Okay, so I got a Virtual Boy for my birthday last month, yes believe it or not I actually got a VIRTUAL BOY for my birthday. Still has the box and everything, including cardboard that advertises Duracell batteries. Kind of disappointed it didn’t have the AC Adapter though, because batteries aren’t common around my parts (at least the money to get them) and the adapter costs forty bucks.

It came with Mario Tennis as the pack-in game. I also got a bonus game of Teleroboxer that was hidden in the system, and it caught me off-guard. This game also coincides with my problem. Not Mario Tennis, however.

I got Virtual Boy Wario Land recently in the mail unexpectedly early, so I popped it in right away.

Upon playing, I noticed it had a huge game world, and if I’m not mistaken this followed the first Wario Land, known at the time as Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 so it was more of a tie-in with the Super Mario Land Game Boy series (which has since been resurrected as Super Mario 3D Land, though it follows more off traditional games than the first three did, and so no Daisy) and so it is the first to have a save feature, or so I thought.

After getting pretty far in the game, I took a break. But upon returning, all my progress was gone! I actually love playing the game, though, and have exceptionally good eye sight so I never get headaches. But, on a note related to the screens, the left side of the screen, and sometimes both, get fuzzy and the red contrast increases a lot. But I’ve had the same batteries in there since last month, so perhaps they’re near dead. I was hoping I got an AC Adapter with the Virtual Boy, but unfortunately that did not happen and buying one standalone is forty bucks. This fuzzy screen may not be an issue yet, because the batteries could just be meeting their end, so I have to wait and see if it does the same effect after I get fresh batteries. Though, it does the contract thing rarely, the fuzziness is noticeable occasionally.

Anyway, back to saving. This also happened with Teleroboxer, a game that also possessed a save function, or again as I once knew. Neither game save, so perhaps the system itself saves the games? If that’s the case, then the saving is broken and I’m highly upset because I was looking forward to having a big file on that Wario game. But, I want to know why my Virtual Boy doesn’t save games, and if it just happens that these two games don’t save anymore or not. I know their internal battery couldn’t wear out (I know this is how Game Boy games saved) cause I’m almost certain they weren’t played for hours due to the bad rep the Virtual Boy has. So, I’m sure it has to be the system. But, what do you guys think?

1. You don’t really need a special VB AC adapter, per se. I had my first VB for quite a while before I got one, and I made do with some random adapter of the right voltage and a set of alligator-clip jumper wires. If you’re handy, you can probably “MacGuyver” something up 😉 The VB can use anything from about 6 to 10 VDC, and only draws around 500 mA or so (possibly less). Looking at the back of the controller with the battery box removed, the right-hand terminal is positive, and the left one is negative.

2. It’s possible that your display problems are, as you say, related to the dropping voltage of your batteries, but it’s more likely that the display cables are coming unglued, as they all eventually do. I am among those who can permanently fix this problem. I’ll send you a Private Message and we can discuss it.

3. The cartridges themselves are responsible for saving. It seems you simply got two cartridges that both happen to have dead batteries. They can be replaced, though. I’ve never done it, myself, but I’d be willing to try, given the proper parts.

Wow, that was very informative. And that is the worst! Haha, what are the chances of that actually happening….oh well, as long as the games run it’s all good. So this also means I’ll have to one-run Wario Land if I want to even SEE the final boss lol.

And that’s disappointing. Truth is, though, it doesn’t seem like they’ve fallen entirely yet. In most cases, it runs relatively fine. I would still appreciate the message, of course. In case that glue (glue, really?) comes off, then the instructions for a permanent fix would be really helpful. Though it coming loose is highly unlikely for me, I’m very fragile with my systems. But I do hear the “mirrors” are they called? Vibrate the whole time, or something, so I suppose that would loosen the glue.

It does sound like the game cartridge batteries. They wear out over time, regardless of how much the cartridge gets used.

And yes, the display cables are held on with glue. Again, not so much with how you handle your unit, it’s just an age thing and the glue deteriorates. There’s even been instances where old stock of units that never got opened had the display issues, so it just happens. That being said I’ve been extremely lucky, both my units still function fine, although I might have to mail my displays to Runnerpack as a “just in case” thing.

I noticed the same thing with my Teleroboxer just now. What type of battery do Virtual Boy games use?

The VUE-AA3A games use CR-1616 batteries with two leads, like these.