3DS Can Now Play Virtual Boy Games

[@satanizlas]

the 3ds grows even stronger

[@That_Lady_Charlie]

the 3DS is dead long live the 3DS 🙏🏽

[@ChazStarkey-c3z]

Certainly a much better handheld than the Switch

[@_vakas]

​@@That_Lady_Charlie ....is that a Star Wars reference?

[@breakdown2218]

...with Citra

[@johnrickard8512]

​@@That_Lady_Charliethe 3DS can be considered a rogue platform at this point. It is powerful enough to run some really good games and it uses almost no power to do it. It also has true 3D, which is an uncommon feature

[@chaoticcranium]

Gunpei Yokoi has been vindicated nearly 30 years later, by Nintendo fan modders of all people. RIP

[@kygrus]

anyone coming to the replies to find out who that is should just use wikipedia

[@JGLCSW]

I'll save a few people that time...the father of Game Boy, Virtual Boy, Wonder Swan, Game and Watch, and the cross pad.

[@leonro]

​@@JGLCSWThen who was the mother?

[@GamingBren]

@@leonro hol' up

[@MxMaker]

Bro, Gunpei was vindicated before that, the japan culture didnt make him justice, the dude did most of groundbraking aditions to gamming in the early nintendo gamer development years. So sad that suffer similar justice like the cat of city connection.

[@armadeus8711]

Just did my first playthrough of Jack Bros through this and it's absolutely brilliant, genuinely feels like a native port through this and the 3D effect working so well is astonishing

[@thenamelessavenger]

Top of my list of games to play!

[@QBnoYouko]

3:30 This is the calmest I have ever heard a person say "OPEN UP, FBI!"

[@mikebrushing1851]

very good hahahaha

[@chocolatethunderfriends7022]

😂😂😂😂

[@OxbowisaMstie]

Well that's MI5 for you.

[@et9023t]

lol

[@Bloops]

Was lovely putting my hand model expertise to the cause, really glad this neat niche library is getting more accessible!!

[@michaelstevenson5044]

Thank you so much for the port

[@requiem165]

[@KonaKonaKaabisteru]

Bless you and others for making this happen!

[@brandonwilliams6119]

Nintendo missed a Golden Opportunity to do this this themselves especially on something like the 3DS but maybe they felt it wasn’t worth it. People are actually going to discover how goated Wario Land on Virtual Boy was.

[@clydefrosch]

well, it took people forever to make this happen, so it was probably not worth the hassle for games no one really wanted

[@Carlitros69]

Is a pride japanese thing. For them bring these games back is also bring back that epic failure moment no matter if they make some money. In the memory of the company is like they never existed.

[@rainlion10]

@@clydefroschWasn't the game already possible to be played on emulators?

[@LordRayken]

There is only truly like one good game for VB. It's just not worth acknowledging outside that game

[@MKnox-ux9sg]

It was probably because of the 2Ds being in development. A Link Between Worlds had 3D puzzles scrapped because of that too.

[@ruboticks]

I'm colorblind, and I struggle seeing reds as they tend to look very dark and desaturated. When I saw the virtual boy and people complained about being harsh on the eyes, for me it was borderline unusable. So when I saw that you can change the color of the display, it wasn't only cool, but I suddenly felt like the games were finally playable to me. That's an awesome feature that many will think is just neat, but for me and people like me it truly is a game changing accessibility feature! And I think that's really cool

[@Scoopsdepoop]

Amazing how such a small adjustment makes such a large difference

[@GENERIC_CHANNEL_HANDLE]

*_This_* is why we need accessibility options in games.

[@WRILLI4M]

@@GENERIC_CHANNEL_HANDLE exactly. Accessibility makes the games reach more and more people. And the more people can play video games, the better. In fact, I've seen color accessibility options in some recent games, but quite few, which is a shame. This should be a requirement for game launch nowadays.

[@omgman5745]

​@@GENERIC_CHANNEL_HANDLEAnd actually good one as a autistic person I don't like how every option of autistic people is just make the game easier.

