Hi I’d like to hear your story How you and the VB first met. Here’s mine.
I was at home and recieving Nintendo Power magazines and I saw this article for VR32. I thought it was the greatest thing. I knew if properly marketed this could change the face of gamming forever. So I wanted one. I joined the Navy and after Pass and review I went to the Navy exchange and bought my first Virtual Boy and Red Alarm, I did’nt even bother to play the demo set up there. Then we went underway when we got back to the states I showed my friends my VB one of them was like Oh them were practically giving them away at block buster where I work. I instantly went over there and got every game they had except Water World and Jack Bros. And I even picked up a snazzy hard shell case. Overtime I had amassed 3 VB 9 games and a soft case by performance. At this time the VB was dead So I foolishly gave away my block buster hard case and one of my VB’s to 2 differant friends. I kept the softcase and the 9 games for myself. then I went to college and one of the professors was into 3d so I let him barrow my Virtual Boy to tell me what he thought of it well he did’nt think much. like the majority of the world I guess. So he gave it back and I went to the book shop to look at some books I set my case down and when I turned around it was gone. my whole VB collection…..GONE.=C And I had so generously given away the rest… foolish. well maybe not. Years later one of my friends said do you want you old system back I never used it and I can’t get any games for it. Oh my did I ever. So I got a mint VB back. WHOO HOO =D. I once found a guy where I work to sell me a broken VB broken system broken stand ect. Iv’e since got an anonymous friend to fix my broken VB for a fair price. And I’ve amassed 5 games from ebay.
So that’s my story. What’s yours? >B

Love that poem!

Here’s my story:
I learnt of the Virtual Boy’s existence in the mid-2000s. I got really interesting the VB because it was Nintendo’s only mistake, only failure. I grew up on NES and Gameboy and I never knew they made a console/handheld that failed. Additionally the red/black headset of the VB always looked very cool, and I still think that. Virtual Reality was kind of a dream for anyone who grew up in the 90s, and the idea of looking into this thing and entering another world was really enticing. I finally ordered one off Ebay in 2007, and got Red Alarm, V-Tetris, Teleroboxer, Golf and Wario Land with it. I had seen screenshots of some games, so I knew somewhat what to expect, but I thought the image of the game would cover my entire field of vision, like I would have to look way out to see the edges of the screen, like I would look into a room in reality. Finding out that you just look at a ‘screen’ right in front of you was a small dissappoinment at first, but still I liked the games right off the bat. Wario Land, V-Tetris and Red Alarm most of all. I liked putting my head into the VB and it still did feel like entering another world… I took it to school the next day and it made a bit of a splash there too, most people were quite intrigued even if some said they got dizzy. One guy in class even used it to do a report on 😛

I sold this Virtual Boy before I moved to another town, because I feared it would break in the move anyway (I underestimated it’s durability, still do I think). After a while at the new place, I bought another one, and this time tracked down some more games. Due to financial troubles I sold that one too after 6 months or so, but I kept the games at first, of which I had 12. Later on I had to sell the games too =/.

Then 2 years ago I bought my third one, and this time I ‘swore’ to keep it. I was itching to play Wario Land again, and had since last time learned of the Flashboy. I found one on ebay after losing the first bidding war, and it was really, really exciting to play the rest of the library. I was most exicted to play Insmouse no Yakata since I thought a FPS was a dream fit for VB. I found it to be more of a slow survival horror game, but after a short while I appreciated it for what it was, and enjoyed that.
I played VB a lot for a while, managed to beat Jack Bros, Red Alarm(with cheats..), Panic Bomber and Wario Land. With Wario Land I had a loong session playing the final boss, I was really lucky my batteries didn’t wear out! I got really really frustrated, to the point that I thought it was impossible, it was then I continued to play it just to demonstrate to myself the depth of it’s impossibleness.. then I got better at it, once I got some distance so to speak, and did finally beat him! Unfortunately I had used 6 continues, so no good ending for me 😛

I then started making reviews of VB games, because I thought they deserve to be viewed in a reasonable light, not just “it’s a Virtual Boy game, hurts your eyes and sux becuz red and black”. As you know.

My VB now has the line-issue, but I will get help from TheForce81 one of these days!

I hope for the future to yield many more nice homebrew games and for more unreleased games of the past to crawl out from under stones and greedy beta-cart-owners, because that would be awesome, if they’re half as good as Bound High!

GO VB GO!

Protoman85 wrote

Love that poem

Thanks Protoman85 on your kind words about my poem. New users be sure to check out the full latest version at http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=4365&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=10
Be sure to read the second version not just the first one you come to on the link the second one has some nice imagery that I think you might enjoy

Protoman85 wrote

I hope for the future to yield many more nice homebrew games and for more unreleased games of the past to crawl out from under stones and greedy beta-cart-owners, because that would be awesome, if they’re half as good as Bound High!

