Dave_ wrote:
I’d definitely chip in for some unreleased VB-goodness. Would love to play Faceball. I’m not convinced there’s anything else available to be dumped but I’d be happy to be proved wrong.

If something did turn up, another site worth posting to would be ASSEMblergames. They actually have a fundraiser up at the moment for the GBC port of Resident Evil.

Thats a nice fundraiser that they have going. Hopefully they will meet their goal.

L___E___T wrote:
For the ROMs to be released we’d need o cast the net wider than just on here, but with the aid of some Gameboy, NES and Super NES communities it could be done if people chucked in $50 each.

If something does happen and a fundraiser gets started. Websites like lostlevels.org and unseen64.net would probably support the cause and donate. If not even with support just from users from this site, the goal would eventully be met.

Srimok wrote:
Does Virtualboy [Swe] still post here? I would be up for a fundraiser to get Space Pinball released.

According to collection info Robert Molander also owns a Space Pinball proto cart. Maybe one of the two owners will be up for a fundraiser like you said.

Also someone should try to get into contact with the Faceball owner to get the rom relesed with a fundraiser. Since the rom has already been dumped, all they need to do is name their price.

Benjamin Stevens wrote:
If Dragon Hopper were to appear on Ebay, I wonder how much one would have to bid, in order to win it?

$5,000.00? $10,000.00?…

All I know is that I would probably place a bid of $10,000.00, and if I happened to win with that, I’d be spending the next several months trying hard to pay off my newly acquired credit card debt, but most importantly, I would make every effort to ensure that a ROM would be made and that the Virtual Boy community would have free access to it. Heck, once that would be accomplished, I could then put the prototype back up for bids and maybe get some money back.

I just don’t trust other collectors, especially given the fact that the game is still being hoarded.

If a copy of Dragon Hopper were to come up on ebay. It would be really hard to win it.

There are more people that would buy the game with good intentions, like you and everyone else here on the site. But that doesn’t mean resellers wouldn’t see it as an opportunity. Like when the NES Campus Challange cart went on ebay a few years ago. A reseller bought it first, then relisted it a few months later for profit. With something like Dragon Hopper or any other VB proto thats probably what would happen. If a reseller did buy Dragon Hopper. It get relisted and would be so expensive no one would be able to afford it, like the VB Video Boy that was $50,000 on ebay a little while back.

gunpeiyokoifan wrote:

VBrulez wrote:
Maybe you will find a bootleg cart to add to your collection one day, they might end up on ebay eventully. It’s suprising how they haven’t already, because of the current prices on many of the games. With the physical architecture, it could probably be reproduced very cheaply now, if game pirates know what they are doing.

If it seems to you like game pirates could make bootleg versions of Virtual Boy games because you think it could be very cheap and easy now to make carts, why do we still require to use donor carts to make a Flashboy or Bound High cart? 😛

WHOA WHOA I accidently posted twice, didn’t mean to make that dumb mistake.

gunpeiyokoifan wrote:

VBrulez wrote:
Maybe you will find a bootleg cart to add to your collection one day, they might end up on ebay eventully. It’s suprising how they haven’t already, because of the current prices on many of the games. With the physical architecture, it could probably be reproduced very cheaply now, if game pirates know what they are doing.

If it seems to you like game pirates could make bootleg versions of Virtual Boy games because you think it could be very cheap and easy now to make carts, why do we still require to use donor carts to make a Flashboy or Bound High cart? 😛

Because there arn’t any bootleg VB carts.

VirtualJockey wrote:

VBrulez wrote:
It didn’t seem like it was real anyway.

Thanks for liking my new avatar. That big Nesters Funky Bowling display box is pretty awesome.

Yeah, it’s pretty awesome if you have a place for it! lol

In the pictures of your collection. You have it along with with your other VB games on that bookshelf, thats a pretty awesome setup.

VirtualJockey wrote:

VBrulez wrote:
Since it souldn’t be illegal to own the cart, I will add EarthBound to my list then. It sucks and I’m sorry to hear how you paid authentic prices for pirated carts. There are to many greedy jerks that do stuff like that. Taking advantage of these reproduction sites and then listing a game on ebay as original knowing someone who doesn’t know will buy it.

A bootleg VB cart, seems like something that would exist. There is supposed to be something called the Hong Kong Module. It was supposed to be a all in one multicart, that had every game including protos on it. But it’s only rumored to exist, and if it did, there would atleast be a picture or video of it someware to prove it. Maybe you will find a bootleg cart to add to your collection one day, they might end up on ebay eventully. It’s suprising how they haven’t already, because of the current prices on many of the games. With the physical architecture, it could probably be reproduced very cheaply now, if game pirates know what they are doing.

