I remember taking this with me on a road trip when I was younger. I could get through about 20 minutes of play at a time before I wanted to throw up because I was both in a moving car and it's a VB. Good times?
@@Eden_M0rgan pure willpower I suppose. I think I had my knees raised up and the seat reclined so I could position myself in a very unsafe and uncomfortable manner. I imagine if I tried that today for even a second, my old ass would be sore for weeks
Yep that's what killed the device I tried it when I was a kid was like wow I never want one of these. It was at a Hills department store which isn't even around anymore.
@@Gatorade69 It is a pretty bizarre controller. Although it was the first of it's kind having an analog stick (along with the Saturn's 3D controller), it's a bit strange that they didn't think of having the stick and d-pad both on the left side. Also, the way it works with the 3 handles means that you can never really make use of everything on the controller, as either the L button and d-pad or Z trigger and stick will be left out. The start button is in a bad place if you're playing a game where you hold the left handle too. The GameCube controller was the N64 controller done right.
@@JMFSpike Spot on. I have really huge hands (The Duke fits my hands well) and the first time I played a N64 I held the Dpad side and tried to use the analog stick... lol. My hats were big enough that I could actually use it that way uncomfortably. Yeah I really enjoy the GameCube controller. I do think the Xbox 360 or PS4 controller is still the best but I likes the Duke because it had 6 face buttons, the black and white buttons were harder to use on the S model.
@@Gatorade69 You know, it would be pretty cool if they made different sized controllers for people with different hand sizes. What I'm thinking is like kid, small, medium, and large. The one packed in with the console would always be medium. I think it'd be really popular, because people have always complained about controller sizes. The NES controller was great when I was a kid, but even though I have medium sized adult hands (and they damn near qualify as small), I wish they were a bit bigger now.
The Virtualboy is incredibly underrated. Indeed, your recommendations of 11 of out of the 14 game library is indeed the general consesnus and I also personally agree with the Virtualboy being mostly actually awesome. What is so remarkable is that these games only represent the launch titles and first wave. So many more games were in development and were cancelled suddenly when support was dropped. Just imagine what would have happened had the Virtualboy actually seen a standard 5 year lifecycle - FPS games, racing games, 3D platformers, man. There was so much potential left on the table. One scatched-from-the-abyss games to check out for sure is Bound High. It was completed but unreleased, and then dumped online finally years and years later. It's excellent on the real hardware. Totally worth buying a repro cart of.
@@RolloTonéBrownTown The vast majority of the negative comments fromt he Virtualboy come from people who have never played Virtualboy. See, Virtualboy was littered with warnings all over its packaging about how it might be dangerous for young kid's eyesight and you should take a break every 15 minutes and stop playing if you experience any discomfort. This was Nintendo's legal team covering their ass as the Virtualboy was launched before the case study with Optometrists was completed, the results was that the Virtualboy did not negatively affect vision. But just in case it did, Nintendo didn't want lawsuits for lack of warnings. As a result the VirtualBoy became this bad boy system that could make little Jimmy go blind in the eyes of many parents and kids justified not getting it by saying ha look at the ugly black and red, we don't want this anyway!
The problem with the virtual boy wasn't the lineup of games, it was the headaches and pain in the ass process of playing it comfortably for anyone who wasn't a child.
I still have one of these - got a lot of games on clearance. They actually are pretty good and the 3D was a neat effect. I agree that the music/sound quality was pretty great! Even as collossal of a flop that it was, it still was a springboard for a lot of ideas, like a "3D controller." This thing came out before dual-analog was a thing! Sometimes innovation doesn't work, but it never hurts to try something and learn from it.
Re: Red Alarm, in every review that says it sucks, they're not playing it right. The right d-pad strafe-boosts. Not just left to right but up and down as well. This capability, as well as holding one of the triggers (left I think) for tight turns is absolutely critical to being able to maneuver properly. When you see them running into walls, especially during the boss fights because they can't turn fast enough and dying to shots because they don't strafe-boost to dodge them it's because they don't know those abilities are in the game, generally. It is slightly complicated to control but once you get the hang of it, it's very fun, my top VB game easily. It's a shame people jump into it for 5 minutes to capture review footage, don't learn the controls and conclude it's a design problem.
I was a freshman in high school when the Virtual Boy released. A friend of mine actually had one and I had the pleasure(?) of playing in the context of the time. It was a cool oddity, but definitely too awkward to be practical.
@@Chud_Bud_Supreme I know someone made a color patch for Jack Bros. I think it might need a custom build of an emulator, but it actually works! There's a playthrough of it by someone called Romoloo Scorlot
Jack Bros. Is crap. Just my opinion. Top down pov games aren't my thing but idk. Wario land is so good l. Is it as good as 3D Tetris, no of course not, but still 2nd place for me
You don't really need a big chunky VR headset like a Quest 2 or an Apple Vision Pro. All you need is your phone, and Google cardboard. That's what I do. The 3d effects even work properly! My only issue is that since Google cardboard is made of literal cardboard, the cardboard edge of the nose cutout really hurts my nose which is the only thing holding me back for playing VB for 3 hours
That thing went to clearance very fast. I picked up every game I could find. Warioland was the best game on there. I also soldered a power supply to it.
I was fortunate enough to have a Virtual Boy growing up, mostly because my mom got it for $15 brand new on clearance at Blockbuster. I had Mario Tennis, Panic Bomber (which is one of my favorite puzzlers), Wario Land and Mario Clash, I adore all the games I had, the controller is wonderful and underrated. I wish the games could get some kind of modern rerelease
17:27 With how many good games there are here, it really shows how bad the Virtual Boy itself was. There were some great games, but the console itself was..."virtually"...unplayable. I think the only reason these games are dead is because of the unpleasant association with the VB itself. I feel like Nintendo (or Japanese companies in general?) don't have much tolerance for anything associated with failures. Like some sort of superstition. Thankfully Wario survived, but it feels like Mario Clash and the VB's failure stopped Nintendo from expanding on the Mario Bros (Arcade) concept ever again!
