Hello There,
I know, I know; there are a number of threads on this sort of thing already, but after reading some of them I’m afraid that I am now somewhat confused. The lowdown is that I live in Australia, and would like to purchase a Virtual Boy. My understanding of what I can do to power it is as follows:

Two options-
1: Purchase a stepdown transformer and use the DC Virtual Boy power adapter.

OR
2: Purchase a stepdown transformer and one of those adapter taps to use my Super Nintendo power adapter instead of the Virtual Boy power adapter.

First of all, do these scenarios seem correct? Would a Japanese or American tap fit my Australian SNES adapter? If so, would it then matter that the Australian voltage differs to that in America and Japan in order for the tap to function? Lastly, if I can indeed use my SNES adapter with a tap, does that then mean that I may not need a stepdown converter (probably contradicts some of my previous questions, but I am quite confused here)?

Many thanks in advance

Gotmished wrote:

…Would a Japanese or American tap fit my Australian SNES adapter?

I can give you a partial answer for this one. The Japanese Virtual Boy Adapter Taps are not the same size as the North American Virtual Boy Adapter Taps. I know for sure that North American SNES adapters will not fit into Japanese Virtual Boy Adapter Taps, for the connectors are too large. I’m not familiar with what types of adapters are to be used in Australia, however, so I will leave that question for someone else. I was under the impression that most of the rest of the parts of the world use the Japanese Virtual Boy Adapter Taps with their Virtual Boy adapters.

Thank you for your reply! I suppose I could try the Japanese tap, and if it does not fit my SNES power adapter I could just try to find a Japanese power adapter.

I believe, too, that I may have misunderstood the Virtual Boy power situation; I thought that a separate Virtual Boy adapter was sold originally, and the tap connected to a SNES adapter to save one from buying a new Virtual Boy adapter. However, it seems that I was wrong here (unless someone now tells me otherwise).

Gotmished wrote:
Thank you for your reply! I suppose I could try the Japanese tap, and if it does not fit my SNES power adapter I could just try to find a Japanese power adapter.

Be careful with your australian power adapter, even if it fits in a japanese tap. French SNES power adapters output AC current, the VB needs DC current. I had to buy an US tap, an US SNES power adapter and a stepdown converter for my US VB.

Gotmished wrote:
I believe, too, that I may have misunderstood the Virtual Boy power situation; I thought that a separate Virtual Boy adapter was sold originally, and the tap connected to a SNES adapter to save one from buying a new Virtual Boy adapter. However, it seems that I was wrong here (unless someone now tells me otherwise).

The first-party adapter consists of an SNES “wall wart” and a “tap” for the VB controller, but there was also a 3rd-party adapter, sold under the name “Performance”, that is one unit; the wall wart is permanently wired to a “tap-like” device. I own one.

http://www.planetvb.com/modules/hardware/?type=accessories&sec=main&id=11

Thank you for everybody’s replies! Sorry to keep this thread going, but I’ve got one last power adapter question that only recently arose (I just received my Virtual Boy in the post). I’ve noticed that on the head unit it has written “DC6V~13V.” Does this mean that it will accept any centre-negative, DC output adapter that outputs anything from 6V to 13V? This may seem like a silly question, but I thought that the tilde may mean something other than “to” and that I had heard something like “use only a 9 or 10V adapter” somewhere before.

Many Thanks,
Hamish

It should. I’ve used a 9 V adapter for years without problems.