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Sep 05, 2012 • 14:23 Profile Photo Morintari

Hi I’d like to hear your story How you and the VB first met. Here’s mine.
I was at home and recieving Nintendo Power magazines and I saw this article for VR32. I thought it was the greatest thing. I knew if properly marketed this could change the face of gamming forever. So I wanted one. I joined the Navy and after Pass and review I went to the Navy exchange and bought my first Virtual Boy and Red Alarm, I did’nt even bother to play the demo set up there. Then we went underway when we got back to the states I showed my friends my VB one of them was like Oh them were practically giving them away at block buster where I work. I instantly went over there and got every game they had except Water World and Jack Bros. And I even picked up a snazzy hard shell case. Overtime I had amassed 3 VB 9 games and a soft case by performance. At this time the VB was dead So I foolishly gave away my block buster hard case and one of my VB’s to 2 differant friends. I kept the softcase and the 9 games for myself. then I went to college and one of the professors was into 3d so I let him barrow my Virtual Boy to tell me what he thought of it well he did’nt think much. like the majority of the world I guess. So he gave it back and I went to the book shop to look at some books I set my case down and when I turned around it was gone. my whole VB collection…..GONE.=C And I had so generously given away the rest… foolish. well maybe not. Years later one of my friends said do you want you old system back I never used it and I can’t get any games for it. Oh my did I ever. So I got a mint VB back. WHOO HOO =D. I once found a guy where I work to sell me a broken VB broken system broken stand ect. Iv’e since got an anonymous friend to fix my broken VB for a fair price. And I’ve amassed 5 games from ebay.
So that’s my story. What’s yours? >B

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Sep 05, 2012 • 18:26 Profile Photo Protoman85

Love that poem!

Here’s my story:
I learnt of the Virtual Boy’s existence in the mid-2000s. I got really interesting the VB because it was Nintendo’s only mistake, only failure. I grew up on NES and Gameboy and I never knew they made a console/handheld that failed. Additionally the red/black headset of the VB always looked very cool, and I still think that. Virtual Reality was kind of a dream for anyone who grew up in the 90s, and the idea of looking into this thing and entering another world was really enticing. I finally ordered one off Ebay in 2007, and got Red Alarm, V-Tetris, Teleroboxer, Golf and Wario Land with it. I had seen screenshots of some games, so I knew somewhat what to expect, but I thought the image of the game would cover my entire field of vision, like I would have to look way out to see the edges of the screen, like I would look into a room in reality. Finding out that you just look at a ‘screen’ right in front of you was a small dissappoinment at first, but still I liked the games right off the bat. Wario Land, V-Tetris and Red Alarm most of all. I liked putting my head into the VB and it still did feel like entering another world… I took it to school the next day and it made a bit of a splash there too, most people were quite intrigued even if some said they got dizzy. One guy in class even used it to do a report on 😛

I sold this Virtual Boy before I moved to another town, because I feared it would break in the move anyway (I underestimated it’s durability, still do I think). After a while at the new place, I bought another one, and this time tracked down some more games. Due to financial troubles I sold that one too after 6 months or so, but I kept the games at first, of which I had 12. Later on I had to sell the games too =/.

Then 2 years ago I bought my third one, and this time I ‘swore’ to keep it. I was itching to play Wario Land again, and had since last time learned of the Flashboy. I found one on ebay after losing the first bidding war, and it was really, really exciting to play the rest of the library. I was most exicted to play Insmouse no Yakata since I thought a FPS was a dream fit for VB. I found it to be more of a slow survival horror game, but after a short while I appreciated it for what it was, and enjoyed that.
I played VB a lot for a while, managed to beat Jack Bros, Red Alarm(with cheats..), Panic Bomber and Wario Land. With Wario Land I had a loong session playing the final boss, I was really lucky my batteries didn’t wear out! I got really really frustrated, to the point that I thought it was impossible, it was then I continued to play it just to demonstrate to myself the depth of it’s impossibleness.. then I got better at it, once I got some distance so to speak, and did finally beat him! Unfortunately I had used 6 continues, so no good ending for me 😛

I then started making reviews of VB games, because I thought they deserve to be viewed in a reasonable light, not just “it’s a Virtual Boy game, hurts your eyes and sux becuz red and black”. As you know.

My VB now has the line-issue, but I will get help from TheForce81 one of these days!

I hope for the future to yield many more nice homebrew games and for more unreleased games of the past to crawl out from under stones and greedy beta-cart-owners, because that would be awesome, if they’re half as good as Bound High!

GO VB GO!

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Sep 05, 2012 • 22:53 Profile Photo Morintari

Protoman85 wrote

Love that poem

Thanks Protoman85 on your kind words about my poem. New users be sure to check out the full latest version at http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=4365&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=10
Be sure to read the second version not just the first one you come to on the link the second one has some nice imagery that I think you might enjoy

Protoman85 wrote

I hope for the future to yield many more nice homebrew games and for more unreleased games of the past to crawl out from under stones and greedy beta-cart-owners, because that would be awesome, if they’re half as good as Bound High!