The mechanic of switching between the background and foreground in Virtual Boy Wario Land was later done again years later in games like Donkey Kong Country Returns and Kirby Triple Deluxe. I think it works very well in those games.
There should be a 16:9 recording option included via an update for the Quest 2 sometime in the future, so lookout for that when it comes time for a review on it
I love my Virtual Boy. I always wanted to play the demo when we went to Target. I couldn't believe it when I got one for Christmas, I was so excited. Little did I know, my parents got it for $20.
One reason Red Alarm could keep saying Nintendo Virtual Boy and T&E Soft Presents is because that was the game that was running when the system was demoed in stores. Or, at least it was at my Target.
I've still got my Virtual Boy, I actually loved the thing. I got it on clearance for $25 and most of the game library for $5. Somehow I ended up with two copies of Water World... The one that goes for like $300 loose. I honestly intend to sell the whole set up once I can get around to having the displays fixed. They GLUED the ribbon cable that connects the screen and display boards with glue that only lasts about 20ish years, so now the displays are all garbled. And as much as I enjoyed the thing, emulation is fine for it. Anyway, I had about 3/4ths of the games and absolutely agree with all of your takes. Basically every game was good to great. It was most comfortable to play on your back honestly, what you did wrong was two fold. One is that you keep the base on with the feet resting on your chest to kinda lever it up into a comfortable position, and the other is the cloth shroud thing on yours is utterly wrecked, it's supposed to stick straight out and is a pretty firm stand for the console with the weight distributed between it and the feet.
It's funny you mention the USB thing. For a maker space demo project thing I had done something "close" do that. It was part of an attempt to learn how old devices talked to consoles, but splicing the controller cable to fit a standard port I hooked it up to a Arduino which sent keyboard commands. The demo for the booth I had set up let people make noise using Famitracker.
Thank you for showing how the VB works, no one else has really explained that the power switch is on the controller and that there was at least a little adjustment you could do for the headset
At the time, I was saying that Nintendo should do at least a couple VirtualBoy VC releases on 3DS. It was probably their last opportunity to preserve the few good games on the system, with the 3D more or less intact. Close enough for the games to be playable, anyway. What's worse is that, unless something happened in the last year I haven't heard about, there's no good VB emulator on 3DS either. RetroArch supports it, but not the stereoscopy - which pretty much defeats the purpose. And a couple independent projects started up, but never got to the point of being genuinely playable. It's just such a shame all around.
I know you were toying with the idea of a video dedicated to emulation on the Quest, and if you can overcome the practical hurdle I'd love to see a little bit about it. Great vid as always!
I remember picking mine up for like twenty bucks off of clearance. I'm actually surprised they never tried to emulate some of these games, especially Warioland, on the 3ds.
When it first came out, I was in line behind someone at a customer service area. She had Virtual Boy + every game that existed on Christmas layaway. They took their sweet time finding everything for her. It was just surprising to see she bought it, and every game.
Glad to see you enjoyed the VB games library. Especially Red Alarm a real favorite of mine. Shame VB games never made it to the 3DS. Not even the homebrew scene could manage it sadly. I prefer playing with Red/Cyan 3D glasses, it works rather well on PC and smart phone via Retroarch. If you do a halloween special, please consider the Japan only Innsmouth, a survival horror on Virtual Boy.
I recall this being demoed for what seemed like a very long time at Blockbuster back in the day (at least for the one I went to). They didn't have many titles to demo. I think they had briefly Teleroboxer and Mario Clash but I remember they stuck with Mario Tennis as the main demo title for what felt like a couple years before they removed that kiosk. They demoed Virtual Boy longer then they had 32X titles for rent in the store! I never had a large interest in it, but I agree that it was a missed opportunity to not port some titles over to 3DS. Specifically Jack Bros and Wario Land, which I always was told were the top tier games for it.
Good overview on the console itself as well as its library . thanks! Feedback I would have probably enjoyed two more soundtracks as a short preview and maybe at least a short mentioning of the architecture behind it. Maybe I missed that, but I searched for it while watching in the end - it's an NEC V810 RISC machine at 20 MHz. Not bad actually for such a device... quite powerful!
The controller for the virtual boy. I wonder if that's how they got the idea for the controller for the Nintendo 64? Without the middle joystick handle. Both controllers would look almost identical.
For what it is it's an amazing machine for it's time and price, that said it's the tech wasn't remotely ready for it to begin with even though quite a few other gaming companies had plans to do similar things. The VB has, in all irony, some amazing IPD range and focus range better than most FPV goggles or virtual reality goggles. The VB is one of the few face mounted displays I can actually get a unsplit image in as my eyes seem to be quite far apart (or have a big head, or both IDK). The console would have been so much better if it had more colors, even if it would have been speccy levels of limited pallet. Also Golf is quite good.
Ok finally, someone else praises the line up. I have a Virtual Boy and frankly...the games are great. The issue really is the fact everything is red. I think that combined with the fact it's not really even portable just made it very unappealing. It's a similar situation with the Wii U I suppose, no matter how great the games are, if people find the core selling point unappealing, it ain't going to take off.
Your stand was the correct way around to begin with. The way you've got it on now is backwards. The legs face away from you, allowing you to tilt the headset upwards, saving you from hunching to stick your face in.
Good video. I would have liked to hear lots more game audio. Any reason why it wasn’t included, even as an extended peek of the games once you were done talking?
