” — that was the problem with the old hub, the plastic wasn’t strong enough to stop the legs from expanding. Tapped the base-plate with an 8-32 thread (and used lock nuts too); had to bend the leg ends into more of a circle (which makes them incompatible with your new hub).

I considered making a wax mold for the old hub, then pressing in black epoxy-putty, then pressing the wax mold & putty over it to re-create the hub. Opening & closing the legs a couple of times before the putty hardened would create a perfect space.

$11.20, I might still order one; think you’d take cash? (It’d have to be $11 or $12, I don’t wanna send coins…)

🙂

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[vb-fan]

bigmak wrote:
I talked to him a few weeks ago. Not sure what I can say…but the project is still on. He’s finishing up a few others before he gets into it.

-Eric

Very very cool! :thumpup: 😀

Edit to add — seems to be a bit of a “garage industry”. Still, a successful release of new VB games would be excellent. Wonder if he has access to a 3D Printer — should be easy to add provision for an existing connector.

I don’t see anything “Virtual Boy” his site. Can’t believe he has a couple “Meggy Jr” games — I have one, haven’t built it yet. Bought it figuring I could make a 4×4 color LED cube…

• This reply was modified 11 years, 9 months ago by vb-fan.
• This reply was modified 11 years, 9 months ago by vb-fan.

Guy Perfect wrote:
A note on the buttons… Apparently Rust-Oleum didn’t have a dictionary with them when they put the word “bonds” on the can, because the paint in fact does *not* “bond” to plastic. It’ll stick, and the paint will stay, but it can be scraped off clean without any trace that it was ever there.

After testing the blue buttons on the controller, the places where they scrape up and down on the side of the hole was removing paint. I’m going to try applying some special primer they make for plastic, re-paint them, then possibly add some clear coat enamel on top. That should keep them blue forever.

You might wanna consider re-casting them. They’re small enough that you could make a wax mold — press them into warm paraffin, then coat the wax and back-side of the part with a mold release (like soapy water) and then pour melted paraffin on top. I like punching a couple of dents in the bottom wax mold piece, so the top mold piece aligns. You can use polyester resin, it will end up with very hard and strong buttons.

Now the pigment — get some strontium aluminate phosphor from ebay or on the web, you can get it in nearly any color; including aqua (very bright) or blue (similar color to your paint). Mix the powder into the catalyzed resin slowly to keep from entering air bubbles. And your buttons will glow in the dark…

The resin should be removed from the mold when it’s solidified and “jelled”, but not fully hardened; it will pop right out of the mold. Wait until fully hardened, and you’ll have to melt the mold away. Set the buttons on waxed paper and wait for a day.

Thanx, guys — I appreciate you!

🙂

I’ve seen “patches” here; looked for instructions how to apply them — are they executable files? Sorry to be so “novice”…

BTW, I didn’t know about the “debug screen”; tried it last night! Kinda takes all the challenge away (not that Red-Alarm was that hard).

🙂

morintari wrote:
Ok this may be totally stupid but I know that minor scratches on an automobile can be buffed out by a professional. Could we do the same w the VB lenses and what solution would be safe? >B

How’d they get scratched?

I would go to a plastics store (one that sells sheets of various plastics), and buy a small bottle of “plastic polish”. It’s a very fine abrasive in a water suspension; a piece of toilet paper (about the only thing that won’t leave more scratches), a few minutes of elbow grease (polish in a circular motion) and your scratches should be gone.

I use the stuff often to fix DVD’s; someone gave me “Aliens in the Attic”, looked like it had spent time in a parking lot; got it to play without skipping…

Guy Perfect wrote:
I’m pleased that the article goes into detail about users experiencing headaches when using Virtual Boy being mostly a matter of RTFM. Nothing says “I’m an opinionated, short-tempered dimwit” than getting a headache from Virtual Boy.

Yeah but it was offset by a false statement:

“this was possibly a side-effect of the harsh red visuals but it’s just as likely that these users weren’t adjusting…”

It is NOT possibly “side-effect-of-harsh-red-visuals”. Anyone military or private-pilot knows red lights work just fine to operate in night situations; the only side-effect is it preserves “night vision”. You don’t see any army-brats whining or pilots smacking into things because of the “harsh red visuals”.

As if.

>:(

Lester Knight wrote:
it looks like someone took the unfolded box posted here and printed it off as a larger size. if that is they case, that auction should be flagged and reported, if possible. they are passing off something for what it is not.

What UPC code did Tusk use?

I find it non-credible that a display-only box has a UPC.
😕

Benjamin Stevens wrote:

There are very likely people who know for sure about whether or not the one guy has the ROM, but I don’t know for sure. I was just saying that as a possibility. Thus, if the one guy has never tried to contact anyone to dump the game to preserve it, the reason COULD be that he already has the ROM on his computer.

The only things I’ve been able to find out about the guy who has Dragon Hopper are things buried in forums on various sites. There seems to be one guy who definitely has it and definitely won’t let anyone come near it, and then there are rumors of other people who have purchased the game, but I haven’t been able to find out in what form. It does seem that the ROM of it has been passed around very secretly, from what I can gather.

So it’s definitely “one-upmanship”. In the final analysis, what’s the value of that?

I very much recommend a book, “Inside Gilligan’s Island” by Sherwood Schwartz. Towards the end he asks, “You look back in life and ask yourself if you’ve helped people, or hurt people. They put sex violence and profanity on TV telling that they don’t AFFECT anyone (just give them what they want) — and then they sell commercials to affect people. You can’t have it both ways.” The book is a very fun read.

This is the same thing; a group of people hoarding “Dragon” and “Zero Racers” and possibly others, thinking they have some superior position — but in the grand scheme it’s worthless, while the delight they could have brought to others had the value. It’s just a game, but it’s still “hurt people, or make others’ lives better”. What’s our point?

(Sigh.)

Lester Knight wrote:
having 1 group obtain access to the ROM and not letting everyone else enjoy it is just as bad as having the proto and not sharing the ROM.

Either, release it for everyone to enjoy or keep on hoarding it.

Can’t argue with “release it for everyone”.

Look, why was the game written? To make money, and to entertain people. It’s the same with TV and radio programming — make it good enough to capture interest, and you can sell product.

NOW — there is no “making money”, only the “make people happy” aspect.

Benjamin Stevens wrote:
The other thing that you have to consider is that the guy who has Dragon Hopper already has it as a ROM on his computer, so he doesn’t need anyone to dump it.

It’s known that he has dumped the ROM?

So what possible reason is there for not letting a few other enthusiasts play it? We could have a group here not publicized, that agreed not to dump it.

Seems to go to a “value of life” question — at the end of time, when we look back on our lives, what’s the value of saying:

“Hah hah, I kept you from playing the rare game”?

And we’ll all say, “Yeah? What good is that now?”

Seems that would have a negative value, while letting a few vb addicts play it would definitely be positive.

:-/