Benjamin Stevens
Based on DogP’s above statements, I would say that he even knew the name of the person who had (or still has) Dragon Hopper, and I have no reason to doubt that he had full confidence of that person having the game. At the time he wrote the statements in 2005, it seems that DogP himself did not have access to the ROM of Dragon Hopper, but one just never knows what deals may have occurred in the time since then.

That’s really stupid. I don’t know the technology used for the roms, but OTP eeproms have a LIFE — the stored charge will bleed off of the floating gates and eventually all cells will reset. Problem is that gamma-rays can screw with those charges and start zapping bits AT ANY TIME!

Even if it’s a more permanent ROM, there still is the possibility of the cart suddenly NOT WORKING — and then this person will be in the same boat as us:

“Gee I wish I had a copy of DragonHopper”!

Clearly he’s not psychotic about the glory of “one-upmanship”, so it’s very much in his best interest to allow it to be DUMPED and then he can have a spare copy!

It’s like in a programming class:
“Dude, you’ve been coding for FOUR HOURS! Don’t you think you should save what you’ve done?”

“Yeah, I guess I should; I just got on such a creative streak — all right, I’m almost to a place where I can…”

(Power to the whole building suddenly goes out…)

“Awwww, crap.”

TheForce81 wrote:
WOW, that looks great as well, 3D printing rules! This really gives the VB more security for the future (since these kind of parts are hard to come by).

Indeed. Perhaps the most frequently broken part is the plastic “stand-legs” hub. It would be nice to have a replacement modeled after the original, with the word “NINTENDO” — but perhaps with a slot for some metal reinforcement.

They are talking about the ability to print electronic circuits in the future; perhaps we could print connector cables right onto the LED displays.

Or better, print organic light emitting diodes in a linear array of RGB, and program some COLOR Virtual Boy games!

I see it now — a new release of the VB with backwards-compatibility (old games work!), and a new line of games! Wait — print not a linear array but a 3×4 grid, and no bulky console with mirrors but a lightweight pair of glasses and a belt-mounted box with a game-cart slot!

(Hey — every new invention begins with “Wouldn’t it be great if…”)

Technically, they could build that now; I have two types of LCD video glasses, both fit in a shirt pocket; it wouldn’t need a very big box to contain the CPU, power supply, and cart-slot. Maybe we could incorporate hand and foot position sensors instead of joysticks, so we could literally walk into games…

(“Anyone seen Riker?” “Yeah, he’s on the holodeck…”)

Soooo — how much for a printed one? I snapped one in two; guy at the fair sold me some “wonder glue” s’posed to be stronger than strong, whiter than white, cleaner than clean (wait, wrong commercial) — “very strong”. Looks like super glue and exploits aluminum oxide powder.

…but a new one would be better. It’s ABS, isn’t it?

(You should be receiving my mailed order for a “flashboy” any day now!)

🙂

Benjamin Stevens wrote:

vb-fan wrote:

I presume the flashboy comes with software, or at least instructions.

FlashBoys used to come with a CD, but now you just get the FlashBoy Plus cartridge and a USB cable, so no CD or instructions. Essentially, the following page serves as the current instructions for the FlashBoy Plus, though it was written for the older FlashBoy:

http://www.planetvb.com/modules/hardware/?type=flashcarts&v=fb

This is most likely the page where you found the padder. You will also need to download the loader from this page in order to use the FlashBoy Plus.

Excellent, thank you! 🙂

Hopefully I’ll get it next week. Can’t wait!

jrronimo wrote:
Haha, yep! A lot of people are “trained” to download WinZip, which is annoying and shareware. 7-Zip is free and better in a lot of ways! 😀

I don’t have any experience with 7-Zip, I’ll try it; thanx!

Some freeware is good — I tell people about Irfanview, an excellent image viewer. You can change color & brightness & contrast, re-size, rotate, sharpen & blur, and can print exact sizes. About the only thing you can’t do is pixel manipulation like you can in Paint. And it can play media files if it has the right plugins! I’ve never heard of ANYONE reporting a virus or malware with it…

(The icon “splatcat” is also funny; reminds me of a certain “Meany-Baby”, parody of “Beanie-Babies”…)

How long is the “edit” good for? Tried to add to the post…

I just watched the 28 second E3 1996 Virtual Boy booth. I counted at least FOUR store-displays that were loaded with Dragonhopper. That means there were at least a half-dozen carts! Seriously increases the chances of us finding one for dumping…

😀

Well — embarrassed to say I clicked on “images” but not the “multimedia” tab; that is the image. 🙂

I’m betting a cart will show up soon for dumping.

Benjamin Stevens wrote:

vb-fan wrote:

Tell me — they are “zip” files — will 7-Zip work?

That is not my area of expertise, but I am pretty sure that 7-Zip will work to extract them.

Remember, once you get your FlashBoy Plus, you will need to pad the ROMs using the padder on this site, before loading them to the FlashBoy Plus. Otherwise, you will get a blank screen when you try to play the ROM on your Virtual Boy.

If you need me to, I can send you padded ROMs of those two games, which will work on an emulator and the FlashBoy Plus. Just send me your e-mail via PM and I can get them to you.

Jrronimo

My day job is computer support so in a way, this is my area of expertise, haha. And with that I will tell you YES, 7-Zip will open .zip files.

