Head to DogP's site now ! This is not a joke ! - December 19, 2002 @ 11:29 AM GMT+11 ~ Pete
Latest news: just a quick update peoples, thanks to DogP, new photos of Faceball and Virtual Bowling proto games have been released ! It's his find, this is just news to you and a link to read more ! http://projectvb.vze.com

Faceball actual game screenshot:

Virtual Bowling debug screenshot:

I thought you'd gone and bought Night Vision goggles! - December 15, 2002 @ 11:56 AM GMT+11 ~ Pete
Well hello all you VB Freaks out there ! I've finally upgraded from just doing the images to now also making a contribution now and then to the front page :)
So if you don't like my ramblings,well, I guess its Stiff Cheddar for you !
Anyways, as a first post, I don't have any news at the moment, so I'm gonna ask everyone who's reading this who owns a Virtual Boy a question:
"When you friends come over and see your VB, what do they immediately think it is ?"
You can email your replies directly to me at progers@bigpond.net.au , the best ones will be redisplayed on th front page from me. 
Im curious as to what others have had said/asked of them about it since I had a good mate come over once, stare at with awe on his face, and then after I told him it was a videogame, he said "Oh, Id thought you'd gone and bought night vision goggles!"

Well, I may be a poster now on the front page, but dont think I still wont be doing images..now that Ive had time off school things are going to be a little different around here...... :)
Anyways, it's time for me to find something to go do now, South Park is on so it looks like that's what's up for now.
Peace to all you peoples,
Asta
-Pete

PS : This just in ! Thanks to Skeg64 on the VB boards, in Japan there was an auction for a huge load of VB related goodies, including promotional posters. One of which is for........VIRTUAL BOMBERMAN !! Could this spell more good news about its depth of development for us ? Who knows !

Virtual Lab Sale & Ferry's Absence - October 18, 2002 @ 02:00 AM GMT+8 ~ Iko Da
Hey guys, just letting you know that I am selling a brand new Virtual Lab on ebay! Thats right, one of the very rare games out there is up for auction so click to check it out here.

In other news, Ferry has been absent the past few weeks due to the passing of his grandfather and for his busy studies. This is a sad time for ferry and we hope you can understand. All the Virtual-boy.net staff send our sympathy man.

On a brighter note I would like to announce that a slight change of format is coming for v-b net. I can't give out any details just yet but I can say that it will be a welcome change for everyone browsing our site, vb related or otherwise.

A sad day - October 04, 2002
Check out our Gunpei Yokoi shrine and commemorate the VB's daddy.
"Today is the 5th anniversary of Gunpei Yokoi's death. I found your site just now. I was looking for pictures of Yokoi. You know what the really sad part about his death is? He was never put into the Hall of Fame. Miyamoto and another person are the only two. This Hall of Fame was created until 1998 so he missed by a year."
Thanks for pointing this out to us Joshua Lindquist. we didn't forget, we were just... you know, preoccupied.

"We'll always miss the man and the power of his vision."
~Nintendo Power, December 1997 Issue 103

Your virtual fix - October 03, 2002 @ 09:06 PM GMT+1 ~ FerryG

I guess when I say "update tomorrow" all drowsy late at night, I really mean much later, heh sorry about that. But hey, at least we got to go to the beach a couple of times before the summer turned rainy 24/7. I wrote the above 6 weeks ago, but never really had the time to finish it, I guess I'm updating today to keep my mind off the death of my grandpa, today at around 4pm he breathe out his last breath. We knew it was coming for a while and I'm glad I got to say goodbye, but it doesn't make it any less depressing. Still, knowing he turned 77 and said he had a good life but it's time to leave now, makes me believe things will be ok, rest in peace grandpa, you'll be missed. Tomorrow Super Mario Sunshine gets released in Europe, maybe that'll make me a little less sad. Now what do I have for you.... Thanks to Dean Young from Australia, I've uploaded a two page article from Edge Magazine 1994 about the early thoughts on the VB, referred to back then only as a Nintendo 32-bit VR machine: - Article opening with a Mr. Yokoi picture; - Second page of the article quoting Mr. Yamauchi. Special thanks go to Riley Gallant from the USA for typing out an article for us on Gunpei Yokoi's life from the January 2002 issue of Game Informer: - Text-only written article on the top of this page.

Also just found a small clip on my computer from EGM#10 1996 about Gunpei leaving Nintendo, interesting here is how it's noted that he kept pushing the Virtual Boy into the spotlight, despite lower than expected sales and concerns about it's success. Now I hate to be the mamma of drama, but that makes me sad yet proud at the same time being a Virtual Boy owner. Take a look at the article here. As for me getting new VB articles, almost a year ago I bought a whole stack of new VB related Nintendo magazines, so once I'm finished saving up to get them send to my home I'll look through them and hopefully scan a lot of red pages.

While we're still on the subject of articles, thanks to Krisse at PlanetVB for uncovering some more EGM January '95 Virtual Boy pages: 1, 6, 56, 88, 89. And a really funny, well if you can read Japanese I'm sure it's funny, comic from Famitsu pages: one&two. Now for something entirely different, something at first I thought was a joke, but it seems Krisse was up late one evening looking for a pornographic movie to watch on the porno television network in Germany. Well, to make his long sex story short: He saw an erotic movie named "Virtual Girl!" Hehe, it seems a guy sits down on a chair with a VB unit attached to it and then goes as a virtual boy into a virtual world where he "meets" a virtual girl and then they "do stuff", here are some non-erotic pictures:

- the virtual girl startup screen / the virtual helmet / the virtual chair / the virtual girl -
This whole oversexed subject reminds me of an email I received recently concerning our Enhancing The Virtual Boy arena projects. Here's that email that gave me such a big laugh!... *ouch*

Hi again, Checking your page today, you can say that I asked my girlfriend about "Having sex while playing Virtual Boy", and I got the score "smack on the face"! :-P

For the code freaks amongst us, thanks to code cracker/rom hacker extraordinaire Quinton Buckley, we have some new Panic Bomber codes & Jack Bros. codes/passwords (take note of the hard mode ones) on the Codes/Cheats section.

