Faceball 2000 (Game Boy)
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| Faceball 2000 |
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Developer: Xanth Software[1][2]
 This game has a prerelease article |
A solid enough first person shooter for the Game Boy, based on MIDI Maze for the Atari ST.
Contents
Sub-Page
| Prerelease Info |
Custom Link Cable Support
There exists support in the code for linking more than two players via a custom version of the Link Cable. Similar to the way the Atari ST game used the MIDI ports[5], multiple systems talk to each other in a round-robin sort of manner, where Player 1 sends to Player 2, Player 2 to Player 3, and so on until the last player connected goes back to Player 1. As it's separate from the Four Player Adapter's code, trying to daisy-chain multiple of those will not lead to having more than four players connected.[6]
Xanth and Bullet-Proof Software originally intended to bundle their own implementation of this kind of cable with the game, wanting to allow for a maximum of 16 players. However, Nintendo ultimately turned down this idea, with the final game advertising just four players maximum with Nintendo's own Four Player Adapter.[2] The code for the custom cable still remains in the final build, but is inaccessible through official hardware. Over a decade after the game's intiial release, an implementation of this cable was first achieved through modifying Game Boy Advance Link Cables, which are designed to daisy-chain with each other for up to four players, to work with 8-bit Game Boy games.[6][7][8]
Furthermore, the Xanth team themselves were never able to get a game of more than ten players going.[2] As such, they didn't account for an off-by-one error that prevents a 16-player game from running, making the actual player limit 15. Thus, the first 16-player Faceball 2000 match in 2024 didn't happen without patched ROM images that fixed this bug.[8]
Hidden Menu
Enter the options menu and change the player's name to CONFIG_SYS to enter a hidden menu which contains a level select.
Sound Test
Enter the options menu and change the player's name to SOUNDTEST.
Development Text
EndCode
At 0x962D is this string, fittingly ending off all the main game code.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 In-game copyrights
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Interview With Robert Champagne
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Video Games & Computer Entertainment Issue 34 (November 1991), pg, 82 - "In December, Bullet-Proof Software [...] will release FaceBall 2000. an updated and portable version of MidiMaze."
- ↑ MobyGames
- ↑ MIDI Maze manual, pg. 9
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Faceball 2000 - The 3D First Person Shooter for the original Game Boy that supported 16 players!
- ↑ Game Boy® Advance Game Link® Cable
-"This cable will only work with the Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Advance SP portable video game systems and Game Boy Advance Game Paks. This cable will not work with the original Game Boy, Game Boy® pocket, Game Boy® Color, or Game Boy® Printer (no longer available). For two-player game play using original Game Boy or Game Boy Color Game Paks you must use the Game Boy Universal Game Link Cable Set. "
-"If you are Player 1, the purple connector is always plugged into the External Extension Connector (EXT.) on your Game Boy Advance. If you are Player 2, 3 or 4, the purple connector is always plugged into the Interconnect Box of the Game Link cable. The gray connector is always plugged into the External Extension Connector (EXT.) on Player 2, 3 or 4's Game Boy Advance (See Illustration 1). Up to three Game Link cables may be needed for multiplayer game play as shown below (See Illustration 2)." - ↑ 8.0 8.1 Game Boy History made Tonight!! - General Commentary - Video Game Sage - " So, for almost 20 years, people have known about this feature, but have not found a confirmed way of doing it. Over the years, both myself and another team member have independently found that we could make this multiplayer mode work with daisy-chained GBA cables, but as you went higher in player count, the game would freeze and crash, failing to load. The problems ended up being not only unreliable link cables, and voltage creep on the link cables throwing off data signals, but also a software bug with the spawner, which made it impossible to actually start a game with 16 players.
Enter the team; Bob, who organized individuals with different talents, Alex, who built a more effective link cable harness, and solved the programming bug, and Zarithya, who implemented the fixes, built and tested/improved the link harness, and created the final patched rom. With all this, a pile of game boys, and a group of 16 willing individuals, we tried several times before getting a working game of 16 players. Finally, real proof that Faceball 2000's long-sought after 16-player multiplayer actually worked! After that, the fun was real, as we finally played 16 players simultaneously on a game boy game! We were even lucky enough that, despite the finnicky nature of the game, the match was completed successfully without crashing! A friend of the group had the good fortune to become the first ever winner of a 16 player faceball game. "
The Faceball 2000 series
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|---|---|
| Atari ST | MIDI Maze (Demo) |
| Game Boy | Faceball 2000 |
| SNES | Faceball 2000 |
| TurboGrafx-CD | Faceball |
| Game Gear | Faceball 2000 |
| Virtual Boy | Niko-chan Battle |
| Adobe Shockwave | Faceball 3000 |
Games > Games by content > Games with hidden development-related text
Games > Games by content > Games with hidden level selects
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Games > Games by developer > Games developed by Xanth Software
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Games > Games by publisher > Games published by Bullet-Proof Software
Games > Games by release date > Games released in 1991
Games > Games by release date > Games released in December
Games > Games by series > Faceball 2000 series
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