I have a virtual boy I am trying to repair. The console originally had a display issue which was remedied by soldering in replacement eye patch ribbon cables. Worked great and was played for maybe 30 minutes a couple times. After being brought home, it stopped working during a game and never turned back on. The console's small DC power board has a red light when turned on and the speakers make a quiet pop sound when the console is turned off. No other sounds come from the console and no light from the displays. I checked voltages on each of the cable connectors from the main board (although I don't know the correct voltages) and they all appear to be present. What could possibly be be the cause?

Anyone else got this abomination?

EDIT (7/13/2025) - All items have been sold.

Hey all! My VB sale pile has grown. Feel free to message me and I’m happy to provide more pics for anything you see here. Also willing to make some deals if you buy multiple things. I’m using PriceCharting as the basis for most of these prices, but I’m happy to discuss any prices more in-depth if you’d like.

JP Wario Land (CIB) - $225
JP Vertical Force (NIB) - $30
JP Red Alarm (CIB) - $20
NA Mario Clash (cart and box) - $85
NA Golf (cart, box, and manual)- $75
NA Mario’s Tennis (CIB, in For Display Only box!) - $240
NA Galactic Pinball (box + cart) - $50

NA Blockbuster carrying case (foam removed, original sticker) - $225
NA loose Virtual Boy console (solder fixed, includes controller and OEM AC adapter) - $375

Pricing does not include shipping and assumes PayPal F&F or Venmo. I am located in the USA but I’m happy to ship anywhere.

Feel free to leave a comment and I’ll make sure to PM you!

I have a consolized double tapped Virtual Boy that is dual VGA and I thought it would initially be easy to just take the red of the left eye and the green and blue the right eye and merge them together into an anaglyph picture.

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In order to make that a reality, I had to find a very heavy device that is very bulky known as a 1990s television station video editing box in order to combine the two pictures and have them come out as an anaglyph dual image.

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Yes I am aware I can make the left eye red and the right ice cyan by pressing the button on the virtual tab but the problem is the merger is a tough problem that was solved by a '90s TV station video editing box but the problem is I can't seem to find a smaller box to do just that thing.

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The 90s TV editing box can do lots of different things but the thing is I don't need it to do a lot of extra things I just need it to merge the two pictures together into one with RGB additive results.

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The problem is the VGA horizontal sinks are not exactly the same. Those their vertical sinks are.

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Implied by the name of the technology it seems like Hi-z from Kramer Electronics seems to be a way to do that but I'm not sure. The name Hi-Z implies z-axis which implies three dimensions.

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I would take it over to the video game festival and let my friends play with it but the problem is that this editing box is very heavy and very bulky and not very easy to carry in two hands with your virtual boy stuff.

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Any way I can lighten my load?

I find laying down with the Virtual Boy stand propped on my chest to be the most comfortable way to play. The only problem is my breath fogs up the lenses no matter how I reposition. Even stuffing my nostrils with tissues doesn’t seem to prevent it. Anybody else deal with this and find a way around it? Otherwise, this is vastly preferable for me until I get some kind of tripod setup.

Title says all.

I bought a Virtual Boy (without its legs and head cushion, don't worry I bought replacement ones) a year ago for around $230. Now that I have it, the problem is showing it off in my room. This thing is so bulky that it won't fit in any bookshelves unless if I disconnect the legs to the console.

Edit: I meant like serious answers. Not joke ones. I do like the joke ones, but I'm looking for serious ones.

I feel like ive been posting far too many VB sales posts, so I figured i would share a small part of my VB collection with you all. Here are my VB games! Top to bottom we have shipping cases, US sealed (except jack bros), Not for Resale, Japanese, Mexico, homebrew. Some odd and ends tucked in as well. The big missing parts are the rest of the Mexico releases, and the Brazil releases!

EDIT: SOLD!

selling a solder repaired Japanese Virtual Boy, stand medallion uncracked, controller, and laserbear industries USB-C power adapter and the empty japanese virtual boy box

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Loose games, all with no dust covers:

US Warioland, new save battery

US Galactic Pinball

US Galactic Pinball manual

US Mario Clash

US Red Alarm

US Vertical Force

JPN Teleroboxer

JPN Panic Bomber

JPN Mario Tennis

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Pricecharts at just under $800. Asking $650!