I bought Virtual Boy when released and played it a few times then put back in the box in my closet. Couple decades later day I heard about the LED screens having issues displaying images due to the method Nintendo used to secure the ribbon cables to the LED boards. Apparently Nintendo used an adhesive or something instead of solder. I broke out my Virtual Boy to find it did in had the issue. Thru a Virtual Boy discussion board I found a guy that permanently fixes them. Had to disassemble the VB to remove the 2 screens (which are actually a single vertical row of LEDs) pack and shipped out. Received them 4 weeks later, installed and all has been well. Odd attachment I have with the VB, I’m guessing most VB owners feel the same?
Was working at a Blockbuster Video when this came out. As with most consoles at the time, we rented this out to customers willing to leave a deposit with a credit card. Although rented out in a giant plastic hard-case, these things always came back jacked up 🤦🏻♂️
Just want to say, as someone who grew up with a virtual boy-- the newest release of the red dragon 3ds emulator is an *excellent* way to experience these games almost as intended, but still way less painful
I think Water World was the only virtual Boy game to support multiplayer. In a rarity for a Virtual Boy game, there is a multiplayer option though it is awkwardly implemented: start game, pause, press A to add additional players. You can have up to 9 players; as if anyone would want to 😂
Blade Eagle 3D on Master System let you change altitudes, but it was limited to either let you fight air or ground targets. I'm surprised most of the games got a thumbs up. You're quite right about Wario Land VB, though... it's a shame that it was a Virtual Boy exclusive, because it deserves to be remembered by more than just a handful of VB owners.
Bought my VB on final clearance at KB Toys at a local mall mid 90s, with several games. Cib, used once to try it back then. Time to sell, as I'm an Atari, Sega geek
One of the 77,000 suckers who bought this thing new. I kid of course! I actually really liked the VB back then, and always felt it got an unfair rap in the years immediately afterwards (at least nowadays people can take a more nuanced look at the game library). The games (at least the first party ones which I had) were quite fun and I really digged the console's unique soundfont. As a fan of early to mid 90s Nintendo game design the titles resonated with me the same way late era GB titles did. I guess it also helped that I've never had any motion sickness so was able to play for hours (or at least until my neck started hurting...)( Alas, I've since sold it and have been waiting to repurchase one... as the prices continue to climb :(
I wonder if it'd be possible to convert a virtual boy rom (2d of course) into a GBA one. I've always wanted to play VB Wario Land but for some reason I just can't stand playing handheld games on a PC emulator.
Agreed on many points made here. This is the only console I have the COMPLETE collection of North American released games for... yes including Jack Bros with the box!! This system was a Blockbuster video rental and when they stopped carrying it they clearanced everything. I think I paid about $50 for the system itself. I drove around to every Blockbuster in my area to get every game available. I paid between $2 and $5 for each game, and most included the box. I don't remember what I paid for Jack Bros, but I am guessing it was about $5. To me, at the time, the very best games were Warioland (which I played to the end) and Cosmic Pinball. Cosmic Pinball was the one I used to show the system to "non-gamng" friends. A good way to describe the 3D effect- Viewmaster.
I have no intention of ever buying a Virtual Boy (can't afford one anyway), but it's one of those failed consoles I find fascinating. I've also played quite a few of the VB games through emulation and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed them. It would be awesome if Nintendo released a collection of the VB games on Switch Online.
I always knew about the Virtual Boy, but I never got to try it. My family had one and had ended up selling the unit, but didn't provide the box. I know this because the box remained in my sister's closet, holding shoes or something innocuous and unrelated. The closest I've gotten has been, well, VirtualBoyGo! it helps that the Quest controllers also provide a very similar feel, what with the dual analog sticks and the AB/XY buttons. Nintendo did miss a huge opportunity to offer these on the 3DS, but maybe it's for the best. The 3DS is still very much a gimmick, the experience of Virtual Boy on it probably wouldn't go over amazingly well.
I don't know if people would jump at a collection of all the Virtual Boy games on the Switch but many folks definitely have wanted the Wario Land game to get a modern port. Doesn't seem like it would need drastic changes aside from making it full color.
A quick little fun fact, one of the cancelled games for this failed system is a port of Puyo Puyo Tsuu, which wasn't released due to the obvious failure of the system. If it was, it will be named "Virtual Puyo Puyo Tsuu", in akin to the "Super Puyo Puyo Tsuu" name from the Super Famicom ports, and the "Pocket Puyo Puyo Tsuu" name from the Game Boy port.
There was a release of limited numbers of virtual boys in Europe - about 500 ended up in London and a similar amount in Paris. So they *technically* had s very low promotional release in Europe.
I'm pretty much sitting on the exact same fence as you for this one. The Virtual Boy console itself REALLY sucks, but almost all of the games that it has are anywhere from decent to fantastic (baring the constant red and black color scheme its known for of course). There's also an awesome, though not perfect, Japanese exclusive title called Insmouse no Yakata that's basically a dungeon crawling horror FPS game. It's honestly really cool to see that on the Virtual Boy, and it should've gotten a wider release. Nowadays, I wouldn't even try playing these games on a stock Virtual Boy. Rather, they should be played on an emulator (the cheapest route for this expensive hobby). If you like original hardware like I do, already own a solid Virtual Boy library and/or money isn't a problem, you can also consolize a real Virtual Boy (preferably one that's in bad shape or not working properly to avoid cannibalizing good working units) using special consolization kits that have been developed in recent time. Both consolization and emulation also offer the ability to change the color of the game being played. I usually use whiteish greyish or whatever it's referred as since it sort of resembles a supped-up Gameboy Pocket kind of aesthetic.
Jack Bros. actually holds the distinction of being the first Shin Megami Tensei game to be released in North America. That's right, a Virtual Boy game takes place in the same universe as Persona, Devil Survivor, and...well...the original Shin Megami Tensei series. In fact, the titular Jack Bros. are all summonable Personas in the Persona series, as well as being enemies featured in other series.