The Hong Kong Unit doesn’t exist, at least it have never EVER shown up for sale in the past 14 years.

Nice new Avatar, BTW.

It didn’t seem like it was real anyway.

Thanks for liking my new avatar. That big Nesters Funky Bowling display box you have is pretty awesome. Nesters Funky Bowling is awesome and so is everything VB releated to it.

VirtualJockey wrote:

VBrulez wrote:
I was not directing my arguement towards you, or anyone. Eventhough it’s piracy, would it be illegal for someone to own what some would call a pirated cart?

I would think not. I’ve purchased multiple pirated carts that I originally thought were authentic (and I paid “authentic prices” too). I do not see how a consumer can be to blamed for such legal issues at hand.

Buying a pirated cart does not make you a pirate, pirating carts and manufacturing them for resale makes you a pirate.

The same goes for flashcarts. You may make and sell flashcarts, but you can’t sell flashcarts with copywritten content flashed to them. Overall, I’d like to think that there should be no fear from any angle on vintage items. I’ve searched the world around for a bootleg VB cart to add to my collection, but had no success. I figure the physical architecture was too expensive to manufacture in it’s day.

Since it souldn’t be illegal to own the cart, I will add EarthBound to my list then. It sucks and I’m sorry to hear how you paid authentic prices for pirated carts. There are to many greedy jerks that do stuff like that. Taking advantage of these reproduction sites and then listing a game on ebay as original knowing someone who doesn’t know will buy it.

A bootleg VB cart, seems like something that would exist. There is supposed to be something called the Hong Kong Module. It was supposed to be a all in one multicart, that had every game including protos on it. But it’s only rumored to exist, and if it did, there would atleast be a picture or video of it someware to prove it. Maybe you will find a bootleg cart to add to your collection one day, they might end up on ebay eventully. It’s suprising how they haven’t already, because of the current prices on many of the games. With the physical architecture, it could probably be reproduced very cheaply now, if game pirates know what they are doing.

[VBrulez]

VBmills wrote:
Again i would be more than happy to put £30-£50 in for faceball.
How do we go about this, is just a case of people putting there names down on a list with an amount of money or a set minimum amount and then just hope someone comes up with the goods?
Got to be worth ago surely?

It is very worth ago, and almost the entire VB community would probably be willing to donate. KR155E wrote that a roms already been dumped, so the owner of Faceball should just come out say how much they want for the rom to be relesed. Then a fundraiser could get started to try and raise that amount.

• This reply was modified 13 years, 2 months ago by VBrulez.
• This reply was modified 13 years, 2 months ago by VBrulez.

If someone has the game they should come out with it maybe upload a few pics to show that it’s real, and then get a fundraiser started.
With a fundraiser for a rom of an unreleased of a VB game, the goal would be probably be met no matter how much it is. Because so many people want to play it. If the goal was a heaping amount of money like $25,000 or something, it would take time but eventully would be met. Thats something any VB proto owner needs to realize, your goal will eventully be met.

Zero Racers would also be a very worthy game for a fundraiser.

[VBrulez]

KR155E wrote:
If we ever get the chance to community fund a release of Dragon Hopper, I’d expect a relatively high 4 figure price. £50 would probably be the absolute minimum per person to reach such an amount.

Doubtful that it will ever happen, but one can dream. 🙂

Hedgetrimmer schrieb:
Around the time of Bound high rom ‘debates’ there was also a post saying how this community has no idea of what is out there in the ‘uber collector’ inner circle the poster felt they had to tell us about, could be bs, who really knows?

BS, indeed.

I seriously think that with all many people who want to play this. A fundraiser for the game, would probably be able to get more than $10,000 atleast. This isn’t like an oddball prototype, this is a very known game, and many people would donate a lot to play it.

• This reply was modified 13 years, 2 months ago by VBrulez.

Hedgetrimmer wrote:
Yeah £30 seems fair, maybe stretch to £50 if needed, I’d say we would need funds to be up in the thousands before anyone fesses up to owning and willing to dump. Maybe not even then, I have no idea how much a proto cart of that would go for, a ‘fake’ space pinball came on ebay a couple of years back for $1500 (i think) so a real Dragon Hopper could be 10x that?
Around the time of Bound high rom ‘debates’ there was also a post saying how this community has no idea of what is out there in the ‘uber collector’ inner circle the poster felt they had to tell us about, could be bs, who really knows?
But I am always up for some kind hearted collector to help out the gamers and let us play.

