Bound High

Attention all collectors! I have a treat for you! Bound High was a game that was supposed to come out on Virtual Boy but when the system was scrapped by Nintendo a few games that were ready for launch never were released. Bound High was one of them. Thanks to fans of the system, one guy managed to scrape together the source code for this 14 year old game and cram it into existing Virtual Boy carts. It comes complete with box, manual, and everything you'd expect to be in the box of a legitimate retail game.

I got my copy yesterday and all I got to say is...wow. He did a remarkable job.

The art on the box and manual, inside and out, is all high res and has all the markings of a true released game. Even the materials used for the sticker, box, and manual are all the same. You wouldn't be able to tell this was a fan made product! Basically he took old Mario's Tennis cartridges (since there is a bunch out there with little value), gutted the original game and placed the ROM of Bound High, and put it all back together. You can't even tell it used to be a different title. Very impressed.

If you want to get one for yourself, he's selling them for $75 each and only made 50 of them. So if you want to be one of the lucky 50 people in the world to own a copy of this game that will run on your Virtual Boy, act fast.

What kinda game is it?

I'll play it tonight but this is on the back of the box.

Control Chalvo, the bouncing robot, and save the earth from alien invasion in this unique 3-D Action Puzzler!

In full 3D motion, Chalvo, the bouncing robot travels through space in pursuit of alien invaders of earth. Viewed from above, players control Chalvo, who must land on enemies to destroy them while carefully avoiding the deep crevices, sharp spikes, and highly charged electric "shockers" that cause Chalvo's demise.

-Four modes of game play: Score Attack, Adventure Mode, Random Play, and "Pocket and Cushion."

-Players can practice all four modes of game play to master bouncing Chalvo for total demolition of the alien invaders.

-Challenging scenarios provide players with hours of exciting game play!

Sounds legit.

That is crazy cool. Will Nintendo ever release VB games on 3DS? C'moooon!!!

All I want is Wario and Jack Bros fro VBoy.

Ill chime in cause Streex hasnt but he brought over the VB to play the game on Wednesday...The game didnt work.

Yeah- I was kind of wondering about that part- LOL. I was worried when he said he hadn't played it yet!

Ouch.

Didn't work and at first thought my Virtual Boy had crapped out on me. The next morning tried a few games of mine and they all worked perfectly. I sent this email out to them:

Quote :

Hey guys,

I just purchased the Virtual Boy game Bound High from you, but unfortunately
it has issues. The game music works fine and the controls seem to be working,
but the image being displayed is a mess. Does the copy I was sent need to be
repaired? I thought it was my Virtual Boy but I tested it with several of my
other games and they played perfectly. Is it possible to send this back to
get a new copy or have the maker open it up and fix the issue?

Thank you,
streex

This was the reply:

Quote :

That sucks. Hope its not all of them.

I would just PM Minestorm and ask him if he can fix it. We'll figure something out.

Vince

So I found joined the forum Minestorm is a member of to PM him and he finally got online today but hasn't replied back to me. I'm hoping he corrects the issue. It's really a fine looking product.

Sounds... totally legit, man. lol

If you can't tell from this post, my second post was sarcasm, too. I have purchased a few fan-made NES roms (full productions like this one) and 1 of 3 of them worked, and only 1 had the decency to refund me.

Not to shit on your parade, just a word of caution... interwebs has burglars!

I fear for the worst. I'll keep you posted on what happens. It sure seemed legit. This is my first foray into the fan made game realm.

Crap. The problem is completely on my end. Turns out it IS my Virtual Boy. The right lense is going out. For some reason it becomes a huge problem on Bound High and not the other games. Maybe because of the use of red is much higher than the other games. When I close my right eye it looks just fine. I apologized to Minestorm and thanked him for making such a terrific product. So now it looks like I'll be making a new VB purchase next year if I can't figure out how to fix the problem myself.

So if you're interested in getting this, it gets my highest recommendation for collectors. The game isn't that fun. I'll give it a 2.5. You bounce on blocks looking from a top down perspective and are trying to knock the enemies into the abyss without falling into it yourself. There are also bonus stages where you do the exact same thing. Not much variety. For collectors only.

Ok. Instead of buying a new Virtual Boy, I'm going to do what I've never done before. I'm going to fix a console myself. Looked up the common problem and it looks like all I'll need to do is buy the right bit to open it up. Then I can heat up the part where the glue is no longer holding in the oven, so the glue gets a little mushy again, and put a piece of tape around it to ensure it stays put.

I've soldered my Genesis3. Total pro.

Let us know if the patient makes it out of surgery, doc. We're all pulling for him! I worked on my toaster recently. May it rest in pieces.