Yeah I probably would have just added a strap to the original Virtual Boy and removed the stand but I mean where's the fun in that anybody can do that it wouldn't be an Electronics project if he just did that
I swear, if I don't make a Ben Heck video game, someone will. The game could be centered around Ben building and engineering way to get around levels with parts he has picked up from defeated enemies, with Karen and Felix being optional playable characters, and Ben using past (and new) builds for the game, such as using the soldering gauntlets as a sort of Power-Fist for taking apart metal enemies. :P
With so many inquiries, I checked with Ben. We would not have been able to change the LED color because the Virtual Boy used a custom LED array, nearly impossible to recreate. Ben says that if you were to replace it, you would need to design the whole thing from scratch in order to make it work.
I don't buy the, "totally impossible to recreate," BS. Anything is possible, it's all in the matter of how much you were willing to invest. I mean, hell, time isn't really a thing anymore. The right price yields the right result. Granted, I don't expect a show like this to shell out that amount seeing who their demographic is. DIY'ers have a different idea of what a project is and this show gets that.
Gee, I can't see why you don't buy that "totally impossible to recreate," BS, since you made it up yourself. No, I mean really. They didn't say that. You just *literally* made it up yourself, and then called it BS. So, you are saying YOUR own words, are BS. I'd buy that. *THEY* wrote the words "nearly impossible", which obviously means: possible, but very difficult, and/or prohibitively expensive and/or time consuming. Realistically, anything that is *beyond your means* to do, meaning you can't do it yourself with the amount of time and/or money you have available, IS *effectively* impossible. But that is really beside the point, because they only said "nearly impossible", and the part about it being "totally impossible", was just somethin' you made up. Inside yer head therrre. They added that if they WERE to replace it (indicating it COULD be done), it would need to be redesigned from scratch in order to make it work (which is part of why it was considered nearly impossible *from THEIR point of view* which is based on their own knowledge/skills/assets/freetime/lifestyle/limitations/etc, which they would know infinately more about, than some random tuber.). Anyway, if "anything is possible", then why don't you PROVE IT, by investing *whatever it takes*, to become the first 12 year old pro baseball player to beat Babe Ruth's MLB single-season home run record, *before* your 13th birthday. I know this may seem a little bit difficult for you, especially if you are already over the age of 13... But as you've pointed out, "Anything is possible, it's all in the matter of how much you were willing to invest." So hurdles like that, merely mean you need to invest a little bit more. And besides, the whole age thing shouldn't even matter for you, since in your dimension, and from your own words: "I mean, hell, time isn't really a thing anymore." So you must have a flux capacitor or something, and can just travel backward in time. Don't know how that will help make you younger, but I'm sure you will figure it out. After all, it's just like you said: "The right price yields the right result." so maybe you can just *buy younger* with your infinate cash. Granted, I don't expect a person like you to shell out that amount seeing who your demographic is. Because it's you. But if it will help you sleep better at night, maybe you should just take the words "nearly impossible to recreate", and substitute the words, "completely impractical to recreate", because unless I am completely mistaken, that is what they meant.
What in the world? 4 a.m. on Christmas morning and you're wondering about my masturbation habits? Anyway, Christmas isn't a time for stroking oneself, it's a time for stroking others. So, in the spirit of the season, I will admit that I watched a part of one of your videos, and the part I saw was pretty good. And also, if my grumpy comment, about your grumpy comment, either made you so mad it's still bothering you a week later, or if what I wrote was so overly long that it took you this long to read it, well, either way I'm sorry. Merry Christmas:)
I have two of these sitting in storage I had no idea they were valuable! I actually really enjoyed the tennis game. A bit like staring into a supermarket checkout scanner but still a nifty albeit quickly worn novelty.
"...still had a problem..." SLAM!!! Yea. It's really hard to avoid the issue that this thing is crazy heavy. I'm really pondering if used in the long run, if player(s) will feel neck strain or not. (Which would be par for this red course, really.) Seems like potential, as all the weight is still in the front. Outside of a major redesign that wraps the innards around the head..._somehow_...or a total renewal that dumps as much of the classic innards as possible for modern equipment, (which is anti-purpose of this project) I'm stumped. Heh...perhaps it is more comfortable to wear then it looks like. Having owned and held one of these, though...I find that hard to believe.