There are more kind hearted collectors in the world than bad. The chances are if a collector that only collects games for money, has the game it will probably turn up on ebay or something.

[VBrulez]

VirtualJockey wrote:

VBrulez wrote:
Like L__E__T wrote, the you arn’t buying a ROM. Your paying for the craftsmenship used to build the cart.
These games are carts for systems that haven’t been sold in stores for almost twenty years. It’s not like it’s new games. If it was new stuff, it would be wrong and illegal on both ends, and the people making the games would be arrested.
I saw this Youtube video of a news segment, where people who made and sold pirated PS1 games when they were new, got tracked down and arrested, because the games were still in stores. Eventhough PS1 games arn’t in stores anymore, I think that copys/reproductions of anything PS1 and newer is illegal.
It seems that if these reproduction sites of old games haven’t been busted and shut down like those pirated PS1 sites on that Youtube video, it doesn’t seem like they ever will. Because if reproductions of old games was really piracy and so bad, wouldn’t they have been arrested, like those PS1 people?
It’s a old system you can’t buy anymore, not a new one you can walk into Walmart and get.

You seem to be directing your argument to me personally, unless I’m mistaken. I myself don’t care about vintage pirated games and am enthusiastic about the VB dev scene.
As a matter of fact, I find vintage bootlegs to be one of the coolest affordable classic gaming items to collect. While the Big N to my knowledge hasn’t cracked down on the Flashboy or the Bound High repros, Nintendo certainly has cracked down on Virtual Boy roms. Repro carts are just roms put onto a donor cart or flash cart. While reproductions of unloved and dismissed games is certainly meant for the benefit of gamers, I simply meant in the word of law it is still illegal. In the eyes of the law, there is no argument. In the eyes of sanity and reasoning, of course there is little reason these big conglomerates should care about these old and abandoned ignored games.
It’s harder to DL Galactic Pinball today than it was last year, and it’s easier to DL Bound High than it was…ever!
Whether to stroke their egos or to actually re-release a great game, Big companies exercise their rights to snuff out intellectual property rights more than we would dare have a nightmare about. I played Space invaders and Virtual lab before I bought it. These days, you just have to buy it to try it out.
While a fan making you an illegal Earthound Zero cart from a ROM at no monetary gain is pleasant, to gauge actual law on realistic personal desires vs NOA’s Vengeance on the collector’s community is a completely different monster.
Every month that passes that VB games don’t show up on the 3DS virtual console is just another month that makes me dislike Nintendo more for their unexcused 20-30 year old piracy crackdown on vintage titles that they have no intention of re-releasing.

I was not directing my arguement towards you, or anyone. Eventhough it’s piracy, would it be illegal for someone to own what some would call a pirated cart?

• This reply was modified 13 years, 2 months ago by VBrulez.

[VBrulez]

Hedgetrimmer wrote:

VBrulez wrote:

gunpeiyokoifan wrote:
I have interest in Dragon Hopper, I would love to see it released in ROM form!

It’s nice to finally see someone respond to this thread. Who knows maybe one day everyone will be able to play a ROM of Dragon Hopper. Three years ago Bound High seemed impossible, but look at it now.

I too would love to see it, as would, I am guessing, everyone who frequents here.

I don’t want to ‘rain on your parade’ but there were roms of Bound high out there with quite a few folks before it was posted, long before, they may have been glitchy etc but they existed and were playable, please (please please) correct me if I’m wrong but we have never even had a sniff of a Dragon Hopper rom, thats not to say it don’t exist but if it does someone is keeping very quiet.
This old ‘release the rom cart looses some value’ argument raises its head again but its a very real concern for anyone with proto/rare/unreleased carts, not that i own any but i see the worry.

Someone has a cart of Dragon Hopper. I’m not pointing fingers to anyone here on the site, if someone on here had it they would share. Just saying someone in this world has the game and knows what it is.
With the ‘release the rom cart looses some value’ arguement, people should just have a fundraiser. That way they can get back whatever they paid, and then some, so even if it does go down in value they would get a lot of money for it, before the rom gets released.
Heres a note to any possible VB proto owners reading this.
Please consider a fundraiser, or something. 64dd.net recently raised $1200 for a 64DD game that can’t even be emulated yet. Think about how much you could get for a game on a more popular system, that can be emulated.

• This reply was modified 13 years, 2 months ago by VBrulez.

[VBrulez]

VirtualJockey wrote:

VBrulez wrote:
Yeah. It doesn’t make since why haven’t released the game on Virtual Console or anything. Like you said they just don’t want our money apparently.

