Month: February 2015

Back in 1995, Nintendo made a bold move: they cast aside the constraints of 2D and strode bravely into the foreground with their short-lived Virtual Boy system. It’s not that virtual reality was invented by Nintendo–far from it–but the company did make the mid-90s sensation affordable, and (sort of) portable. Sadly, this product only appealed to a small audience and was discontinued not even a full year later in early 1996.

Chances are that if you weren’t among the few who owned a Virtual Boy, you likely knew someone who did. I remember the day my neighbor got one: all the local kids gathered around while he unboxed it and tried different positions to sit in to get comfortable. The floor, on some pillows, on the couch, on his small desk–from which it promptly tumbled–eventually settling on the spacious kitchen table. When my turn finally came around, I was positively enthralled for all of thirty seconds before realizing that Mario’s hat and shirt should be red, but the rest of the world probably shouldn’t be.

That was the only time that I ever used the Virtual Boy and I never regretted not saving up my allowance to snag one of my own. It says a lot about the success of a cutting-edge game system if a kid who fancied himself a gamer didn’t have any interest in owning one. Maybe that’s because the game’s limited library just didn’t have the sort of options that would have made me want to pick one up.

While much of the world may have forgotten the Virtual Boy, the console still holds a small, loyal following to this day. So loyal, in fact, that members have gone so far as to produce a homebrew port of Street Fighter II for the system that barely was. While the mere creation of such a project is already a feat in itself, it turns out that the resulting game was so large that it wouldn’t fit on a normal Virtual Boy game card, so the creators not only had to code the game, but also had to build a new cartridge just to hold their work so that it could actually be played.

From what video footage shows, the extra effort was worth it, because the game looks pretty damned good. Although depicted in the expected red and black formate, the graphics are honestly impressive for the system. The backgrounds have nice 3D effects and move around based on the position of the fighters–E. Honda’s stage is an excellent example of this–the sound effects and voices are spot-on, and even the music is accurate.

Now comes what may be the most important question: how are the controls? As SpeedyInk mentions in his review of the game, they’re as tight as you’d expect in a Street Fighter title, but there is one small problem: the Virtual Boy controller doesn’t have nearly enough face buttons. Instead of extra buttons, it has a second D-Pad, which the coders mapped to throw the appropriate punches and kicks associated with the directional inputs triggered. It honestly sounds like a nightmare, but all is not lost; to help remedy the controller situation, as well as to add yet another feat to the game’s long list, the game has the ability to support a Super Nintendo pad. It’s not a stick, but it has to be better than those two D-Pads.

Those lucky enough to own copies of this gem also have a fully-realized box that mimics, in every way, the packaging that Nintendo would have shipped with products of their own in back in the day. They even included a full-color instruction manual, something that the gaming world has all but forgotten these days (but that’s a topic for another time).

So where can you get your copy? Well, you can’t. Unless you’ve got some connections within the Virtual Boy community, you’re pretty much out of luck. There hasn’t been, nor will there be, any mass distribution of this title due to various legal issues that should be expected with such a project containing copyrighted characters. This homebrew version of the game on which many of us cut our teeth was not built for profit, it was a labor of love–and one that appears to have produced something very special.

To see the game in action and to take a closer look at the instruction manual and box, check out the video below from Vectrex Roli.

Sources: Vectrex Roli and SpeedyInk via Planet Virtual Boy, special thanks to JumpMan33 for sending this in.

Last year, Team NINJA supported the competitive Dead or Alive 5 scene with the Road to the Fall Classic, a tournament series that saw players from a handful of qualifying events earn a free trip to the final tournament at the Fall Classic 2014 and a chance to win a chunk of the $8000 prize pool. The developers plan to continue providing that support into 2015, going bigger with a new tour for the upcoming Last Round update.

With more tournaments added to the calendar, including Evolution 2015, Battle Royal 2015 features three times the number of events culminating in a grand finals tournament at Northeast Championships XVI.

Each of the events on the calendar will receive a pot bonus, but more importantly, the winners of a select number of events will have their travel expenses to the grand finals compensated by Team Ninja themselves.

Additionally, the top two placers for the remaining tournaments will also receive points towards qualifying for the main event, and the duo with the most will receive the same sponsorship package as the aforementioned outright qualifiers.

As for Northeast Championships XVI itself, Team NINJA will be providing a $3000 pot bonus to the proceedings, and the overall winner is set to receive a free pass into next year’s grand finals.

The full list of participating events can be found in the graphic below.

Source: Team NINJA

While it was initially only available for pre-order in the United Kingdom, those interested in picking up HORI’s Real Arcade Pro 4 Kai arcade stick in the United States can now do so as well thanks to our friends over at Arcade Shock.

As previously reported, the HORI RAP4 Kai features a revised Vewlix based casing first seen in the Real Arcade Pro Hayabusa for the Xbox One. In addition to this, it features a touchpad at the back, something no other arcade stick for the PlayStation 4 has.

Internally, the RAP4 Kai features HORI’s Hayabusa lever and Kuro buttons, the same ones used in some Taito Vewlix arcade cabinets.

Early orders for this arcade stick will be bundled with an Arcade Shock tee-shirt while supplies last. The distributors are expecting to receive these products by the end of the month.

Pricing for the RAP4 Kai is set at $149.99. Should you be looking to pre-order from Arcade Shock, be sure to head on over to Arcade Shock.

Source: Arcade Shock