There's a right time and a wrong time to use connectors. Cost and weight considerations are important, and in this case weight and space are overriding concerns. Besides it's time consuming, but not impossible to desolder things.
I would have tried a hinge like those used for military night vision goggles. They're fairly sturdy and can be found at a reasonable price (including helmet) online through various sites. A lot of airsoft players use them, particularly for mounting action cams. Given that the mounting system was designed to serve the same function as the 'virtual man' it would have been my first choice.
I have a virtual boy and picked one up when they came out. I thought you did an admirable job reconstructing it. I think I would have thought a welding helmet would have been a better platform. I had NO IDEA the screen was vibrating mirrors. I don't like the ear bud concept because these things get shared. The original used to get its fair share of sweat in it. My dad and I just laid on our backs and played. It wasn't too bad to play.
Two things: 1. Love the videos. All I've done, it seems, since my friend turned me on to your channel is watch these console rebuild videos! You're honestly a genius haha. I enjoy the little nerdy asides as well. Truly one of my new favorite things on the internet. Well done, you guys! 2. My friend and I need to know, are you and Karen an item? You hittin' that?
LOL I'm always so impressed by technically inclined people. How effortlessly and completely without fear he jumps right in and starts taking shit apart, having no idea what it does or if it will ever work again when he puts it back together. .... Except he does. I'm the one who has no idea. Anyway... good show.
Amazing work Mr. Heck! I love the way Karen and you redesigned the VirtualBoy helmet to be lighter, that's is the goal in VR to extend the comfortable playing time. Nice work! I never have any problem with the original red color of the LEDs, but it can get my sight tired fast sometimes... How about playing with the colors of the Leds with a simpler solution, by testing it with different colored acrylic interchangeable screens, to see if that combination achieve to generate more comfortable new colors combined with the original red, or use various at different moments to avoid playing in red always. Thank for your cool videos, I enjoy them a lot, Karen is as clever as pretty, and give very good ideas to your projects. Your channel is the best! ;-)
Hey, that was really cool, mate. About what you should do next, one thing i always wanted to see is someone improving R.O.B. the Robot (NES). Using today technology, it could be made much faster and efficient and actually fun to use LOL! I mean the idea behind R.O.B. was kind of neat but he was a victim of the limitation of the time.
How heavy was the unit on the head; could it be played for more than say... 15 minutes without fatigue? Would it make sense to recreate the controller to include the power, logic board, and cartridge built into the controller then run the A/V cables up to the headpiece/visor? or all of those parts so light that it wouldn't have made much difference in weight and would just over-complicate the design?
great work guys! if it hasn't already been suggested, it would be amazing if you could figure out how to read the data from the virtual boy and output it to a 3D capable TV so that you could wear regular 3D glasses and play it that way.
Your reflection issues I think are from the removal of the 2 angled red lenses, which would direct light a bit differently (at the expense of making it a bit darker) . How much weight was dropped in the build?
Great build! ...apparently not lighter nor smaller, but the flip-up design is very cool. There is a set of STL files on Thingiverse to attach a VB to a tactical helmet in a similar fashion.
Eh, I don't know about that Roockoo. They've modded a ton of things before this, and more expensive things as well and they've never had this disclaimer.
Great build however it doesn't make sense to me to improve something but remove functionality in the process. Yes diopter adjustment isn't a huge deal to everyone but why go backwards to go forwards?
I probably wont get a lot of support on this,but i have a great idea for some rebuilds,like,could a handheld Famicom Disk System be possible? or would it be possible to take a disk system and turn it into some attachment for the NES via Expansion Port on the bottom side,using a boot cart that is specifically set up to use the few pins on the nes cart that are directed to the expansion port?
I would have tried to place the electronics, cartridge slot, and battery pack in an as slim as possible enclosure that can fit in your pocket or on a Walkman style belt clip. Then the headset would only house the imager, so it could be very light and comfortable.
The only other way I could see it improved is by somehow making the pad wireless? thinking about it, the unit would have to be bigger to house power supply and a wireless receiver, that is if you could transmit the signal from the pad wireless anyhow.
I would have loved to give you my Virtual Girl and have you change the LEDs to Pink to match the rest of the system lol. I loved the build. Seeing what everyone comes up with for this system in terms of customization is fantastic.