There's a great new Virtual Boy projects website in our mids created by Qbert from The Netherlands...
Qbert VirtualBoy Headband Instructions - How to make a VB Headband in detail!
If the site doesn't work, I'll get a backup of the instructions from Qbert soon enough, including many many pictures on how to create this great project yourself, no worries there. Also check out the vbforum for some new modification discussions from the regulars.

Here is a (2 proto vb games) interview with Dan Staskevicius from America. I tracked Dan down via the internet and emailed him after reading THIS article about his visit to Nintendo of America's Headquarters back in the day of the SNES & VB & early N64 Nintendo Power coverage. I asked him to give some comment on the games he playtested according to the article.
Here is his response:

Hi Ferry,

I never realized that google was THAT good a search engine... wow. Looking back at that article, I realized that it's written very unclearly. Bounce High & Dragon Hopper were actually SNES games that I got to try out as a "bug" tester. What I got to do in terms of the VB was win 10 games and the system. So, in response to your question, I guess I'm not of much use to you!

Sorry about the misunderstading,
-Dan Staskevicius

I don't know about you readers out there, but I'm thoroughly confused! Bound High & Dragon Hopper were definately never released (or even planned) for the SNES and the only information and images that have come out were from the VB, so either Dan is wrongly remembering his visit to NOA, or I just helped another weird virtual rumour into the world *continues to be confused and also dissapointed Dan did not bother to reply again*

Soon we'll upload new in-game Virtual Bowling pictures and I'll show off some pics of my VB collection at it's completest, including very special close up images of a VB Development Kit. I also promise to finally update the vbfanlist and add the last 10 new VB fans. For one last point, I should say that Iko Da and me are planning to do something special with 6 VB head units we bought a while back, you just wait and see, it'll be really fun.

About the downtime - August 18, 2002 @ 02:34 AM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
At the start of this month we were offline for a week or so, because of some domain & webspace problems, but luckily everything is fixed again as you can see, kudos go to our host Chaz! ^_^
I've been replying to emails the past hour and I still have over 40 to go, so I'm off to sleep now, but I'll have scans, pictures, articles, interviews, mods, codes, and more in store for tomorrow, to give you all an extra big virtual fix. Goodnight and sleep tight.

Crazy update time - July 22, 2002 @ 10:51 PM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
Wow, I've been under the weather for a while, good to be back though. I've got some nice stuff for you all.
First off, I wanted to say how awesome it is that we reached a HUNDRED people on the VB Fan List!! Congrats go to Johann for being our #100th fan. Everyone selecting their favorite unreleased future games, gives us a good indication into which direction any such possible (demo)game might go, but more on that when there's actually something to report. It remains awesome to see more and more people becoming VB fans, as last year we got about 1500 visitors each month, which has this year risen to over 2500 a month, not too shabby for a little fansite, well at least it feels like that every time we update.

Second, skeg64 from the 'VB Forum' mentioned in 'This Topic' there might be glitch in VB Mario's Tennis, if anyone can verify this, then post a message on the thread. Here's the possible glitch:
I don't know exactly why it happens but I'll try to explain.
It's not a major glitch, but a problem with the scoring system. Sometimes, when I'm playing a set, and the score is deuce, with the opponent's advantage, I will stupidly serve a double fault. This should end the set, right? Well instead, I win the point!! The score goes back to deuce as if I had won it.
Has anyone else seen this happen?
At first I thought I wasn't reading the score properly but the other day it happenned right in front of my eyes when I was looking for it.
I don't know what exactly does it, but I'm sure it happens. Weird!!

Cyril from Defunct Games saw IkoDa's weird Enhancing the VB Arena tests (originally on his VB Weird Shit Page, which later merged with v-b.net) and wanted to take the ball and run with it, so he did this in his Enjoying Your VB Even More While You're... feature. Like us he does note: Now listen, if you're stupid enough to take this article seriously then you are stupid enough to get hurt. So come on people, read with care. I simply say: Have FUN hehe! ;-) I believe IkoDa actually got someone to try to whole (dare I say it) virtual sex dealio on his user feedback page.

The newest VB page under the sun is "VeeBee Development"! And if you think this letter font is red, go check out David Williamsons website hehe. He's working on a VB Emulation Utility, so if you're wondering what it'll turn out to be, he says it's coming soon. This latest VB website makes a total of 88 American VB sites active online, see the Links section for more. Talking about VB pages, if you're wondering where PlanetVB went, they are temporarily offline, I don't know if this is because they ran out of webspace, or because their last update was about a porno movie called Virtual Girl. Of course I'm just kidding about that last one, but I'll ask the webmasters about it and have more news on this next time.

I'll soon put up some new VB articles virtualpal send us (many thanks for those), but in the meantime glare at the incredible ability of Japanese programmers to type the English language in INcorrect grammar!

