Gunpei Yokoi's Withered Technology: Virtual Boy, Game & Watch, Wonderswan, etc. Let's laterally think!

[Kazin]

Found last night at one of the game shops here in town:

That's a pretty great price for that, sealed. Did you pick it up?

I’m sad that the new Game and Watches are apparently a huge pain to hack, because I’d love to turn one into a G&W Gallery machine.

I am definitely 100% hacking my Zelda one, as soon as instructions come out (they may have already, haven't looked in a few days). Having a Start and Select button makes so many more games viable on it compared to the Mario G&W.

I'll post about it here if I'm successful, and if then you want me to hack yours, we could work something out.

 

[ArugulaZ]

Yeah, the Microvision was made back in the late 70s and as such was super primitive. The CPU was built into the carts rather than the system and the screen had a whopping 16x16 pixel resolution. It made the Game Boy seem like a Rolls Royce by comparison. And yet there was just enough there in 1985 (when I got my first) to be entertaining.

 

[Kazin]

You all should send me your Microvisions (I've never even held one, much less seen on IRL lol)

 

[ThornGhost]

I've been meaning to post this in here for a while now, but if you are looking for a cheap and easy to find way to display your new G&Ws, I have found that a phone pop socket works great. It preserves the clean look of the device unlike a lot of the cradles you find, plus you can just pop it in when you want to play.

 

[Kazin]

Bought my first Game & Watch unit in quite a while - Donkey Kong Circus, a super, super rare one that usually goes for $500 for just a working unit. For $250, I got a busted unit in great cosmetic condition, and the box in kind of crap condition, but there nonetheless. After taking it apart, replacing a ribbon cable the community has come up with a replacement part for, and by resoldering the top PCB so the Right button worked, I now have a fully working unit AND box. I'm super, super pumped. Pics below (taken from the eBay listing since the repairs are all inside anyway and my camera sucks):

51/58 original Game & Watches collected. Seven to go. Gonna be a while - as you can imagine, they're the really expensive ones.

 

[Phantoon]

Bought my first Game & Watch unit in quite a while - Donkey Kong Circus, a super, super rare one that usually goes for $500 for just a working unit. For $250, I got a busted unit in great cosmetic condition, and the box in kind of crap condition, but there nonetheless. After taking it apart, replacing a ribbon cable the community has come up with a replacement part for, and by resoldering the top PCB so the Right button worked, I now have a fully working unit AND box. I'm super, super pumped. Pics below (taken from the eBay listing since the repairs are all inside anyway and my camera sucks):

51/58 original Game & Watches collected. Seven to go. Gonna be a while - as you can imagine, they're the really expensive ones.

That's beautiful. Very jealous

 

[MetManMas]

Had to look this up for myself.

 

[Kazin]

Yeah, the light comes through the semi transparent white bit when the unit is open, which then projects the image of the game onto the mirror for the player to see. It's quite well designed in my opinion, at least in terms of use - the Panorama units (as they're called) are by far the easiest Game & Watches to see, provided sufficient lighting. The tabletop units that look like little arcade cabinets work in the exact same way.

I'd meant to post about the gameplay too - the Donkey Kong Circus/Mickey Mouse Panorama units (which are clones of each other, just with DK/Mickey Mouse graphics swapped) are the one Game & Watch game I'd never actually played, so I was excited to finally try this one. It's a spin on Chef of all things, though in this game fireballs come down that you want to avoid. It's pretty fun! Not hundreds of dollars fun, of course, but then I'm a sucker for these things and want to collect them all anyway.

 

[Kazin]

Good news is, I have wireless controller functionality for my Virtual Boy now, courtesy of RetroOnyx. Bad news is, my Virtual Boy has the beginnings of graphical glitches, which apparently means the connections inside are starting to deteriorate! It's not so bad at the moment, and after playing for a while and making sure my flash cart was seated well, nearly disappeared. I'll have to do some research on how to fix it, and am considering buying an already broken unit to practice on and hopefully fix, to then flip. Sucks! I wonder if I haven't been using my Virtual Boy enough lol. I wanted to play through Jack Bros. this year on actual hardware!

The wireless functionality is nice though, since the power running from the actual VB controller can be accidentally shut off if you put pressure on it from the bottom, which is easy to do if your hands are resting on a table (which they would be - how the heck else are you supposed to play VB?). Now I can get as comfortable as possible to play VB. And, maybe in the future I'll consoleize a VB if I can't fix a broken eye, for which wireless functionality will be crucial lol

 

[Kazin]

Has there been a VB emulator for a VR headset yet? Because that seems like an obvious idea but I can't say I've ever heard of it.