Haha Google tends to agree when you do an image search. It's just a custom Virtual Boy console & controller I did. I painted it pink with black accenting and did custom, font-accurate "Virtual Girl" logos for it and the controller. I wanted to switch out the LEDs and lenses for pink ones but it doesn't seem like an easy task.
you should google about replacing the LEDs, i once read about someone who found replacement red leds, i bet if you can find out what model, you can also get them in pink (or white, then just color them pink)
... huh. That is indeed a pretty dubious set of search results... Do pink LED's even exist? Seems a kind of awkward colour for an LED to reproduce, since it's basically white (already not that easy for an LED to produce) with red. I have a colour changing RGB LED lamp nearby, and while it has purple, green, red, orange, and blue, (and a white which isn't very good at actually looking white), there's nothing even close to pink...
Seems unlikely since it's a very small LED strip that doesn't seem much like a generic part. Guess you could maybe do that with a lot of effort though. It'd still be a monochrome display in the end though, since the hardware has no way of doing colour. (and considering how they work, a white LED would probably cause weird colour fringing if you used it for this.)
I thought the previous episode he discovered that it is red because of a red filter in front of the LEDS. I bet you could swap out the red filter for any color you'd like :)
Agreed would have been cool if they made it monochrome. Nintendo went red because it was cheaper and made the blacks blacker (not sure how that worked) to increase the sense of depth.
Wow. That's impressive! I mean you didn't make the Virtual Boy good because it's fundamentally a really crap console, but your version blows the original out of the water in terms of usability. So congratulations!
wasn't there some kind of a metal shielding, that kept some part of the assembly from emitting brain altering whatever waves right into your thinking machine? thought that was what made the virtual boy so heavy and "unmountable"
I would like to have seen you use the original black eye shield. I remember them being nice and soft and keeping out light well. Not sure how that would work with the helmet idea, but perhaps worth looking into. I'd like to see someone do something functional with iMac G3s or Power Mac G5s. They have some of the most beautiful cases ever built, but obviously the hardware is obsolete. Many people simply use them as decoration, but maybe there's a better use for them. I wouldn't want to see a PC build inside, as that's a little too straight forward.
The first one I bought at Walmart when they went on clearance after they stopped producing them. The other two I bought to use as replacement parts to fix it after it stopped working. I have one working great and the other needs the heat gun / 3d printed bracket fix on that ribbon cable.
im curious what would you use to make one without gutting the VBoy, i own 2 working units and i wanna see if i just just make like an attachment to a helmet or headset
I always wonder if it is possible to hack VB and use two pieces of modern screen to make it better instead of red-black screen. Or output to a 3d TV with HDMI.
I have an antique technology I would like to see improved! It's pretty difficult to wade through all the modern options for speakers, and most of them are pretty expensive and/or large. I would like to see a modernized and minimized diy set of speakers, kinda like a showcase of what modern speaker tech can do. I feel like consumerism has drowned the DIY and hacking out of hifi at a time when it's easier and cheaper than ever to build yourself some good stuff. How good can a liter of speakers for under $100 sound?
That was a really cool project! I'd love to see more! Ha ha! Hey, have you thought about sharing the 3D print files for the ribbon cable fix? Or selling those things?! I'd love to see an inexpensive and non-destructive fix for the Virtual Boy widely available. Thanks for the great content! Go team!
It's in the STL folder that will eventually be posted to the episode file on github. Not there yet, but I'm working on getting Felix caught up on those uploads. github.com/thebenheckshow
This is how I know I am not an engineer. My ability to think through a design phase is null, but I can look at something and see how it comes apart for repairs.
As Ben's electrical engineering is self-taught, as is my mechanical engineering. Makerspaces/hackerspaces are wonderful places to learn and I've been a member of one or more since 2010.
Honestly I would find a way to get rid of the motorized mirror video and replace it with a single LCD. A AVR and a LM1881 might work for just that. Or just for simplicity use a small single board computer of the fruit variety, LCD and such then emulate the Virtual Boy. Might even be able to find a non working system and reuse the casing and with a emulated system in said case it could be mounted to the head still.
I love it. That's awesome. That's what Nintendo should have done in the first place. Also, can you do something with the Neo Geo Pocket? It's definitely flawed.