[@Dorlo91-mg2hw]

You can’t get new eyes that work?

[@Rubberman202]

Finally, the ability to play Virtual Boy Wario Land on the 3DS! Something that Nintendo should have greenlit ASAP but for some reason didn't!

[@yggdrasilsaltar]

that would require them to actually care about the virtual boy

[@SumeaBizarro]

Wario land dx, colorized warioland vb would been great 5-10€ virtual console or 3d classics title

[@admiralAlfonso9001]

@@yggdrasilsaltarI remember they had Virtual Boy badges in the badge arcade

[@linkthehero8431]

​@@admiralAlfonso9001Nintendo loves to troll us it seems. They seem to be doing everything they can to avoid giving us Mother 3 even though we've been begging them for 10 to 15 years to get it.

[@admiralAlfonso9001]

@@linkthehero8431 The people who want it have gotten it from fan translations, it’s kind of just become people wanting the satisfaction of making Nintendo do it. If you really want to play an official version, at this rate it would be faster to learn Japanese.

[@einsteinx2]

This is amazing! I’ve had a 3DS for like 10 years and I always wanted a VB emulator because it seemed perfect for it. Every couple years I would randomly search if one finally came out but it never did, then I’m randomly scrolling my KZbin feed and see this video! Just installed it and tried out Wario and wow it looks amazing! So crisp the pixels seem like they’re not scaled (maybe resolutions really are that close or the scaling is really good) and the 3d effect is really great, like you said the video doesn’t do it justice. Thanks for posting about this! Also the video is really well done!

[@kaleklol]

Just looked up resolutions of each and they are surprisingly similar. 400x240 per eye on 3DS and 384x224 on VB. I bet it isn't scaled.

[@Alorso_]

Virtual Boy is finally liberated, been wanting to try these games for years and now finally there's a good way to play them, god bless the modding community

[@chukozkorrea]

All you had yo do was dl the emulator its been available for years

[@nsptyty9617]

@@chukozkorrea Right I also beat Wario using emulator (using 2d emulator screen it was a bit confusing at times without the 3d effect) but now on Nintendo 3ds games can finally be played the way they were supposed to, in 3d.

[@SetsuneW]

I heard so many people claim the 3DS "couldn't" handle VB emulation, seeing it even work on the original at full speed is a delight. Nintendo really did have a perfect opportunity to make this happen, but just did the cost analysis and decided it wasn't worth it. I'm sure the rights for a few of the games are in legal hell too.

[@cheesewombatTV]

I really hope this leads to some kind of homebrew second life for the VB now that it's so accessible on a modded 3DS. When you take all the inconvenient hardware out of the equation these games look wonderful on a modern screen, it almost feels like the 3DS was built for these.

[@LS-td4yf]

Virtual boy homebrew already exists actually

[@rvbremastered7527]

@@LS-td4yfthat’s why they said second life

[@WRILLI4M]

The VB was promising, but was WAY ahead of its time. Technology was unable to handle it for years - roughly 15 years, no less.

[@MajokkoMoonie]

1:01 Red Viper is a solo revival/continuation unaffiliated with the original contributors to r3Ddragon tho

[@Smumbo]

This is one of the most exciting developments in the 3DS homebrew scene, and there have been a lot! Props to mrdanielps and skyfloogle for making this happen.

[@Pownchao]

Changing the color is really neat!

[@kazinwho]

V-Tetris has a mode where you use the shoulder buttons to rotate the playing field, so you can adjust where the blocks fall into what amounts to a super-wide Tetris arena. It's not just standard Tetris! I hope you see this comment and boot it back up!

[@GVG]

Comment seen! Going to play more tonight

[@kazinwho]

@@GVG Hooray! Hope you enjoy it!

[@justinmillard8196]

@@GVGIs Bound High on your list too, Jon?

[@brian_realgames7314]

I've been waiting for this!!!