With great things like VBSD on the Horizon and great games like Game Hero, I think we are only seeing the beginning of Homebrew.
Thanks again

Oh by the way Protoman85
Love those reviews;)

The first time I heard of the Virtual Boy was when I saw the AVGN episode. Till then it somehow manged to slip of my radar. However, when I saw the AVGN episode I thought it is big piece of shit.

Some weeks later I saw on in the display window of a local retro game store. I was pretty surprised because I never saw one in real live before. I showed it to my wife and told her about the episode (we also watched it again later that day).

After that I pretty much forgot about the VB again. I though that there were not enough games anyway and that buying it would not be worth it.

However, my wife thought it is pretty cool console and bought it as a Christmas present for me. She actually convinced the dude at the retro game store to sell his VB. It wasn’t even supposed to be sold (you don’t see a VB to often in Germany). The overall condition of the VB was pretty good and it came with Mario Tennis (without the Box though).

When I started the VB for the very first time I was pretty surprised how good the 3D actually is. I bought Teleroboxer and Wario Land (and some other games) and actually liked most of them. I didn’t played through all of them though. The main reason for that was that I just didn’t liked crouching myself in front of it.

However, after some time my VB started gathering dust, so I decided to have a look into VB game development. I tried out some stuff using an emulator and was pretty surprised how easy it is as most of the secrets had already been solved by the guys around here.

After I was sure I would be able to produce something useful I ordered a FlashBoy from Richard and started programming. I started focusing on sound system as I though there was still room for improvement. It was really exciting to get from producing simple sounds to actually playing melodies that can be recognized.

After that I added a simple game on top of it and released it. I still fell like I could do better. However, mainly due to lack of time caused by this damn thesis I have been working on in my free time, my VB is gathering dust again.

Well, lets change that.

Ahh… Another talented programmer that believes that the glory of the VB Isn’t in the cartridges released, but in the power of the homebrew…That is truely refreshing.

Well, I came across the VB by accident.

I always was into the small Handhelds, later on I had a Gameboy when it came out. Sold all the stuff later on to buy an RC car. Wish i hadnt done it now, since all the games increased so much in value that it costs me a fortune to get back some of teh cool Game & Watches again…

So I started collecting Tabletops, which i never was into, because they weren´t common at my place. Buy slowly expanding my collection I ran into a collector who was selling of some parts. Including a nearly mint VB, incl some Games for it and got it for a fair price (though not cheap).

That´s how I came into it, and I am very very happy with it. Wish i had had one, when they were popular.

I first heard about the “VR32” in the pages of Nintendo Power — and being a huge Nintendo fan, I was definitely interested in purchasing one. I mean, what kid wouldn’t want his own virtual reality headset?

When Nintendo Power unveiled the first screen shots of VB games in one of their issues, I was a little disappointed and almost dismissed the idea of getting one. Then I got the issue of Nintendo Power that had VB on the cover and saw that the screen shots were much improved. That’s when I decided to take the chance and buy one.

I bought my VB from Software Etc. on launch day. I was apparently the only one interested in buying one because no one else was in the store and the clerk said no one had purchased one yet. I brought it home, put the 6 batteries that came with the system in the controller and started playing Mario’s Tennis.

I was disappointed at first because I was kind of expecting full VR immersion instead of “just” 3D. Over the coming weeks I learned to appreciate that the system was different than anything else I had and my disappointment quickly waned.

Over the coming months I purchased more VB games, some new like Wario Land and 3D Tetris, but most of them used. Blockbuster quickly got rid of their VB games and they were a haven for scoring great deals. I even got Jack Bros. from my local Blockbuster for around $10 with the box and manual in mint condition. I wonder if anyone ever even rented VB games because they were always in stock there.

For about 5 months I was the only one of my friends to own a VB until Blockbuster started getting rid of them. I was a little annoyed that I had spent $170 on a system that my friends were able to pick up for only $30 5 months later. And it REALLY annoyed me that they also got a free charger and cool briefcase with it.

About a year after VB came out it was apparent that the system was a failure. I had already purchased most of the games that were released in the U.S. except for Waterworld, Golf, and Nester’s Funky Bowling (I ended up getting those a few years later on eBay).

Since then I’ve always had a fascination with Virtual Boy. It’s strange because it’s the only Nintendo system that was a failure, it didn’t have an amazing library of games, and it gave my friends headaches. But there’s just something about it that I’ve always been drawn to… and probably always will be.