What Virtual Boy Repro Do You Want Next? Poll Inside!
EDIT: So, the Gundam Dimension Wars run was brilliant. A little drama-filled and much delayed, but things did go well in the end. So well that I'm very excited to announce that I have undertaken another VB game run, though not of Gundam this time.
Thing is, so many people clamored for the Gundam game that my 50, then 55-run supplies were very quickly allocated. So I decided that, whatever the next game is, I would do 100 copies. And here's where I need YOUR help!
In this thread, I have included a poll, founmd at the top of the page, to determine what game people would like to see done. The options are:
1 - Virtual Bowling (English re-translation, since the Engrish of the original release is pretty awful)
2 - Virtual Bowling (French translation, since I could and I was bored)
3 - Space Squash (English)
4 - Bound High (it is a wonderful game, and might have revived the VB for several more months at least had it been properly released)
5 - FaceBall Remastered
6 - Something Else (If you vote this, drop a line in the comments, and if it gets enough interest, I'll replace the lowest performer with this in a secondary poll)
Some things to note - Hyper Fighting is not now, nor will it ever, be an option. The guys who made it did 100% of the work, and while it's a wicked awesome game, I won't be stepping on toes like that, not without their explicit permission. Don't even suggest it. Secondly, Snatcher is probably not going to be an option either. It's not even finished, will probably be too big for a single cartridge, and the guy who's doing it is not really sold on the idea of a physical release. Finally, no repro of an official English release, so if you're hoping for Jack Bros. at bargain prices, look elsewhere. Cast your votes, and we'll see what happens!
Thing is, so many people clamored for the Gundam game that my 50, then 55-run supplies were very quickly allocated. So I decided that, whatever the next game is, I would do 100 copies. And here's where I need YOUR help!
In this thread, I have included a poll, founmd at the top of the page, to determine what game people would like to see done. The options are:
1 - Virtual Bowling (English re-translation, since the Engrish of the original release is pretty awful)
2 - Virtual Bowling (French translation, since I could and I was bored)
3 - Space Squash (English)
4 - Bound High (it is a wonderful game, and might have revived the VB for several more months at least had it been properly released)
5 - FaceBall Remastered
6 - Something Else (If you vote this, drop a line in the comments, and if it gets enough interest, I'll replace the lowest performer with this in a secondary poll)
Some things to note - Hyper Fighting is not now, nor will it ever, be an option. The guys who made it did 100% of the work, and while it's a wicked awesome game, I won't be stepping on toes like that, not without their explicit permission. Don't even suggest it. Secondly, Snatcher is probably not going to be an option either. It's not even finished, will probably be too big for a single cartridge, and the guy who's doing it is not really sold on the idea of a physical release. Finally, no repro of an official English release, so if you're hoping for Jack Bros. at bargain prices, look elsewhere. Cast your votes, and we'll see what happens!
Comments
All commenters, please indicate in your comment whether you will be donating a sacrificial Virtual Boy game; this will help keep things in order for us.
Edit: I do have an extra of Mario Tennis, maybe 2, but I can definitely send at least one
I'm a little shocked at the response for this so far. On a similar topic, I translated Virtual Bowling into French just for the sheer hell of it. It's not quite complete, but all I need to do is extract the graphics files with the english text and modify them for French. Would anyone be interested in a small run of that?
Would anyone be interested in a small run of that?
Put me down for a copy of Gundam. (May donate a cart, unsure at the moment)
And to answer your question, YES. Put me down for one of those too if you go ahead with it!
I find you hard to trust after having called Mario's Tennis a piece of crap. It's one of the best games on the console.
And the only thing this has in common with Planet Virtual Boy is that that's where the English ROM is from. I don't have an account there, mainly because something is fucked with their registration system for me.
And Mario's Tennis is a good game.
You may want to message bigmak's account here on NintendoAge, just to make sure you aren't stepping on any toes here.
And Mario's Tennis is a good game.
Your definition of 'good game' and mine vary rather wildly, my friend. I do find it a touch rude that you go so far as to say that, and I quote, "[you] find it hard to trust me" based on something as nebulous and relative as my taste in games. I don't like Earthbound, either, nor do I care for Chrono Trigger, which are games that a great many people seem to adore. Does that make me untrustworthy as well? I should think to let my actions alone reveal to you my character, not my taste for games, thank you very much. If you like Mario Tennis, I shall smile, shake your hand, and respectfully disagree.
As to the other, first, a few questions. Who is bigmak, and what does he have to do with any of this? I can infer from your tone that he was involved in the production, but looking at the patch author's page on PlanetVB.net reveals that he is not the author of the patch, and at most, a search of his posts indicate that he had something to do on the hardware side, probably designing PCBs. I can assure you that I do not use his PCB design, I use another person's PCB design, a fellow named Kevin Mellott, and he is fully informed of my plans regarding the release of this repro run.
So help me understand - what else am I missing? Everything seems to be accounted for on my end, but if I've overlooked something, I will definitely correct this.
Respect, my friend.
As for making copies of English SD Gundam, my point is this game and everything else Virtual Boy have been previously handled by the guys at Planet Virtual Boy. They were practically the only people doing Virtual Boy repros. I don't know the full details, but it almost seemed like an exclusivity type of thing. I just meant you should get in touch with them so you aren't stepping on any toes.