[@vitorkk328]

I've been waiting SO LONG for this! And I have an actual Virtual Boy

[@seseiSeki]

Ooh, finally. Many years ago, I followed a VB emulator project, that promised a 3DS port, but I lost sight of it. This is great news. Now I can finally play Innsmouth Mansion in 3D! Check that game out, it's great. Only released in Japan as Innsmouth no Yakata, but there's not much Japanese text, so you can easily play it as is. But you don't have to, since there's also an English patch! The game has some randomness to it (not unlike roguelikes, but not quite there. No perma death, for example) and is meant to be played multiple times. You might need to play it for a bit and die a few times before you can finish it :D

[@justinmillard8196]

adding to the list alongside Bound High.

[@jessem2301]

i bought it back in 2019. agreed, it is very fun

[@chukozkorrea]

Wii has one its been available for years

[@justinmillard8196]

@@chukozkorrea being able to use the 3D/depth effect is a big bonus with this one. Makes more of the games worth playing.

[@Zippy_Zolton]

there absolutely needs to be more 3DS homebrew apps with 3D support, hearing that this had 3D support immediately made me pull out my 3DS and start downloading games

[@JonLeung1]

Apparently, today is the birthday of the 3DS, as it came out this day in Japan in 2011. It's already tomorrow there now, but if this emulator came out yesterday, then it's still a birthday treat!

[@nelson-haha89]

Dude. This was my dream back in the day.

[@chrislaustin]

Just downloaded Red Viper this morning, and haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I plan to later on today. Yeah, this was long over due, as I guess the developer community looked at this as a low priority as well, as this should have happened years ago. Not complaining, just pointing out so many other emulators are updated on the regular, and often times when a main person stops, they hand it off to someone else. It was never an issue if the 3DS could handle it, as we had the early proof of concept, but we needed someone taking the time to do it right. Thanks to all those involved from the first version, to the latest one, as this was a "wish list" item I'm sure most fans have had since the VB was discontinued. Once again the community does what NintenDON'T.

[@cdigames]

The bit you missed about V-Tetris is C-Mode where you are playing on a vertical cylinder that you can rotate with the L and R buttons

[@littlemrh]

The 3ds can emulate so many things, including certain n64 and ps1 games. This just adds a little more to the massive library

[@theinfinity7s]

Teleroboxer is a lot of fun too. Love the sound when your character gets KOed. Kind of wish this IP would have gotten more love. The virtual boy is really neat. Honestly, that controller maybe my favorite controller

[@strikelight]

I loved Teleroboxer when I had my VBoy as a kid. It was the best!

[@JoshArtisto]

Worth it for Jack Brothers alone.

[@ogre706]

Agree 💯 👍 And as a bonus it's always nice to be able to give eBay sellers the finger. Save hundreds of dollars, just play this amazing title on 3DS!

[@SwirlyJoe]

This is so helpful! I was super disappointed with red dragon , and I had no idea this much better thing existed!

[@johnjekyllson28]

Can’t believe it finally happened. I’ll have to check this out for myself. Thanks to the clever person who made this possible!

[@NathanielBandy]

Finally, a reason to play the 3DS

[@Straximus]

🤨

[@samothjtm]

With the current release of March there is now even depth slider support

[@KurisuDE]

Update available, now with working 3D slider!

[@hellohaveagoodday]

That's so cool! I've been wanting to play TeleroBoxer for ages, it looks SO good, the pixel art is so beautiful.

[@nightwalkerj]

Its worth it. The final boss is unforgettable.

[@koolaid33]

So crazy I was just thinking about how the Virtual Boy needs to be revisited for the 3DS, and then suddenly a near perfect VB emulator appears - for the 3DS! That's awesome!

[@Keanine]

If anyone doesn't know, there's also an emulator for the Oculus Quest that you can sideload with full 3D!

[@ElianenYT]

Fun fact: the virtual boy has more games than the ps5

[@Yokokazuo]

I too always wanted Virtual Boy VC so it was a shame it never arrived officially. But maybe it’s finally time for me to try out something that is surprisingly easy to do with my 3DS

[@TheSOSDude]

Not that long ago I was trying to use R3Dragon to play 3DS games, and unless I played without sound, it wasn't particularly usable. Now THIS. THIS ROCKS.