I found out about it at 10 years old in 2006 and it blew my mind how this thing didn't take off and why Nintendo didn't make way more content for it. It wasn't till i saw the nerd episode at 12 years old that it made sense.
I always thought it was a bit strange with the big focus on virtual console on 3ds, why they didn't just port these there for 5$ a pop or so. Would have made them accessible to many, and they could have emulated the 3D effect. 100% agree with you though, in terms of library the VB has a lot of really fun titles
Those would be pretty fun little Switch releases, especially if Labo VR glasses were supported. Honestly it never had much support, even by the big N, and I wish there was more.
I bought the vb at launch and I guess I’m the only one who loved it. Mario tennis had a great challenge with tight controls and nice 3D! If anything, Nintendo recognized the potential in that game and it basically created the Mario tennis, Mario party and later wii sports franchises, imo.
The virtual boy was unfairly maligned, it's fun to play and I think the gimmickiness of the device is successful in making it a unique experience. What it needed were more first person games, or overhead isometric games. I do think the public is a bit unfairly dismissive of anything 3D, the 3DS's effect is incredible and yet lots of people turn it off and scoff at it, I still think it looks like a miracle
You wanna mount it to a mic arm or something to hold it in front of your face. Also, I've never used one, but it was my impression that the 3D effect itself is better than glasses since it's two different screens being projected rather than flashing one screen.
Yeah I'm still a touch salty that they didn't put the Wario Land game on the 3DS. I guess Nintendo really wants to forget the Virtual Boy. As usual with Nintendo (at least these days on the Switch), guess I'll just go pirate a copy since they refuse to sell one to me. 18:53 - Oh. Then I guess Nintendo didn't do it simply because they hate money.
Have you ever considered reviewing the Japan exclusive Virtual Boy games? If not, you should do a seperate video. Also, I really wish the Virtual Boy had been conceived as a 2D handheld console from the start, either in color or monochrome. It could have gotten more luck, as a 2D handheld console with SNES quality games to replace the original Game Boy.
i remember my brother had this and i played mario clash on it.. i have no idea what happend with it and honestly i hope that alternative universe me has a childhood with consoles and now is a better collector than me.. damn karen mother with mania to throwin out everything cuz it's ''trash''.. i miss all my gba games boxes.. they would have looked fantastic now as a decoration :c *also woah the *~hair~*..
I wish that Virtual Boy Warriors Land would be remade as it seems to be one of the very few VB games that were actually good and one of the best games for it.
I tried Virtual Boy Go through PSVR, through 2 compatibility layers to push it to Vive and then PSVR, but couldn’t get it to work unsurprisingly. Would love to see a follow up with the JP exclusive library after seeing how good the US library is
FrameRater's review shows that most of the games on the Virtual Boy aren't terrible. Heck, I would like to see Nintendo porting over color versions of them on the Switch.
I remember taking this with me on a road trip when I was younger. I could get through about 20 minutes of play at a time before I wanted to throw up because I was both in a moving car and it's a VB. Good times?
If I did what you did as a kid I would have puked my skeleton
How the HELL were you able to play the thing IN the car??
@@Eden_M0rgan pure willpower I suppose. I think I had my knees raised up and the seat reclined so I could position myself in a very unsafe and uncomfortable manner. I imagine if I tried that today for even a second, my old ass would be sore for weeks
The Virtual Boy was the first and only Nintendo console I never wanted after demoing it at a Toys’R’Us kiosk. Lol
Yep that's what killed the device I tried it when I was a kid was like wow I never want one of these. It was at a Hills department store which isn't even around anymore.
I didn't care for the N64 at all after trying it. I hated that controller so much.
@@Gatorade69 It is a pretty bizarre controller. Although it was the first of it's kind having an analog stick (along with the Saturn's 3D controller), it's a bit strange that they didn't think of having the stick and d-pad both on the left side. Also, the way it works with the 3 handles means that you can never really make use of everything on the controller, as either the L button and d-pad or Z trigger and stick will be left out. The start button is in a bad place if you're playing a game where you hold the left handle too. The GameCube controller was the N64 controller done right.
@@JMFSpike Spot on. I have really huge hands (The Duke fits my hands well) and the first time I played a N64 I held the Dpad side and tried to use the analog stick... lol. My hats were big enough that I could actually use it that way uncomfortably. Yeah I really enjoy the GameCube controller. I do think the Xbox 360 or PS4 controller is still the best but I likes the Duke because it had 6 face buttons, the black and white buttons were harder to use on the S model.
@@Gatorade69 You know, it would be pretty cool if they made different sized controllers for people with different hand sizes. What I'm thinking is like kid, small, medium, and large. The one packed in with the console would always be medium. I think it'd be really popular, because people have always complained about controller sizes. The NES controller was great when I was a kid, but even though I have medium sized adult hands (and they damn near qualify as small), I wish they were a bit bigger now.
The Virtualboy is incredibly underrated. Indeed, your recommendations of 11 of out of the 14 game library is indeed the general consesnus and I also personally agree with the Virtualboy being mostly actually awesome. What is so remarkable is that these games only represent the launch titles and first wave. So many more games were in development and were cancelled suddenly when support was dropped.
Just imagine what would have happened had the Virtualboy actually seen a standard 5 year lifecycle - FPS games, racing games, 3D platformers, man. There was so much potential left on the table.
One scatched-from-the-abyss games to check out for sure is Bound High. It was completed but unreleased, and then dumped online finally years and years later. It's excellent on the real hardware. Totally worth buying a repro cart of.
Dragon Hopper and Bound High look so cool, they could have really breathed new life into the console had they gotten the chance!
Interesting to hear something good about the Virtualboy with all the negative things said about it. Ty
@@RolloTonéBrownTown The vast majority of the negative comments fromt he Virtualboy come from people who have never played Virtualboy. See, Virtualboy was littered with warnings all over its packaging about how it might be dangerous for young kid's eyesight and you should take a break every 15 minutes and stop playing if you experience any discomfort.