With great things like VBSD on the Horizon and great games like Game Hero, I think we are only seeing the beginning of Homebrew.
Thanks again

Oh by the way Protoman85
Love those reviews;)

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Sep 06, 2012 • 16:21 Profile Photo thunderstruck

The first time I heard of the Virtual Boy was when I saw the AVGN episode. Till then it somehow manged to slip of my radar. However, when I saw the AVGN episode I thought it is big piece of shit.

Some weeks later I saw on in the display window of a local retro game store. I was pretty surprised because I never saw one in real live before. I showed it to my wife and told her about the episode (we also watched it again later that day).

After that I pretty much forgot about the VB again. I though that there were not enough games anyway and that buying it would not be worth it.

However, my wife thought it is pretty cool console and bought it as a Christmas present for me. She actually convinced the dude at the retro game store to sell his VB. It wasn’t even supposed to be sold (you don’t see a VB to often in Germany). The overall condition of the VB was pretty good and it came with Mario Tennis (without the Box though).

When I started the VB for the very first time I was pretty surprised how good the 3D actually is. I bought Teleroboxer and Wario Land (and some other games) and actually liked most of them. I didn’t played through all of them though. The main reason for that was that I just didn’t liked crouching myself in front of it.

However, after some time my VB started gathering dust, so I decided to have a look into VB game development. I tried out some stuff using an emulator and was pretty surprised how easy it is as most of the secrets had already been solved by the guys around here.

After I was sure I would be able to produce something useful I ordered a FlashBoy from Richard and started programming. I started focusing on sound system as I though there was still room for improvement. It was really exciting to get from producing simple sounds to actually playing melodies that can be recognized.

After that I added a simple game on top of it and released it. I still fell like I could do better. However, mainly due to lack of time caused by this damn thesis I have been working on in my free time, my VB is gathering dust again.

Well, lets change that.

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Sep 07, 2012 • 02:37 Profile Photo Morintari

Ahh… Another talented programmer that believes that the glory of the VB Isn’t in the cartridges released, but in the power of the homebrew…That is truely refreshing.

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Sep 08, 2012 • 18:29 Profile Photo WoLfMaN

Well, I came across the VB by accident.

I always was into the small Handhelds, later on I had a Gameboy when it came out. Sold all the stuff later on to buy an RC car. Wish i hadnt done it now, since all the games increased so much in value that it costs me a fortune to get back some of teh cool Game & Watches again…

So I started collecting Tabletops, which i never was into, because they weren´t common at my place. Buy slowly expanding my collection I ran into a collector who was selling of some parts. Including a nearly mint VB, incl some Games for it and got it for a fair price (though not cheap).

That´s how I came into it, and I am very very happy with it. Wish i had had one, when they were popular.

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Sep 09, 2012 • 05:15 Profile Photo ryucheese

I first heard about the “VR32” in the pages of Nintendo Power — and being a huge Nintendo fan, I was definitely interested in purchasing one. I mean, what kid wouldn’t want his own virtual reality headset?

When Nintendo Power unveiled the first screen shots of VB games in one of their issues, I was a little disappointed and almost dismissed the idea of getting one. Then I got the issue of Nintendo Power that had VB on the cover and saw that the screen shots were much improved. That’s when I decided to take the chance and buy one.

I bought my VB from Software Etc. on launch day. I was apparently the only one interested in buying one because no one else was in the store and the clerk said no one had purchased one yet. I brought it home, put the 6 batteries that came with the system in the controller and started playing Mario’s Tennis.

I was disappointed at first because I was kind of expecting full VR immersion instead of “just” 3D. Over the coming weeks I learned to appreciate that the system was different than anything else I had and my disappointment quickly waned.

Over the coming months I purchased more VB games, some new like Wario Land and 3D Tetris, but most of them used. Blockbuster quickly got rid of their VB games and they were a haven for scoring great deals. I even got Jack Bros. from my local Blockbuster for around $10 with the box and manual in mint condition. I wonder if anyone ever even rented VB games because they were always in stock there.

For about 5 months I was the only one of my friends to own a VB until Blockbuster started getting rid of them. I was a little annoyed that I had spent $170 on a system that my friends were able to pick up for only $30 5 months later. And it REALLY annoyed me that they also got a free charger and cool briefcase with it.

About a year after VB came out it was apparent that the system was a failure. I had already purchased most of the games that were released in the U.S. except for Waterworld, Golf, and Nester’s Funky Bowling (I ended up getting those a few years later on eBay).

Since then I’ve always had a fascination with Virtual Boy. It’s strange because it’s the only Nintendo system that was a failure, it didn’t have an amazing library of games, and it gave my friends headaches. But there’s just something about it that I’ve always been drawn to… and probably always will be.

 

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