Hi,

nice Community. I am interested to buy a virtual boy and i have a question.

Is the jp version worth less than the US version of the virtual boy?

I’ve seen that the jp version is much cheaper than the US version.

I have to say that I am German. I think in the united states ut is easier to buy an virtual boy.

Is there a difference for collectors. I know that the us version includes mario tennis, but i think its cheaper to buy an jp VB and the game (both in original box) than these big us Box which the game includes.

Thanks for the reply.

the JP version often goes for more money on US ebay. you can sometimes snag the US version, with a known eye glitch issue, for around $40 (complete, without the box). every VB will eventually suffer from the glitch issue, as the glue for the display ribbon cable will eventually come unstuck. if you feel comfortable doing a repair on it, then get one that is listed as having the issues with the screen (which are most always this glitch), or buy one that says its working perfectly and spend a bit more. you will probably be able to game with a good one for years before it needs repair.

here is more information on the glitch:
http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=3314&forum=1
http://www.projectvb.com/displayfix.html

with that said, the JP version is pretty much the same as the US, unless you get one of the really rare units in the mosaic box, you are just buying the same hardware either way. i do believe that the voltage on the plug is different, so you’ll need a JP tap to power the JP unit, unless you game with batteries all the time.

i’m not sure if there are any other significant differences. i’ll let the VB collectors comment. =)

the VB is really fun, i hope you end up buying one.

If Japanese Virtual Boy systems that are complete in box sell for less in auctions (or in general) than the U.S. systems, I think it is likely because most prospective buyers can speak English but cannot speak Japanese, and they want to be able to read all of the text on their box and in their instruction manual that comes with the system, so they are willing to pay more to get a CIB U.S. system than a Japanese one. In addition, I think a lot of newcomers to the Virtual Boy don’t do their research first and, thus, don’t realize that the U.S. system and the Japanese system are the exact same system, just in different packaging, so again, English-speaking people might be willing to pay more to ensure they get a U.S. system that will work with U.S. games, even though all games work equally on all Virtual Boy systems.

I was under the impression that if you live in the U.S., you can use the U.S. AC Adapter Set on either the U.S. system or the Japanese system and it has the exact same effect. If you don’t live in the U.S., however, then you should get the Japanese Adapter tap and then also get the appropriate AC Adapter that works in the wall outlets of your country.

thank you for your reply. I am living in germany (europe) and VB are very rare on ebay in europe. So i want to buy one from japan or united states.

if the games are from japan is there a possibility to change the language in the game from japan to english? ok, its not important fpr games like wario land. But a menue in japan language could be hard to translate. it seems like an trial and error method.

I’m pretty sure that none of the Japanese Virtual Boy games have an option to change the language in the game from Japanese to English. Thankfully, many Japanese games don’t have much Japanese text in them anyway and actually have mostly English text in them. Out of all the Japanese games, I’ve only played the Japan-only games (the games that have no English counterparts), except for Virtual Fishing, which I know has only Japanese text in the game. If you get V-Tetris for your Virtual Boy, you will see that all of the text in this Japan-only game is in English. This is also mostly true for Insmouse No Yakata. Only the title on the title screen and the credits are in Japanese. All of the rest of the text in the game is in English. Space Squash has a lot of Japanese text in the game, but you can still figure out how to make your way through the menus okay and play the game even not knowing Japanese, because most of the Japanese text is just story that isn’t necessary for the gameplay. Of course, if you ever decide to get a FlashBoy Plus, you can play the English version of Space Squash by applying the English translation patch that my brother and I made to the ROM. We also made an English translation patch for SD Gundam Dimension War, so you can play that game in English on a FlashBoy Plus, too. Both of these patches appear on this site under the Downloads tab for each of the games. It’s possible that my brother and I will make a translation patch for Virtual Fishing in the future, but it might not be for a while. I will at least try to translate the box and instruction booklet sometime this calendar year.

Benjamin Stevens wrote:
Of course, if you ever decide to get a FlashBoy Plus, you can play the English version of Space Squash by applying the English translation patch that my brother and I made to the ROM. We also made an English translation patch for SD Gundam Dimension War, so you can play that game in English on a FlashBoy Plus, too.

Does it *need* to be a FlashBoy Plus for SD Gundam and Space Squash? Or is a regular FlashBoy okay for those games? Or is there a saving feature I would be missing…? I have a non-Plus, but wouldn’t be opposed to ordering a Plus if that’s what it takes. I love all things Gundam a bit too much at times…

/hijack, heh.

jrronimo wrote:

Does it *need* to be a FlashBoy Plus for SD Gundam and Space Squash? Or is a regular FlashBoy okay for those games? Or is there a saving feature I would be missing…? I have a non-Plus, but wouldn’t be opposed to ordering a Plus if that’s what it takes. I love all things Gundam a bit too much at times…

You can play both games just fine on a FlashBoy, but the FlashBoy Plus does have a save feature, which you may need for SD Gundam since it does give you the option to save your game, whereas Space Squash has no save option. I can beat SD Gundam in 3 to 4 hours, though, so you can play it in one long evening without having to save and quit on your regular FlashBoy. The main reason why I mentioned the FlashBoy Plus is because that is the only kind of FlashBoy that Richard makes these days, so your original FlashBoy is quite the collector’s item. 🙂

Benjamin Stevens wrote:

jrronimo wrote:

Does it *need* to be a FlashBoy Plus for SD Gundam and Space Squash? Or is a regular FlashBoy okay for those games? Or is there a saving feature I would be missing…? I have a non-Plus, but wouldn’t be opposed to ordering a Plus if that’s what it takes. I love all things Gundam a bit too much at times…

You can play both games just fine on a FlashBoy, but the FlashBoy Plus does have a save feature, which you may need for SD Gundam since it does give you the option to save your game, whereas Space Squash has no save option. I can beat SD Gundam in 3 to 4 hours, though, so you can play it in one long evening without having to save and quit on your regular FlashBoy. The main reason why I mentioned the FlashBoy Plus is because that is the only kind of FlashBoy that Richard makes these days, so your original FlashBoy is quite the collector’s item. 🙂

Haha, yeah. I got in at the very end of the original Flashboy run with box and everything, so I got pretty lucky. I recently discovered that I have FOUR copies of Mario Tennis at home, so I think it might be time to upgrade to a FB+. Plus I can donate a couple of carts to the cause for anyone else that might need them or for homebrew releases or whatever.

Thanks for the translation patch in retrospect! 🙂

jrronimo wrote:

Thanks for the translation patch in retrospect! 🙂

You’re welcome. 🙂