Dean took this screenshot from his JPN Virtual Bowling game to show us what happens when you get the high score in VIRTUAL BOWLING, and here we thought VIRTUAL LAB  was the only one with spelling mistakes.
Well.... Congraturations on your discovery Dean! *har har har* :)

Be good. Talk about VB on the Forum. And play some VB too, there's a reason I keep this site updated and part of it is because the VB is hug-able, not that I "hug" my VB. I mean, I don't. I just "embrace" it once in a while, that's not strange is it? Don't look all weird at me, it's perfectly normal to find your VB love-able, well I'm going to go now, and remember that I DON'T hug my VB, really.

The last official Nintendo VB press release - July 01, 2002 @ 01:36 PM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
Guess what happens when Ferry finally gets a Summer holiday? It starts to rain and he catches a horrible cold, yay, ugh, I only got 10 hours of sleep this weekend while lying in bed most the time, my eyes are half past red by now... get it? Red! haha... hah hah *sneeze* I'm sorry about that... the bad joke, not the sneezing ;-)
While I'm on a bit of a rant run, I wanted to let everyone know I feel really bad about the lack of email contact, and irregular updates, I'm sure by now everyone has noticed we try to update something fresh vb-wise at least once a week and I try to reply to the many emails each week, but since I've been so busy I haven't had much time to come online, the good news in this is that I'll have a lot of fun things to update the coming while.
Behind the scenes I had to sell off a lot of my personal vb collection the past months to be able to pay for a possible VB Development Kit, something I'm not proud of, but I'll live knowing my stuff will end up in good hands, plus possibly being able to have a new game programmed makes it worth the sacrifices.
Below I have something special for you all, it's the last Nintendo Virtual Boy press release that was ever handed out to Electronic Entertainment Expo press visitors:

Birthday Blowout Edition! - June 16, 2002 @ 02:30 PM GMT+8 ~ Iko Da
Wow, it has been an intense week over here and it just keeps getting better. There were a few downers early on in the week, but the weekend made up for that.
After 2 parties, some nice gifts and some not so nice gifts I have dragged myself to the keyboard to bring you some well needed updates.

As you can probably tell from the title, yes my birthday is near! Which is why I wanted to share with you some stuff I have been working on. Well soon anyways. The Virtual Boy Projects page has been updated with some links and the list of new projects being worked on. Check them out you may find them interesting.

Also I bring you a new section of Virtual-Boy.net! Our Feedback page where you have your own say and we take emails and so on and post them for everyone to see. Click Here if you want to send in any feedback. If you are more into "game memories" check out our reader tributes to the left sidebar.

Finally I can post my new Email address, I can now be contacted at iko_da01@hotmail.com
I am sure ferry can incorporate my addy into the updates with his MaD Haxx0r skillz.

-Iko Da

Sweet virtual dreams - June 12, 2002 @ 00:16 AM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
Just the other day I was having the weirdest dream... I was walking/jumping around in my hometown on a pogo-stick and saw an electronics (game) store I sometimes visit and saw this huge "virtual boy" flag in all the right colors hanging near their counter, so I go to it to see how much it costs and want to buy it, but then I see a few loose Virtual Boy cartridges lying there in between not even released GameCube games like Mario, Zelda, Starfox & Metroid, I think they were Galactic Pinball, some mystery game I'd never seen before, and Waterworld (remember I live in Holland where the VB was never released and this wasn't an import store) so I buy everything with a big grin on my face and then Iko Da asks me (he was the bloke behind the counter hah!) if I know that each cart costs $600 and I respond with "yes that's a pretty cheap price don't you agree"?!?! And then the dream ended with me waking up all confused and quickly checking my bank write offs, heh, good thing none of my friends are going away this Summer either, I wouldn't want anyone to think I'm a VB freak... oh wait... too late!

PS: Thanks to our regular virtualpal we added a new score trick for VB Space Invaders to the Codes page.
PSS: I tracked down someone who played two VB protos at NintendoHQ, exclusive interview will follow.
PSSS:

Thanks for changing my blinking into a winking Mario lameboyadvance!

New Virtual Boy Projects - June 01, 2002 @ 02:20 PM GMT+8 ~ Iko Da
Hi everyone, It has been awhile but I am back. I am now known as "Iko Da" but don't let that confuse you :)
I will have a new email address soon so stay tuned.

I have been secretly working on a few VB Projects, I think it's time to add some new ones don't you think? Thanks for all the people who gave me feedback regarding the previous projects, I have some VERY interesting outcomes to the existing projects to put up that were submitted by you!

Other than that have you guys seen the Holographic display that Nintendo had at E3 2002? If you look closely at message boards and such this is bringing back alot of conversation regarding the Virtual Boy as people are doing comparisons and alot of opinion has been shared.

Speaking of Nintendo and the Cube I have been enjoying Super Smash Bros and Luigi of late. How about you Ferry? I know that Resident Evil will be in my lap next week so I can't wait to test that out and hopefully do a review for the upcoming www.gamecubepal.com

So you can look out for the new Virtual Boy projects and also my views on Resident evil on gcpal.com very soon! Until then stay safe!

