It’s not as impressive when you consider that I grabbed Jack Bros (and all the others) 16-17 years ago. Virtual Boy stuff wasn’t nearly as expensive back then. I think I only paid around $100 for Jack Bros. (And at the time felt like I was paying WAY too much for a single game)
Honestly, I appreciate the Virtual Boy. It was ahead of it’s time, both positively and negatively. The 3D was a sort of prototype for the 3DS’ technology, and it worked well, especially for the mid-90s. Having a 32-bit console you can (kind of) carry with you was a dream back then.
The only issue was having to make so many concessions due to the cost of the 3D technology. 2bpp display? Bright red? Giant-ass brick you have to tape to your head? Bleh.
I’ve always loved it, didn’t get one as a kid - but drooled over store kiosks and dreamed.
Shortly after I got married, my (then new) wife surprised me with one after hearing me make a comment once about how cool I thought they were as a kid.
She then helped me track down every NA game for it over the course of that next year or so.
If this got put away and remained unopened for 40+/- years, what’s the risk of the foam going funky and eating away at the Virtual Boy plastic and rubber?
No idea! Good question, that thought hadn’t occurred to me. 🤔
I guess I’ll have to make sure to check on on it periodically if I store it away.
Probably a good question to bring up in the Virtual Boy community, not sure if the Blockbuster cases did any damage to the systems as the foam in those decayed?
I definitely want more. I have another Virtual Boy that would be nice to store like this too, and I’d love to make one for my Game Boy(s) and another for Game Gear.
I’ve always been nervous about taking it out of my house (like when someone I know really wants to try one out), but now I feel so much better about it. I’ve been able to easily take this with me on several trips now just to have it with me!
I was helping the guy that designed and produced them at RetroOnyx, I did a lot of beta-testing. I also did quite a bit of digital artwork to contribute to the community and he told me to just keep the carts. I bought one of them, the rest came from him for testing/development.
It’s nice to be able to flash several of my favorite unreleased commercial games and homebrew onto different carts and be able to just swap them out instead of constantly reflashing 🤷🏻.
Nice. I have one myself so that’s why I recognized them. I actually got the first one that had a new non-salvaged from original carts connector. So the entire thing is brand new parts, which was important to me to not destroy an original VB game.
The OEM cart connectors are much better (in terms of fit in the system), but not destroying original carts more than makes up for the new connectors’ shortcomings. New plastic cart shells have come a long way in terms of quality in the past few years too. Very happy that we have these options now and can make legitimately new carts!
The HF32 is a lot of fun to customize, hope you’re getting some good use out of yours 👍
I mean… I guess so. But if you need a case for your Virtual Boy, no need to wait for me to die - there are tons of cases readily available at sites like Amazon that you can get to make your own!
That’s awesome! My friend had one growing up and I briefly played it for just a few minutes. The only thing I remember is red lol. Would love to try one again.
They’re unfortunately getting to be pretty pricey things to track down nowadays. Emulation is a thing, but this is one of those quirky systems where it’s almost impossible to really replicate the original experience. I’ve heard there’s a really good emulation solution for the Oculus Go though, if you have access to one of those!
The system still has a pretty loyal and active fan community around it. There’s been some impressive new homebrew and hardware accessories that have been released in recent years.
Add comment