The Nintendo Virtual Boy, ruining your peepers and other stuff...

Pyongyang

Hopefully by the middle of next week I'll receive my Virtual Boy and games to go with the two I have waiting already (plus another on its way separately). I know a few of you have or have had one of these consoles in the past and I have a couple of questions about it.

1. Does it really make you feel like crap after playing it? Is the in game auto pause feature worth enabling as a guideline for when to stop playing it?

2. What's battery life like? Is the official tap worth investing in?

3. Does the console have any speakers or is it supplied with headphones? If not is the headphone jack a standard 3.5mm so I can plug in my AKG headphones or Shure IEM's?

4. What are your favourite games for it? Any stinkers?

5. My console is a fully boxed NTSC-J edition. Are these region locked?

6. Any other useful hints and tips on Virtual Boy ownership?

Gracie's.

Retr0gamer

1. Not had any trouble with it even after extended play. As long as you have it focused right and have the ipd set properly you should be fine. It's like the 3DS, as long as you have the 3D slider right there should be no problems.

2. It takes 6 AA batteries and eats them. The adapter tap is a worthwhile investment.

3. It has internal speakers. Think it also has a built in headphone jack

4. What I have are Warioworld, Galactic Pinball, Vertical Force, Mario Tennis, Teleroboxer and Red Alarm. All of those are well worth playing.

5. The console isn't region locked. I've a US machine and my jap vertical force works fine.

6. Check that the screens are ok. They can break over time and you will get dots of lines through the display. It's an easy fix though.

Myrddin

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Check that the screens are ok. They can break over time and you will get dots of lines through the display. It's an easy fix though.

How so?

Pyongyang

Thanks for the tips there. I think the seller I bought it from looked after it well enough, it even has the original inner bags etc. looks in good nick to me soi hope the display is ok.

Games I got bundled with it are Teleroboxer, Vertical Force, V Tetris, a golf game of some sort and Galactic Pinball. All fully boxed. I've already got Pro Baseball and Vertical Force delivered so I'll have a double of Vertical Force. Finally I've got Bomberman on the way, factory sealed which is nice. Looking to get Wario Land, Red Alarm and Jack Bros in the future.

I've seen official headphones for it so I'm guessing non are bundled as standard. Hopefully I can use my own with it. Nice to know it has built in speakers though.

Did the console give you any vision issues or do you use the auto pause safety feature?

Steve X2

In my experience with 3D I've only ever had any problems with my eyes if I was very tired in the first place, before playing any games. That goes for the Vboy, 3DS and nVidia 3D vision on the PC.

I played multiplayer Battlefield Bad Company 2 for a few hours the other night in 3D and I was a fair bit tired before I started and my eyes were in bits after playing it. That's with active shutter glasses so I don't think its that bad when playing something like the 3DS or vboy.

When I'm not tired I can play 3D for hours without feeling any problems whatsoever.

.

CiDeRmAn

My VB is working great and I have it over 10 years now.
A Flashboy cart is a must if you want to play the very expensive, rarer carts without spending the mortgage, also there is a growing homebrew scene out there and some interesting demos.
Unfortunately the Flashboy is only made by one guy, Richard Hutchinson the same guy that makes the VecMulti flashcart, and it is made in occasional batches, the carts are so very expensive, I sold mine as I never used it and got over 90 euro for it, before p&p.

Red Alarm and Galactic Pinball are tremendous, Mario Clash is fun but my standout game is Mario Tennis, beautifully done.

I have a feeling a 3DS cart of the Ninty games is a cert at this stage.

Retr0gamer

The auto pause feature seems really annoying so I've never used it. I'd be really pissed off if the game kept pausing ever 15 minutes. I've had no problems with head or eye aches from using it. The people that complain about these are usually people that adjust the focus but not the IPD.

EnterNow wrote: »

How so?

The adhesive that attaches the ribbon cables to the screens is **** and degrades over time. There's two fixes. One is to heat the screens in an oven to reattach the ribbon cables to the screens. It's not permanent but can be made more secure with some sticky tape. The other way is to solder the ribbon cables to the screens which is a bit trickier.

One very good reason to get the flash cart is Bound High, the only unreleased game for the system and supposedly it's excellent.

Pyongyang

I was thinking a similar thing with regards to the auto pause feature. I'll probably leave it turned off.

Dying to get this console now, I read somewhere the 3D effect is more impressive than the 3DS. Can't wait to see if I get that initial wow factor from it because I didn't get that at all with the 3DS.

As for the flash cart, €90 is a bit steep, I'll probably stick to original media, unless there's some emulators to give games a quick try before you buy? Doesn't matter about the 3D, just to get an impression if the game is any good or not.

o1s1n

Both the VB and the 3DS do exactly the same thing - produce a stereoscopic image. So nether really produces a 'better' 3D effect.

The Virtual Boy effect is easier to see as the unit is stationary and you have an image for each eye in a separate viewfinder.

The 3DS on the other hand requires the viewer to do a bit more as both images are coming through the same screen. - The failings here are mostly to do with the viewer and not the console.

One thing I've seen the 3DS do which I haven't on the VB (Maybe I was playing the wrong games) is image pop out. The stuff on the VB just seemed to be adding depth to the games.