Ben, here's an idea, make a virtual boy like it could have been using a Raspberry Pi zero and two small screens or one large one (old smartphone?)? would get complicated trying to split the screen into two images but might be interesting to try.
I think it would have been better to design/create your own ratcheting hinge, and maybe a base, that stays attached to your face, with a single strap around your head. Also, make the controller wireless.
I'd have integrated some big over-the-ear headphones in. Those could have also contributed to blinding any reflected back light. This one is one of my favorites: www.planetvb.com/content/workshop/hmvb/hmvb_1.jpg
I think Gunpei Yokoi would be nothing but all smiles to see this. Great Job Ben, this is truly awesome sir!
Have never had an interest in this kind of stuff whatsoever until I started watching this channel. So frickin cool!!
The final product looks like it's actually bigger than the regular Virtual Boy strapped to your head..... o.o
Yeah I agree, but that thing is probably way lighter.
they did mention that they weren't losing any weight from the internals.. i suspect that the plastic was probably lighter, but this is more secure
Yeah I probably would have just added a strap to the original Virtual Boy and removed the stand but I mean where's the fun in that anybody can do that it wouldn't be an Electronics project if he just did that
I swear, if I don't make a Ben Heck video game, someone will.
The game could be centered around Ben building and engineering way to get around levels with parts he has picked up from defeated enemies, with Karen and Felix being optional playable characters, and Ben using past (and new) builds for the game, such as using the soldering gauntlets as a sort of Power-Fist for taking apart metal enemies. :P
The 64th Shadow I would just re-skin Krusty's Fun House (again)
J.D. Whited oh no
The 64th Shadow it would be great.
you could even keep the creepy "Hi Kids" soundbyte at the beginning
Oh please do, and use all of Ben's ramblings as audio
Ben Heck does what Nintendon't
and to be this good takes sega, ages.
Ben could you make a consolised Sega GameGear ?
Yes few people have been able to pull off a consolised Game Gear for some reason.
Hmm... Maybe Ben could actually do what Nintendidn't. A "true" Classic Mini NES!
Ben probably did a Retropie or two by now check his old videos.
With so many inquiries, I checked with Ben. We would not have been able to change the LED color because the Virtual Boy used a custom LED array, nearly impossible to recreate. Ben says that if you were to replace it, you would need to design the whole thing from scratch in order to make it work.
I don't buy the, "totally impossible to recreate," BS. Anything is possible, it's all in the matter of how much you were willing to invest. I mean, hell, time isn't really a thing anymore. The right price yields the right result. Granted, I don't expect a show like this to shell out that amount seeing who their demographic is. DIY'ers have a different idea of what a project is and this show gets that.
Gee, I can't see why you don't buy that "totally impossible to recreate," BS, since you made it up yourself.
No, I mean really. They didn't say that. You just *literally* made it up yourself, and then called it BS.
So, you are saying YOUR own words, are BS.
I'd buy that.
*THEY* wrote the words "nearly impossible", which obviously means: possible, but very difficult, and/or prohibitively expensive and/or time consuming.
Realistically, anything that is *beyond your means* to do, meaning you can't do it yourself with the amount of time and/or money you have available, IS *effectively* impossible.
But that is really beside the point, because they only said "nearly impossible", and the part about it being "totally impossible", was just somethin' you made up. Inside yer head therrre.
They added that if they WERE to replace it (indicating it COULD be done), it would need to be redesigned from scratch in order to make it work (which is part of why it was considered nearly impossible *from THEIR point of view* which is based on their own knowledge/skills/assets/freetime/lifestyle/limitations/etc, which they would know infinately more about, than some random tuber.).
Anyway, if "anything is possible", then why don't you PROVE IT, by investing *whatever it takes*, to become the first 12 year old pro baseball player to beat Babe Ruth's MLB single-season home run record, *before* your 13th birthday.
I know this may seem a little bit difficult for you, especially if you are already over the age of 13...
But as you've pointed out, "Anything is possible, it's all in the matter of how much you were willing to invest."
So hurdles like that, merely mean you need to invest a little bit more.
And besides, the whole age thing shouldn't even matter for you, since in your dimension, and from your own words: "I mean, hell, time isn't really a thing anymore."
So you must have a flux capacitor or something, and can just travel backward in time.