-Iko Da

Gunpei is smiling at us in the Heaven ^_^ - May 26, 2002 @ 02:30 PM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
The subject title is a direct quote from my friend in Japan, and I think he's right, here's some newly discovered online vb manual info that could hold the key to unraveling the VB's core secrets:

ROM info:
Compilation method of master ROM submitting disk with §vu debugger First, from capacity please arrange the program in correct address. If the 8mbit, if the fff0:0000 - ffff:ffff 16mbit, please verify whether the ffe0:0000 - the ffff:ffff next, the ROM register data is correct in ctype command. The ROM register data is set, using the command below, please set. >Title " < title (the 20byte) > " the ↓ >Reserve 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 ↓... >Maker where it buries with 0 < the manufacturer cord/code (the 2byte) > the ↓ >Initial < the initial cord/code (the 4byte) > the ↓ >Mver < mask ROM version > everything it can set default in ↓ or ctype command. (After the ISD/W 1.12k) Just, if it is set, in vbw command the file of ROM image of the format for submitting is outputted in the present current directory. Example) ROM image of the vbw 16 ↓ 16mbit is outputted. Unless this time, it sets just in the Title, the Reserve, the Initial, the Maker and MVer command, it becomes error. The file which is outputted is divided the 1mByte (every 8mbit). Because check sum is indicated in every file in at that time, please utilize in order to state in the label which stretches that on the disk. Dividing, it will copy the file which is outputted in the floppy of the IBM1.44 format of 1 at a time 3.5inchc2hd, it will make the disk which is submitted to the Nintendo Co. business department. Note: The file which is drawn up the initial cord/code is drawn up to the current directory on the basis of and the like of registration information.

V810 info:
1994'10/19 (Wed) N.Nakano Intelligent Systems CO and Ltd. 1. ASSUME pseudo-instruction When giving the label the order which has displacement value in operand (the ld/st/in/out) vis-a-vis, the formula which is defined from number of the register which is decorated by the pseudo-instruction ASSUME from the label we have become the way which subtraction is done. For example, ---- isv810 capsoff oncnum Public gp_offset gp_offset equ 0x0500_8000 Data group org 0x0500_0000 LABEL0: Ds 4 LABEL1: Ds 4 Text group assume gp, gp_offset; *** ASSUME OFFSET *** Mov #gp_offset, gp; Gp = gp_offset ld.w LABEL1 [ gp ], r6; Because it has decorated with the gp,; The result, the same address as this is shown, -> the ld.w # (LABEL1-gp_offset) [ the gp ], the r6 ld.w #LABEL1 [ the zero ], the r6; When the # is attached before the label, ceremony and the subtraction which are appointed with the ASSUME are not done. In other words, it is constant appointment.

FAQ debugger info:
Q: With ISW Stack Overflow! And, there are times when the Fault it does. 
A: It is verified in circumstance below. SuperDrivers32 ver 1.01 + M64*.VDV In place of the M64*.VDV, please use the VGA*.VDV. The timing which occurs, when character cursor indication and movement of mouse cursor accompanies, seems that fault is done. You think there is a problem in the driver of the M64*.VDV. 
Q: The ISW comes out the not enough memory and the error which the DOS4GW outputs. 
A: The DOS4GW which is handled with the ISW, inspecting in the order of the DPMI->EMS->XCMcS->int15h, utilizes those which are found as the memory management server. When this time, selecting the EMS, when remaining memory of the EMS is not full in the 4MB, error such that memory is not enough occurs. Please increase the memory of the memory management server who corresponds. 
Q: It does not move with DOS prompt on the Japanese Windows. 
A: Formal support has not done, but it operates with only DOS prompt of English mode. 
Q: Mouse cursor is not indicated. 
A: There is a problem in the display driver and affinity of the mouse. Difference mono changing either program, please utilize.

These are not the most important files ofcourse, the other files are, and there are a lot of other text (manual guides), document (like the ones above). I can't really say much else about it since my friend hasn't been able to check everything, but I'll be sure to relay him to this VUE Tool  Debugger website, so he can check if what he found is different from what's online there :)

Off-topic: To me exams equal little sleep, so I have some catching up up to do now that their done (read: bloodshot eyes @_@). But I'm not very happy right now eventhough I have holiday, and can sleep late tomorrow, you see... Dutch TV is lousy, the only shows really worth watching weekly are Alias, Angel, Friends and Dark Angel (ok ok, I admit to watching Charmed and Bassie&Adriaan aswell), other than that I don't watch much TV at all. <<<Do not attempt to adjust your monitor, this is a streaming freedom internet bulletin, this cyberhack will last exactly 90 seconds!>>> It's all good to have a life and all, but here's what I'm getting at: when the b*stards at Fox's TV network decided to cancel a very needed third season of Dark Angel, you've got to think to yourself how stupid they must be to cancel an awesome story driven sci-fi action series that has at least 10 million viewers worldwide, we're talking heads up their monkey ass stupid here! Now pardon my crude language, but me and some friends have been BIG fans of the series for almost 2 years now, and for me seeing this series get cancelled saddens me beyond belief. I'm glad I have all the episodes of Season 1 and 2 on VideoCD, but with so many story questions gone forever unanswered now that (eventhough show creator James Camerson (Titanic, Terminator) wants to make three 2 hour long TV movies to end the series)) is very unlikely because of Fox canceling all actors/writers contracts last week :-( But there's always hope from the fanbase for example on this Save Dark Angel website where there are almost 15,000 signatures in a few days now on the petition. Dark Angel would have been the new X-Files if they hadn't moved it to the horrible Fridaynight timeslot in it's second season that caused the viewratings to drop to half of what they were in the first season, add to that little promotion and you know the rest... *sight* "They designed her to be the perfect soldier. A human weapon. Then she escaped. In a future not far from now. In a broken world. She is haunted by her past. She cannot run. She must fight. To discover her destiny." I guess it's no use fighting money hungry wolves in a corporate world. <<<This has been a streaming freedom internet bulletin, peace, out!>>>