This was Nintendo's legal team covering their ass as the Virtualboy was launched before the case study with Optometrists was completed, the results was that the Virtualboy did not negatively affect vision. But just in case it did, Nintendo didn't want lawsuits for lack of warnings.
As a result the VirtualBoy became this bad boy system that could make little Jimmy go blind in the eyes of many parents and kids justified not getting it by saying ha look at the ugly black and red, we don't want this anyway!
Don't forget about Faceball, Hyper Fighting, and all the awesome homebrew that have been made by the PlanetVB community.
The problem with the virtual boy wasn't the lineup of games, it was the headaches and pain in the ass process of playing it comfortably for anyone who wasn't a child.
I still have one of these - got a lot of games on clearance. They actually are pretty good and the 3D was a neat effect. I agree that the music/sound quality was pretty great! Even as collossal of a flop that it was, it still was a springboard for a lot of ideas, like a "3D controller." This thing came out before dual-analog was a thing! Sometimes innovation doesn't work, but it never hurts to try something and learn from it.
Re: Red Alarm, in every review that says it sucks, they're not playing it right. The right d-pad strafe-boosts. Not just left to right but up and down as well. This capability, as well as holding one of the triggers (left I think) for tight turns is absolutely critical to being able to maneuver properly. When you see them running into walls, especially during the boss fights because they can't turn fast enough and dying to shots because they don't strafe-boost to dodge them it's because they don't know those abilities are in the game, generally.
It is slightly complicated to control but once you get the hang of it, it's very fun, my top VB game easily. It's a shame people jump into it for 5 minutes to capture review footage, don't learn the controls and conclude it's a design problem.
Oh yeah, as soon as a boss showed up I knew there must be more control so instinctively pressed everything and discovered the strafe. Fun game!
I was a freshman in high school when the Virtual Boy released. A friend of mine actually had one and I had the pleasure(?) of playing in the context of the time. It was a cool oddity, but definitely too awkward to be practical.
The fact that Wario Land VB and Jack Bros is stuck on the Virtual Boy is criminal
Has anyone tried emulating either with color added in?
@@Chud_Bud_Supreme I'm sure there're No colors for their emulations.
@@Chud_Bud_Supreme I know someone made a color patch for Jack Bros. I think it might need a custom build of an emulator, but it actually works! There's a playthrough of it by someone called Romoloo Scorlot
On planet virtual boy someone is working on a gba warioland port
Jack Bros. Is crap. Just my opinion. Top down pov games aren't my thing but idk. Wario land is so good l. Is it as good as 3D Tetris, no of course not, but still 2nd place for me
Emulating the Virtual Boy with a VR headset is so awesome...
i played waterworld blind in vr and the head that appears when you beat a level scared the shit out of me
That sounds interesting.
@@SmeddyTooBestChannel I played Mario Clash and Mario head jumpscare after a game over really got me
YESSS I just got the emulater on my quest 2
You don't really need a big chunky VR headset like a Quest 2 or an Apple Vision Pro. All you need is your phone, and Google cardboard. That's what I do. The 3d effects even work properly! My only issue is that since Google cardboard is made of literal cardboard, the cardboard edge of the nose cutout really hurts my nose which is the only thing holding me back for playing VB for 3 hours
That thing went to clearance very fast. I picked up every game I could find. Warioland was the best game on there. I also soldered a power supply to it.
I recall it being slashed from 130 dollars to a mere 15
@@Chud_Bud_Supreme What a fucking steal tbh
Same. Picked everything up on clearance. I played Warioland to end... over 20 years ago. I remember really enjoying it.
If they removed the virtual reality aspect I think it would be much more successful, it could gave been an early GBA.
I was fortunate enough to have a Virtual Boy growing up, mostly because my mom got it for $15 brand new on clearance at Blockbuster. I had Mario Tennis, Panic Bomber (which is one of my favorite puzzlers), Wario Land and Mario Clash, I adore all the games I had, the controller is wonderful and underrated. I wish the games could get some kind of modern rerelease
$15?! Dang, that's very good! I'd buy any video game system that had some good games for it at that price.
Can't believe I lived to see Frame play a real Shin Megami Tensei game...
looks like you have shitty life expectations
😂
17:27 With how many good games there are here, it really shows how bad the Virtual Boy itself was. There were some great games, but the console itself was..."virtually"...unplayable.
I think the only reason these games are dead is because of the unpleasant association with the VB itself. I feel like Nintendo (or Japanese companies in general?) don't have much tolerance for anything associated with failures. Like some sort of superstition.
Thankfully Wario survived, but it feels like Mario Clash and the VB's failure stopped Nintendo from expanding on the Mario Bros (Arcade) concept ever again!
The mechanic of switching between the background and foreground in Virtual Boy Wario Land was later done again years later in games like Donkey Kong Country Returns and Kirby Triple Deluxe. I think it works very well in those games.
Paper Mario also
As I understand it there's a decent VB scene making homebrew, would love to see you check out some of them
As one of the only VB enjoyers out there, this video is very welcome. I wish more people would talk about Space Squash. That game is fantastic
There should be a 16:9 recording option included via an update for the Quest 2 sometime in the future, so lookout for that when it comes time for a review on it
I love my Virtual Boy. I always wanted to play the demo when we went to Target. I couldn't believe it when I got one for Christmas, I was so excited. Little did I know, my parents got it for $20.
One reason Red Alarm could keep saying Nintendo Virtual Boy and T&E Soft Presents is because that was the game that was running when the system was demoed in stores. Or, at least it was at my Target.
