That boxing game looks insane for the age. You could pass that as a modern indie game with how detailed and polished it looks.

@TheBrotherGrim

11 ай бұрын

I had one of these when I was a kid and Teleroboxer was definitely the fav, not that there were many games to choose from. It's insanely hard, but the art style is so cool and it looked great in the 3D

@estherstreet4582

11 ай бұрын

This thing's graphical style seems to be "16-bit but ~more~" and I think that's pretty common in a lot of modern indie games these days, so it's weirdly familiar.

@acatacho

11 ай бұрын

@@estherstreet4582 YE, that makes sense, I reckon it is a good thing, I personally love that aesthetic.

@OtakuUnitedStudio

10 ай бұрын

The Legend of Mystical Ninja games on N64 actually had a reference to Teleroboxer. The giant robot fights were structured the same way.

@TheBrotherGrim

10 ай бұрын

@@OtakuUnitedStudio Oh nice! I never got to play that one

About a decade ago, I found one of these for $30 at a flea market in the middle of nowhere Delaware. I made my poor father drive around to gas stations looking for an ATM with me because the guy took cash only. Its in perfect condition, its one of my favorite things to pull out at parties. Its really hard to describe what that screen actually looks like in person.

@clouds-rb9xt

7 ай бұрын

Is it any good?

@ZingaMadinga

4 ай бұрын

I play my virtual boy games by emulating them on my phone, and putting my phone into a Google cardboard, and connecting a Bluetooth Xbox controller. The 3d actually looks really good

@ZingaMadinga

4 ай бұрын

Man $30 dollars is what I hope to pay for something like this one day. Virtual boy is great

@Super_Bros.

4 ай бұрын

@@ZingaMadinga A decade ago it was easy to find these for $30 but modern day it’s more than 400$ boxed. 😂

@doomisforu

3 ай бұрын

​@@clouds-rb9xt Yes, it is I have one the red screen is not that bad. It actually has really good black levels against the red leds.

We all wish we had a friend like James

@someoneelse1534

11 ай бұрын

Can confirm

@ovaerd

11 ай бұрын

Mine is called Rikard. He is INDEED an impressive specimen!

@Juanus14

11 ай бұрын

Growing up with James is pretty good, too

@Super_nan124

11 ай бұрын

Dank pods “we all need a James}

@iexplore11

10 ай бұрын

fr

I've been anticipating a video on this horrible amazing device.

@DollyBoy_1923

11 ай бұрын

Such a beautiful nugg

@redcrimson1028

4 ай бұрын

I see what you did there lol wish I had one of these. Man nintendo made some huge mistakes in their career. So making some to this day

If you have an Oculus quest 2, there is a native virtual boy emulator you can get from the side quest Homebrew store allow you to play games in their proper stereoscopic 3D, there's awesome a virtual boy emulator on PC designed for the Oculus rift headsets. Speaking of I need to go back and play more of VB Wario Land, that's a genuinely good platformer, and the stereoscopic 3D in that game is pretty good for a 2D sprite based platformer.

@erinrodriguez5740

11 ай бұрын

Yeah even on an oculus go with an Xbox controller virtualboy go is great

@chrisfratz

11 ай бұрын

@@erinrodriguez5740 I forgot that was the name of it since even though I have a quest I prefer running stuff on my PC instead so I use the rift emulator which is an open VR port of the VBjin emulator. I didn't even know Virtual Boy Go had an Oculus go port, but I guess it fits with the name.

@erinrodriguez5740

11 ай бұрын

@@chrisfratz good stuff, this vr community, runs way better than a 3ds trying to run this

@HoopleBogart

11 ай бұрын

Holy fuck I need to try this. That thing has been a hunk of junk ever since I completed superhot and re4VR.

@Juicyboi_

11 ай бұрын

Is this something I can find for PCVR?

Man ive seen tons of videos about this guy over the years mostly avgn style roasting it for being a failure and eye straining but none of them actually opened it and explained the really cool technology behind it and helping the world appreciate it for what it is! Great content as always James :)

Someone else pointed it out, but playing Wario Land on the Oculus Quest was mind blowing. The treasure rooms use the stereoscopic 3D to essentially have full 3D environments. Great game to emulate anyway, but it’s awesome to see the full 3D effect on a decent screen in 2023.

