That's so cool, can't wait to see the video.  Would love to read more about the technical aspects of the programming bug and the link harness too.

I feel like I saw a video of this last year attempted at a con? Congrats! Fun stuff.

1 hour ago, Ferris Bueller said:

I feel like I saw a video of this last year attempted at a con? Congrats! Fun stuff.

Yeah, the same group (sans me) tried to do it at PRGE 2022, but it didn't work. That's how the bugs and hardware issues were eventually found. (The funny part is how I learned that they were doing this, only AFTER the expo was over. I was at the same con, at the same time, and literally down the hall from them, and I had no idea it was happening! The main organizer and I met years ago over FB 16 player, but we hadn't chatted in a while, and reconnected only after PRGE was over. Figures, right?)

I went ahead and uploaded a "home video" that I took of the event. Here you can clearly see the 16-player mode is live and working. No gameplay, however; This was just the first test run. We shut it down and then tried a few more times before getting it to run for a real game (the main problem we found was human interference; We found from experience that the safest way to start a game was to have everyone keep their GBs on the table, and then pick them up once the round started).

Anyway, I will link the proper video when it is finished, at a yet-unknown date. At least here you can see, yes, it's really real!

https://files.catbox.moe/uecrt1.MP4

But if it was a modified ROM, what's the significance? I'm sure you can get 32 working by modifying it further.

I would argue that Code Monkey is right on this one because even to fix bugs, it’s not a truly 16 player game if it doesn’t “just work”.

But I do want to come here and say that it’s still “GB History” as the game, I assume, was intended to have this mode and with a big patch and not significant re-engineering, you pulled off a 16-player game on Game Boys.  I can’t even imagine how that’s possible with all of the cross-communication required from each device, back to one another.

Anyway, thanks for sharing and I can’t wait to see the full video.

2 hours ago, RH said:

But I do want to come here and say that it’s still “GB History” as the game, I assume, was intended to have this mode and with a big patch and not significant re-engineering, you pulled off a 16-player game on Game Boys.

EDIT: On retrospective, I realize this confusion is my fault, because I didn't explain the game's history well enough in the first post. I've updated it above to reflect this oversight.

To expound, you are correct; I bring up 16 players specifically because the game was designed from the start to support it and is feature built for that purpose. See the interview below (incidentally, with the same programmer who was at the event last night):

https://web.archive.org/web/20100509163809/http://fb2k.retro-spect.ca/rchampagne.html

It does pay to point out that he does allude to 16 having been a chosen limit (probably to match MIDI Maze, which I've read also supported 16 players) and that he claims you could have done more. I've spoken with a team member about the question of going over 16 players, and while they argue in theory it may be possible, it would likely require substantial rework, as the game is programmed around the player ID/player count value being no higher than 16. I won't attempt to answer here whether or not it's possible to go above that, only that 16 was always the stated end point and so that was the goal.

As Robert states in that interview, the thing that caused this was that, when the game was developed, the team didn't have enough game boys to test up to 16 players. They were only ever able to get around 10 game boys. So as a result, they never were able to find the bug that resulted when you went for 16. Indeed, we have found the same; On the original release carts, you can do 8 players very stably, and 10 is manageable; It's when you get to the teens that things fall apart. So, it's possible that they got 10 working, and simply assumed the rest would as well, for want of not having time/money/etc. to buy more hardware. I could see if I could ask Robert about that for clarity, but that's my present hypothesis for why it was not found. The team only ever found it by going to the maximum player count, which is what led to the bug fix.

So to answer @Code Monkey's question, it's significant because it's finally hard proof of something that has been a known intended feature of the game since Robert's interview in 2005, but that disparate groups have since tried and failed to make work for what is now almost 20 years. Unless there is someone somewhere that has done the same things seen here, and who has simply not recorded and shared it in any way, then this is the world's first successful go of it, and the first to have recorded proof as well.

Hi folks!

To clarify a few details:

The original 1991 game paks can be used up to 15 players with no modifications to the code at all.  The only things to keep in mind are:

A.) Using old hardware (and especially if you use GBA Link cables rather than a custom solution), you're going to run into a lot of issues with old wires, dirty/loose ports, and bad connections.  1 bad connection kills the game.

B.) If you're not using a custom solution, there is a voltage issue created when using more than eight systems/cables.  This makes more than eight players unstable.  This was corrected for in our custom adapter.

C.) If you have 14 or 15 players, there are two maps that you cannot select.  In very simple terms, there's "not enough room" to spawn everyone in (by the way the game spawns players in at the start.  14 players is hit or miss if it'll work on these two maps and 15 won't work at all.  16 wouldn't either, if it did work.

D.) The 16 player mode that was intended does *not* work with 16 players in the original ROM/retail carts.  Long story short (and the video being made will go into more detail), there's a bug in the code that essentially causes 16 players to be read by the game as zero players.

That brings us to our patched ROM game paks.  Our crew created two versions:

The first one is the original, 1991 ROM with the only change being the fix for the 16 player code causing it to not read as zero players.

The second was the original code, patched with the 16 player fix and the GBC "DX" hack that adds color and takes advantage of the faster GBC processor to increase the speed.

With both of these versions, you still run into A, B, and C from above.

Our crew was able to get a steady, reliable 15 player connection using the custom link hardware and fully original game carts - which is still a feat in and of itself that the game can support this.

The game would have likely shipped with fixed 16 player support, however, the company that developed it (Xanth) had five employees and ten Game Boys at the time Nintendo nixed their custom adapter they planned.  They left the code in, but just never fully tested it, since it wasn't going to officially be a feature.

So, the tl;dr, Can the original Faceball 2000 for the GameBoy support 16 players?  No*. 

*It _can_ support 15, 16 requires a bug patch, which isn't possible to do on original GameBoy carts.

After SSFF gets their video up, more info about all this will be released. :)

This is amazing... congrats!

I guess this us the perfect time to ask about something that's bothered me for about 2 decades now... Faselei! for the Neo Geo Pocket Color has a two player mode... BUT... when you look at the multiplater setup screen, it really looks like it's possible to play with more... possibly up to 16! I say this because of how there's so much more room on the setup screen than just the 2 players. To me it's an overt clue as to what might have been cut out of the game.

My theory, is that there's a wireless multiplayer mode hidden in the game. I read that there's a wireless multiplayer mode in Dive Alert that allows 64 players using the japanese-only wireless link peripheral, so this is what makes me think something similar was cooked up for Faselei.

I'd love for someone to either finally confirm my wild theory, or to end my 16-player Faselei fantasy.... please help!

I chatted with Uncle Bob for a bit at the Midwest Gaming Classic. It was cool to see it out in the real world for people to enjoy. What a journey. Oh snap, they signed up and he commented above! Super cool.