Red Dragon - Virtual Boy Emulator for the PSP

[wraggster]

SofiyaCat (http://nekomimi.cafe.coocan.jp/wiki/?%CA%AA%C3%D6#a24210f3)has released Red Dragon for the PSP. Thanks to Mike Beaver we have found out that this is the WORLDS FIRST Virtual Boy Emulator for Not only the PSP but also any Handheld Console

Heres some details about Red Dragon: (http://www.vr32.de/modules/tech/index.php?sec=emus&eid=rdragon)


Great open source Virtual Boy emulator based on David Tucker's Reality Boy. Red Dragon offers, besides the very high compatability, many debug options, cheats, save states and very basic sound emulation.

Compatability: 82%
Fully Playable:
Galactic Pinball (JU)
Insmouse no Yakata (J)
Jack Bros. (J)
Jack Bros. (U)
Mario Clash (JU)
Mario's Tennis (JU)
Nester's Funky Bowling (U)
Panic Bomber (J)
Panic Bomber (U)
SD Gundam Dimension War (J)
Space Invaders Virtual Collection (J)
Space Squash (J)
Teleroboxer (JU)
V-Tetris (J)
Vertical Force (J)
Vertical Force (U)
Virtual Bowling (J)
Virtual Boy Wario Land (JU)
Virtual Fishing (J)
Virtual League Baseball (U)
Virtual Pro Yakyuu '95 (J)
Waterworld (U)

Partially Playable:
3D Tetris (JU)
Golf (U)
Red Alarm (J)
Red Alarm (U)
T&E Virtual Golf (J)

Now we dont have any more details at this time and we badlly need some screenshots to add to this news article so if anyone can help out please do, a great day for the PSP Scene :)

Download and Give Feedback Via Comments

[gamefreak199101]

ok i will

[gamefreak199101]

i tryed nothing happened

[mikebeaver]

from what I can gather it is a virtual boy emualtor for psp, am just trying it out now to see if I can get anything to run, needs a read me in English :)


*EDIT*

Looks like it is indeed a Virtual Boy emu, although I have not found a way to map ANY keys so that it will work once you have started a rom loading, so at this point it gets to a screen that say's "Important, read instructions....blah blah blah" and cant get any further, shall go away now and try some other things on it.

Mike..

[mikebeaver]

Managed to find out this so far:

About:
Red Dragon is the best Virtual Boy emulator available for Linux. It is based of David Tucker's Reality Boy source code and runs a lot of games! There site is also an amazing collection of everything to do with Virtual Boy from advertisements to history and so on.

Compatability: Fully Playable:
* Galactic Pinball (JU)
* Insmouse no Yakata (J)
* Jack Bros. (J)
* Jack Bros. (U)
* Mario Clash (JU)
* Mario's Tennis (JU)
* Nester's Funky Bowling (U)
* Panic Bomber (J)
* Panic Bomber (U)
* SD Gundam Dimension War (J)
* Space Invaders Virtual Collection (J)
* Space Squash (J)
* Teleroboxer (JU)
* V-Tetris (J)
* Vertical Force (J)
* Vertical Force (U)
* Virtual Bowling (J)
* Virtual Boy Wario Land (JU)
* Virtual Fishing (J)
* Virtual League Baseball (U)
* Virtual Pro Yakyuu '95 (J)
* Waterworld (U)

Download and learn more at the Red Dragon Homepage...

This is the information for the Linux build, maybe this version for PSP is based upon the work that parasyte and frost giant have done previously, still I would like to be able to map some controls so I can play it, any one out there get hold of these 2 guys?

Mike..

[wraggster]

any screens and info anyone could work out would be awesome, u may need a bios for this emulator too

[mikebeaver]

Wraggster:
I didnt even think about the BIOS thing, lol.
Well, we need it to let us change the controls first, as I said earlier it is stuck in keyboard layout, as soon as you try to change a certain key it wont let you de-select t or do anything else useful.
Good work to the guys involved in this though, am looking forward to playing some VB stuff on the PSP.
Will have a look at getting what screens I can up for you tomorrow, it's kinda late now :)

Mike..