@speedyink

11 ай бұрын

The VB screens look sharp and crisp. The real hardware actually looks great in person, it's just hard to film and always looks crap in videos

The realization that the virtual boy's display operates on an overengineered version of the principle that the fans with the LEDS in them that made funky patterns worked on may have just blown my mind.

@toomanyinterests

11 ай бұрын

The moving mirror system is similar to some early televisions from the 20's and 30's which used mirrors mounted on a drum or in a spiral to display an image. There were even a few experimental ones that displayed colour. There's a video demonstration online of a mechanical colour television that has been built using an original mirror screw and modern LEDs and electronics, it's a fascinating design.

This is amazing. I thought I knew what the virtual boy was, but seeing it pulled apart, mirrors spinning, and display nakedly showing it's only scanline was REALLY informative. What an absolute little marvel.

James will just come in with one of the most comprehensive videos on a 30 year old piece of obscure tech like it's nothing. I love it.

I will never forget the virtual boy my parents got me and my brother. We both had huge 90s glasses and couldn't fit them into the eye shade, and if we played without our glasses, we got horrible headaches, which was apparently not unique to our experience. We had it for like a week before my parents returned it.

@toomanyinterests

11 ай бұрын

I have that problem with my stereoscope, can't fit my glasses in the eye shade. The focus adjust doesn't adjust enough for me so I have to balance my glasses on the other side, between the lenses and the photo. Makes looking at 3D photos rather fiddly, but at least I can do it. There's nowhere to fit the glasses in on the Virtual Boy.

When you took it apart and showed the insides was amazing. The fact they produced that thing in 1995 to an affordable(?) price point for the masses is astonishing to me. The single line of LEDs for the display is genius.

fun fact about the break warnings. When they were developing the Virtualboy, there was a Japanese study done to see if extended play is bad for your eyes, especially for young children. The results were actually very positive and the conclusion was that this was pretty good eye exercise as long as it's calibrated correctly. BUT the study took a bit longer than anticipated and Nintendo wanted to be safe from lawsuits and covered the damn thing in warning labels and programmed a break warning anyway, branding it as a danger to kids' health for no reason.

I had a virtual boy and most of the games growing up. I think my dad got it in a bundle on clearance from KB toys before they were discontinued. I loved the console but sadly had to get rid of it while moving some years ago. Warioland, Redalarm, Teleroboxer were all the best games for the system. I had the mains adaptor as well. I used the controller like you mentioned but the mains lead cable was resting on the table too much and the clips holding it in place broke so by the end I had to hover it off the table to play. it had the added benefit of being forgotten by my parents every time I was grounded from the genesis or PS1 so I could dig it out of the closet and go nuts with it for a week or so

@beatlesshmeatles

3 ай бұрын

oh my goosshhh KB Toys!!!!! what a throwback!

I actually managed to get my hands on one of these with the Blockbuster rental case but unfortunately the glue on the lenses came off and I haven't been brave enough to try soldering it myself lol. But as someone born years after it came out and owning multiple VR headsets it does amaze me how ahead of it's time the V Boy was, definitely a shame it couldn't succeed

Oh man this channel is really good, sometimes retro gaming content gets way too overproduced and clean and structured. I love this because this feels like we entered your house and you're showing us all the cool stuff you have

I've seen a lot of people cover the VB but never actually go in depth on it, nice video!

I had one as a kid in the 90s. My dad got the unit and all the available games for like $50 at a KB Toys clearance. If I had to guess, I probably spent at least 100 hours playing it, maybe more. It was def before it's time. I found the best, most comfortable way to play it was laying down with the kickstand on chest. I wasn't allowed to have a TV in my room until I was 16, but I had this lol. Thanks for sharing, the nostalgia hit pretty hard.