[@fiffy6572]

happy to see the 3ds mod scenery growing bigger and bigger still waiting for custom shells and hinges tho

[@marsbitrona5920]

Nothing in this world makes me happier than watching somebody discover the excellence of the Virtual Boy library. Hopefully being able to play the games on 3DS will allow a whole new audience to enjoy this treasure trove of Nintendo classics in their intended 3D.

[@JustJulyo]

Jon singlehandedly carrying this channel rn

[@OriginalName90]

!!! I'd given up hope on this, that's incredible! I actually bought my 3DS almost explicitly for Virtual Boy emulation (which wasn't quite there at the time) and the Sega 3D Archives.

[@rpelletier2771]

This works flawlessly on the 3DS!

[@VitaliLeHusky]

OMG I've been waiting for this for years !! Thank you so much for posting this video otherwise I would have missed that news

[@bland9876]

This guy sounds so much like "Alex from Nintendo Life" that it's boggling my mind.

[@diabolicalpod]

You might be thinking of Jon from Nintendo Life

[@Lightspeeds]

Alex and Jon are actually mitosis clones.

[@bland9876]

@@diabolicalpod lol are Alex and John the same person?

[@bland9876]

@@Lightspeeds ah that explains it.

[@3DJapan]

I worked my first job, at a game store, when this came out. They set one up in the store for the employees to try and we all hated it. Playing on a 3DS would fix many of the problems though.

[@cjt217]

This was rad as flip and I cannot wait until the American Jon Cartwright has his version on ScottsStash in 2-7 months tbh

[@sir_christmas_leopold_duckson]

Welp, I see my phone was listening to me again. I just found part of my old Virtual Boy yesterday when I was going through some boxes and now this video is being recommended to me lol.

[@PhantomHavok]

John: *Introduces himself enthusiastically* KZbin audience: *Cheers and applause*

[@TheShoe1990]

Thanks to Jon, I've turned my 3DS into both a GBA and a Virtual Boy in the past week! Big thanks to the 3DS modding community & Jon ❤️🙏

[@JGLCSW]

I was one of the few people I knew who owned this system back in the early 90s. I just installed this emulator on my 3DS and I have to say, I am beyond impressed.

[@mikeyboombox]

This news popped up on my google feed the other day and I got super excited, thank you for covering this. I was actually able to purchase a VB a few years ago for a reasonable amount of money with only one eye working(planning on fixing it in the future). Your right on, the game library may be small but there are definitely quality titles that only ever released for the system. I’m still happy to own one to have physical games and a native experience but I’m definitely loading this on my new 3DS for the expensive games and more comfortable experience

[@JimmyLazers]

Jon and the GVG staff, thank you for this. I've often wondered about the VB but I'm not after a used console. I had a New 3DS XL languishing in my collection which I have now homebrew enabled and installed Red Viper. It's fantastic! I love Wario Land games and it's a treat to catch up on this hidden treasure.

[@TheNameIsSR]

I was literally looking for something like this last week, timing couldn't be more perfect

[@leftyfourguns]

I was lucky (yes I said LUCKY) to have a Virtua Boy when I was a kid. I know it’s nothing but a meme now but it really was a mind blowing experience in 1995. The amount of immersion I got playing Red Alarm, moving around that 3D space in 3D, I’ll never forget that moment. This was before Mario 64 or Tomb Raider and decades before the first good commercial VR headsets

[@SilentVinyl]

Virtual Boy games look so much better in other colours than red

[@desertbat55]

This is a feature I've always dreamed of the 3DS having, it makes me so happy to see it realised.

[@Enlightenment0172]

it's late at night, remind me to install this once I get home from college tomorrow

[@NatsuMatto]

MATE! Thank you so much for the heads up. Downloaded, installed, and playing as we speak. Unfortunately, RED ALARM seems to constantly crash for me, but Mario Clash and Wario Land seem to be working well so far. The fact that Nintendo themselves never got these games working on the 3DS themselves just seems kind of nuts.