*EDIT* also you just put ROMS in the same folder as the eboot if you want them to start, the ones I tried were .vb extensions.
i tried making a folder called "ROMS" and putting them in there, it just crashed, so dont bother doing that :)..

[JKKDARK]

Wow amazing news. I never heard about a Virtual Boy emulator on ANY console or handheld. I will have to try it :)

[Tesseract]

So the keys aren't just mapped 'logically', AKA D-pad and face and shoulder buttons for the original Dual D-Pads and the two shoulder buttons?

Huh, weird. Can't wait to try this out when I get home, though. I'm sure all you smart folks will have things figured out by then! :thumbup:

[BelmontSlayer]

The keys are mapped to a standard ascii keyboard. I can't get it past the "Read the manual" screen either, since the buttons can't be remapped. Buggy beta is very weird. Hopefully it will get improved on since a VB emulator would rock.

[Tesseract]

I'm guessing that we're not lucky enough to have a simple text file for the configuration?

[DarthPaul]

Awesome news. Please keep diggin this because I want to know more but I'm lazy to do it by myself.

[Chameleon]

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/361/screen1ol5.png

Thats the main menu and everything runs fine there

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/6803/screen2jy5.png

Thats where you input the keys... dont know if it actually works yet

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/7922/screen3sl5.png

Rom loading... everything goes fine here

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/321/screen4cz4.png

Here is when the bad stuff happens.. the roms start crackling, and it feezes at this menu

[mikebeaver]

I'm guessing that we're not lucky enough to have a simple text file for the configuration?

Well, there is a config.dat file in there, but hwen I tried to open it with notepad there was no sign of anything to do with the button layout, shame really, I wanted to get playing with it already :)

Mike..

[Chameleon]

these are the options in red dragon:

platform=0003
frmskip=0000
dspmode=0000
dspswap=0000
dsp2x=0000
palmode=0000
scrx=0480
scry=0272
sound=0001
scrmode=0000
lu=0005
ld=0003
ll=0019
lr=0006
ru=0009
rd=0072
rl=0010
rr=0012
ba=0013
bb=0014
st=0002
sl=0022
tl=0007
tr=0008
bl=0023

[jamotto]

button config in config.dat

lu = left up
ld = left down
ll = left left
lr = left right

ru= right up
rd = right down
rl = right left
rr = right right

ba = button A
bb = button B

st = start
sl = select

tl = trigger left
tr = trigger right

bl = low battery


0001 = A
thru
0026 = Z

0103 = left shift
0104 = right shift
0105 = left control
0106 = right control

[Tesseract]

Just on a whim, I went through the file and set things such as 'ru=PSP_CTRL_TRIANGLE'

That... didn't work. Heh. Crashed on the Config Screen, and didn't really make it any farther into 3d Golf than Chameleon managed.

Sounds like we're gonna have to wait for more than just the proof-of-concept. This seems like it'll need to be fixed in the code itself.

[cal360]

I might try this and see what I can get i've always liked the virtual boy (my friends got one), though it will never be as good in 3d as the original was. I can still remember getting the red lines stuck in my eyes for hours, I ignored the break screens :D.

[mikebeaver]

Just on a whim, I went through the file and set things such as 'ru=PSP_CTRL_TRIANGLE'

That... didn't work. Heh. Crashed on the Config Screen, and didn't really make it any farther into 3d Golf than Chameleon managed.

Sounds like we're gonna have to wait for more than just the proof-of-concept. This seems like it'll need to be fixed in the code itself.

nice idea though, pity it didn't work, but I am sure they will fix this in the future, you never know it might actually run alright, remains to be seen I suppose.

Mike..

[DPyro]

This is only an experimental version so I doubt he even implemented controls or anything, so you'll just have to wait for a newer version or source.