VB Development Kit - May 12, 2002 @ 01:24 AM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
I have high hopes of arranging a complete set including the main units, language & sample program. I contacted a good friend to setup contact with the seller as most Japanese people are not eager to ship overseas, at that time after I told him that I'd like to use this unit to create new VB games, I realized again that my friend... was a professional programmer, check out his reply:
"Thank you special information.
I will get VB Develop kit. I also want to get this develop kit.
If we can get this. First, please give me this.
I will make some games, and, I give some games to you with develop kit.
I want to make new VB games."
No final deal has been made (yet) but with upcoming exams I won't be heard from for the next 2 weeks, so bare with me and keep your fingers crossed during that time for the deal to succeed :)

Ben's HMDVB page just got a clearer link, check them out as their still the #1 source for Virtual Boy manuals & etcetera:
http://www.icarusindie.com/teenproductions/
PS: Game endings added at the bottom of the codes page.

Dragon Hopper & Bound High commercials! - May 02, 2002 @ 00:05 AM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
I got this way cool email from my super secret mysterious source (aka: a friend) read on...
"I was at a game collectibles show yesterday. They had a VB set up to play (standard VB), and a few sellers had the most common games for sale. But nothing else, except --- One guy had a VHS tape of Nintendo previews. This tape had a preview for Bound High, and one for Dragon Hopper! The DH one started of by saying "Sneak Preview", then it just showed a mock-up (phony) box that said "Dragon Hopper" (nothing else), while the announcer talked about the game. But the Bound High one (no box, I think) showed maybe 10 seconds of actual gameplay in action. Have you seen that? (Hmmmm...is it on your site? I don't think so.) I tried to get him to sell it to me, but he said no, but finally said 'we'll talk later.' So maybe."

Of course I asked what the game looked like...
"It looked to be like Jack Bros, with an overhead view of a kind of maze. You have to navigate a bouncing ball over empty spaces and probably avoid or bounce on enemies. When the VB died, a major national chain here started selling them for $20 or $30 each. I recall that the chain printed up signs they used nationally in every store that listed the available titles. They included Bound High and Dragon Hopper. To this day, I don't understand how a national chain that bought out thousands of Virtual Boys could list unreleased titles, so I assume that Nintendo still planned to release them right up to that time (which would mean they were complete and ready to go). But who knows. I asked for a copy, but he said he doesn't have 2 vcr's. I'll be working on the guy to get it."
It'll be very interesting to see if we can eventually get these movies online, more as it develops :)

New computer VB emulator and more - April 26, 2002 @ 00:14 AM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
First off I wanted to thank everyone for all the praises and store item related emails, it's not every week I get over 50 people mailing me regarding VB, so many thanks, I'm sorry I had to dissapoint many looking for things I sold almost directly, but seeing so much interest will definately make us sell more VB games & other items here, well I just updated the store with all I have left in stock right now. I always try to reply all mails asap, but I'm preparing college exams for next month, so I don't have much time to hobby around VB and respond often. Moving on to the real newsitems.
Scanned and added 4 new pictures of the unreleased Japanese Mahjong game Virtual Double!
There was a NEW Virtual Boy emulator released early April by Frostgiant, behold... Red Dragon! And I quote:
"Red Dragon, a cross-platform Virtual Boy emulator for Windows, DOS & Linux. This is a Virtual Boy emulator basically using the Reality Boy 0.7 source code and adding a few enhancements such as: GUI layer, Save States, Reconfigurable Keys. Expect more from this in the future, but with the release of ViBE for Mac, I decided it was time for PC users to get something new too. Most of this code has been around since August. I have also figured out the first four VB sound channels for the most part but the sound is still a little off and has been omitted from this release. I'm working on sound support and auto speed throttling as we speak." Please POST your comments!

For Sale: VB Magazine & Games! (Updated!!)- April 15, 2002 @ 08:53 PM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
It's about time I re-opened our VB store after being closed for a year! I'm going to liquidate some stock... uhm what I meant to say was... I recently got an extra copy of THIS collectors item Japanese magazine dating back 1997-1998 all nice and mint, the paper even smells new :) I've also got a mint SEALED Nester's Funky Bowling up for sale which is a credit to any VB gamer or collector. And brand new official red Nintendo earphones. Pick any of these three up and I pay for shipment worldwide. I also have a few extra boxes and manuals left, so send me some offers via email if you're interested, all of the above is put up for sale in the Store. If selling items onsite is a success, we'll definately be continueing to sell off our spare collection here and might eventually setup a trade section for everyone to offer their VB stuff. I might even be persuaded to sell this if the price is right, that's a big if however ;-)

ViBE - Virtual Boy Emulator Released - April 7, 2002 @ 03:30 PM GMT+8 ~ Iko Da
Finally it was released, and the happy bunny peasants rejoiced "oh praise the purple septor".
Yes it is true, as the rumour started as an april fools joke (or was it) it was then officially released years later on you guessed it, April 1st.

What I am talking about is ViBE, a wonderful Nintendo Virtual Boy Emulator for Macintosh.

ViBE: http://www.bannister.org/software/vibe.htm

Brought to you by Gil Pedersen who wrote most of the emulation core, and Richard Bannister who also worked on the emulator and created the Mac front end.

With sound support and a wide variety of compatibility throughout the Virtual Boy library, this has to be one of the best Virtual Boy Emulators on any platform.
I have been one of the lucky ones to have this Emulator for 2 years now or more and have watched it develop into something awesome.