I've still got my Virtual Boy, I actually loved the thing. I got it on clearance for $25 and most of the game library for $5. Somehow I ended up with two copies of Water World... The one that goes for like $300 loose. I honestly intend to sell the whole set up once I can get around to having the displays fixed. They GLUED the ribbon cable that connects the screen and display boards with glue that only lasts about 20ish years, so now the displays are all garbled. And as much as I enjoyed the thing, emulation is fine for it.
Anyway, I had about 3/4ths of the games and absolutely agree with all of your takes. Basically every game was good to great.
It was most comfortable to play on your back honestly, what you did wrong was two fold. One is that you keep the base on with the feet resting on your chest to kinda lever it up into a comfortable position, and the other is the cloth shroud thing on yours is utterly wrecked, it's supposed to stick straight out and is a pretty firm stand for the console with the weight distributed between it and the feet.
Amiculi knows virtual boys hehe
Still kinda mad we never got a VB Wario Land port to 3DS
You can actually play VB games on the Quest headset and it's quite impressive in real 3D
It's funny you mention the USB thing. For a maker space demo project thing I had done something "close" do that. It was part of an attempt to learn how old devices talked to consoles, but splicing the controller cable to fit a standard port I hooked it up to a Arduino which sent keyboard commands. The demo for the booth I had set up let people make noise using Famitracker.
Fun Fact: due to the failure of the Virtual Boy it was not only never released in Europe, but it was also never in Australia or South Korea. (5:46)
I wish they brought Virtual Boy Wario Land to the 3DS with remixed graphics. It would have been great.
Counting Japanese releases, there are 22 games. There are also HOmbrew games. A few have been finished and are great.
I just don't know what Nintendo were thinking.
Thank you for showing how the VB works, no one else has really explained that the power switch is on the controller and that there was at least a little adjustment you could do for the headset
there is a PCVR virtualboy emulator but I didn't know Sidequest had it, you can play these games without the 3D cause of normal emulators
At the time, I was saying that Nintendo should do at least a couple VirtualBoy VC releases on 3DS. It was probably their last opportunity to preserve the few good games on the system, with the 3D more or less intact. Close enough for the games to be playable, anyway.
What's worse is that, unless something happened in the last year I haven't heard about, there's no good VB emulator on 3DS either. RetroArch supports it, but not the stereoscopy - which pretty much defeats the purpose. And a couple independent projects started up, but never got to the point of being genuinely playable. It's just such a shame all around.
The games Nintendo will never re release.
I believe there is a mod for VGA Out that will also let you swap the color red for one of a few other colors.
I know you were toying with the idea of a video dedicated to emulation on the Quest, and if you can overcome the practical hurdle I'd love to see a little bit about it. Great vid as always!
Only played this once in a mall. It was enough.
I recall somebody was working on a Virtual Boy emulator for the 3DS. It didn't run well but I remember having fun trying Wario Land with it.
I bought mine at Hills department store. I have all the games haven’t played them in years. Great video !!!
I remember picking mine up for like twenty bucks off of clearance. I'm actually surprised they never tried to emulate some of these games, especially Warioland, on the 3ds.
When it first came out, I was in line behind someone at a customer service area. She had Virtual Boy + every game that existed on Christmas layaway. They took their sweet time finding everything for her. It was just surprising to see she bought it, and every game.
Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem feature when?
The Wario Land game really should've gotten a 3ds remake.
Literally got a Virtual Boy last week. Thanks for highlighting a few games that I wanted to check out like Wario and Red Alarm :)
Glad to see you enjoyed the VB games library. Especially Red Alarm a real favorite of mine.
Shame VB games never made it to the 3DS. Not even the homebrew scene could manage it sadly.
I prefer playing with Red/Cyan 3D glasses, it works rather well on PC and smart phone via Retroarch.
If you do a halloween special, please consider the Japan only Innsmouth, a survival horror on Virtual Boy.
I recall this being demoed for what seemed like a very long time at Blockbuster back in the day (at least for the one I went to). They didn't have many titles to demo. I think they had briefly Teleroboxer and Mario Clash but I remember they stuck with Mario Tennis as the main demo title for what felt like a couple years before they removed that kiosk. They demoed Virtual Boy longer then they had 32X titles for rent in the store! I never had a large interest in it, but I agree that it was a missed opportunity to not port some titles over to 3DS. Specifically Jack Bros and Wario Land, which I always was told were the top tier games for it.
Good overview on the console itself as well as its library . thanks! Feedback I would have probably enjoyed two more soundtracks as a short preview and maybe at least a short mentioning of the architecture behind it. Maybe I missed that, but I searched for it while watching in the end - it's an NEC V810 RISC machine at 20 MHz. Not bad actually for such a device... quite powerful!
15:17 Mission X on the Intellivision also did this.
That game looks pretty cool, did you enjoy it?
@@FrameRater Haven't played it in a while, but I remember it being fairly good.
The controller for the virtual boy.
I wonder if that's how they got the idea for the controller for the Nintendo 64?
Without the middle joystick handle.
Both controllers would look almost identical.
Great job. But no mention of the carrying case 🤔. Still great video I agree with all the games 😃
For what it is it's an amazing machine for it's time and price, that said it's the tech wasn't remotely ready for it to begin with even though quite a few other gaming companies had plans to do similar things. The VB has, in all irony, some amazing IPD range and focus range better than most FPV goggles or virtual reality goggles. The VB is one of the few face mounted displays I can actually get a unsplit image in as my eyes seem to be quite far apart (or have a big head, or both IDK).
The console would have been so much better if it had more colors, even if it would have been speccy levels of limited pallet. Also Golf is quite good.
Ok finally, someone else praises the line up. I have a Virtual Boy and frankly...the games are great. The issue really is the fact everything is red. I think that combined with the fact it's not really even portable just made it very unappealing. It's a similar situation with the Wii U I suppose, no matter how great the games are, if people find the core selling point unappealing, it ain't going to take off.
