Hey hey, been using this site for years(love it btw), could only just now post due to some website issues or email issues on my end. But better late than never! Any old guys like me who got their VB back in 95-96? Toys r us? KB toys? Electronics Boutique? Babbages? Or is the vb scene mostly ebay people? No judging, just curious 😛 Whats your virtual boy purchasing story?

Glad to see it’s sorted and working now!

I’m not an original owner here, honestly I don’t even remember the VB being advertised around here when it was current. I remember Super Nintendo, then straight to N64. Then again given the area I live in I’m not totally surprised :p

My first exposure to the system was around 1999, 2000 something around there. My brothers friend was trying to trade me my bike for either the VB, or an N64. I had never heard of the VB, so he let me borrow it for a couple weeks, along with Red Alarm and Golf. I remember thinking it was such a cool and unique thing, with this head set you stick your face in. It didn’t even have the stand, but I still thought it was cool! I just kind of propped it up on a chair. I remember comparing it to a gameboy, being like whoa, there’s clear voices, and snazzy graphics! I had a thing for vector graphics at the time, so I was just blown away by Red Alarm, I remember playing the crap out of that game. I definitely wore out a couple sets of batteries 😛 I definitely remember really liking the system, but in the end I ended up choosing the N64. It was Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, all those awesome games that I knew were for the system, and that I had been wanting so bad to play but I never had the system. I just didn’t know enough about the VB at the time, plus I wanted to be able to play the same games my friends kept talking about.

Fast forward to 2013, going through some deep depressions somehow I got looking at a Virtual Boy online, and all those awesome memories came back. It was a no brainer, I was buying a VB, so I ended up on ebay to get my first Virtual Boy. I never regretted that decision, although it did kick start a game collecting phase that wasn’t the initial intention :p

haha thats awesome! I rented the virtual boy right when it came out from blockbuster video. I remember them renting them out in like this big black case or something. I know it came with tennis and i THINK red alarm or teleroboxer, or all three.(just found pics on google ha!)

http://atariage.com/forums/uploads/monthly_08_2011/post-3183-0-79401200-1312400291.jpg

http://atariage.com/forums/uploads/monthly_08_2011/post-3183-0-55760000-1312400280.jpg

It was pretty cool and i already owned every other nintendo console and portable at the time but i couldnt justify spending that much for it just then. I ended up buying a brand new from the store about a year later sometime in 96′. I think the price had gone down by that point(or maybe that happend after i got mine). Then soon after the vb game prices dropped like a bag of bricks. And places like KB toys even had the jap imports for some reason, and they were all like 4$ and stuff haha. so i picked up most of the games for dirt cheap. and then got the ac adapter and mario clash from a friend for like 10$. that sure saved on batteries. happy to say ive still got it in mint condition in its box atm. I wanna put it out on display but ill have to wait till i move into my next place for that. not enough room at the moment. And yea I think im gonna go ahead and finish getting the rest of the USA game set. not looking forward to jack bros prices. and hyper fighting is out the window. but we’ll see heh. oh, and I hope the one you got off ebay came with the stand!

I’m a VB OG too. I specifically remember buying mine new at Walmart along with Galactic Pinball and Virtual League Baseball, though it was near the end. I wanna say it was $40 or maybe $60. And VLB was mis-marked so I got it for something like $5. I got my 2nd VB from my roommate who gave it to me because he lost some of my CDs and I got my third on eBay due to an offer I couldn’t refuse. All 3 boxed and in working order thanks to the handy work of @RunnerPack… all were repaired via the LED soldering mod. I added to my game collection as the years went on and felt like I found my people when I found this website! I can’t wait for the link cables that are almost a reality!

astro187 wrote:
I’m a VB OG too. I specifically remember buying mine new at Walmart along with Galactic Pinball and Virtual League Baseball, though it was near the end. I wanna say it was $40 or maybe $60. And VLB was mis-marked so I got it for something like $5. I got my 2nd VB from my roommate who gave it to me because he lost some of my CDs and I got my third on eBay due to an offer I couldn’t refuse. All 3 boxed and in working order thanks to the handy work of @RunnerPack… all were repaired via the LED soldering mod. I added to my game collection as the years went on and felt like I found my people when I found this website! I can’t wait for the link cables that are almost a reality!

3?? haha wow! and what do you mean all had to be repaired? is there a common problem with them going out? last i checked mine still seemed to work great. now im worried O_O and doesnt the link cable ONLY work with hyper fighting? I dont imagine the function was programmed into any released games.

[Knightcrawler]

I tried the VirtualBoy when it came out at Kaybee Toys. Played Mario Clash and Mario Tennis. And… I hated it. 🙁 Maybe I didn’t adjust it to my eyes? Maybe it was because the controller confused me? I dunno.

