Heh, I laugh at the people whom put down Virtual Boy.
Specs of Nintendo Handhelds:
Gameboy (1989) 8-bit Graphics - 160x144 Resolution - 4-Bit Mono Sound - 4.19mhz Processor Speed
Virtual Boy (1995) 32-bit Graphics - 384x224 Resolution - 16-Bit Stereo Sound - 20-28Mhz Processor Speed
Gameboy Color (1998) 16-Bit Graphics - 160x144 Resolution - 4-Bit Mono Sound - 4-8mhz Processor Speed
Gameboy Advance (2001) 32-Bit Graphics (Never took full use of Graphics card) - 240x160 Resolution - 4-Bit Mono Sound - 16.8mhz Processor Speed
Nintendo DS (2004) 32-Bit Graphics - 256x192 Resolution - 8-Bit Stereo Sound - 33.514mhz Processor Speed
Nintendo 3DS (2011) 32-Bit (high render) Graphics - 320x240 Resolution - 16-Bit Stereo Sound - 268mhz Processor Speed
The reason why Virtual Boy was red LED screen based was simply because in 1995 they hadn't designed a LCD screen capable of displaying 32-Bit nor did they have screens capable of keeping up with 20+ MHz of processor speed without ultra lagginess. So Nintendo went for LEDs which would perform without any lag but couldn't show the full color spectrum.
In fact, you can now purchase Flash Cartridges for the Virtual Boy, and there are tons of great Homebrews including the amazing "Mario Kart Virtual Cup."
Also Nintendo 3DS' 3-D effects are subpar compared to Virtual Boys, and they cause just as much eyestrain and headaches.
The thing that killed Virtual Boy was its price and Goggle mount design, sadly most of VB's sales took place when it went on deep discount and by that time Virtual Boy had been shelved.
Bit of a fanboy huh? :P
I've actually only played a virtual boy once, for like five minutes. I thought it was pretty cool, one of these days I'll have to get one.
I love the vb. i never get headaches from 3d (i'm so lucky)
It offers some unique games and a unique gaming experience and it's tremendous amounts of fun. But hey, people hate it. Yay for subjectivity.
I am on my way to purchasing a FlashBoy+ so I can unlock my VB's full potential.
If it had more than 1 color red I think it would have been great. Didn't know that thing you wrote about LED.
Red was the only affordable color, any other color would have raised the price more.
VB isn't really a handheld, it has it's own controller after all. It just has a built-in screen and can run on batteries.
However, it is brilliant I think, if you like retro systems. I have most Japanese VB hardware and software now, apart from 'the big four' as they fetch serious money and it's just not where I want to invest.
The Red and black has charm. I don't mind the redscale just like I don't mind the gameboy's greenscale if you want to call it that. The VB even feels somewhat widescreen and the 3D is indeed better than the 3DS's.
While I'm a VB fanboy now through having played one, the cause of failure wasn't just because it gave people headaches. Think about it. This thing was the basically the power of two gameboys, competing with the SNES and even 32-bit consoles. It was ludicrous.
Unfortunately, had it been full colour it could have been quite special. With only black and three shades of red it could never compete even if they sold it cheap. A shame it was pushed through R&D at Nintendo but at the same time, as a European I greatly appreciate it. We never saw it discounted here because it didn't even get that far.
The homebrew scene is quite good and it's worth picking it up just for Warioland I'd say. If you can get a Flashboy and play Bound High! even better, you won't look back!
Post Merge: July 10, 2012, 03:54:38 am
Quote from: The Uninvited Gremlin on July 09, 2012, 11:22:43 pm
Red was the only affordable color, any other color would have raised the price more.
Forgot to add that red was also chosen as it has the least motion blur, compared to blue or green, which were also more expensive as you say.
Well said, if it had been full color VB would have become king and Nintendo would be more advanced because Gunpei Yokoi pushed towards the future while Shigeru Miyamoto went budgety and just finally caught up with what Yokoi did 17 years ago.
Quote from: L___E___T on July 10, 2012, 03:46:33 am
VB isn't really a handheld, it has it's own controller after all. It just has a built-in screen and can run on batteries.