[Sonicboy 101]

This sounds awesome. :)

[kharaboudjan]

fantastic news! i have asked for a virtual boy emu earlier, and now it is here :)

[1magus]

BTW to get TRUE Virtual Boy Colors u gotta go into OPTION-VIDEO And change it to 32 bpp (16M colors)

[PSmonkey]

Hmm, i hope the coder does more with this then he did the DS emu (port, then quit). A well doen VB emu on PSP would be great, specialy if it properly supports R/G glasses or the MG Acid 2 glasses.

[mikebeaver]

Still no news on an update or anything yet?

Mike..

[wraggster]

Hmm, i hope the coder does more with this then he did the DS emu (port, then quit). A well doen VB emu on PSP would be great, specialy if it properly supports R/G glasses or the MG Acid 2 glasses.

i agree, to preserve the console so todays generation can sample what the VirtuaL BOY was like is invaluable

[Exophase]

It's definitely going to need a recompiler (a good one at that) to get decent performance on PSP. I haven't tried it but from what people are saying I wouldn't be surprised if support for PSP controls was even done. It wasn't in the DeSMuMe port either.

Maybe next SofiyaCat will port a Saturn emulator and not do controls :<

[mikebeaver]

Don't argue with me, it's true; the sooner you accept this the sooner you can move on.

Legendary quote from a legendary programmer :)
Glad to hear the project isnt dead, just in hibernation, am looking forward to seeing the next itteration of gpsp, hopefully with some TV out support from the official dev :

Thanks for all the hard work so far,

Mike..

[downloaddownload]

It's definitely going to need a recompiler (a good one at that) to get decent performance on PSP. I haven't tried it but from what people are saying I wouldn't be surprised if support for PSP controls was even done. It wasn't in the DeSMuMe port either.

Maybe next SofiyaCat will port a Saturn emulator and not do controls :<

Exophase this emulator could really use your touch to it

[Tyr]

Hell i'd be happy if someone even just added simple control support so we can actually get into the games.

[lildaniel3]

Yeah um i would love doing this but when i loaded Virtual Boy Wario Land alls it does is

WARNINING:
READ INSTRUCTION MANUAL
BEFORE OPENING.

And then it just freezes, ive tried other games too.

Here is my psp's system

1.5 firmware with some Alex Dark M33 hack (still 1.5)

Fat psp from like 2006 4 gb memory stick.

Do i need a custom firmware to run it cause i hacked my 1.5 firmware to have some of Alex Dark M33 3.30 firmware stuff in it, it still is 1.5 firmware but with some of the files of the hacked firmware to run some emulators.

I would of have posted a picture of the emulator but i cant if it dosen't work :/

Can someone help?

[Zack]

Yeah um i would love doing this but when i loaded Virtual Boy Wario Land alls it does is

WARNINING:
READ INSTRUCTION MANUAL
BEFORE OPENING.

And then it just freezes, ive tried other games too.

Here is my psp's system

1.5 firmware with some Alex Dark M33 hack (still 1.5)

Fat psp from like 2006 4 gb memory stick.

Do i need a custom firmware to run it cause i hacked my 1.5 firmware to have some of Alex Dark M33 3.30 firmware stuff in it, it still is 1.5 firmware but with some of the files of the hacked firmware to run some emulators.

I would of have posted a picture of the emulator but i cant if it dosen't work :/

Can someone help?

If sofiacat had complied with gpl rules someone could have easily fixed these issues. However he didn't and thus there is no source code released with it.

One could port the emulator again however, it just would require starting the port from scratch.

Would probably need a dynamic to perform at good speeds too.

So your only option is to wait for a fresh port by the looks of it I'm afraid.

[carlitx]

ok im impressed, but what is Virtual Boy?

[cal360]

ok im impressed, but what is Virtual Boy?