Thanks for watching! Cool videos. =D
The 3DS had a missed opportunity to put Virtual Boy games on the Virtual Console. It's too late now sadly.
Your stand was the correct way around to begin with. The way you've got it on now is backwards. The legs face away from you, allowing you to tilt the headset upwards, saving you from hunching to stick your face in.
Good video. I would have liked to hear lots more game audio. Any reason why it wasn’t included, even as an extended peek of the games once you were done talking?
Gunpei Yokoi was ahead of his time. R.I.P.
I really need to find a headset that my phone can fit inside so that I can emulate VB properly
You should check out Innsmouth no Yakata for the Virtual Boy. JP only but its completely in English. It is my favorite title on the system.
I bought Virtual Boy when released and played it a few times then put back in the box in my closet. Couple decades later day I heard about the LED screens having issues displaying images due to the method Nintendo used to secure the ribbon cables to the LED boards. Apparently Nintendo used an adhesive or something instead of solder. I broke out my Virtual Boy to find it did in had the issue. Thru a Virtual Boy discussion board I found a guy that permanently fixes them. Had to disassemble the VB to remove the 2 screens (which are actually a single vertical row of LEDs) pack and shipped out. Received them 4 weeks later, installed and all has been well. Odd attachment I have with the VB, I’m guessing most VB owners feel the same?
Edit: Guess I should have finished the video before posting
.There is a good VB emulator for the Oculus 2. On SideQuest.
Nice to see another person who enjoyed the GBA version of Battle for Volcano Island. I'd recognize that music anywhere.
Was working at a Blockbuster Video when this came out. As with most consoles at the time, we rented this out to customers willing to leave a deposit with a credit card. Although rented out in a giant plastic hard-case, these things always came back jacked up 🤦🏻♂️
I can't agree more.
Most of these games deserve a re-release or a remake.
Just want to say, as someone who grew up with a virtual boy-- the newest release of the red dragon 3ds emulator is an *excellent* way to experience these games almost as intended, but still way less painful
For that reason alone, I'm looking forward to eventually hacking my 3DS XL.
I think Water World was the only virtual Boy game to support multiplayer. In a rarity for a Virtual Boy game, there is a multiplayer option though it is awkwardly implemented: start game, pause, press A to add additional players. You can have up to 9 players; as if anyone would want to 😂
Blade Eagle 3D on Master System let you change altitudes, but it was limited to either let you fight air or ground targets.
I'm surprised most of the games got a thumbs up. You're quite right about Wario Land VB, though... it's a shame that it was a Virtual Boy exclusive, because it deserves to be remembered by more than just a handful of VB owners.
Bought my VB on final clearance at KB Toys at a local mall mid 90s, with several games.
Cib, used once to try it back then.
Time to sell, as I'm an Atari, Sega geek
One of the 77,000 suckers who bought this thing new.
I kid of course! I actually really liked the VB back then, and always felt it got an unfair rap in the years immediately afterwards (at least nowadays people can take a more nuanced look at the game library). The games (at least the first party ones which I had) were quite fun and I really digged the console's unique soundfont. As a fan of early to mid 90s Nintendo game design the titles resonated with me the same way late era GB titles did. I guess it also helped that I've never had any motion sickness so was able to play for hours (or at least until my neck started hurting...)( Alas, I've since sold it and have been waiting to repurchase one... as the prices continue to climb :(
I wonder if it'd be possible to convert a virtual boy rom (2d of course) into a GBA one. I've always wanted to play VB Wario Land but for some reason I just can't stand playing handheld games on a PC emulator.
Agreed on many points made here. This is the only console I have the COMPLETE collection of North American released games for... yes including Jack Bros with the box!! This system was a Blockbuster video rental and when they stopped carrying it they clearanced everything. I think I paid about $50 for the system itself. I drove around to every Blockbuster in my area to get every game available. I paid between $2 and $5 for each game, and most included the box. I don't remember what I paid for Jack Bros, but I am guessing it was about $5. To me, at the time, the very best games were Warioland (which I played to the end) and Cosmic Pinball. Cosmic Pinball was the one I used to show the system to "non-gamng" friends. A good way to describe the 3D effect- Viewmaster.
I didn't even realize Jack Bros had an NA release. Holy Flock. That's probably worth a fortune lol
I have no intention of ever buying a Virtual Boy (can't afford one anyway), but it's one of those failed consoles I find fascinating. I've also played quite a few of the VB games through emulation and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed them. It would be awesome if Nintendo released a collection of the VB games on Switch Online.
I always knew about the Virtual Boy, but I never got to try it. My family had one and had ended up selling the unit, but didn't provide the box. I know this because the box remained in my sister's closet, holding shoes or something innocuous and unrelated. The closest I've gotten has been, well, VirtualBoyGo! it helps that the Quest controllers also provide a very similar feel, what with the dual analog sticks and the AB/XY buttons.
Nintendo did miss a huge opportunity to offer these on the 3DS, but maybe it's for the best. The 3DS is still very much a gimmick, the experience of Virtual Boy on it probably wouldn't go over amazingly well.
I don't know if people would jump at a collection of all the Virtual Boy games on the Switch but many folks definitely have wanted the Wario Land game to get a modern port. Doesn't seem like it would need drastic changes aside from making it full color.
I got one for Christmas at full price, then they were like 18 bucks a week later. :(
Your parents must have been pissed lol did you at least pretend to enjoy it?
@@jonbourgoin182 I actually loved it! I knew it was a gimmick but Mario Tennis was so awesome! :)
If either Analogue Pocket or Polymega added Virtual Boy support, I’d be all over that.