I got one of these on clearance in winter of '95. wish I had gotten more of the games, but the ones I had I recall putting quite a few hours into. I remember actually playing it on long car rides using the battery pack........... [shrug] a system I enjoyed, but years later everyone poops on things that "look bad" or "have bad graphics". at the time, it was way better than the "R-Zone" headmounted game (also had it). Teleroboxer is brutal. love it to pieces.

Shank Mods has an amazing video on making a portable Virtual Boy from a defective unit, and it has great technical explanations about the whole thing (including what each chip does)! Low Spec Gamer has a great history of how the Virtual Boy came to be, including why you don't strap it to your face like it was originally meant to.

@ZingaMadinga

4 ай бұрын

I wish those were being sold, because I don't wanna have to shell out for a virtual boy, take it apart for the mother board, and put it in a handheld, when I could just emulate the games on a handheld. He says he had to use a real mother boardrs from a VB because you won't be able to play the cartridges without one, but that makes no sense, because as far as I know, the Analaouge Pocket dosent use a gameboy motherboard, but it can still play the games off of the cartridges

Quick bit of advice/minor nitpick for future videos: try not to have any CRT monitors on in the background while recording, since they make a super high-pitched buzz that's a bit annoying for people like me who can still hear it (although this sound might be from the VB in this case). Maybe roll off the audio frequencies above 10kHz when recording a CRT to mitigate this as well. The content is still enjoyable regardless. Keep it up! (Nice cheeky "James Channel" in the magic eye image, btw!)

@moonprison4681

11 ай бұрын

God... This entirely 🥲

@ExpandDong420

11 ай бұрын

That's the reason why I can't stand CRTs. It pierces my ears and goes right to the displeasure center of my brain

@Games_for_James

11 ай бұрын

I applied a filter to remove the 15khz range because I’ve had complaints before. I can’t hear it though so it’s hard to tell if the filter worked. I’ll kill off more of the top end in my next video. I didn’t think I even had any running this time. Maybe the VB was making noise 🤷‍♂️

@LowellLoveMusic

11 ай бұрын

​@@Games_for_Jamesas a musician my advice is find out what your exact hearing range is and filter out everything outside of that range! Cheers

@Archer690Channel

11 ай бұрын

if you use a spectrum analyzer or spectrometer you can see the high frequency beeps and if your video editor has a notch filter you can match the freq and the problem is solved without killing the sound of hi hats and the S. not like it makes a huge difference tho since yt will most likely downgrade the audio quality on playback depending on the user settings

One big issue of course is the way you had to play it, hunched over like a modern bell tower resident. Nintendo had originally planned for it to strap to your head, which might have been more comfortable for adults, but they worried it'd put too much strain on baby necks.

Your channel is becoming one of my favorites, I just love watching you geek out about about cool shit like this.

I brought my virtual boy with me on vacation for after hiking when I was tired and it was actually very peaceful and almost tranquil playing some games in nature

I got one of these for Christmas one year, and i actually loved the thing. I had the power adapter and Teleroboxer was definitely my favorite game, even if i constantly got stomped. Playing the VB years later on a VR emulator was amazing, being able to swap the color from red to something more comfortable was mind blowing. I've always loved these things, even with all the hate they get.

Pretty much my only experience with the Virtual Boy is a kiosk model that's been on display at a game store in my area for years. They used to have it running, but they switched it off during COVID. Still, I'm glad they've at least kept it on display. Come to think of it, that store is also the only place I've seen a Vectrex in person, so that's something.

I think this is the best showcase of this beautiful device, thank you James.

James man, just showing the exterior of the console and explaining the ports and how it was powered, the lens adjustments, hearing the mirrors, the LED screen, etc - that alone is the best coverage I've seen of this thing. but then you went and did an entire teardown and explained how it works internally? Other than maaaaaybe if Digital Foundry and LGR worked together but damn I really can't imagine anybody else covering this in this much detail while being positive and entertaining. I'm glad im here pre-channel-blowup

the magic eye picture says "James Channel" lol well played sir

It's okay - just okay. I remember laying on my stomach and playing until my neck hurt. I also remember having it in my lap on car rides. Wario Land and Teleroboxer deserve rereleases, or graphical remakes.

