I am new to the VB scene and I just got my first Virtual Boy unit from eBay about a month ago. Well, the good news is the unit works perfectly as do all the games. So after I checked it all out I went ahead and bought another VB for a spare.

I found myself not too particularly thrilled with the red color of the system hardware (not the color of the games). I took a liking to the white clean look of the new Revolution console and I thought i’d change the VB color to white instead. So i sanded primered and painted with a base coat then went on to apply clear coat.

All in all I think it turned out pretty well. Heck I even disassembled the controller and painted all the buttons and controller plates seperately. Here are some links to pictures of my system.

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/4574/customvbwip079yt.jpg
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/355/customvbwip087sd.jpg

I can undstand that you may think my replacing the Virtual Boy with
the Nintendo Logo a bit blasphemous albeit even changing the color might bring tears to your eyes but I ment no disrespect to the VB as a console ( I am very interested in all sterescopic devices) But this device had so much potential for great 3D experiences. Look at Galactic pinball or Red Alarm they show that you can have pretty good depth of field with this console.

Plus I haven’t had one headache yet from playing this system. Hopefully you don’t hate me for changing the look of the system.

Haha, not to worry, no one is going to get upset by it.

Very nice job, the VB looks awesome, but I think it might have been good to have the buttons on the controller a different colour from the rest of it.

Looks great, you might try puting a red LED in the controller/case with the intent of getting the keys to glow a bit around there seams

Just a thought.

David Tucker

Good idea!

Anyone have suggestions how to go about implementing LEDs into the controller? I mean they run on low voltage so I would assume hooking them up to the main powersupply connects a bad idea lol. Would I need some resistors? Or how about using LEDs made for 12v systems, i.e. car LEDs. Any suggestions?

you need to place a resistor in series (inline) with the LED like so:
+5v 0—\/\/\/—|>|—0 gnd
resistor led

Usualy you use a fancy formula that tels you you need a ~300 ohm resistor to cut current to the led. But it is easy enough to just try several resitors. An LED will pop if exposed to to much voltage (they want 3volts) but if you only touch them very quickly to power they will be ok. so grab a handfull of LED’s and a pack of 300 ohm resistors and start applying a voltage to them. to turn two 300 ohm resistors into 600 ohm resistors wire them in series (inline), to turn them into 150 ohm resistors wire them in paralel. You want the led to glow brightly but not blazingly bright, the rule is the brighter the led the quicker it will burn up.

Pin number 2 (the blue wire) on the controller is 5v, I would use this since the power from the battery pack can vary quite a bit.

A final note, led’s are keyd they only work one way, just touch the leads to 5v realy fast to figure out what way the current flows.

David

Thanks David. Your insight is very helpful. Now All I have to figure out is where to place the LEDS to get the glow around the buttons. There are multiple obstructions to the LED light, such as the rubber matts that connect the buttons. Maybe there are clear buttons of the same diameter as the VB’s action buttons. Though again the rubber matts still would obstruct the LED light…

If I can’t get those then what else could I do? I really like the LED glowing buttons so I don’t want to give that up. Does anyone know of someone doing this sort of thing on a VB controller?

I would start by looking for 3rd party NES/SNES/Etc controllers that are transparent, I have not seen one but I know they made a lot of them for the N64 and playstation.

You want the LED’s to be on top of the PCBoard near the buttons. It might even be posible to drill a hole in the cavity where the button fits and shine teh LED directly at the side of the button. A litle epoxy or hot melt glue would keep the LED in place. There are lots of very small LED packages, including surface mount. Go down to radio shack or look at digikey or jameco electronics online to get a feal for size.

For a quick and dirty test take the bottom off your controller and shine a flashlight at it….

David

ps http://www.geocities.com/xboxinstigator/ has a led mod for an xbox controller

Dude, you’re selling it?

http://cgi.ebay.com/VIRTUAL-BOY-SYSTEM-8-GAMES-AC-ADAPTER-STAND_W0QQitemZ8235894765QQcategoryZ62054QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Why not?
I’ve thought about doing this for a while now. If someone is stupid enough to buy an overpriced VB simply because its been prettied up, then I say let them come. 😛

Hey, I think it’s all fine and good to sell a recolored VB on the internet. But, to start rumors in order to try and trick people into thinking it’s something that it really isn’t is just lame.

http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=914&topic=24266665

I think there could be a connection here.

Hey guys this is the real Gerrhod. Yeah I was going to sell it on eBay but I stopped selling it since I really didn’t want to part with it. No that wasn’t me who wrote that on the gamefaqs forums. Frankley why would anyone want to advertise my console other than me is frankley weird lol. I was the one who painted this Virtual Boy and I’m keeping it.

Maybe that person was hoping to buy my on eBay and hype it up then resell it at a higher price. Again I never tried hyping my virtual boy when it was up on eBay. I stated it was just a plain virtual boy. I was never trying to sucker anyone into it. Oh well lol.

Oh yeah and the LEDs really didn’t shine through the rubber matts behind the controllers enough so you can see them. I looked around the net for buttons of similar size that were clear but I couldn’t find those either. lol

Anyone know where I can find translucent VB controller sized buttons?

Sorry for the tripple post but to clear my name up here.

The guy at gamefaqs

http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=914&topic=24266665&page=0

posted his message at…

From: zillazero | Posted: 10/27/2005 11:34:12 AM

I showed you guys my VB customization on the 19th! in the thread I created named VB Customization.

The guy on gamefaqs just saw my VB and probably wanted to copy it. But the VB on eBay was mine and I pulled it off because I didn’t want to sell it after thinking it over. If we see another VB on eBay then it’s not mine. If anyone thinks i’m lying contact my eBay sellers account and i’ll respond.

“Author: Gerrhod – Date: 10-19-05 13:46

I am new to the VB scene and I just got my first Virtual Boy unit from eBay about a month ago. Well, the good news is the unit works perfectly as do all the games. So after I checked it all out I went ahead and bought another VB for a spare.

I found myself not too particularly thrilled with the red color of the system hardware (not the color of the games). I took a liking to the white clean look of the new Revolution console and I thought i’d change the VB color to white instead. So i sanded primered and painted with a base coat then went on to apply clear coat.

All in all I think it turned out pretty well. Heck I even disassembled the controller and painted all the buttons and controller plates seperately. Here are some links to pictures of my system.

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/4574/customvbwip079yt.jpg
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/355/customvbwip087sd.jpg

I can undstand that you may think my replacing the Virtual Boy with
the Nintendo Logo a bit blasphemous albeit even changing the color might bring tears to your eyes but I ment no disrespect to the VB as a console ( I am very interested in all sterescopic devices) But this device had so much potential for great 3D experiences. Look at Galactic pinball or Red Alarm they show that you can have pretty good depth of field with this console.

Plus I haven’t had one headache yet from playing this system. Hopefully you don’t hate me for changing the look of the system.”

gerrhod whats your email? i live very close to you and would want to buy some VB games from you if you have any to sell

My e-mail is whoabot@hotmail.com. Well i’m not selling my systems anymore. I have duplicates of only common games and i’m not willing to part now with Red Alarm or Galactic Pinball. So the duplicate ones are Mario Tennis, Wario Land, and Baseball (not ones that people want really). Sorry about that ;/.

i dont have baseball and ive always wanted it but been to lazy to get it… does it have all inserts and boxs?