A few things to consider before whipping out your emu are, this is only for Mac so if you have a PC (even under emulation) it won't work. Also please do not email Virtual-boy.net nor the authors of ViBE any questions regarding where to obtain, how to obtain or general questions about roms. We do not endorse the use of illegal backups!

Wanna see what others are saying about ViBE? http://www.vgchat.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11373&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

Finally to finish up I have collected some pictures from "around the traps" of ViBE in action. A huge thanks goes to Gil and teh slimy one for finally putting this out for public consumption! (and no you still can't have my vlab slirmy!) ;-)

V-Tetris running on ViBE

An Early 2000 ViBE Beta

April Fools - April 03, 2002 @ 00:04 PM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
I'm rather glad that with a few exceptions ;-) almost no one believed Pete's fake chatlog, but not-really-gone-blind Ferry still thought it was a darn funny April Fools joke! :-P

Space Squash Sale - March 30, 2002 @ 03:34 AM GMT+8 ~ Iko Da
Here is your chance to own this Very Rare Virtual Boy game!

This game is Brand New! It is so new that it has not even been taken out of it's little plastic bag!
It comes COMPLETE and NEW with Cart, Manual, Box, Inserts and plastic. Box is near Mint and everything else is Mint condition!!
Space Squash: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1342824775

I also have 1 Sega Dreamcast Pre-production game for sale! Be quick! Email NOW!

VB websites - March 24, 2002 @ 01:24 PM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
Got an email from Ian Maloney of DK's Fortress that he had opened a Virtual Boy Cavern section with VB infos and especially VB manual scans of Wario Land, Teleroboxer, and Red Alarm in large images, so check them out if you're looking for manuals, added his site to the ever growing links section aswell as it looks like he'll be adding reviews soon (85 English VB websites as of now). Pat also did an info update on the medium size VB demo counter unit at his VB (experiments) page which you might want to check out. 
I also got a question via email last week which I just HAD to add to the FAQ because I thought it was so darn funny! (no offense to the questioner as he was obviously very annoyed he he he):
Q. Is there any way to turn the DAMN volume down! I want to play this late at night and the volume is so loud!!
A. Check out this manual scan, it'll show you where the volume control is, and you can always try using headphones :-)
Well anyway... it looks like another one of those drowsy Sundays, where nothing you want to do is going to happen, so I'll probably end up trying to play through all 99 Mario Clash tower levels, did anyone EVER finish them all?!?!?

Virtual Boy Games for Sale UPDATE - March 18, 2002 @ 01:37 PM GMT+8 ~ Iko Da
Here is your chance to pick up a few rare and hard to find Virtual Boy games if you have not done so already.
The games are:

Nesters Funky Bowling: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1340006160

Waterworld: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1339677382

New proto screenshots + Ratings - March 13, 2002 @ 09:08 PM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
Finally scraped together enough guts to spread out my almost falling apart Japanese Tsushin magazine on the scanner for a while. So I scanned the rest of the Gunpei Yokoi interview pages and some Virtual Double Yakuman (VB Mahjong game) screenshots, check those out here and here, but I won't show the G.Y. interview until it's completely translated, else you'll just be wondering (or annoyed like me) what all those pages full of Japanese signs mean :) In other news I finally got myself to rate the Games reviewed so far (only SD-Gundam and V-bowling to go). Ratings are on a scale of 1% to 100%, the higher the better, of course these are my general impressions I got from playing these games for years, but it's safe to say the games rated above the imaginary 60% ~ 70% line can be enjoyed by everyone for the simple reason their downright alotta fun!!

Unreleased game pics + SSBM  - March 04, 2002 @ 12:55 PM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
Our virtual pal Dean dug us up some good old Nintendo May 1995 magazines and found an article with early screenshots including the following: An early beta Spaceball screenshot of the startup screen of Galactic Pinball, the startup screen of the Virtual Boy Technical Demo, and most exciting an in-game screenshot of what most seems to be like the unreleased game V1 Racer!! The latter which the magazine described as "a driving game", so I added some comments to the image, because for all we know it might just as well be a GoldenEye 007 screenshot, there's really no way of telling which of both games the screenshot belongs to by hand of the low image quality and the fact that the most important part of the pic, the car, is overlapped by another image :(
To all you people not living in PAL region countries, you'll be lucky enough have the awesome Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Nintendo GameCube, well in the trophies room of the game if you've set the game to the Japanese version (weird Ninty left it out of the US version) you'll find a Virtual Boy on the shelf behind your trophies, how cool is that! Thanks to Frostgiant for the by him taken SSBM screenshots (and I pity the fool who doesn't have 300 trophies in SSBM yet) :-p
I've also added a huge Gunpei happily at work on Galactic Pinball screenshot to the Gunpei Yokoi tribute page :)

eBay Virtual Boy FRAUD! Pt 2 - February 22, 2002 @ 02:15 PM GMT+8 ~ Iko Da
Virtual Boy - eBay Fraud Anyone and everyone who bids, buys and sells online should read this. As of late there have been numerous "Online Auction scams". Auction scams happen every day, from cleverly listed items to the down right rip offs who didn't have the item to sell in the first place. I have decided not to give out personal details from here on, with the exception of the main scam recently. This is for your awareness and in hope that you don't get cheated aswell.

Lets start in general with the do's and don'ts of online buying and selling. Read the description CAREFULLY. A lot of scams involve tricky phrases which could mean you end up buying a "Virtual Boy Picture" instead of the unit itself. Also the sellers feedback rating, if you click on their feedback rating you will see all the positives and negatives (and neutrals) and descriptions. This is a good, but not always the only way to see if the seller is genuine. As the case in question you will see the seller had a high rating and no negatives and still ripped off quite a few people.