I started becoming interested in the VirtualBoy after seeing BenHeck’s mod video, and just being amazed at the technology inside the thing. It’s hard to imagine a vibrating mirror synchronized with an LED strip at such an incredibly high frequency (50Hz x 384 lines per second, right? Insanity!). And on top of that, I haven’t heard of that mechanism breaking down frequently, so it’s a really impressive feat. The controller is really cool! The system’s specs are like… are these charts for real? The VirtualBoy is in some ways better than the GBA that was released 6 years later. That can’t be right! It has a higher resolution per eye than most SNES games played at? Whaaat? To top it off, it has the charm of being the last truly retro system… at least in my eyes. That means chiptunes and pixel art are right at home here.

Maybe the VB was a bad idea to begin with, but I feel like – at least on paper – it has too many strengths to just write off the way everyone did. Even the monochrome display has its silver lining. The industry was caught up in a 3D graphics/realism hype train that it just couldn’t support yet, and the VirtualBoy was the least suited to that challenge. Despite that, Nintendo tried to dress up the VB as if it could take that on. The system needed to be treated totally differently. There’s definitely potential there, so it’s a shame that none of the VirtualBoy games really appeal to me.

So I’ve been looking for a unit around me in the last few weeks, but haven’t found any. Not sure what I’m gonna do when I get one… I’d definitely tempted to work on a game. It’d be tremendously fun to work on a game for the VirtualBoy, and use its limitations for opportunities for creativity rather than just ignoring them. Well… it’s a fun fantasy, at least. 😛

I have an affinity for underappreciated things, and things don’t get much less appreciated than the VirtualBoy.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by Knightcrawler.

There is a common problem. Because of a poor design choice by Nintendo, the ribbon cables from the main board were glued to the LEDs that make the image in each eye. Over time the glue degrades and contact is lost between the cable and the LED boards. The results is glitch displays, lines missing, etc. The fix is to properly solder the ribbon cable to the LED board but it involves that really fine soldering. All 2 of my 3 systems were glitchy, so I went ahead and had all 3 repaired (6 LEDs total) and a user on here RunnerPack did it for next to nothing in my opinion. I just opened up the systes, removed the LEDs, sent them off, then re-installed them. It was fairly easy on my end and all work great years later.

As for link cable support, only HF and a couple other homebrews support it. I’m hoping that a lot more will after cables go out to the community.

Seam wrote:

astro187 wrote:
I’m a VB OG too. I specifically remember buying mine new at Walmart along with Galactic Pinball and Virtual League Baseball, though it was near the end. I wanna say it was $40 or maybe $60. And VLB was mis-marked so I got it for something like $5. I got my 2nd VB from my roommate who gave it to me because he lost some of my CDs and I got my third on eBay due to an offer I couldn’t refuse. All 3 boxed and in working order thanks to the handy work of @RunnerPack… all were repaired via the LED soldering mod. I added to my game collection as the years went on and felt like I found my people when I found this website! I can’t wait for the link cables that are almost a reality!

3?? haha wow! and what do you mean all had to be repaired? is there a common problem with them going out? last i checked mine still seemed to work great. now im worried O_O and doesnt the link cable ONLY work with hyper fighting? I dont imagine the function was programmed into any released games.

oh, good to know. ill keep that in mind

I got mine at Toys R Us on clearance. I never had an interest in it before then, but after playing the demo unit for a few minutes, I was sold.

VB OG here. When i was a kid my parents refused to purchase video game consoles that connected to the TV as it “would distract from schoolwork”. When the VB came out i begged and begged because it did not connect to the TV and i got it for christmas! i was so very excited and i loved it. I used to take it everywhere. After a few years i discovered ebay and was able to pick up some additional games that were only available in Japan. I do not have all the games but i am still building my collection.

tydyedsyko wrote:
VB OG here. When i was a kid my parents refused to purchase video game consoles that connected to the TV as it “would distract from schoolwork”. When the VB came out i begged and begged because it did not connect to the TV and i got it for christmas! i was so very excited and i loved it. I used to take it everywhere. After a few years i discovered ebay and was able to pick up some additional games that were only available in Japan. I do not have all the games but i am still building my collection.

ha thats awesome! yea im still trying to finish my collection too 🙂 im trying to finish it up here in the next few months

I got mine at launch. I was really hyped up courtesy of Nintendo Power. Saved up and dropped a bunch of cash at Toys R Us.

I ended up with six games and there it’s sat on a shelf ever since.

I’ve just now gotten back into it and I’m up to 13 games, I think. NES Freak helped repair my ribbon cables, and I’ve really been enjoying it.

I wanted everything video game related in 95, but didn’t feel compelled to blow my birthday/xmas load on it – so ebay when I had some disposable income.

I wish I got mine at a yard sale or flea market before the days of “seller+smartphone+ebay = no deals to be had” and retro game stores buying all stock and driving the prices way up.

mips5000 wrote:
I wanted everything video game related in 95, but didn’t feel compelled to blow my birthday/xmas load on it – so ebay when I had some disposable income.

I wish I got mine at a yard sale or flea market before the days of “seller+smartphone+ebay = no deals to be had” and retro game stores buying all stock and driving the prices way up.

yea, that kinda disgusts me. luckily all retro games and consoles i actually bought when they came and and held onto. no such thing as deals anymore.