Retr0gamer

The Virtual Boy definitely does pop out. However it's used in a subtle manner because pop out can really spoil the 3D illusion since when it overlaps with the edge of the screen it destroys the 3D illusion. Red Alarm uses it on the HUD and Teleroboxer uses it a lot. The virtual Boy has better 3D for me because unlike the 3DS it isn't being destroyed all the time by small movements of the machine. The Virtual Boy is also a very immersive experience, when you are using it all you can see is the screen since everything else around you is blocked out.

o1s1n

That's the thing, it's not that the Virtual Boy has better 3D, your eyes just aren't being distracted because the viewing area is closed off. If the 3DS was closed off it would be exactly the same. Maybe Nintendo need to make a head mounted display for it :pac:

pdbhp

Try this!!;)




Put it on your head and you'll be totally immersed, also takes the look off the auld face when around women or Ciderman could put his hair in it!

Retr0gamer

Actually pdphp some one has sed that idea already. Has anyone got Metal Gear Acid 2 on the PSP? There's a 3D mode in the game which displays the game in two separate sides of the PSP screen. Inside the case is a cardboard thing that you fold up and make a thing that you look through to give the 3D effect:

pdbhp

Thanks a bunch Retr0 now I want one of those bad boys:(

Retr0gamer

It's not a hard game to find though and the 3D viewer is inside the game case, it's just a fold up piece of plastic.

CiDeRmAn

Pdbhp,
There will be slaps, oh yes, and kicks to the nads,
and not in a sexy way either!

Pyongyang

So I cleaned up the Virtual Boy I bought, popped in 6 new batteries and.................................nothing.

Dead as a dodo. :mad:

Andrew76

Fug sake. It's probably no surprise considering the way he packaged it. What a let down that has been for ya.

Pyongyang

Cheers mate. Vertical Force will just have to wait a bit longer. Still, roll on Friday!

Andrew76

Lol speaking of Friday I made a point to watch the ole weather forecast last night and it says Friday should be sunny on the east coast anyway. Hopefully they'll call it correct this time.
Forgot it was a Bank Holiday too, mmmmmmm 3 days off. Lovely.

Pyongyang

Andrew76 wrote: »

3 days off. Lovely.

Half day tomorrow for me and all Friday off. Lovely! I too have been watching the forecast like a HAWK.

Andrew76

Pyongyang wrote: »

Half day tomorrow for me and all Friday off. Lovely! I too have been watching the forecast like a HAWK.

Ooh nice but I can top that, 4 day week next leads into 11 days off on the bounce (well 15 if you count the wkends)! Oooh yeah.
(Retr0 your current permanent "holiday" doesn't count. )

Myrddin

Andrew76 wrote: »

Lol speaking of Friday I made a point to watch the ole weather forecast last night and it says Friday should be sunny on the east coast anyway. Hopefully they'll call it correct this time.
Forgot it was a Bank Holiday too, mmmmmmm 3 days off. Lovely.

The RTE forecast? If so expect to require sandbags.

Pyongyang

Tomorrow
A dry bright cold start to Friday with good sunshine. But cloud will soon increase, with rain and drizzle affecting Atlantic counties in the afternoon, extending countrywide later. However many eastern areas will remain dry until dark. A breezy afternoon with freshening southerly wind. Top temperatures 10 to 13 degrees.

Myrddin

Pyongyang wrote: »

Tomorrow
A dry bright cold start to Friday with good sunshine. But cloud will soon increase, with rain and drizzle affecting Atlantic counties in the afternoon, extending countrywide later. However many eastern areas will remain dry until dark. A breezy afternoon with freshening southerly wind. Top temperatures 10 to 13 degrees.

If that was from RTE, expect the following:

A damp dark humid start to Friday with poor sunshine. But cloud will soon decrease, with rain and drizzle affecting Eastern counties in the afternoon, not extending countrywide later. However many western areas will remain wet until sunrise. A still afternoon with no freshening southerly wind. Top temperatures 1 to 15 degrees.

Pyongyang

So what you're saying is, the RTE weather should be like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7UBlZcZSE0

Myrddin

Pyongyang wrote: »

So what you're saying is, the RTE weather should be like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7UBlZcZSE0

No because although that weather reporter is blunt...he's actually correct. That differentiates him from RTE

ghostchant

You're aware that RTE don't have a forecasting division, yeah? they get their info from the same place Pyongyang did above.
Met Eireann are normally very good in fairness to them, especially considering our climate...lot harder to forecast here than Florida or something. (all they have to say is 'stupidly hot, will probably rain at some point, but still stupidly hot')

Myrddin

ghostchant wrote: »

You're aware that RTE don't have a forecasting division, yeah? they get their info from the same place Pyongyang did above.
Met Eireann are normally very good in fairness to them, especially considering our climate...lot harder to forcast here than Florida or something. (all they have to say is 'stupidly hot, will probably rain at some point, but still stupidly hot')

They also have Ryan Tubridy & Joe Duffy...doesn't mean they know what their at I find they cover their bases a little too well:

"Cloudy today, sunny spells in the afternoon with a chance of showers" basically is what you hear between March & November from them.

Anyway, I've seen serious derailment in A&R before...but this ranks high! Apologies Modzz & OP