There's this, but I don't have a VR headset so I have no idea how well it works.

 

[Troa11]

Has there been a VB emulator for a VR headset yet? Because that seems like an obvious idea but I can't say I've ever heard of it.

Not strictly a VR based emulator - but 95% sure that the Mednafen core will render the game 3D (like, you would send to a 3D TV or projector) and then a VR app like BigScreen Beta will let you view that in a 3D screen in your headset. Not 100% authentic but... similar?

 

[Kazin]

So I sent my Virtual Boy off to get the Virtual Ribbon repair install service from Stone Age Gamer, and decided to play a game I never had before on my flashcart when I got the system back today, and booted up Space Squash.

I had a blast playing it, and actually beat it. My back hurts and I'm a little sore from playing the Virtual Boy for like an hour straight, but I honestly had a lot of fun. The 3D actually matters, here, and it doesn't suck like Red Alarm or whatever! It's essentially 3D third person Pong, and you can put some English on the ball when you hit it and there are different shaped arenas and barriers and stuff, and even bosses every five levels or so. The hardest boss, for me, was the monkey robot, which is the second to last - it periodically stretches it's arm out to hit you, and can reach you from any part of the level, so as soon as you hear him start to attack, you have to move to dodge, while also keeping an eye on the ball to make sure it doesn't get past you. The last normal match gave me a lot of trouble, too - he plays nearly perfectly, and hits the ball back at you hard, so you don't have a lot of time to react, but thanks to the excellent depth of field effects, you can hang in there. Having limited continues sucks, but I was able to squeak through with one extra one by the end.

I can't imagine this would play well at all without original hardware, though, so unless you're a fellow sicko who has a Virtual Boy and the ability to play Space Squash (an actual cart appears to be going for $150+ on eBay, which I can't say is worth it, as much fun as I had with it), I wouldn't bother emulating it.

 

[Kazin]

New Virtual Boy homebrew game War Zone:

 

[Kazin]

So this came in the mail today, a way to power my Virtual Boy with a USB-C connection, which is wild. It's just a tiny little thing:

The website to order one is here. You do need a USB-C adapter with high enough output, so a fast charger works - I tried with my portable battery, but it doesn't output enough juice. Ah well. This is mainly as a backup in case my OEM power supply thing dies.

 

[Kazin]

Bound High, which was unreleased but eventually leaked online, is incredible. It rivals Wario Land for best game on the Virtual Boy, to be honest - if any of you has a hacked 3DS, play it on Red Viper (or, if you're spicy and have a Virtual Boy and a flash cart or a repro, play it there). The 3D really adds to the experience. It's a fun little game. I wish there was more of it!

 

[Sarge]

Gon' have to check this out. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Kazin]

You can sit down and beat easy or normal mode in less than an hour (probably hard mode too, I just haven't done it yet, though I plan to) and have a good time with it. Let me know if you like it!

 

[Kazin]

I got to open a brand new in box Virtual Boy game and filmed it, since I probably won't ever get to again (it's just Virtual League Baseball, which sucks, and the VB community told me to open it since the shrinkwrap often damages the box over time):

 

[Kazin]

Someone in the Virtual Boy discord I'm in (lol) made me aware of this playable version of the unreleased Game & Watch Tetris. It's fascinating - it plays, of all things, like mode C on V-Tetris for Virtual Boy, only years before that game was ever made (and I doubt was even known about by Locomotive and Bullet Proof Software who developed and produced V-Tetris). It's fun, but weird! You move the well around rather than the pieces themselves, though you can still rotate them. Wild! I wish I could buy a real handheld of this!

Here's a video of the actual unit being played:

 

[Kazin]

I do not want to talk about how much I paid for Jack Bros (seriously, I don't - just know it's by far the most expensive video game I own now by a long shot, I'm a huge dumbass for buying it, and yes, I will be paying off my credit card for a few months ffs), but I now have a complete North American complete in box Virtual Boy collection:

Suffice to say, considering what I fucking paid for it, I will be playing through and beating Jack Bros this year. And no, I will not be buying the complete Japanese set - Virtual Lab is godawful and worth like 5x what Jack Bros here was, and that's before you even get into the also terrible SD Gundam and the good, but RIDICULOUSLY priced Virtual Bowling, which is like 10x Jack Bros. Absolutely not, no way.

 

[Sarge]

Whoa. Congrats on snagging them all! I think Jack Bros. is the only game I've never seen in the wild, which makes sense given its rarity. The rarest VB game I own is a loose copy of Nester's Funky Bowling.