[@thatanonwholurksmoar7386]

Im surprised Nintendo havent done this with the 3ds. As usual, the hacking community doing what Nintendont

[@NgQueenie123]

Fr fr😂😂

[@johnkredit9072]

This looks much better than when I played it on the PC and crossed my eyes to get the 3D effect working

[@JonLeung1]

Thanks for this! I immediately got out my 3DS XL and installed Red Viper. It's great! On my Oculus/Meta Quest 2, I also sideloaded VirtualBoyGo, a Virtual Boy emulator for VR devices. It's not that hard on the eyes and also has an option to change colours. It's neat to have more ways to play Virtual Boy games, even though I own an actual Virtual Boy.

[@ChazStarkey-c3z]

There are some legitimately fun Virtual Boy games, and they can now reach their full potential.

[@keijijohnson9754]

As someone that's JUST took the plundge and did the deed with His own New 3DS just earlier today, I have to thank you for actually linking the download in the description. A certain chatterbox talking about this never once bothered to do the same thing on his channel.

[@baronhausenpheffer]

I'm super-glad we're finally getting this as homebrew, but I so wish Nintendo had done this as an official section of the 3DS Virtual Console right from the start. Like... I know Nintendo doesn't like to acknowledge its failures, but it was a ready-made library of excellent games on a machine practically built to run them better than the original machine did. And instead they focused their time effort on giving us 3D versions of Urban Champion, Twin Bee, Xevious, and Excitebike... the Holy Quadrilogy of "Nobody Asked For This".

[@malcolmar]

Awesome. I feel there were 2 great missed opportunities on the 3DS. (1)was the lack of Sega Scope 3D games although we did get Maze Hunter 3D which was great and (2) the lack of Virtual Boy games. Thanks for the update.

[@revivedSpArTaN]

I'm so upset that Nintendo didn´t take this opportunity at its moment.

[@Peteboi64932]

I love how the place where you open CIA is called FBI.

[@iamrockness]

Absolute Chads, the whole team that made Viper a reality. A Virtual Reality!

[@iamrockness]

Just played a bunch of VB games on Red Viper and I am beyond impressed. The emulation is nearly perfect on some games when compared to my Virtual Boy Unit. It's not a perfect emulator by any means, and I definitely experienced some random crashes here and there on certain titles, but overall it's impossible to overstate how impressive this emulator is on my 3DS hardware. I plan on playing through Wario Land and other compatible titles to completion using my 3DS. TLDR; Red Viper is a MUST HAVE for 3DS modders/hackers wanting to add yet another pillar of impressiveness to their 10 year old handheld

[@m8rs558]

I swear to God when I was a kid I thought the games were already on the eShop. I remember even seeing them--I must've been dreaming

[@Danominator]

I've been waiting SO LONG for the development of this to get going, and now it's READY??? I'm so excited!

[@delvin0965]

The virtual boy games aged like fine wine.

[@JMAX79]

Perfect video. Just did it and exceeds expectations. Wow so cool!

[@user-iz6el3xk2x]

Wow absolutely astonishing. Finally a modern and appropriate method for Virtual Boy emulation! Thx for the video!

[@riggles]

Virtual Boy had panels that refreshed at 50Hz, while the 3DS has a 60Hz screen, that means that the framepacing is often not great for games and there's nothing that can be done about that while keeping the game running at the original 50fps speed. For some games, you barely can tell, Wario Land scrolls smoothly since the movement speeds just happen to work fine with 60Hz. No complaints there. But Jack Bros or Galactic Pinball both have some pretty noticeable movement stutter/inconsistent scrolling that's annoying for us who want our buttery smooth motion. So as good as this emulator is, it's a big reason VB can't be perfect on the 3DS sadly. VR with variable refresh panels that can sync down to 50Hz is the only way to do it really (It won't work at 100Hz, you get motion doubling artifacts when the framerate is half the refresh).