As to your other point, I'm not quite sure I agree. Now, to be fair, I did actually try to start this thread over on PlanetVB, but as I mentioned, the registration is fucked for me. I can view the threads as a guest, but once I created an account and logged in, I suddenly had no privileges to view any page. A bit frustrating for me, I'm sure you can agree.
With the utmost respect to you and the boys at PlanetVB, I do not believe that any forum, thread, or website has any claim or right to exclusivity on repros just because it is on a certain console. If it truly bothers you, I'll even make my own translation of SD Gundam. But again, with respect, I refuse to accept that the fellows at PlanetVB have the sole right to make Virtual Boy repros. I don't see any such restrictions on NES, SNES, GBA, TurboGrafx, Genesis, or Master System games, so why must there be one on Virtual Boy?
I do appreciate you taking the time to make your concerns known to me, and even if I disagree with your conclusions, I'm grateful for your honest attempt to help me avoid a potential pitfall. Respect. Utmost disagreement, but respect nevertheless.
The Virtual Boy is an odd duck in that it's so obscure with such a small community. Planet Virtual Boy hosts quite possibly the only homebrew coders working on the Virtual Boy. They've been doing VB ROM releases and repro runs longer than anyone. They might be the only ones besides you.
As to SD Gundam, it's an okay game. Kind of like a minimalist Super Robot Wars game with a little more control during the battle scenes. Wario Land, Teleroboxer, Vertical Force, and Jack Bros are still the best games on the system, in my opinion.
http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=6553&forum=1
This is just me, but I find myself playing Mario's Tennis and Wario Land the most often.
I see that the PlanetVB thread has a post about the cartridge restoration method. Below is a link to a video I sent to UncleTusk about it with my (homemade) copy of Virtual Bowling. I would point out, however, that the method I use is on label-less cart shells - it would absolutely destroy a label.
As for the PlanetVB thread's concern, I have zero interest in doing Hyper Fighting. I don't like Street Fighter, I don't have a ROM of it, and more to the point, that is 100% a community member's hard work and love porting it to Virtual Boy. That's deserving of respect, and that is absolutely a line I won't cross. Translations of established games or out-of-region repros that nobody has a realistic chance of experiencing? Sure, fair game to me. But not Hyper Fighting. Unless the porter himself comes to me and give me his blessing, it is forever off-limits as far as I am concerned.
Thanks
Originally posted by: Double_Dan_Gaming
Originally posted by: Guntz
You may want to message bigmak's account here on NintendoAge, just to make sure you aren't stepping on any toes here.
And Mario's Tennis is a good game.
Your definition of 'good game' and mine vary rather wildly, my friend. I do find it a touch rude that you go so far as to say that, and I quote, "[you] find it hard to trust me" based on something as nebulous and relative as my taste in games. I don't like Earthbound, either, nor do I care for Chrono Trigger, which are games that a great many people seem to adore. Does that make me untrustworthy as well? I should think to let my actions alone reveal to you my character, not my taste for games, thank you very much. If you like Mario Tennis, I shall smile, shake your hand, and respectfully disagree.
As to the other, first, a few questions. Who is bigmak, and what does he have to do with any of this? I can infer from your tone that he was involved in the production, but looking at the patch author's page on PlanetVB.net reveals that he is not the author of the patch, and at most, a search of his posts indicate that he had something to do on the hardware side, probably designing PCBs. I can assure you that I do not use his PCB design, I use another person's PCB design, a fellow named Kevin Mellott, and he is fully informed of my plans regarding the release of this repro run.
So help me understand - what else am I missing? Everything seems to be accounted for on my end, but if I've overlooked something, I will definitely correct this.
Respect, my friend.
Bigmak is the guy who organized the first run of Gundam repos. As far as I know Benjamin and Greg Stevens did the translation of the game, the patch as well the cover art and the manual translation.
Originally posted by: thunderstruck
Bigmak is the guy who organized the first run of Gundam repos. As far as I know Benjamin and Greg Stevens did the translation of the game, the patch as well the cover art and the manual translation.
Thanks for the info. I'll make sure to coordinate with UncleTusk so that Ben and Greg get a cut for their work, seeing as we're definitely using their manual translation.
EDIT: I found Ben's email address and have sent him an email regarding this project. I will keep things updated.
EDIT2: Ben Stevens has emailed me back and has given us his blessing to use his translation, in exchange for a small fee to be finalized later. That, I believe, irons out the final wrinkles we have on this subject. Unless something I've overlooked needs to be dealt with, we may now proceed without any further hiccoughs!
Originally posted by: blowback
Will this be marked or have anything different to show that these are from a second run?
As far as the cart label is concerned, yes. I've made my own label, which while using many of the same art assets as the original run, is distinct. As far as the box is concerned, Vince and I were planning on using the ones from the previous run years ago, but you bring up a good point - either he or I can certainly add a "Reprint Edition" tag or something to the box to make it evident that this is not the original run.
Yes, in fact, I do think that's a good idea, and I'll pass it along to Vince. Thanks!
Will this be marked or have anything different to show that these are from a second run?
As far as the cart label is concerned, yes. I've made my own label, which while using many of the same art assets as the original run, is distinct. As far as the box is concerned, Vince and I were planning on using the ones from the previous run years ago, but you bring up a good point - either he or I can certainly add a "Reprint Edition" tag or something to the box to make it evident that this is not the original run.
Yes, in fact, I do think that's a good idea, and I'll pass it along to Vince. Thanks!
Please do this. Any difference or distinctions at all are excellent in my book. I own a copy of the original and having two distinct versions would be awesome.