Pretty much every VirtualBoy I bought came with scratches on the red lenses. I wanted to polish them for a long time but never thought of buying some display polish. Lately I found one of my old mobile phones and remembered that I would polish scratches on the display using toothpaste. So I tried it today and it worked like a charm. Plus it smells like mint.

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Tooth Paste worked? I always thought that one was an urban myth =P I might actually have to try it. Have you tried it on other displays? (Specifically Gameboy ones)

speedyink wrote:
Tooth Paste worked? I always thought that one was an urban myth =P I might actually have to try it. Have you tried it on other displays? (Specifically Gameboy ones)

I used it for several mobile phone displays over the years and for DVDs. I don’t know what’s in there but it works just fine.

What kind of toothpaste are you using? (I mean, besides “mint” ;-)) The last time I tried toothpaste to polish something, it just fogged it up. Also, are you using any kind of tool, or just your hands and a cloth?

The brand is called Elmex (http://www.elmex.de/ the orange one). No idea if you can buy it outside of Germany.

I simply used a paper tissue and carefully polished the display for some seconds. I then removed the toothpaste with a slightly wet tissue.

It really sound silly when you write it down.

I’ve heard of using toothpaste for that too, though I’ve never tried it (I usually use Novus polish for polishing stuff like plexi). Never tried it on a VB eyepiece though. I can’t see your pics for some reason (just me, or everyone?)… how deep were the scratches?

DogP

Just you dogp 🙂

Some looked a bit deep. My wife has used toothpaste to clean the headlights on our cars. But, she puts an oil on them afterward that turns solid and fills in the micro scratches that are formed by the toothpaste.

-Eric

DogP wrote:
I’ve heard of using toothpaste for that too, though I’ve never tried it (I usually use Novus polish for polishing stuff like plexi). Never tried it on a VB eyepiece though. I can’t see your pics for some reason (just me, or everyone?)… how deep were the scratches?

DogP

There was one rather big but not so deep horizontal scratch and one rather small deep vertical scratch. The deep one needed some extra care but all of them are gone now.

I tried the toothpaste trick w “Colgate cavity protection” (white paste) in the states. It certainly didn’t hurt.:-) It made the windows as clear as I’ve ever seen them and got rid of all of the pesky smudges as well.:thumbup: I still have a black line through the right eye. But I think it’s because I have a speck of dust on the mirror I don’t think it’s because of a scratch. I recommend a soft cloth like an old t-shirt or microfiber using just a smudge and rubbing in circles. Next rub in circles w/ a damp cloth. lastly dry off w a dry cloth. Kudos Thunder You’ve saved us a bundle on not having to replace the windows.
=D!:vb:

That does look nice… pictures are working for me now.

BTW, the other way I’ve tried removing scratches from plexi is using a flame. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for the VB, since it’s easy to screw up… but I’ve had several plexi monitor bezels on arcade games that have people’s names scrached into them with keys and stuff… and there’s just no good way to get them out. The flame does an okay job of kinda melting the surface to at least get rid of the roughness and make it clear again (makes the scratches a lot less noticeable).

Here’s a link showing someone doing it to a pinball ramp: http://www.flippers.be/flame_polishing.html .

DogP

Hmm, I wonder would toothpaste work on my scratched vinyl 🙂

my lenses are pretty scratched up, especially in the center. i would wager a bet that the person who owned the vb before me always dusted them from the center outward, and used something like a paper towel (with wood fiber).

i’ve had the idea to replace my lenses with glass or red plastic at some point. i still need to open my vb to clean the LED arrays. when i do this, i’ll play a few games without the lenses in to see how the red lenses affect the games. if games still look the same, but perhaps not as dark, i may just replace them with some glass. i always wanted to put something flat in there instead of the current lenses that “pop out”. i experience blurriness towards the edges of games due to the part of the lens that pops-out.

has anyone played a game without the lenses? what was it like? do the lenses help the gaming experience?

Lester Knight wrote:
has anyone played a game without the lenses? what was it like? do the lenses help the gaming experience?

Your eyes dry out pretty quickly without the lenses, since the mirrors act as fans. 😉 As expected, it’s not much different looking… except you notice more ambient reflections, since stuff that’s not red becomes much more noticeable. But with the eyeshade on and your face properly looking into the system, it’s not a big deal.

DogP

Lester Knight wrote:

has anyone played a game without the lenses? what was it like? do the lenses help the gaming experience?

DogP wrote

Your eyes dry out pretty quickly without the lenses, since the mirrors act as fans. 😉 As expected, it’s not much different looking… except you notice more ambient reflections, since stuff that’s not red becomes much more noticeable. But with the eyeshade on and your face properly looking into the system, it’s not a big deal.

Yeah also don’t have too long of lashes (trimmin time)None of those cover girl extensions LOL just joking.XD and no I don’t know from experience. Just some VB humor thats all.

Yep, I’ve tried the VB without the lenses, it’s really hard to play. The mirrors move so fast, the air keeps hitting my eyes and dries them out, making it difficult to continue looking for any significant length of time. It’s not really worth it, the red lenses are pretty much required. Without them, the graphics are a lot dimmer looking, it’s hard to see anything. The red lenses basically finish off the optical illusion (oscillating mirrors projecting a solid image).

I always thought it would have been interesting if the VirtualBoy would have differently colored exchangeable lenses. That way we could have had all yellow and pink games.

The VB console is too difficult to take apart for home users. That would also void your warranty. Besides, even if the lenses were swappable, the LEDs were still red.

The single best option would have been a Virtual Boy Color system (like GBC) by 1998 or 1999. Maybe by then green and blue LEDs would be cheap enough for a game console. Wouldn’t it be neat if original VB games could run in green and black or blue and black on the VBC?

Maybe if the VB wasn’t so poorly received, we’d all be playing the Nintendo Vision VR system by now.

I was wondering about this possibility- you can buy super cheap 3D glasses (the old red ‘n blue ones) on eBay, for like $1 each. Could you theoretically splurge on two pairs of those, pop out the red lenses, and mount those over the VB’s eye openings instead of the originals? Like Morintari, I think the weird shape of the factory standard red lenses blurs the display somewhat for me. At least this would be a cheap, never-ending supply of replacements!

Also, my other plan is to experiment with a ‘vermillion’-lensed ski goggle (like: http://www.sporteyes.com/bolle-carve-ski-goggles.html ). Something tells me that mounting one of those could fix the “need visor!” issue, while replacing scratched lenses, and being very comfy as well :). Prescription ones can run like $70 +/-, but glasses users may like that option.

Thinking about it now, do 3D glasses always have red on one particular side and blue on the other? I suppose having two left or two right lenses would work, but maybe one of each would look less goofy O:)

Last message, I promise 🙂

What about cutting a piece from this that will fit in the VB’s visor cavity:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Midwest-Red-Sheet-PVC-010-4-704-03-NIB-/291047459869?pt=Model_Kit_US&hash=item43c3c7cc1d

Those options don’t look like they’d stand the test of time to me…

Also I wouldn’t worry about voiding warranty – this long after release it’s not work the paper it’s printed on 🙂