Don't know how that will help make you younger, but I'm sure you will figure it out.
After all, it's just like you said: "The right price yields the right result." so maybe you can just *buy younger* with your infinate cash.
Granted, I don't expect a person like you to shell out that amount seeing who your demographic is. Because it's you.
But if it will help you sleep better at night, maybe you should just take the words "nearly impossible to recreate", and substitute the words, "completely impractical to recreate", because unless I am completely mistaken, that is what they meant.
ImpetuouslyInsane I guess it would be 'virtually' impossible
chrischaf you done stroking yourself?
What in the world? 4 a.m. on Christmas morning and you're wondering about my masturbation habits?
Anyway, Christmas isn't a time for stroking oneself, it's a time for stroking others. So, in the spirit of the season, I will admit that I watched a part of one of your videos, and the part I saw was pretty good.
And also, if my grumpy comment, about your grumpy comment, either made you so mad it's still bothering you a week later, or if what I wrote was so overly long that it took you this long to read it, well, either way I'm sorry.
Merry Christmas:)
I have two of these sitting in storage I had no idea they were valuable! I actually really enjoyed the tennis game. A bit like staring into a supermarket checkout scanner but still a nifty albeit quickly worn novelty.
I love Karen, but we need some Felix as well. The three of you work well together.
Bobby Jones but Where's Allison?
I would give Karen , Felix and Donald Trump for Allison...
Girichoko i would give Donald Trump for a chocolate bar
Come on, you know you want a ride on the Trump train.
She seems to be alive and well, with child:
m.facebook.com/alyson.herreid
Ohhh... I loved the nose smashing sound... Laughed my ass off.
"...still had a problem..." SLAM!!!
Yea. It's really hard to avoid the issue that this thing is crazy heavy. I'm really pondering if used in the long run, if player(s) will feel neck strain or not. (Which would be par for this red course, really.) Seems like potential, as all the weight is still in the front. Outside of a major redesign that wraps the innards around the head..._somehow_...or a total renewal that dumps as much of the classic innards as possible for modern equipment, (which is anti-purpose of this project) I'm stumped.
Heh...perhaps it is more comfortable to wear then it looks like. Having owned and held one of these, though...I find that hard to believe.
Oh snap, that totally works. Thanks for the pro tip!
"do I look really cool???"
".................. no"
It would be really cool if he used the old shell and put in good vr internals it would look amazing
This came out fantastic. I should have picked up a second one when they were cheap to have as a back up or hack like this.
I want a t-shirt of Ben standing there with the virtual man on and the controller in his pocket from the end. It's so post apocalyptic
"Always build things you can take apart" - Ben then proceeds to remove the ribbon cable connectors and solder the cables directly to the board...
Was thinking the exact same thing. It was one valuable lesson he taught me, and now he ignores it
There's a right time and a wrong time to use connectors. Cost and weight considerations are important, and in this case weight and space are overriding concerns.
Besides it's time consuming, but not impossible to desolder things.
TheTurnipKing Here, those two saved grams really matter because this unit is going to space!
I would have tried a hinge like those used for military night vision goggles. They're fairly sturdy and can be found at a reasonable price (including helmet) online through various sites. A lot of airsoft players use them, particularly for mounting action cams. Given that the mounting system was designed to serve the same function as the 'virtual man' it would have been my first choice.
I have a virtual boy and picked one up when they came out. I thought you did an admirable job reconstructing it. I think I would have thought a welding helmet would have been a better platform. I had NO IDEA the screen was vibrating mirrors.
I don't like the ear bud concept because these things get shared. The original used to get its fair share of sweat in it. My dad and I just laid on our backs and played. It wasn't too bad to play.
Teardown the Atari Jaguar and Jaguar CD pretty please :)
Yes, make the Jaguar CD actually work. So few working units out there.
Jaguar CDX!
Yeah!
Please make the Jaguar CD actually work !
Build it into a toilet shaped case
Two things:
1. Love the videos. All I've done, it seems, since my friend turned me on to your channel is watch these console rebuild videos! You're honestly a genius haha. I enjoy the little nerdy asides as well. Truly one of my new favorite things on the internet. Well done, you guys!
2. My friend and I need to know, are you and Karen an item? You hittin' that?
I would seriously buy one of these! I had the original Virtual Boy as a kid.