I have most Japanese VB hardware and software now, apart from 'the big four' as they fetch serious money and it's just not where I want to invest.
What are those games, sir? :-[
The Japan only games are Virtual Bowling, Space Squash, Space Invaders, SD Gundam Dimension War, Innsmouth no Yakata, Virtual Fishing, and Virtual Lab.
Well,'the big four' are Virtual Bowling, Space Invaders, SD Gundam and Virtual Lab.
Innsmouth no Yakata, Virtual Fishing and Space Squash can still be costly (in that order highest to lowest), but 'the big four' sell for thousands each CIB.
I got a brand new Innsmouth no Yakata and Virtual Fishing each for about $100. Space Squash new is about $75, but you can pick it up much cheaper used of course. Used Innsmouth no Yakata will still be expensive though, as will Virtual Fishing, I just managed to snag a deal from a UK based importer. Check out videogameimports.com and compare their prices to the old eBay nonsense.
They're selling new games for less than some cart only prices I've seen from some madmen on ice. Top guys.
A Flashboy+ will cost you around $150, but is well worth it and a fun tool. I've used it more than my Powerpak, because there are some fun homebrews around and to check out 'the big four' which although not good games, is pretty much the only way I'd play them otherwise.
Quote from: The Uninvited Gremlin on July 10, 2012, 08:08:24 am
Well said, if it had been full color VB would have become king and Nintendo would be more advanced because Gunpei Yokoi pushed towards the future while Shigeru Miyamoto went budgety and just finally caught up with what Yokoi did 17 years ago.
Miyamoto was involved with hardware back then?
Quote from: petik1 on July 10, 2012, 06:00:40 pm
Quote from: The Uninvited Gremlin on July 10, 2012, 08:08:24 am
Well said, if it had been full color VB would have become king and Nintendo would be more advanced because Gunpei Yokoi pushed towards the future while Shigeru Miyamoto went budgety and just finally caught up with what Yokoi did 17 years ago.
Miyamoto was involved with hardware back then?
Yes as Gunpei Yokoi's apprentice; then when Yokoi got fired then died Miyamoto took over.
I don't hate the VB, I just feel that general eBay prices are way too high for a console with a limited games library, awkward design and high failure rate. The same money could land you any number of consoles which will provide many more hours of gaming enjoyment.
YHJ prices are okay, you can generally nab a boxed unit in good condition for $60-$80, but eBay seems to triple that price and I'm not paying $200 plus shipping for a console that will seldom get used after the novelty factor has worn off.
I've seen several NIB recently. Suppose those units they found in storage in the Middle East made their way to Japan.
Yeah, I've seen quite a few NIB VB's over the years, as with many systems people somehow manage to find new dead stock. Not really interested in one myself though as what's the point of spending a fortune buying a new unit when I'm only going to rip it open it like a little kid!
I'm trying to work out a deal for a boxed Japanese unit at the moment, just waiting for the right opportunity. If anyone here has one they want to sell for a non eBay price let me know.
To be honest, I'd recommend playing it on emulator if you can't get one for a good price. Sure, it'll be 2D but the 3D is just a sweetener, think of them as gameboy games.
If you do have enough to get one, it's worth it though. 3DS doesn't compare in my opinion.
@Fred, I still need to get a NIB one, just waiting for the right price to come along...
Quote from: Frank_fjs on July 10, 2012, 08:13:19 pm
I don't hate the VB, I just feel that general eBay prices are way too high for a console with a limited games library, awkward design and high failure rate. The same money could land you any number of consoles which will provide many more hours of gaming enjoyment.
YHJ prices are okay, you can generally nab a boxed unit in good condition for $60-$80, but eBay seems to triple that price and I'm not paying $200 plus shipping for a console that will seldom get used after the novelty factor has worn off.
I just got added to the Flashboy+ order list, I really want one as there are like 15 unreleased nearly finished games on the internet and like 30 homebrews. (People are still developing games every so often for it, so I would buy one if I were you.)