I very much appreciate you guys! 😀

I downloaded them from emuparadise, found the padder here; I presume the flashboy comes with software, or at least instructions. Let me try to pull it off when it arrives, if not I’ll take you up on your kind offer. I’m very excited at being able to play all the games, more so after seeing the comparison between the two bowling games.

I really thought I’d never get a chance to play “Bound High” or “Faceball”; I suspect Dragon & Zero will show up eventually.

I had “Winzip” on one computer, but this one only has 7-Zip. And I think the first is shareware. Electronics has always been my “cup of tea”, not a computer whiz; though everyone in the family does call me with computer problems!

There is a Youtube review of Virtual Boy, had a brief shot of a Dragonhopper ad; it shows several screenshots. Since there aren’t any images here other than box images, can someone please add these to the “Dragonhopper” link? I think everyone would enjoy seeing more of the game. 🙂

The ad is in Spanish; I put an English translation at the bottom…

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Benjamin Stevens wrote:
If you can’t find a particular ROM here, Emuparadise is a good site to find all of the Virtual Boy ROMs.

VERY much appreciated! Merci! Danke! Gracias!!! Never thought I’d ever be able to play those two. Now if only the mail would hurry with the “Flashboy”…

Tell me — they are “zip” files — will 7-Zip work?

RE “Bound High” — I completed it in “Easy”; now trying “hard”, don’t see much difference…

🙂

Lester Knight wrote:
isn’t it really fun and addictive? when i got my cart only like 34 had been produced. it really is something special to own it as a repo!

It’s an excellent game — managed to complete all levels. Though I did a couple things wrong. 🙂

The final boss is really tough; only his nose is vulnerable. Then when you think he’s gone, he re-invents himself…

The cart label & box are spectacular — perfect printing.

i’ve watched this review a few times, this guy is pretty funny at moments. also, a great review.

Good review. I like his comment “the mistake was not the creation of the Virtual Boy, rather the discontinuation of it”.

I watched a couple of his other reviews — now I REALLY want to play “Virtual Bowling”. Is there a dump available? I clicked on “downloads” here, and 1k can’t be the whole game. The only “released games” I lack are Bowling and Lab…

This guy should seriously join US.>B

I agree!

BTW, I have an “R-Zone”. Modified it to FULL COLOR — well, sorta. Changed the red LED for a WHITE, inverted the field, replaced the mirror (the polycarbonate supplied only reflects red light), and put the little 35mm color film cells in each cartridge. Had to re-invert the field in some games (space is supposed to be BLACK with WHITE stars!). But he’s right, it is just a “heads-up of a handheld LCD game”. Not very exciting.

…the “Virtual Boy” is far more exciting…

😀

Lester Knight wrote:
there are people who collect nothing but graded games. i’ve no idea if there is an official price guide, like the overstreet guide for comics. for all i know his prices are spot on or only slightly inflated.

i sold graded comics on ebay for 2 years. all of them were over 9.6 and some sold for 2-3K. sometimes its amazing what collectors will pay.

Rare nintendo virtual boy stand replacement parts original
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-nintendo-virtual-boy-stand-replacement-parts-original-/170983850212?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item27cf6e80e4

Why would anyone buy replacement parts, when they’re just going to break again soon anyway? (He says, “Including the piece that is cracked on most stands” — there’s a REASON for that, Einstein!)

I like my repair on two stands; very solid, will never break again.

Oh! Wait! I think I have — I have a…

…a screenshot I found online…

(Sadly, this only feeds the need…)

🙂

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jrronimo wrote:
Here’s Hedgetrimmer’s Shapeways store, by the way — dust caps for $6.19.

I imagine, as times goes by, that 3D printing will be the last savior of VB Enthusiasts who aren’t willing to sacrifice cartridges anymore, etc. Good on both of you guys for getting started around here. 🙂

The real accomplishment will be making the connector. Seeing as how I easily found pins that fit a cart (and made a “cart console plug” from scratch), it’s reasonable expect being able to come up with spring-loaded sockets capable of being inserted into a remade cart-socket-housing. And of course have provision for locking the sockets into each place….

I’m really looking forward to someone doing a “Racers” ripoff (homebrew). May well be better.

And looking forward to playing ALL the homebrews hosted here — I’m grateful people are programming them, any/all.

Thanx for the tips — the “sand crabs” are the indicator? Seem to remember them flying by before the wind.

I just received my copy. I can’t wait to try it this weekend. Thanks for bringing us this game!!

VERY much ditto that! I was so miffed at N refusing to release the code for any prototypes in the late 90’s; this, Faceball, and all the HOMEBREWS are gonna make up for that.

…now if only “D” and “Z” show up for dumping…

Wow — I’ve never even SEEN a “3D printed object”! Very professional. I’m ordering one too.

If he’s low on cases, where is he getting the connectors???

It’s possible you weren’t interacting with the actual seller. I often get phishing emails, forward them to “spoof at ebay.com”. They want you to verify your ebay username and password (the links always go to a weird site).

Then, with your ID, they sell things like Superbowl tickets. By the time the victim starts getting complaints (thief changes the email address), victim complaining “But I wasn’t SELLING anything!” — the thieves are long gone.

Him escalating it gives him more time to receive bogus payments (and to vamoose).

Ebay NEVER solicits information; neither does paypal — and paypal messages always use your REGISTERED NAME, never “Dear Paypal User”…

I can personally vouch that “Bound High” is fun and addictive. The 3D effect is spectacular.

I really hate the “wind” — anyone know how to prevent getting blown off and losing a life?