LOL I'm always so impressed by technically inclined people. How effortlessly and completely without fear he jumps right in and starts taking shit apart, having no idea what it does or if it will ever work again when he puts it back together. ....
Except he does. I'm the one who has no idea. Anyway... good show.
Amazing work Mr. Heck! I love the way Karen and you redesigned the VirtualBoy helmet to be lighter, that's is the goal in VR to extend the comfortable playing time. Nice work! I never have any problem with the original red color of the LEDs, but it can get my sight tired fast sometimes... How about playing with the colors of the Leds with a simpler solution, by testing it with different colored acrylic interchangeable screens, to see if that combination achieve to generate more comfortable new colors combined with the original red, or use various at different moments to avoid playing in red always. Thank for your cool videos, I enjoy them a lot, Karen is as clever as pretty, and give very good ideas to your projects. Your channel is the best! ;-)
Hey, that was really cool, mate. About what you should do next, one thing i always wanted to see is someone improving R.O.B. the Robot (NES). Using today technology, it could be made much faster and efficient and actually fun to use LOL! I mean the idea behind R.O.B. was kind of neat but he was a victim of the limitation of the time.
How heavy was the unit on the head; could it be played for more than say... 15 minutes without fatigue? Would it make sense to recreate the controller to include the power, logic board, and cartridge built into the controller then run the A/V cables up to the headpiece/visor? or all of those parts so light that it wouldn't have made much difference in weight and would just over-complicate the design?
great work guys! if it hasn't already been suggested, it would be amazing if you could figure out how to read the data from the virtual boy and output it to a 3D capable TV so that you could wear regular 3D glasses and play it that way.
Now to give the design of this VR headset to Daft Punk. That would so fit with their look.. :)
Your reflection issues I think are from the removal of the 2 angled red lenses, which would direct light a bit differently (at the expense of making it a bit darker) .
How much weight was dropped in the build?
Great work guys!
I wouldn't tie vdu's to my head, but your skill-level is off the charts and you are amazing so who cares what I would or wouldn't do!
That was a really cool build!
Damn that looked like so much fun to build!
Great build! ...apparently not lighter nor smaller, but the flip-up design is very cool. There is a set of STL files on Thingiverse to attach a VB to a tactical helmet in a similar fashion.
Love this :D Has a Back to the Future 2 vibe to it :D
I wonder what happened for them to have to put a disclaimer at the end of the video.
JJiG They just want people to know they are not responsible if you try to do this and mess up your Virtual boy.
Eh, I don't know about that Roockoo. They've modded a ton of things before this, and more expensive things as well and they've never had this disclaimer.
JJiG yea but I bet people have complained that their products didn't end up like Ben's and so now they have put that disclaimer.
I've seen that disclaimer in tons of their videos. It's probably just legal padding in general.
Commodorefan64 Exactly!
Awesome show man!
I would love to try that thing out!
It's a huge improvement.
Great build however it doesn't make sense to me to improve something but remove functionality in the process. Yes diopter adjustment isn't a huge deal to everyone but why go backwards to go forwards?
That's totally awesome. Great job!
consule makers need to hire ben heck to make portable desings of them ! would make a gold mine
I love this it was so cool seeing it come together.
Maybe I missed it, what is the weight of the finished unit? I think some type of shoulder strap to distribute the weight.
I probably wont get a lot of support on this,but i have a great idea for some rebuilds,like,could a handheld Famicom Disk System be possible? or would it be possible to take a disk system and turn it into some attachment for the NES via Expansion Port on the bottom side,using a boot cart that is specifically set up to use the few pins on the nes cart that are directed to the expansion port?
How come you didn't lift the visor up and show it supporting itself?
I would have tried to place the electronics, cartridge slot, and battery pack in an as slim as possible enclosure that can fit in your pocket or on a Walkman style belt clip. Then the headset would only house the imager, so it could be very light and comfortable.
The only other way I could see it improved is by somehow making the pad wireless? thinking about it, the unit would have to be bigger to house power supply and a wireless receiver, that is if you could transmit the signal from the pad wireless anyhow.
I would have loved to give you my Virtual Girl and have you change the LEDs to Pink to match the rest of the system lol. I loved the build. Seeing what everyone comes up with for this system in terms of customization is fantastic.
