the Virtual Boy was able to create a more accurate illusion of depth through an effect known as parallax.

what I really wanted was Kid Icarus for my gameboy, but I could never find it anywhere :(

ilx has a virtual boy thread?! what? yes!

as part of my ongoing efforts to turn my living space into an aging millennial nerd museum, i picked up one of these things on ebay. it looks cool as fuccc

https://i.ibb.co/93JnSjc/IMG-20200729-085201.jpg

it came with a few games which are very red. i got red robot boxing, and red alert which is kinda like descent or star fox i guess but red, and wario land which is extra-red mario land. got pinball coming in the mail too. i doubt i'll be playing this thing all that much but it is crazy that when you stick yr face in it there's a video game going on in there.

there's also this website i found that offers unreleased/prototype/homebrew/rare+expensive games for sale on reproduction carts (for vb + n64). very cool browsing this! there is apparently a yume nikki inspired fan game that someone hacked together for virtual boy? who knew!

anyway this thing is dope, and this is pure speculation but i think the value of these are gonna skyrocket in the next couple years. what an odd slice of nintendo history. thank you for reading my post.

i think i only played this at target in the kiosk they built to try it. wouldn't mind giving it a go again.

some fun little doodles in the manual:

'Please do not force feed Virtual Boy the game cartridge'
https://i.ibb.co/VxrsCjL/IMG-20200729-111225.jpg

'Please do not unnecessarily malign Virtual Boy with household tools'
https://i.ibb.co/ZhCc4d1/IMG-20200729-111125.jpg

if virtual boy begins sweating or presents anthropomorphic tendencies, consult your local gamestop

one of those kiosks are for sale right now too! p reasonable:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nintendo-Virtual-Boy-Kiosk-Holly-Grail-Authentic-WORKING-CONDITION/133453160941?hash=item1f126da1ed:g:8dgAAOSw1T1e-9Ln

Has anyone tried playing emulated virtue boy games with 3D glasses (either red/blue or strobing) -- how is it?

I tried an emulator many years ago and while I don't think I had any 3d glasses at the handy then, iirc the emulation worked fine and had options for a couple different types of glasses or even just doing the 2 windows + cross yr eyes thing. what I did see recently in vids when I was looking up weird games was someone running an emulator over a new school VR headset, which has to be the way to go if yr gonna do it

I only ever played Virtual Boy in a kiosk at a Toys R Us. Are any of the games good besides Wario Land?

I was frustrated that the game I was playing allowed me to see my own character. how is it virtual if I'm outside my own body?!

and no, I wasn't playing a Timothy Leary RPG

yeah the game library is by and large bad (and, yes, mostly designed in 3rd person which is a weird choice that totally works against the immersion the system is capable of) but there are some interesting quirks to it!

there were only 22 games made available for the system before nintendo discontinued it, and a few are japan only. wario land is definitely a great game that is on par with any of the mario games made at the time, it doesn't really do anything interesting with the 3d though. i've played the pinball before, and tetris 3d, and they were both legit fun, nothing mind blowing. teleroboxing does put you in the first person and is a cool demo of what the system can do but gets old pretty quick.

there's this game called jack bros that is supposed to be one of the best for the console. it's super rare and a cart is like $300+ (i folded and just ordered a bo0tleg from the website i mentioned above!) it's a top down adventure game that has multiple levels/planes that you can jump between... it looks good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2WvLRmG3MU

there's another rare cart, japan only Innsmouth no Yakata, which is a fps horror game. the game play looks awful tbh but some of the screenshots look really cool

https://i.ibb.co/2vsb4pL/Up3-TA5-ZCPTzj-XWNdq-Qq-F8j88-R-Lbs4e8k-Iimfw9-Twgg.jpg

also there's a game based on the movie waterworld that's apparently terrible?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgJkdBv_jhI

weird system! less than a million of these things made. it shouldn't exist.. but it does! what a curio!

How much are these things going for these days?

looking at about $300 usd for one in good working condition at the moment... I had quite an adventure buying mine, had 3 other different transactions and returns before I found one in decent shape which (anecdotally) leads me to believe that these are rarer than listings make them appear.

in the end I ordered one w/ box, manual, power adapter, battery pack and several games from Japan, and contacted the seller before pulling the trigger. a little under 400 shipped. these things are pretty faulty and there are lots of inaccurate listings or junk machines, def research + message before buying if you end up shopping for one.

the first and last time i played virtual boy was the first (and not last time) i saw softcore porn. both were at my uncle's house, and he definitely egged me on to do both things

what i'm trying to say is yes, i've seen mario's bare red ass in 3D

only time i ever saw one was at epcot. also rigged to play softcore porn

"be the dick!"

wow, what a cool video game thing! of course esby's rich