Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Nintendo made F-Zero for the Virtual Boy? Well, apparently developer PizzaRollsRoyce did too, because their latest Virtual Boy homebrew game “Elevated Speed” feels like exactly what you’d expect from that! At the moment, the game is a 1-track demo, but it’s fully-playable with a great soundtrack, computer cars and good controls. You can download the ROM for free and try it yourself via emulation or on original hardware via a ROM cart – Please just note that the colors (color? ;p) and 3D effects look amazing via the VB itself, but never translate as well on a 2D monitor:
Main Website / ROM Download: https://www.elevatedspeed.com/
Planet VB Post: https://www.virtual-boy.com/forums/t/elevated-speed-preview-now-available/
Play on original hardware: https://www.retrorgb.com/hyperflash32-virtual-boy-eink-rom-cart-reviewed.html
I was able to test this out with original hardware and a Virtual Tap installed and really enjoyed it! It’s amazing to see what the VB homebrew community has been able to accomplish and I can’t wait to see what comes next! More info below the video:
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Demo ROM features:
- High-speed, pseudo-3D 50fps gameplay
- Full audio support with original soundtrack
- Custom engine, written in modern C++
- Full sound management system with priority handling, mixing, and positional stereo
- Full 3D game engine (although rendering portion must work within VB constraints)
- Build system that automatically optimizes assets for streaming from ROM to VRAM
- AI
- Large tracks (bound only by size of ROM)
Features planned for a later release:
- More tracks
- More vehicle types
- Link cable play
- Spice up gameplay a bit — powerups, takedowns, etc.