Candi's Classic Game Shrine Virtual Girl.....sounds like some of porn name
Haha Google tends to agree when you do an image search. It's just a custom Virtual Boy console & controller I did. I painted it pink with black accenting and did custom, font-accurate "Virtual Girl" logos for it and the controller. I wanted to switch out the LEDs and lenses for pink ones but it doesn't seem like an easy task.
you should google about replacing the LEDs, i once read about someone who found replacement red leds, i bet if you can find out what model, you can also get them in pink (or white, then just color them pink)
... huh. That is indeed a pretty dubious set of search results...
Do pink LED's even exist? Seems a kind of awkward colour for an LED to reproduce, since it's basically white (already not that easy for an LED to produce) with red.
I have a colour changing RGB LED lamp nearby, and while it has purple, green, red, orange, and blue, (and a white which isn't very good at actually looking white), there's nothing even close to pink...
KuraIthys
my rgb led does pink fine.... but i think white led would be cheaper, just use pink marker :P
Very cool project Ben! Surprised you have so much knowledge on electronics. Do you have an electronics engineering degree?
Can you change the LED colors? Like have it red blue green white per eye peace? Just wondering what that would look like.
That's something I'm eventually hoping for.
Seems unlikely since it's a very small LED strip that doesn't seem much like a generic part.
Guess you could maybe do that with a lot of effort though.
It'd still be a monochrome display in the end though, since the hardware has no way of doing colour.
(and considering how they work, a white LED would probably cause weird colour fringing if you used it for this.)
I thought the previous episode he discovered that it is red because of a red filter in front of the LEDS. I bet you could swap out the red filter for any color you'd like :)
Agreed would have been cool if they made it monochrome. Nintendo went red because it was cheaper and made the blacks blacker (not sure how that worked) to increase the sense of depth.
The games were programmed with just two colors, tho (black and red). You can't really add more.
this is super super cool. good job!
Wow. That's impressive! I mean you didn't make the Virtual Boy good because it's fundamentally a really crap console, but your version blows the original out of the water in terms of usability. So congratulations!
Does the projection system from the Virtual Boy give any useful idea to revive the mechanical TV episode that never got any success?
Who decided to zoom in on Karen's face when she said "yeah, strap it on."? Whoever did that is a subtle comedic genius.
wasn't there some kind of a metal shielding, that kept some part of the assembly from emitting brain altering whatever waves right into your thinking machine?
thought that was what made the virtual boy so heavy and "unmountable"
Finally, been waiting for this video!
oooo you should do diy vr. I know once i get the money together I plan to make my own and ill probably be using your idea with he lift up design.
I would of used more padding on the head strap along with a counterweight on the back of your head strap like the battery pack to prevent fatigue
I would like to have seen you use the original black eye shield. I remember them being nice and soft and keeping out light well. Not sure how that would work with the helmet idea, but perhaps worth looking into.
I'd like to see someone do something functional with iMac G3s or Power Mac G5s. They have some of the most beautiful cases ever built, but obviously the hardware is obsolete. Many people simply use them as decoration, but maybe there's a better use for them. I wouldn't want to see a PC build inside, as that's a little too straight forward.
I have three virtual boys in my closet right now. I would love to do this to one of them. Best build so far IMHO!
The first one I bought at Walmart when they went on clearance after they stopped producing them. The other two I bought to use as replacement parts to fix it after it stopped working. I have one working great and the other needs the heat gun / 3d printed bracket fix on that ribbon cable.
I got mine on clearance at K-Mart.
I guess avgn got his wanted mod after all these years.
im curious what would you use to make one without gutting the VBoy, i own 2 working units and i wanna see if i just just make like an attachment to a helmet or headset
I always wonder if it is possible to hack VB and use two pieces of modern screen to make it better instead of red-black screen.
Or output to a 3d TV with HDMI.
I have an antique technology I would like to see improved! It's pretty difficult to wade through all the modern options for speakers, and most of them are pretty expensive and/or large. I would like to see a modernized and minimized diy set of speakers, kinda like a showcase of what modern speaker tech can do. I feel like consumerism has drowned the DIY and hacking out of hifi at a time when it's easier and cheaper than ever to build yourself some good stuff. How good can a liter of speakers for under $100 sound?