Some people buy a loose VB and a Flashboy+ then never buy anything else for the unit and if it fails you can buy just the headpiece without anything else for only $30. So its not a worry; and also for less most people can fix VB now and days with simple soldering and then it will never break again.
@ L_E_T, yes I totally agree VB has just as much graphical capabilities as 3DS and has better 3-D effects; it just lacks the full color spectrum. Also Emulators aren't particularly well built (because not many people are interested in VB) and usually downgrade the graphics of the games substantially... so you are getting like 1/3 the feel of a VB through emulation.
I know a swedish online store that sell a NIB japanese Virtual Boy for the low low price of 995 US Dollars. That's not ludicrously overpriced, is it?
Thats a kick to the nuts, way to overpriced. I mean $275-$350 is a good new boxed price for a japanese VB but $995; that is completely out of the way. Awful.
I didn't answer because I thought one was joking. I hope one was ;)
Quote from: L___E___T on July 17, 2012, 03:11:55 pm
I didn't answer because I thought one was joking. I hope one was ;)
Who is one?
One is one. One could be talking about one's self, one's friend, or simply 'the one'.
Jokes aside, it just means 'you, or me, or someone' basically.
Nice to see you over on PlanetVB!
I see, and thank you?
The only VB game I've played extensively is Mario's Tennis, so maybe I don't have a good overall idea of what the VB can do. That being said, though, I think the VB and 3DS serve up two different kids of 3D effects.
The VB, to me, always had more of a hologram effect, where you are looking out into this black empty world with red sprites floating around in a 3D space. The 3DS, on the other hand, gives a much bigger and more detailed 3D world, but it is as though you are looking at it through a porthole.
Dunno if that makes sense :-[
I think that makes great sense. Certainly in the case of games like Resident Evil.
However, I think the VBG does actually appear a bigger screen. If you play Bound High that is also a scalable world/map, I think playing something like SM 3DL on 3DS appears smaller, even though the levels are essentially bigger. I'm strongly consierding picking up a 3DS XL, very much depending on price.
Yes VB tricks you mind into believing you are staring at a larger screen but its early the same size as 3DS' screen.
UglyJoe, Mario Tennis doesn't demonstrate any of VB's potential; Try Teleroboxer, Wario Land, Bound High, Waterworld, Virtual Fishing they should that. Waterworld shows the series can have full rotated dimensions.
VB is immersion 3D while 3DS is like looking at one of those holographic cards.
I still gotta check out WaterWorld on the old Flashboy. I hadn't bothered because I thought it was lamer than that replacement eye in the movie ;)
You forgot to list the number of supported colours
3+alpha. 4 for background layers (one is black anyway).
Quote from: crade on July 26, 2012, 02:39:34 pm
You forgot to list the number of supported colours
I have formed the answer for Virtual Boy's complete color possibilities.
(http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u68/Evil_Vlad/VirtualBoyColorSpectrum.png)
The system can also dim and brighten the LEDs to many other shades but that's the true color spectrum, before the LED tricks. So its possible to maybe color 28 colors??
I don't know where you got this, but before tricks the colour spectrum is literally 4 colours. You can combine using the left and right eye channels, but it's not as much of a range as it might look. What you have above are dithers using those 4 colours...
Yes and dithers do cause eye color trickery, with the overlaying you can form a much larger range of color also.
But yea, if your sprites are 24x32 or larger you can form some amazingly colored sprites with dithers and overlaying.
I've still to make a mockup using this technique, but I think it'd be great to find a way to use it efficiently. I'm still surprised they only made 4 shades available without having to resort to tricks liek this.
I was kind of hoping that Nintendo would re-release VB games for the Virtual Console to 3DS with the 3D features intact but it might not have enough buttons for all games.
Protoman is certainly not joking about the overpriced Virtual Boy. I think I know what store he is referring to. They are infamous for selling their stuff for like 400% the price they buy them for. I don't understand how they stay alive.
I do not want these games re-released as that would kill the already low interest in VB like what happened to Game & Watch collecting when the Game & Watch Gallery carts came out.