The virtual boy is a console (of a sort) eveloped by Nintendo, it's one of the least hard of. If you've ever seem past ideas of a 3d headset it looks just like one, the 3D on it was basically was quite amazing, but there were a few major problems. The only colour it generated was red and basically everything was made of lines to generate the 3D effect, the virtual boy never really took off so it was only released in a few counties and if you live in Europe then you've never really heard of one. If you ever get to play one it's amazing, but it sure gives you a headache if you play it too long. Oh and it runs on batteries and is in design quite flimsy and easily breakable (don't ask how I know).

http://img.xataka.com/2008/03/virtualboy-1.jpg
http://resumbrae.com/ub/dms423_f06/10/virtualboy.jpg

The bottom picture really doesn't give the effect whatsoever, but it shows you how it generates colours. The whole system really was based on your depth perseption and I'm surprised we haven't had a similar console .

[downloaddownload]

The virtual boy is a console (of a sort) eveloped by Nintendo, it's one of the least hard of. If you've ever seem past ideas of a 3d headset it looks just like one, the 3D on it was basically was quite amazing, but there were a few major problems. The only colour it generated was red and basically everything was made of lines to generate the 3D effect, the virtual boy never really took off so it was only released in a few counties and if you live in Europe then you've never really heard of one. If you ever get to play one it's amazing, but it sure gives you a headache if you play it too long. Oh and it runs on batteries and is in design quite flimsy and easily breakable (don't ask how I know).

The bottom picture really doesn't give the effect whatsoever, but it shows you how it generates colours. The whole system really was based on your depth perseption and I'm surprised we haven't had a similar console .

I got three of those bad boys. Gunpi Yokoi (made nintendo what it is today) was the inventer but nintendo purposely withheld games from being developed so they could work on the N64. He died not to long after he invented it. A strange death too... almost as if it was set up.

[carlitx]

what is virtual boy?

nvm

i can't beive i asked 2 times on the same page. damn you eyes for not reading!

[pibs]

I got three of those bad boys. Gunpi Yokoi (made nintendo what it is today) was the inventer but nintendo purposely withheld games from being developed so they could work on the N64. He died not to long after he invented it. A strange death too... almost as if it was set up.

Yup Gunpei Yokoi was the inventor of the Game Boy :thumbup: unfortunately after the Virtual Boy became a complete failure, Nintendo shunned him. Years later the same Nintendo ripped Gunpei off on his Game & Watch design to create the Nintendo DS.
http://www.play-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/original-game-and-watch-donkey-kong-nintendo.png

[stepman91]

cool :)

[Shrygue]

@pibs: Oh my God, I haven't seen that Game and Watch game in absolute ages, last time I used one was 13 years ago.

[Timstuff]

I got three of those bad boys. Gunpi Yokoi (made nintendo what it is today) was the inventer but nintendo purposely withheld games from being developed so they could work on the N64. He died not to long after he invented it. A strange death too... almost as if it was set up.

And let's not forget the Wonder Swan! It was his last creation, and he never even got to see its release. :(

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o136/NekoTheSpook/Forum%20Posts/Portable%20System%20Wars/Old%20School%20Systems/wonderswan-color.jpg

It never came out in America, but it had the unique distinction of being the only real competitor against the Gameboy Advance, holding 9% of the Japanese handheld market. It may not sound like much, but hey, it certainly fared better than its other contemporaries. With the advent of the much more successful PSP I'm pretty sure the wonder swan brand ceased to exist-- especially after the Final Fantasy remakes it hosted got ported to the Gameboy Advance (they were pretty much the system's only killer apps).

Also, let's not forget that Yokoi was the producer of the Metroid series. The man was truly Nintendo's jack of all trades, and his death was arguably the greatest tragedy the industry had ever experienced. :(

BTW, if and when this emulator gets a serious update, will it support the use of the Solid Eye 3D glasses that come with Metal Gear Acid 2? That would be the perfect solution for re-creating the Virtual Boy experience on the PSP. :thumbup:

[downloaddownload]

The thing that sucks too about Gunpei Yokoi is that these so called nintendo fans dont know who he is... my bro in law is one of them.

I made a head strap for the Virtual boy with a strap from a paintball helmet if anyone wants one made I wont charge much.

My next project will be the flash cart I got blue prints from.