I'd love to see something with the N64 Disk Drive. (Or Dynamic Drive) It's just amazing to me.
That was a really cool project! I'd love to see more! Ha ha! Hey, have you thought about sharing the 3D print files for the ribbon cable fix? Or selling those things?! I'd love to see an inexpensive and non-destructive fix for the Virtual Boy widely available. Thanks for the great content! Go team!
It's in the STL folder that will eventually be posted to the episode file on github. Not there yet, but I'm working on getting Felix caught up on those uploads. github.com/thebenheckshow
Awesome! Thanks, Karen!
Such a cool build, but does it still give you headaches?
Not bad, adjustable diopter would be good, and eye width.....I cant remember what that's called.
6:59 It looks so compact now!!!
10:27 Nevermind... It looks big enough to cause injury now.
That was pretty cool I wish you could've made it in color
Is there any way to solder different color leds in the virtual boy so you won't get a red display? Like white or green leds for example?
Hey why don't you use Inkscape and Photoshop v5 ? ...... :-D .. .. Even PS5 lets you convert to "Spot Color" (et al) if you're sending off to press.
This is how I know I am not an engineer. My ability to think through a design phase is null, but I can look at something and see how it comes apart for repairs.
What's Karen's engineering background? She's a smart cookie .
As Ben's electrical engineering is self-taught, as is my mechanical engineering. Makerspaces/hackerspaces are wonderful places to learn and I've been a member of one or more since 2010.
This is epic..
If I had your skill, knowledge and resources then a 3d printed seamless head unit would've been made..
"Having glass mirrors spin so close to the eyes is a great idea!" said no one, ever.
you could improve an atari st or an amiga 500
We did consider an Amiga..
Please please please Amiga 600 laptop!
Ben you should make / copy one of those FPGA based Amiga upgrades. That would be insanely awesome!!
Amiga would be VERY great, I'm a big Amiga Fan!
600 gets no love, but if you're maxing out any classic Amiga, that's the one, just because of the small size and integrated hard drive interface.
would it be possible to replace the red LEDs with green ones?
I know they are more rare but you should do a tear down of the Vectrix !
Honestly I would find a way to get rid of the motorized mirror video and replace it with a single LCD. A AVR and a LM1881 might work for just that. Or just for simplicity use a small single board computer of the fruit variety, LCD and such then emulate the Virtual Boy. Might even be able to find a non working system and reuse the casing and with a emulated system in said case it could be mounted to the head still.
awesome!!! you're the man Ben!!!
I love it. That's awesome. That's what Nintendo should have done in the first place. Also, can you do something with the Neo Geo Pocket? It's definitely flawed.
Teach us how to replace the screen of a PS Vita slim with the older OLED screen. Please!
Ben. Please build an ULTIMATE ULTRA PiZero Gameboy DMG. Pls that would be so cool to see a build like that with ur experience
It would be really cool if this were revisited someday so you could give it a display that doesn't make the user's eyes bleed.
I was wondering if the ear buds where replaceable , I would have added a 2nd ear phone jack , just in case.
Ben, here's an idea, make a virtual boy like it could have been using a Raspberry Pi zero and two small screens or one large one (old smartphone?)? would get complicated trying to split the screen into two images but might be interesting to try.
Or on second thought, the old phone should be more then enough grunt to run a GB emulator.
Definetely improves playing the thing instead of that stupid stand design it had.
15:41 the way she replied was so funny it made me laugh
I think it would have been better to design/create your own ratcheting hinge, and maybe a base, that stays attached to your face, with a single strap around your head. Also, make the controller wireless.
I would like to see a Virtual Boy television console.
any chance of schematics and print files to make our own?
What would I do differently? I wouldn't call it a Virtual Man.
Virtual Boy Gen 2 or something along that line
And hot damn a virtual boy vid it's like Christmas
This is awesome!
I'd have integrated some big over-the-ear headphones in. Those could have also contributed to blinding any reflected back light.
This one is one of my favorites: www.planetvb.com/content/workshop/hmvb/hmvb_1.jpg
AWESOME VIDEO !
Make one of those Tiger Electronic portable games somewhat entertaining or be able to output to a TV
where do you get that reel of ribbon cable, Ben?
Only 20+ years later do I realize how homosexual 'Virtual Boy' sounds.
ronjon83 What about Game Boy?