Seam wrote:

mips5000 wrote:
I wanted everything video game related in 95, but didn’t feel compelled to blow my birthday/xmas load on it – so ebay when I had some disposable income.

I wish I got mine at a yard sale or flea market before the days of “seller+smartphone+ebay = no deals to be had” and retro game stores buying all stock and driving the prices way up.

yea, that kinda disgusts me. luckily all retro games and consoles i actually bought when they came and and held onto. no such thing as deals anymore.

I find I can luck out sometimes, mostly at the local flea market when people just want to sell and don’t care what it’s worth. But sometimes, the local record store is a good hit. They have a number of employees that handle pricing items that get brought in, and while they love to inflate console prices, they don’t always realize what they have. For example, I got the PS3 memory card adapter (to plug in your PS1/PS2 memory cards) for 5 bucks, back when it was worth around 50 or so.

But as for my VB story, it was basically the last Nintendo system I didn’t own. I got two for myself for Christmas several years ago (an extra head unit, no stand or visor, was thrown in), and I loved the games (Mario Clash and Red Alarm are awesome). Then my screens died, so I put them in a box until I later learned that there were people who could fix them. Got it taken care of and now I’m back to running VB games. Really loving Galactic Pinball now, it’s a lot of fun. And golf is better than expected, though a bit on the easy side to me.

The only thing i really would like is a better stand, something free-standing and adjustable would be great.

I wanted one as soon as I played a demo unit, but it was too expensive, so I had to wait to get my first one at T’R’U when they were clearing out at (I think) $25. The games were pretty cheap, too; $2.50-$5, IIRC, but I could only afford a couple. I think I got Mario Clash, Wario and Waterworld (because it was cheap, and there was no playable demo :-P).

I got my 2nd about a decade later at a thrift store for $5, with a Performance AC adapter and a copy of Vertical Force and a broken stand and no visor 😛 but still, not bad.

My 3rd and 4th were main unit only, and I got them in trade for some LED repairs. One of them was disassembled for donor parts (of which I still have a few).

I wish I still had one 🙁

I shopped Toys R Us until every last game was gone from the hidden places in their stock rooms at every local store. I don’t believe they ever officially dropped the game prices below $9.99 for most, and $14.99 for Waterworld and Jack Bros (and 3D Tetris, I believe).

I can’t recall the final clearance price for the systems – I believe it was $19.99, but it may have been $24.99. Anyone else recall?

I’m definitely getting old. I used to know all this stuff.

RunnerPack wrote:
I wanted one as soon as I played a demo unit, but it was too expensive, so I had to wait to get my first one at T’R’U when they were clearing out at (I think) $25. The games were pretty cheap, too; $2.50-$5, IIRC, but I could only afford a couple. I think I got Mario Clash, Wario and Waterworld (because it was cheap, and there was no playable demo :-P).

I got my 2nd about a decade later at a thrift store for $5, with a Performance AC adapter and a copy of Vertical Force and a broken stand and no visor 😛 but still, not bad.

My 3rd and 4th were main unit only, and I got them in trade for some LED repairs. One of them was disassembled for donor parts (of which I still have a few).

I bought Teleroboxer for $5 I believe at Walmart

RunnerPack wrote:
I wanted one as soon as I played a demo unit, but it was too expensive, so I had to wait to get my first one at T’R’U when they were clearing out at (I think) $25. The games were pretty cheap, too; $2.50-$5, IIRC, but I could only afford a couple. I think I got Mario Clash, Wario and Waterworld (because it was cheap, and there was no playable demo :-P).

I got my 2nd about a decade later at a thrift store for $5, with a Performance AC adapter and a copy of Vertical Force and a broken stand and no visor 😛 but still, not bad.

My 3rd and 4th were main unit only, and I got them in trade for some LED repairs. One of them was disassembled for donor parts (of which I still have a few).

My local Toys R Us back in the day was also clearing them out for $25. Brand spanking mint new units.. just try and get a crusty beat up stand alone unit today for that price, let alone a brand new or complete unit. Unfortunately back then I didn’t have the cash right that day, so I returned a few days later with money and the goal of buying one along with a few games, that were selling for like $10 each, but alas at that point everything was gone. It was heart-breaking and still stings to this day to think about it.

And that’s a major reason why I don’t have one today. Looking at the prices today it’s just such a difficult pill to swallow because it makes me think about what I missed out on and just kills the buzz.

This topic got me to switch me from a long time lurker to proper account holder. It’s been great to read through everyone’s VB memories.

I tracked my Virtual Boy down with birthday funds in ’96 when Toys ‘R’ Us had them on clearance. When I scooped it up, I distinctly remember the consoles being $24.99 and games were $9.99. My $60 was able to get the system, Wario Land, Nester’s Funky Bowling and Galactic Pinball. I still have all of them to this day and since it was the first console I ever purchased with my own money, it gives me the fuzzies each time I fire it up.