But how can you know? Well you can't, not 100% anyway. There are always unknown variables that can occur even with the best of sellers. So how can you combat this? Check the person out, do your own research. If you know the name of the seller but the name differs to the one on the e-mails you receive then question it, ask, and find out what is happening. It could be a false e-mail, a kid who has got hold of his dads eBay account etc..

Buying on the net shouldn't have to be this hard, but unfortunately kids it is. Research and research, find out who you are dealing with before the auction closes, especially if the item is for a large amount. Check the feedback, look to see for the positives as opposed to the negatives but also look for when the last feedback was left. If it was left many months or even a year ago then you have grounds to question this seller.

Ok now to the story in question, back in January there were several auctions for one of the rarest Virtual Boy games known, "Virtual Bowling. It was picked up via "Buy it now" (a feature on eBay) for $700 US. All seemed well and the buyer was receiving good e-mail contact from the seller. The seller then had "another" Virtual Bowling to sell, amazing enough as it seemed to the buyer he wanted to purchase another, and rightly so as this game is rare! The seller then dropped the price by a large amount, and this to me seemed like it could be a bit too good to be true, but payment was made and the seller even acknowledged payment and said he sent out the games.

After a delay in shipping, the buyer was worried, contacted the seller and the story started to change. The seller claiming one thing before and then claiming another later on, it started to sound fishy. So the buyer went to seek advice from others, upon checking it out the information was clear that the sellers other "winners" (which I use loosely) also had got scammed.

E-mails were sent to the seller and it turns out that the Registered eBay ID seller was actually being used by the "Son". E-mails were sent back and forth but 1 buyer who got scammed believed that putting an impeachment on www.fraud.org provoked the "dad" to cough up the money.

In the end everyone got their money back and expenses were covered aswell, but it doesn't justify the trouble these people went through. All I can say to future buyers online, for VIrtual boy or not related items, be careful! If you do get scammed please report it straight away, research and look into eBays Fraud protection and other organisations such as www.fraud.org.

Below is the information of the seller who is now "Unregistered" on eBay under his previous account.

Name: *Taken down due to Legal Reasons* Fathers name: *Taken down due to Legal Reasons* eBay: rabyfamily Country: *Taken down due to Legal Reasons*
As the guys all agreed "if it looks too good to be true it probably is".

Happy V... B - February 14, 2002 @ 11:39 PM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
Give your boy or girl a VB for Valentines... hey it's red like a rose ain't it? ;-) Nintendojo decided to do a Valentines VB special, which is well... just lovely, go check it out, VB featuring there all week!

I'm 21 now, yay me - February 10, 2002 @ 04:15 PM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
Gosh I seem to be aging, almost have had my VB for 5 years now since the Summer of '97, it's still funny seeing people who've never seen one go "What the heck is that red thing!?!". As our visitor# seems to rise, the questions about VB seem to grow fewer (if I get games to sell I'll put them up for sale here!) I can only take that to mean we must be doing something right info-wise here in the strange world of Virtual Boy, to make sure that's really the case I created the FAQ section, compiled from the dozens & dozens of questions received over the 2+ years! 
Maybe old regulars like Joe and Golbez will even recognize their own questions and if you're new to VB I hope you'll be able to overlook my attempts at witty remarks and read what's important... the things you were/are always wondering about concerning Virtual Boy.
Well I'm bidding you all a goodday as I'm in that overly happy birthday mood after getting awesome gifts like: Money, N64 & GBC Zelda games, Shrek & X-Files DVD-movies, mini-booze-bottles, Lord Of The Rings cinema-tickets, and an autographed photo from Dark Angels' Jessica Alba!! *<(^_^)>*

eBay Virtual Boy FRAUD! - February 07, 2002 @ 01:04 AM GMT+8 ~ Iko Da
WARNING! It seems there has been a "Bad Trader" on eBay of late who has ripped of one of our close friends. In good faith around $1000 US was paid but no goods were sent. The staff here at virtual-boy.net are looking into it further and will have an update as soon as possible. We hope to track down the seller and also provide you the public with information so that you may not meet the same fate. Please stay tuned for a full update.

My published article scans! - February 05, 2002 @ 02:21 PM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
New websites added to the Links section, including The Cameo Files, some very nice (VB) videogame character cameos there, check it out, and for whom I scanned the 2 newly added Samus VS Metroids Galactic Pinball mini-game screenshots!
I've also decided to scan the feature I wrote about the Virtual Boy for the worldwide spread gamesmagazine Retrogames and added the pages to the Articles section!!
I recently heard that about a month ago Virtual-Boy.Net got published in the famous global Computer and VideoGames Magazine, or to be more precise: we got linked in a page-long article they did about the Virtual Boy, we're SO proud ^_^
To close off, I wanted it to be known that I'm having a Japanese friend translate some interesting bits and pages from the Tsushin special Virtual Boy issue into English, but as he puts it "Translating is difficult and tiresome for me". Well, as I told him we're in no rush and so far he hasn't translated anything we didn't know yet, but we can very much look forward to a translation of the HUGE Gunpei Yokoi interview! If you thought VB news was dead... well all the these and upcoming items should put the color right back on your cheeks. We can't say it often enough: VB ON! :)

Codes and articles - February 02, 2002 @ 04:45 PM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
Added new and expanded tips & tricks for Teleroboxer and Red Alarm, a big thanks to Chris Estes!
Added new articles from the very interesting GameFan magazine, another big thanks go to skeg64!
I wish all the best to our newly wed Princess Máxima & Crown-prince Alexander, things can't get more Dutch than this, so this is Ferry signing off. FAQ next week!