A quick little fun fact, one of the cancelled games for this failed system is a port of Puyo Puyo Tsuu, which wasn't released due to the obvious failure of the system. If it was, it will be named "Virtual Puyo Puyo Tsuu", in akin to the "Super Puyo Puyo Tsuu" name from the Super Famicom ports, and the "Pocket Puyo Puyo Tsuu" name from the Game Boy port.
There was a release of limited numbers of virtual boys in Europe - about 500 ended up in London and a similar amount in Paris.
So they *technically* had s very low promotional release in Europe.
source?
@@toastrave7820 one of the game boy works books.
"It's been sitting on a shelf as long as i can remember" oh no
On the topic of video out from a virtual boy...One option would be the "Virtual Boy Consolizer". Turns a VB into a console with RGBs video out.
Every Virtual Boy Game = Red and Black, headaches and terminal eye strain.
I'm pretty much sitting on the exact same fence as you for this one. The Virtual Boy console itself REALLY sucks, but almost all of the games that it has are anywhere from decent to fantastic (baring the constant red and black color scheme its known for of course). There's also an awesome, though not perfect, Japanese exclusive title called Insmouse no Yakata that's basically a dungeon crawling horror FPS game. It's honestly really cool to see that on the Virtual Boy, and it should've gotten a wider release.
Nowadays, I wouldn't even try playing these games on a stock Virtual Boy. Rather, they should be played on an emulator (the cheapest route for this expensive hobby). If you like original hardware like I do, already own a solid Virtual Boy library and/or money isn't a problem, you can also consolize a real Virtual Boy (preferably one that's in bad shape or not working properly to avoid cannibalizing good working units) using special consolization kits that have been developed in recent time. Both consolization and emulation also offer the ability to change the color of the game being played. I usually use whiteish greyish or whatever it's referred as since it sort of resembles a supped-up Gameboy Pocket kind of aesthetic.
Jack Bros. actually holds the distinction of being the first Shin Megami Tensei game to be released in North America. That's right, a Virtual Boy game takes place in the same universe as Persona, Devil Survivor, and...well...the original Shin Megami Tensei series. In fact, the titular Jack Bros. are all summonable Personas in the Persona series, as well as being enemies featured in other series.
Just wanna shout-out the Waterworld soundtracks for the SNES and Virtual Boy are amazing, but I'm partial to the VB version
I found out about it at 10 years old in 2006 and it blew my mind how this thing didn't take off and why Nintendo didn't make way more content for it. It wasn't till i saw the nerd episode at 12 years old that it made sense.
I always thought it was a bit strange with the big focus on virtual console on 3ds, why they didn't just port these there for 5$ a pop or so. Would have made them accessible to many, and they could have emulated the 3D effect. 100% agree with you though, in terms of library the VB has a lot of really fun titles
Those would be pretty fun little Switch releases, especially if Labo VR glasses were supported. Honestly it never had much support, even by the big N, and I wish there was more.
The virtual boy had a really great library, but the hardware just killed it.
I bought the vb at launch and I guess I’m the only one who loved it. Mario tennis had a great challenge with tight controls and nice 3D! If anything, Nintendo recognized the potential in that game and it basically created the Mario tennis, Mario party and later wii sports franchises, imo.
The virtual boy was unfairly maligned, it's fun to play and I think the gimmickiness of the device is successful in making it a unique experience. What it needed were more first person games, or overhead isometric games. I do think the public is a bit unfairly dismissive of anything 3D, the 3DS's effect is incredible and yet lots of people turn it off and scoff at it, I still think it looks like a miracle
You wanna mount it to a mic arm or something to hold it in front of your face.
Also, I've never used one, but it was my impression that the 3D effect itself is better than glasses since it's two different screens being projected rather than flashing one screen.
7:50 I'm convinced that trying this is the number one reason why you can find so many "AS IS" or broken Virtual Boys for sale...lol
Yeah I'm still a touch salty that they didn't put the Wario Land game on the 3DS. I guess Nintendo really wants to forget the Virtual Boy. As usual with Nintendo (at least these days on the Switch), guess I'll just go pirate a copy since they refuse to sell one to me.
18:53 - Oh.
Then I guess Nintendo didn't do it simply because they hate money.
Have you ever considered reviewing the Japan exclusive Virtual Boy games? If not, you should do a seperate video.
Also, I really wish the Virtual Boy had been conceived as a 2D handheld console from the start, either in color or monochrome. It could have gotten more luck, as a 2D handheld console with SNES quality games to replace the original Game Boy.
One day, I hope to do the Yeah Framerater callout.
i remember my brother had this and i played mario clash on it.. i have no idea what happend with it and honestly i hope that alternative universe me has a childhood with consoles and now is a better collector than me.. damn karen mother with mania to throwin out everything cuz it's ''trash''.. i miss all my gba games boxes.. they would have looked fantastic now as a decoration :c
*also woah the *~hair~*..
I wish that Virtual Boy Warriors Land would be remade as it seems to be one of the very few VB games that were actually good and one of the best games for it.
Those bowling ally animations are pure, unadulterated nightmare fuel.
I tried Virtual Boy Go through PSVR, through 2 compatibility layers to push it to Vive and then PSVR, but couldn’t get it to work unsurprisingly. Would love to see a follow up with the JP exclusive library after seeing how good the US library is
I remember there was a demo kiosk in K mart and it had Red Alarm on it. I was trying to play it and I remember thinking how awful it was.
FrameRater's review shows that most of the games on the Virtual Boy aren't terrible. Heck, I would like to see Nintendo porting over color versions of them on the Switch.
Virtual Boy was a great headache inducer. Mario Clash and Tennis were pretty neat though.
Despite that it never got released in Europe, marketing for the thing was completely ready to go out the door. I've seen posters in dutch and German
Toy stores were liquidating these for $20 each new in box at the very end. Shame the red LED panels don't hold up with the adhesive issue.
There is a Virtual Boy emulator available for the Quest 2 through Sidequest