Also... I'm pretty sure I can hear your wallet screaming from here. But if you're financially secure, I'd say it was worth it. I don't see the value coming down, either, so it's not like you couldn't resell it in a pinch.

 

[Kazin]

Yeah, that was how I was justifying it to myself - it's the most I've ever spent on a single videogame by a lot. It was a Best Offer, too, so it wasn't the going rate, though it's still far, far more than I'd have liked to have paid, but... Yeah, I doubt it's going to go down in value. I certainly won't forget how much I paid for it!

I like Nester's Funky Bowling. It's not a masterpiece or anything, but it is a competent, if very basic bowling game. The 3D effect is minimal but nice.

 

[Sarge]

I'll be honest, that may happen with me soon with Panzer Dragoon Saga. I think I should have jumped on it a while back - it had slipped under $1000 occasionally, but seems to be on the rise again. At the very least I might gather up a bunch of my dupes in my collection to bankroll it.

 

[Kazin]

There's a copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga at the game store about two hours from here I got my Vectrex from for, iirc, $1100 - lower than I thought, but far more than I'd be willing to pay for discs lol (but that's just me being weird about CD and DVD media). At least I like Jack Bros. Waterworld was far, far cheaper (I got a really good deal on it from someone in the Virtual Boy discord), but that game sucks lmao

Man though. If you do end up getting it, please post pics of it in the Saturn thread. Would be an amazing pickup for sure!

 

[Beowulf]

I'm suddenly so glad I'm not in the market for physical media, because boy howdy that's an expensive hobby.

 

[Sarge]

There's a copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga at the game store about two hours from here I got my Vectrex from for, iirc, $1100 - lower than I thought, but far more than I'd be willing to pay for discs lol (but that's just me being weird about CD and DVD media).

That is absolutely a concern for me going forward - seems like a lot of stuff from that and the Dreamcast era has issues. Probably a good argument against getting it, haha. I did kind of assuage my desires a bit by buying the Japanese version, though, so I do own it in some form at least!

 

[Kazin]

@Sarge Well - and I promise this is not me trying to drag someone else down with me financially (lol I'll be okay) - you could buy Panzer Dragoon Saga, rip the discs to your PC since Saturn games have no copy protection iirc, then use those ISOs on emulators and your ODE

 

[Sarge]

Oh, believe me, that's how I'd be playing regardless, after doing a rip to make sure the discs still actually work.

I remember balking at the price back 20 years ago, as a poor grad student (part of the reason I bought a Saturn and modded it!), but it's clearly much worse now.

 

[Tegan]

How does everyone here store their GB carts? I'm not looking to expand the storage I've got now, but the stickerbombed acrylic box I've got all of mine in isn't really my aesthetic anymore.

 

[Kazin]

@Tegan, I am so glad you asked:

Speaking of GB/GBC/GBA, I finished a project today:

So these are custom cassette cases I made using art found online and in many cases, made myself with a template (you will be surprised to learn, I'm sure, that no one on the internet has made a GBA Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam cassette lmao). Inside are my cartridges in these little folded up cardstock things that keep them from flapping around in there, getting damaged (I also cut out the spindle holder things in the case itself). The cassette holder is a $50 thing I found on Amazon, that my wife helped me stain (because while I can do many things, anything I can do is not actually useful - her talents are actually useful lol). Didn't stain the inside bits because it's kind of a pain and we didn't feel like it. This is mounted to the wall, so it simultaneously freed up shelf space, while also making it easier to take a game down, without having to gingerly Jenga the game I want out of the stack.

It was a huge pain though, as you can imagine. Even after creating/sourcing the art, they then had to be printed, cut out, folded, and put into each cassette case, with the cardboard insert cut out, folded, and fit in there as best as possible. I had to make three templates for this insert, too - one for GB/GBC, and two for GBA - one for regular games, and one that holds two cartridges for those later Mega Man Battle Network games (which I plan on getting all of, so I'll probably redo MMBN3 to have both Blue and White on it. Also the game inbetween 4 and 5 is a fan translation cartridge of the otherwise Japan-only MMBN 4.5).

Shoutout to Your Cool Uncle Marisa for the idea and the templates. A good chunk of the art I sourced from The Cover Project.

It is done:

Each cassette has a game (or in the later MMBN games' case, two) in it, and this is my cap. This is my full collection. If I want to buy another GB/GBC/GBA game, I have to sell one of these. This not only preserves my wallet, but preserves the look here. Also all these carts are protected from dust and presumably humidity and whatnot. Shame the games on top don't fit in traditional cassette cases...