Virtual Boy rediscovered: VR emulator breathes new life into 3D gaming

The Virtual Boy is considered Nintendo's biggest failure. Numerous factors contributed to the failure of the 3D game console: the high price, misleading marketing, poor ergonomics, and, finally, the red-black display, which caused headaches and eye strain during prolonged use. In total, Nintendo sold less than one million units.

Thirty years later, the product has a chance for a reevaluation: Last week, Nintendo announced a comeback for the Virtual Boy as an accessory for Switch 1 and 2. The first games are set to be released next year via Nintendo Switch Online, including classics such as "Mario's Tennis," "Galactic Pinball," and "Teleroboxer."

If you own a Meta Quest and want to rediscover Virtual Boy games today, you can do so with the open-source emulator "VirtualBoyGo." We tried it out ourselves with a Meta Quest 3 and were pleasantly surprised by the experience and the quality of the Virtual Boy games.

When 3D and retro charm meet modern VR hardware

The Virtual Boy was a technically innovative device, but by today's standards it was not a true VR system, as it lacked features such as head tracking and spatially tracked controllers. Even the field of view was comparatively narrow. The VR component is limited to the stereoscopic 3D effect, which is shown to great effect on modern VR glasses. Visually, it's a great pleasure to experience the old 3D games on Quest 3: large-format, brightly lit and razor-sharp, they shine in the Virtual Boy's famous red and black colors.

The games use the 3D effect in different ways: titles such as "Virtual Boy Wario Land," "Mario Clash," and the shoot 'em up "Vertical Force" are classic side-scrollers in which Wario, Mario, and the spaceship switch back and forth between two depth levels. In "Mario's Tennis," you also see the character from the outside in classic style, while the playing field moves forward and backward with the character, emphasizing the spatial effect. One level of immersion higher are titles that rely on the first-person perspective: the robot boxing game "Teleroboxer" and the 3D shooter "Red Alarm," which offers an optional cockpit view. The latter game, reminiscent of titles such as "Descent" and "Star Fox," particularly impressed us with its minimalist wireframe graphics. It seems like an even more abstract, flashier precursor to the VR game "Rez Infinite."

Many of the titles are also impressive in terms of gameplay and are definitely worth rediscovering: "Virtual Boy Wario Land," for example, is considered one of the best Wario games. For this reason alone, Nintendo and retro fans have every reason to look forward to the comeback of the Virtual Boy.

The Virtual Boy deserves a second chance

It remains to be seen what the gaming experience will be like on the new Virtual Boy hardware: Nintendo is sticking with the impractical original design consisting of a stand and visor, with the difference that a Switch console is inserted into the accessory to provide the computing power and display. A cheaper cardboard version, which is also planned, apparently has to be held up to the face while playing.

VR glasses such as Quest 3 have the advantage of being more comfortable to use and offering higher image quality, as they are an integrated VR system with high-quality lenses. On the software side, "VirtualBoyGo" offers a wide range of settings: you can change the color tone, switch to 2D mode, customize the button assignment, and digitally adjust the IPD value, size, and distance of the virtual screen. However, the hurdles that need to be overcome for the VR emulator are likely to be too high for casual users: "VirtualBoyGo" must be installed on Meta Quest via sideloading, which requires the creation of a developer account and the connection of a computer to Meta Quest.

But who knows: maybe one day Nintendo will bring Virtual Boy games to Meta Quest or other VR headsets, or even take the plunge and release its own headset. We can dream, can't we? In any case, our conclusion from our own experiment is that it's time for a reassessment of the Virtual Boy.

(tobe)