The Virtual Boy is considered by some to be Nintendo’s biggest failure, with the biggest complaint being that it caused motion sickness for almost everyone who used it. Now, one redditor The-King-of-Spain is using today’s VR technology to give new life to games previously released on the ill-fated Virtual Boy. You’ll need a Google Cardboard headset with an Android phone running the Retroarch emulator installed to get the games running. For all the details, you can check out the process on Reddit.
Once you can get it up and running, it actually looks really good. The parameters can be set to display the classic Virtual Boy monochrome red, but The-King-of-Spain also explains how to tweak the settings to set the display to a grayscale that’s far easier on the eyes. And, according to his post, the trademark Virtual Boy motion sickness is nowhere to be found after 30 minutes of playtime. If you’d like to see how it looks on your own Cardboard setup, check out the video demonstration.
“It’s pretty cool to see Virtual Boy games in their full stereoscopic glory, but the added depth doesn’t seem to add much value gameplay-wise” – Redditor The-King-of-Spain
I think it’s great that people both familiar and unfamiliar with Virtual Boy can enjoy the games that were doomed to be released on Nintendo’s first failed system. Maybe this new way to play Virtual Boy will be the push that Nintendo needs to finally release Virtual Boy games on Virtual Console for the 3DS.
Written by Jaxson Tapp
As a lover of gaming and the written word, Jaxson currently fills his time not only with playing games, but also writing about them. Ready for anything, Jaxson’s passion for puzzle games, JRPGs, tough platformers, and whimsical indies helps him bring a well-rounded opinion to Nintendo Wire’s reporting.
