Original Post
Profile Photo
Jul 10, 2012 • 01:29 Profile Photo Super Bros.

Heh, I laugh at the people whom put down Virtual Boy.

Specs of Nintendo Handhelds:

Gameboy (1989) 8-bit Processor – 160×144 Resolution – 4-Bit Mono Sound – 4.19mhz Processor Speed

Virtual Boy (1995) 32-bit Processor – 384×224 Resolution – 16-Bit Stereo Sound – 20-28Mhz Processor Speed

Gameboy Color (199 16-Bit Processor – 160×144 Resolution – 4-Bit Mono Sound – 4-8mhz Processor Speed

Gameboy Advance (2001) 32-Bit Processor – 240×160 Resolution – 4-Bit Mono Sound – 16.8mhz Processor Speed 

Nintendo DS (2004) 32-Bit Processor – 256×192 Resolution – 8-Bit Stereo Sound – 33.514mhz Processor Speed

Nintendo 3DS (2011) 32-Bit processor – 320×240 Screen Resolution – 16-Bit Stereo Sound – 268mhz Processor Speed

The reason why Virtual Boy was red LED screen based was simply because in 1995 they hadn’t designed a LCD screen capable of displaying 32-Bit nor did they have screens capable of keeping up with 20+ MHz of processor speed without ultra lagginess. So Nintendo went for LEDs which would perform without any lag but couldn’t show the full color spectrum.

Also Nintendo 3DS’ 3-D effects are subpar compared to Virtual Boys, and they cause just as much eyestrain and headaches.

  • This topic was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by Super Bros..
5 Replies
Profile Photo
Jul 10, 2012 • 15:18 Profile Photo concernedcitizen

The Virtual Boy did not sport 32-bit graphics… It had 32 bit processing power and 2 bit monochrome graphics – meaning a total of 4 shades of red… one of which was *black*

Also, the Game Boy Advance had twin 8-bit audio channels, thus giving you *stereo* sound.

The Virtual Boy was not a powerhouse, but it was also not an inferior product.

The main reasons it failed were :
Clunkiness
Eyestrain
Lack of amazing games
4 shades of red.

If you take a Ferrari and made the body huge and plasticky, the instrument panel difficult to read, make the car boring to drive, and only offer it in 4 shades of red, you’ll see the same commercial failure. It won’t matter to die-hard Ferrari fanboys, though.

Profile Photo
Jul 10, 2012 • 15:42 Profile Photo Super Bros.

If it was 2-bit graphics it would be blocky like Atari 2600; you are confusing color resolution with graphics resolution. 2-bit meaning red and black are the only colors on the screen simultaneously but it’s graphics capability is 32-bit.

Profile Photo
Jul 11, 2012 • 04:12 Profile Photo blitter

Dreammary wrote:
If it was 2-bit graphics it would be blocky like Atari 2600; you are confusing color resolution with graphics resolution. 2-bit meaning red and black are the only colors on the screen simultaneously but it’s graphics capability is 32-bit.

Umm… huh?

Virtual Boy is without question a 2-bit graphical display for the reasons colesonwilson mentioned. 4 colors == 2^2. The Game Boy also had 2-bit graphics / 4 monochrome shades. Even taking into account that each BRTx register on the VB can be set to values up to 185 (that seems to be the range from my experimentation), you still only have a palette of 4 colors to choose from. To compare to the venerable Atari, you could say the 2600 had a 7-bit palette, as it allowed up to 128 distinct colors on an NTSC television.

The VB CPU was 32-bit, as were the other systems of that era (PlayStation, Sega Saturn).
The SNES CPU was 16-bit, like the Sega Genesis of that generation.
The GB CPU was 8-bit, like its predecessors the NES and 2600 as well.

I am very confused by how you define its “graphics resolution” as 32-bit… what do you mean “graphics resolution?” If you mean its screen resolution then the remainder of your comparisons make no sense– the VB has a 384×224 display, the Game Boy has a 160×144 display, and even the “2-bit” Atari 2600 could output 160×192 on NTSC with clever programming of the TIA chip (better than the GB!), so I’m not sure where your figures are coming from…

Profile Photo
Jul 11, 2012 • 21:13 Profile Photo Martyg

Dreammary wrote:
If it was 2-bit graphics it would be blocky like Atari 2600;

That makes no sense, the Atari 2600 is an 8-bit system running the 8-bit 6507 and 8-bit system bus with the 8-bit TIA graphics chip. There were no two or 4-bit home consoles released.

Profile Photo
Jul 12, 2012 • 02:03 Profile Photo Super Bros.

“4 colors with 32 levels of intensity”, which means there are 128 different shades of Red that the VB can produce… 🙂

Reflection Technologies Inc. (RTI) Scanning LED Array (SLA) P4
1 × 224 pixel resolution (when scanned; 384 x 224)
Monochromatic color resolution (black + 4 different red led shades which each form 32 intensities of Red forming 128 colors)
32-Bit Graphics 50.2 Hz Horizontal Scan Rate

  • This reply was modified 12 years, 4 months ago by Super Bros..

 

Write a reply

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.