@TheBrotherGrim

11 ай бұрын

A Teleroboxer remake or sequel would make me so so happy....Me and probably like three other people, but still. I loved that game. Wario was gold too.

The 3ds is the best emulator for it btw, the updated emulator was released recently and the reason it's the best... well, it actually uses the thing's 3d function.

@YaGirlZero

2 ай бұрын

Btw, James mentioned it in this video, there is no virtual console for 3ds for virtual boy, but, there's a brand new emulator, from the same person who made one that was... not quite as filled out years before, I believe.

@Games_for_James

2 ай бұрын

Yeah! I’ve been playing with it and I’m happy to say it works great!

I had a sneaking suspicion you were going to cover this next. It fits your eclectic mix of awesome retro goodies. Nice to see these games in a better light.

Just wanna say you're doing great at the youtube thing mate, keep it up! Genuinely one of my favorite channels out there.

Yeee buddy. Glad to see stuff like this saved. Video editing suggestion: High frequency filter for audio. There's a very high-pitched whine throughout the game clips. Think crt screen whine but more piercy.

thanks for taking it apart i love to see the internal hardware

I have played one of these, it was a really unique experience. The owner had attempted to write a doom-like FPS for it but I don't think it worked out, which is a huge shame.

@ZingaMadinga

4 ай бұрын

Imagine doom for virtual boy.

In the last month or so, a virtual boy emulator for 3ds got updated to run at full speed and with full 3d effect! And you can change the color of the screen from red

Your video is the first video I think I've ever seen that does a good job showing off just how capable the Virtual Boy really was. I had no idea it looked that good.

Wow the way this works is absolutely incredible. I am amazed. Thank you for showing us this!

Thanks for explaining and showing the mechanism for how the virtual boy displays graphics, I was completely unaware until now. I knew it was way ahead of it's time, but the tech involved really proves that.

Love that the Magic Eye in this video says the name of the channel.

Man I am so glad you made your own channel, I love your videos. You find such nieche stuff, I love old tech like that!

I had no idea the tech for this system was so cool! Thanks for taking it apart and showing it off. 🙏🏼

the lense might have nothing to do with making it bigger, it just might just allow your eyes to focus on the image as if it was 5 feet away rather than a few inches, so you can actually see it. (i get this theory from how vr do)

It's neat seeing the scan line coming from the bottom left to the top right at a diagonal. I don't think I've ever seen a scan line go that way before.

bloody hell, not only do the visuals but the audio really do a number on your head. headaches galore!

If you have a homebrewed 3DS or 2DS you can play virtual boy games via an emulator called "Red Viper", it has the standard features you would expect from a modern emulator, but also some more unique things like being able to change the red colouring to anything you want, and it can even replicate the 3D effect with the stereoscopic slider on 3DS type models!

James I love your honesty! "I don't want to lie to you, so these chips make it work." 😆

The best part about this is there's a little bit of this technology in modern VR if you own a Vive or an Index, the base stations use the same tech to throw reference dots around the room for the controllers and headset to track with.

Awww yaaaas! I remember this thing being setup on demo in a store. Played it while my parents went shopping. Never could convince them to buy one. So cool to see it on here!

I first tried a Virtual Boy a few months ago at Super Potato in Tokyo. Incidentally, the game they had on it was Red Alarm, and honestly was pretty impressed, and I thought the speakers were pretty good too. Thanks James

I'm glad you like the VB, it gave me a headache to just watch the video full screen

now i see why he gave it a good rating, he didnt use the actual screen so his eyes still function

YAY VIRTUAL BOY LOVE! We stan the VB in this house.

omg i loved the pull apart ! how cool

Great seeing one opened up, thanks!

My second favourite James on YT reviewing a Virtual Boy

I can clearly hear Wade drumming in the background

This thing is an EYESORE...Literally!

Underrated?? HOMIE THEYRE EXPENSIVE HOW DO I RATE SOMETHING I CANNOT HAVE??

I was obsessed with this when I was a kid. People say they were being clearanced for $35-$40 when they were discontinued, but that definitely wasn't the case where I lived, or else people were buying them up very quickly. It definitely had flaws, but at the time I still contend it was an unparalleled experience.

