Planet Virtual Boy

New main domain

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:21:07 +0200

Planet Virtual Boy just switched to a new main domain, http://www.planetvb.com.

Although we and the site grew up with the old domain, http://www.vr32.de, I feel strongly connected to it, I still think that our domain should match the site name. Furthermore, a .de domain for a multi language, international site with a mainly english speaking community just does not fit so much.

You don't have to wave goodbye to vr32.de, though. If you prefer the shortness and uniqueness of the old domain, you can still use it, it now simply redirects to the new one.

Red Alarm and VB Wario Land Game Rips

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:14:12 +0200

Here are two very complete sound rip sets of Red Alarm and VB Wario Land. Those were done in 2007 by Blue_Kirby2, but somehow escaped my attention until recently.

Downloads:
Red Alarm Game Rip
VB Wario Land Game Rip

Article Scans Galore

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:01:59 +0200

Ralf Doehr aka RAD provided us with nice high res scans of several german magazines. Many are rescans, but there's also a lot of new ones. The complete list: Play Time 08/94, 02/95, Maniac 07/94, TOTAL! 12/93, 11/94, 12/94, 02/95, 03/95, 04/95, 07/95, 09/95, 10/95, 06/96, Videogames 06/94, 01/95, 03/95, 07/95, 09/95, 12/95, 07/96, Sonderheft 08/95, GamePro 09/94, 12/94, 01/95, 03/95, 04/95, 06/95, 08/95, 09/95, 10/95. Thanks, and keep them coming, Ralf!

I also added some other new Scans sent to me anonymously: GameFan Vol.3 Issue 1, Vol.3 Issue 11, Vol.4 Issue 1, Vol.4 Issue 7, Nintendo Magazine System 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 40, 41, 42, 48, 49. Thanks!

You probably already noticed the revamped Articles section. It now has seperate sites for each magazine and a much nicer overview of articles with preview images. When viewing multi page article scans you'll get a thumbstrip on top for better navigation. Furthermore you can now download high res versions of the scans (where available). I am still working on the section, adding magazine logos, descriptions and so on, so there might be minor uglyness when I am trying out things.

Tradeshow Video Goodness

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:26:38 +0200

Today we have a bunch of new Virtual Boy videos for you. In cooperation with Grooveraider, we are happy to present you with a total of 4 tradeshow videos from WCES 1995 and E3 1996, showing some fantastic, never before seen stuff.

Nintendo Laser Montage (E3 1996)
Just before a live demonstration of the long awaited Nintendo 64 console on E3 1996. Actor/voiceover Charles Martinet kept the trade show attendees amused while portraying Mario's nemesis Wario on an enormous C-shaped projection screen complete with a laser montage of Nintendo's game line-up. You had to have been there to really experience Nintendo's MASSIVE show booth.

E3 1996 VB Booth
The Virtual Boy booth at E3 1996 with a lot of VB display with playable versions of Bound High and Dragon Hopper. This contains some seconds of Dragon Hopper footage!

WCES 1995 VB Booth
Camera footage showing the Virtual Boy booth at WCES 1995. The video consists of three parts:
1. Surrounding of the VB booth
2. People waiting in front of the VB booth in order to be let into a darkened room where numerous VB Demos were shown on video
3. Coming out of the Demo room into another area with many VB displays

Virtual Boy Technical Demos (WCES 1995)
The fourth and last video shows 3:45 minutes of camera footage of the Virtual Boy demos shown on video on WCES 1995! You'll see not only prototypes of Teleroboxer, Galactic Pinball, Red Alarm and Vertical Force, but also the F1 and Dolphin demos as well as the first ever moving images of the Mario and Starfox demos!

Bonus: Mario Demo (WCES 1995)
The complete Mario demo, taken from the above video of VB demos at WCES 1995.

Furthermore, Grooveraider sent us new and better scans of almost all press releases from WCES 1995 and E3 1995, a WCES 1995 VB brochure, as well as this picture of him with Gunpei Yokoi and his autographed copy of the E3 1995 programme. Yokoi signing it can be seen in this video we added earlier. Jealous? I certainly am.