I’ve been wanting to play the Earthbound games for years, and the first one would be a good place to start, especially on it’s own cartridge.

So Earthbound NES/Mother 1, is one of your top ten games ever made for the console. Just for curiousity what are the other nine?

My personal top 10 would be difficult. Lets just say the obvious classics such as Super Mario Bros 1 & 3, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, the entire Mega Man series, and other misc titles that are personally nostalgic to me. Mother 1 is one of those titles that would have been considered a classic to all had it been released.

L___E___T wrote:
and what’s more, the NES repro guy is charging for parts and labour.

Good point.

It’s about as illegal as jay-walking I’d say.

You know, I’ve actually got a jay-walking ticket before!? It blew my mind.

Nintendo make it a policy not to chase after and punish fan activity like this. It all enriches their name and community and is not deriving them of major income, so please don’t feel like their seething at the thought of this. They didn’t want to invest in it themselves because Earthbound is NOT massive in the West despite what teh internetz would suggest – but they’re certainly not going to shut anyone down over it.

I wouldn’t be so certain, in recent years the big N has been removing VB roms from websites. Lets hope that it’s due to the possible intention of adding them to the 3DS Virtual Console.

Like L__E__T wrote, the you arn’t buying a ROM. Your paying for the craftsmenship used to build the cart.
These games are carts for systems that haven’t been sold in stores for almost twenty years. It’s not like it’s new games. If it was new stuff, it would be wrong and illegal on both ends, and the people making the games would be arrested.
I saw this Youtube video of a news segment, where people who made and sold pirated PS1 games when they were new, got tracked down and arrested, because the games were still in stores. Eventhough PS1 games arn’t in stores anymore, I think that copys/reproductions of anything PS1 and newer is illegal.
It seems that if these reproduction sites of old games haven’t been busted and shut down like those pirated PS1 sites on that Youtube video, it doesen’t seem like they ever will. Because if reproductions of old games was really piracy and so bad, wouldn’t they have been arrested, like those PS1 people?
It’s a old system you can’t buy anymore, not a new one you can walk into Walmart and get.

• This reply was modified 13 years, 2 months ago by VBrulez.

gunpeiyokoifan wrote:
I have interest in Dragon Hopper, I would love to see it released in ROM form!

It’s nice to finally see someone respond to this thread. Who knows maybe one day everyone will be able to play a ROM of Dragon Hopper. Three years ago Bound High seemed impossible, but look at it now.

[VBrulez]

VirtualJockey wrote:
I played through Earthbound “Zero” on a GBA flashcart many years ago. Yes it’s absolutely not a legal form of ownership to own one and especially not legal to manufacture them. However, it’s a great game and Nintendo did no justice by canning the release and never offering an official alternative.
There is no legal way to own this game. Even if you shell out over 1k on eBay when an offifial proto pops up, it’s PROPERTY of Nintendo or the developers.

All in all, Mother 1/NES Earthbound is one of the top 10 games ever made for the console. Fans have screamed bloody murder for at least a decade to get this released, but it seems that Hal and Nintendo don’t want our money.

Yeah. It doesn’t make since why haven’t released the game on Virtual Console or anything. Like you said they just don’t want our money apparently.

I’ve been wanting to play the Earthbound games for years, and the first one would be a good place to start, especially on it’s own cartridge.

So Earthbound NES/Mother 1, is one of your top ten games ever made for the console. Just for curiousity what are the other nine?

• This reply was modified 13 years, 2 months ago by VBrulez.
• This reply was modified 13 years, 2 months ago by VBrulez.
• This reply was modified 13 years, 2 months ago by VBrulez.
• This reply was modified 13 years, 2 months ago by VBrulez.
• This reply was modified 13 years, 2 months ago by VBrulez.

Srimok wrote:

VBrulez wrote:

Srimok wrote:
I always lol when people get too overly concerned about legalities. Everything on the internet is illegal. Half of Youtube is illegal, Lots of stuff on this site is illegal, and if you want an example a little closer to yours how about all those Bound High carts everyone has on here. Just buy the cart and enjoy. I do not own an Earth Bound cart for the NES but I have heard great things about it.

I kinda over worry about stuff, sometimes. The Bound High carts is a really great example, never thought about that. Thats a really good game to. Also if you want the link to the site that has EarthBound, and many others, I can send it to you via PM. A lot of people on Youtube like it, so it should be trustworthy.

Yah sure I would be interested in checking out the site.

PM sent.