Absolutely incredible.

james i love your channel its very intresting

I had one of these as a kid and I thought it was awesome, that pinball game was the one I played the most. I wish I would've held on to it.

The virtual boy get's way too much hate. But I still LOVE this little thing.

Im so glad you can share all these games. ive always wondered about the virtual boy and had not heard of most of these games! really neat to see. really want to try that wario land game now! no idea what they sell for these days but its so neat to see. funny ive seen virtual boy games in other nintendo games like wario ware inc has some mini games from mario clash! i had never seen real gameplay before. super fun looking!

I thought he said "it's the virgin boy" in the beginning lmao love your videos, dude

I had one of these and tried to use it in the car. I have never felt sicker in my life. The only two games that I got came with it in a bundle. They were Tennis (which I was good at), and Clash (Which I could never do well at). Never could get my hands on the Wario game.

I have three of these wonderful things, and they have never let me down! Greetings from Sweden!

I cry every time you upload a video thank you

what an interesting video, i’d heard of the virtual boy and its failure but your explanation of the tech and video examples were really entertaining.

@Games_for_James

10 ай бұрын

Glad you liked it!

I remember playing Mario Tennis around 1998 at my cousins house. Crazy how long ago that was.

Oh boy, can't wait to watch the latest episode of Australian Vintage Gaming Nugget!

James, if you ever come to the US, my hometown has a videogame museum/arcade. They have like 600 different games. From pinball, to cabinet style, to newer arcade. It’s 20 usd for the entire day, with all machines on freeplay. I spent like 8 hours there and got to play maybe half the games.

love the channel, great content!

I’ve never seen a video on the virtual boy, thanks for this, it’s a shame it never made it to Europe but considering the PlayStation came out in 1995 it never stood a chance

Water world was such a good movie

0:23 Love the use of magic eye there, James. ;)

Golf is golf so true Loving the content you make James, cheers

I had no idea it's display was a single line of LED lights with a vibrating mirror, that's such a clever way to reduce processing requirements.

Bought one of these a few years ago and in my limited use, it's actually a great console. Wish it got support for longer than a few months because this could have been something really special once devs were able to better understand the hardware

Extremely cool teardown

this has insane early 2000s youtube vibes and im all for it

I loved my virtual boy, I'm still sad I sold it. I only ever had RedAlarm and Mario Tennis but it was still a lot of fun. So much nostalgia seeing these games again.

Virtual boy is definitely heavily underrated. It really deserves more than what it got. It had the games going for it, and had POWER. Really, the headache inducing red graphics (which I've never been bothered by) and the fact that it wasn't that portable since it was a table top device really hurt the virtual boy. I like the virtual boy.

You unlocked memories that I didn't know I even had

I've just picked up a Virtual Boy. I absolutely love it. Massively underrated.

You have a new cat!?! It's so cute!!!! The virtualboy's pretty neat too I guess...

Ok you just had to make the magic eye harder with the flourished fonts huh? Lol love it.

Ive seen many 20-30 min videos on this thing that explain less and show less than james does in 11 minutes. James way of explaining and showing stuff is way better than most youtubers I have seen, keep at it.

My boy Nester! I forgot he got a game besides the Pilotwings cameo! He was a mascot for Nintendo Power, and his straight man was Howard Lincoln, the chairman of NOA at the time.

I have the Valve Index and it takes a pretty powerful PC to run it. I’m always amazed that they could get a product like this to market in 1995.

thank you james channel

I am a simple man. I see new James Channel, I click

Man I've been after one of these for ages

I played that shump game on the demo console at Best Buy, loved it, came back a month later to buy the VB and game, and it was completely gone, even the advertising.

I remember seeing ads for it on TV. Interesting (and clever) display tech.

I had the chance to play that console during a local video game exhibition back in 2012, I played Mario's Tennis and a 3D Tetris game called V-Tetris. That console was certainly unique, though I had a headache 10 minutes later. 😅

The Virtual Boy looks like something that's meant to sit in the garden

love your content :)