A huge thank you goes out to Grooveraider for everything!

Read on for quotes.

Virtual Boy 2?

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:57:34 +0200

The latest issue of japanese gaming magazine "Game Labo" contains a rumour about a "Virtual Boy 2", which is under development not as a standalone system, but rather as a peripheral to the Wii. It's said to be released around the end of this year.

So, not really a "Virtual Boy 2" as they call it, but stereoscopic goggles for the Wii? Game Labo are known for their fishy rumours, but if there's any truth in this, we might learn more on Game Developer's Conference 2010, held in San Francisco from March 9th to 13th.

Source: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=387820

Virtual Boy Promo Videos: Reloaded

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:06:11 +0200

I have finally replaced all those Virtual Boy promo videos with near perfect rips, which are totally unresized from their Laser Disc/VHS sources now, at 700x468 pixels, and only "lightly" encoded in Xvid to preserve their original image quality. If you want the full image quality, download them instead of watching them online. Links below.

This is just an appetizer for a bunch of REALLY great stuff coming soon. Stay tuned.

- Virtual Boy TV Commercial 1
- Virtual Boy TV Commercial 2
- Virtual Boy Promo 1
- Virtual Boy Promo 2
- 3D Tetris Promo
- Galactic Pinball Promo
- Golf Promo
- Mario Clash Promo
- Nester's Funky Bowling Promo
- Panic Bomber Promo
- Red Alarm Promo
- Teleroboxer Promo
- Vertical Force Promo
- VB Wario Land Promo
- VB Wario Land TV Commercial
- Bound High Promo
- Dragon Hopper Promo

VB Dictionary Search & ROM map tools

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:11:16 +0200

New cool releases from DogP!

Firstly, a tool called "Dictionary Word Finder" for doing relative searches through VB ROMs for specific words, e.g. "Debug". Hopefully this will lead to some interesting discoveries. Forum Link.

Second, and most interesting, is some tools to generate maps of ROMs, This is a great opportunity for ROM hackers and those trying to reverse engineer commercial games. There's a new Reality Boy build with support for automated ROM map generation, as well as tools to e.g. merge individual maps into a master map. Forum Link. Did anyone just say VB Wario Land level editor? Mario's Tennis 2 Player mode restauration?

VB Sound Generator v1.1

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:20:34 +0200

DogP released version 1.1 of his VB Sound Generator. It has a few minor changes in how values are processed, as well as a few other small changes. The source code is now also included. Forum Link.

Batch Game Rating Script

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:29:01 +0200

In the user menu bar on top of the site, you can now find a link to a batch rating form (unter the "Submit" tab). This now allows our registered users to quickly rate commercial or homebrew games all on one site, instead of having to go to each game site to submit a rating.

I think that user ratings are a pretty good representation of a game's quality. The more people vote, the more accurate, meaningful and important the average scores (and this site) become.

Therefore, all our current and future users are warmly invited to submit scores for the games and demos he or she has played to fortify the reference status of Planet Virtual Boy and its community. (Remember, you also get a badge for this. ) Thank you!

Even more articles

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:17:59 +0200

And there's even more article scans for you.

Our reader Johnny from Mexico sent me four articles from mexican Club Nintendo magazine: 1, 2, 3, 4. While the last three only seem to be some kind of ads, the first one is particularly interesting. It's a 2 sided preview of Bound High, Dragon Hopper and Zero Racers with logos and several previously unknown screenshots of Dragon Hopper.

Furthermore, Dave_ sent in no less than nine issues of UK's Power Play magazine: 21 (07/94), 26 (12/94), 27 (01/95), 28 (02/95), 31 (05/95), 33 (07/95), 34 (08/95), 44 (06/96) and 46 (08/96).

Quote:

"According to one Nintendo spokesmen, a colour display for the Virtual Boy had been tested but resulted in jumpy images, and in any case it would have been 'unaffordable' at around 1,500,000¥"

(Super Play (UK) Issue 28 from February 1995)

Thank you, guys!