Brag - January 22, 2002 @ 05:19 PM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
Last year, thanks to my old friend Charles from the US, I received an awesome Virtual Boy T-shirt and I remembered I never showed it off, so here it is!
Front | Back :-)

A good deed makes the world go virtually round - January 11, 2002 @ 06:37 PM GMT+1 ~ FerryG
We receive lots of questions relating to Virtual Boy each month, as you will soon see in the upcoming Frequently Asked Questions section, but two months ago I got an email in my inbox that touched my heart. At first I thought it was just another request for a VB for sale, which it was, but as I read the story told to me I couldn't bare selling this lady who devoted her life to helping others my spare Virtual Boy. So I decided to contact my friend Neil in America and forwarded him this touching email, we decided to both donate this lady our spare VB's & games. Neil called the phonenumbers given to us to confirm the trustworthyness of the story and after talking to the lovely Molly everything was confirmed. Little did we know our donations disproved the most common misconception about Virtual Boy, that it is bad for children and hurts their eyes, which the below shown emails, much to our obliged, will irrefutably prove wrong for most people over the age of 6. To understand the whole story take your time to read these emails (personal info removed) and I hope that if in the future more help could be used others will lend a hand aswell, rest assure we'll let you know if that is the case. Now I need to go to play my Virtual Boy! *(^_^)*
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 14:21:04 -0700
From: Molly
To: i_m_virtual_boy@yahoo.com
Subject: virtual boy
Hi. I am a new pediatric psychologist at Valley Children's Hospital in Madera CA. I used to work at Children's Hospital in New Orleans where the virtual boy was instrumental in helping patients with pain management. The VB is very useful during painful medical procedures, such as burn care, because it distracts the child from the pain and they become "lost in the game." Unfortunately we do not have a VB at Valley Children's Hospital and I was dismayed to learn that they are no longer manufactured. Do you have any helpful suggestions on how I can locate a used VB. I really appreciate any help you can provide. Thank you. Molly, Ph.D.
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 08:57:12 -0700
From: Molly
To: i_m_virtual_boy@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: virtual boy
Hello Ferry, Thank you so much for your help. The patients at Valley Children's Hospital will really appreciate you. I would love to have the e-mail address of your friend. My phone number at the hospital is ... (psychology office) or ... (my direct office line). Please let your friend know that he is welcome to speak to any personnel at the hospital to confirm our intentions for the virtual boy. If he would like, I could provide a list of people he may want to speak with. Thanks again, Molly.
Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2001 08:59:34 -0800
From: Molly
To: i_m_virtual_boy@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: virtual boy
Dear Ferry, Thank you so much for your help and contacting Neil. He was very kind. Another virtual boy would be very helpful as there are several units in the hospital (e.g., oncology, hematology, pulmonology, etc). Also two children may need the vb at the same time. I feel bad having you ship it all the way from Holland, and the children and staff at the hospital really appreciate your effort. Everyone at the hospital is so excited that there was an international response to our need. Thanks again, Molly.
Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2002 10:18:28 -0800
From: Molly
To: i_m_virtual_boy@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: virtual boy
Hi Ferry! Happy new year to you too. I just returned from my holiday vacation to find the best present - the virtual boy was sitting in my office. It had arrived over the holidays. The box was opened on one end but everything looks fine and works!! I am wondering if they opened it to check it carefully at the post office since everyone is on high alert following 9/11/01. Thank you again for your generous contribution to the hospital. Since Neil's donated virtual boy is being used on our medical rehabilitation unit, your's will likely go to the oncology unit to serve as a distraction while children receive injections and chemotherapy. Thanks again. Everyone at the hospital sends their greetings, especially the children. Molly.

Happy New Year! - January 01, 2002 @ sometime ~ Iko Da & FerryG
........
Iko Da :
new year first dude
update later.
Iko Da :
oh and a happy new year to you my man
Ferry :
Happy New Year to you too pal :)
Ferry :
So how do we start the update out, like a chat or...?
Iko Da :
yeah
Ferry :
ok we'll do that...
Ferry :
Let's say Happy New Year to everybody and that we're very proud to have gotten 20.000 visitors last year, cos we sure are!
Iko Da :
Thats right Ferry, err only 20.000 ? It felt like so much more ;)
Ferry :
Whatever! :-p
Iko Da :
So you gonna tell them about our new website or should I?
Ferry :
Hmmm, I'm not so sure we should tell them about our secret GameCube project....
Ferry :
*oops, I just blurred it out didn't I?* :-o
Ferry :
Well, we might aswell tell em about it, go right ahead
Iko Da :
Ferry ran through his local Nintendo... naked... he then stole a gamecube. Thats right people
Ferry :
Wait a second!! NOT that kind of secret stuff! I meant the website!
Iko Da :
Oh yeah, besides that we are starting a new Gamecube based website aptly titled "GameCubePal.com"
Ferry :
Right on, so when we're not here, you'll be able to find us there, cos GameCube really needed a PAL region friendly website (& of course import stuff discussion) and with an initial crew of over 12 people, I think it'll be a blast to make, not to mention a great way to give VB some more public appearance in between lines :)
Iko Da :
Do we want our audience sifting through our mindless chat which is taking up a fair bit of the update now... or should we let them enjoy their new year?
Ferry :
I guess we should.... so let's say bye and we'll be back soon.... virtual style!
Iko Da & Ferry : Virtual Boy ON!!!!