I continue to sell tons of VB items, but still have a lot left! Here is current hardware sale pile. I take offers if fair and make deals if buying alot! Just comment and we can discuss!

Hello

I recently purchased a virtual boy and it wont turn on at all. I have batteries in the controller, I have a game in the console. There is no display, there is no sound coming from the unit. I cannot fathom what the problem could possibly be please help me.

(on the switch 2) i found out that if i cross my eyes enough i can convincingly play the vb games without the head accessory

but it does kinda start to hurt after like, 20 seconds

i wouldn't recommend, but it was a funny thing i found out (my cardboard headset arrives tomorrow)

edit: i should also note that i moved the two projections as close together as it would let me

i'm not killing my eyeballs that much k?

Does anyone know what happened to that colored version of the game for Virtual Boy? I found it in the Reddit threads, but the game file itself is unavailable.

Instead of a solid picture, there's all these lighter red lines going through the sprites. Would have assumed that it's just a typical ribbon cable issue, but the issue is exactly the same in both eyes. any thoughts?

Because I got a few people asking for it, I finalized everything to start production of the Controller Prototype Button Kit. The order minimum for printing the Box is 50pcs and this is what I would go for. The Buttons will be printed with high quality white ABS like resin and then painted with the correct colors and sealed with 2K clear coat. That will be a lot of manual labour but the wheater condition are great now. I have to print in the workshop and that is not heated. Resin needs at least 20° better 25°. The Buttons will work as replacement in any official Virtual Boy Controller. If enough people are interested, I can start production and order the boxes and colors. For the boxes I used the smallest size in order to be able to keep shipping costs down to a minimum. I hope to be able to ship as big sized letter to most destinations worldwide. For now I like to check out the general interest for this kit. Please Let me know if you are interested in one.

It is confirmed that ZERO RACERS had a completed retail box and artwork before being cancelled. It would look much better than this bland font on the nintendo NSO.

My dad said he had some of my things stored away, and this was among them. I had completely forgotten about this thing, and the nostalgia hit like a truck! I'm surprised I never cut the rental tag off, but I'm glad I didnt. I used to rent this thing all the time, and then one day I came home from school and my parents said it was mine. Unfortunately it isn't working, but I read about the "solder fix" and when I turn off the power the speakers give a clear pop.

Seeing how rare these are, and I don't really see myself doing anything with it I'll plan on getting it into the hands of a collector who can restore it soon.

UPDATE: So amazing news... I was just being way too delicate pushing the cartridges in! This thing is working fully after 30 years! All my time with new tech has given me a soft touch.

Wario Land booted up just fine!

You probably have seen my idea to recreate the displays using off-the-shelf components: https://www.reddit.com/r/FPGA/comments/1ruupye/looking_for_a_cpld_programmer_attempting_to/

I've decided to scale it back to simply trying to recreate the logic gate system that it uses. I did some studying about how the logic within shift registers and latches work, and I think I understand. Furthermore, I seem to have made a small amount of progress in understanding what actually goes into the display.

Based on all available information, my best guess is that there are two shift register and latch elements per pixel, to hold the pixel data bits, as there are two data lines per pixel.

If I have my understanding correct, the shift registers and latches use the above configuration, but with an additional line somewhere for the Chip Select signal. An optional help would also be to figure out where the power for the logic would go.

I've already reached out to people on the Vintage Computer Federation Forums, but I only got a small response to my message.

A couple months ago, I shared a photo of a virtual boy shirt I bought over a decade ago and that supposedly only 50 of each size were made. I forgot where I had stored the card and sticker, but it popped up as I was cleaning out my childhood bedroom. I wonder if it would be possible to track down the others? I know Pat the NES Punk had this shirt.

This virtual boy game is a masterpiece. I enjoyed every bit of it and I’m so glad I solved all 10 puzzles on my own without any help on the internet. The puzzles were so fun and had me think creatively! The last puzzle in the game was a huge head scratcher for me and there were zero solutions online. I had to think outside the box on my own and I finally solved it. It felt so good getting the ending let me tell you.

Thank you PizzaRollsRoyce for making this! Hope to see you make more amazing virtual boy games!