[@ElleesD-95]

I was literally doing the same thing last week just to give up because of the discontinuation of Red Dragon. This just changed everything.

[@sc3ku]

a top early childhood memory: playing Mario’s Tennis on a Virtual Boy set up outside a KB Toys at the mall. VR was so hot then- there was a “real” sit down VR machine at that mall too

[@michaelstevenson5044]

Thank you. Downloaded it and I'm honestly blown away by how good the Virtual Boy looks

[@kitestar]

Even in death, the 3DS became stronger than what Nintendo couldn’t possibly imagine (literally loaded this stuff up yesterday too actually, runs like a dream on O3DS)

[@BASEDSAKRI]

I'm a vb superfan and have played every official and homebrew game out there. what a dream come true!

[@SamuraiSam]

I have DREAMED of this for YEARS!!

[@goldmemberpb]

Let's combine the headache inducing 3d of the 3ds to the headache inducing graphic of the virtual boy. it's a match made in heaven.

[@ThatEntityGirl]

Someone finally pulled through and did it. We finally have a true virtual boy emulator on 3ds

[@Pikminer-5087]

Having to do a presentation on "The Worst Invention Ever Made" with this very machine as one of our options always made me curious about its library. Now that I've gotten to try it out for a bit, I can say I'm somewhat impressed by how the games look and sound, and even more so by how this emulator runs.

[@ogre706]

There are far worse inventions out there than the Virtual Boy... sometimes I hate the AVGN for getting the Virtual Boy hate train rolling full speed ahead. 😑

[@S41t4r4]

@@ogre706 sadly extreme and simple statements are often those that stick extremely well, like "WiiU is the worst console" . Literally seen a video about "worst consoles in history" from a german video game journalist channel, where 3 people basically just parroted it while stating that they never played on it.

[@SodaPopBot]

We may consider it a missed opportunity that these weren't on the 3DS' virtual console, but you *must remember* Jon, that no expense was spared to bring the good people of the world what 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 mattered; アーバンチャンピオン (Urban Champion)

[@jamesdestefano801]

I always know its a Jon video as soon as i see the title. Love it

[@Jake76667]

this is really cool to me because the virtual boy console itself and literally all of it’s games are so expensive so i’m definitely planning to do this with my own 3ds soon

[@mukinha]

Man, thank you so much for making this video! I always wanted to play the virtual boy, but it would be impossible to get one in my country, and playing with emulators would not be the "real experience". I have a 3DS and man... those games look gorgeous in 3D! My god!!! This must be the best way to play Virtual Boy games in the world! Thanks a lot for sharing! It's like a dream becoming reality. 😄

[@owlyus]

This is literally the first thing I wanted a 3ds to do when I heard about the 3ds

[@jasondillon2462]

Just Downloaded and loving it! Finally i can play Virtual boy without a splitting Headache! You can see so much potential in what this could have been had it succeded. Now i'm gonna finally play VB Warioland!

[@roskiart8750]

Thumbs up for the Jack Bros reference. Such an amazing game

[@jedewitz]

That's amazing. Been waiting for this and saw the bounty. Boggles the mind as to why N didn't do it themselves.

[@fanana6193]

This is awesome! I heard about the original version of this emulator but I didn't think it would ever be finished. I will absolutely try out some of these games now that there's a way to play them in a vastly improved way!

[@Jdudec367]

Holy crap really?!? This just makes me wanna mod my 3DS even more then.

[@Chrisezo]

Thanks for raising awareness for this, I was actually bummed out that Red Dragon didn't work so well, as I pretty much have my entire library of Nintendo games since the NES all up to the N64 on my micro SD card, and I love having all my games on the go, which is why when Ayaneo made their Ayaneo Flip DS I was actually considering getting that system, as I could pretty much emulate ANYTHING up until now with it, but I still prefer the 3DS due to its form factor.

[@himeistrying]

this is incredible, and it makes me so excited for the future of the 3DS to say we're still getting huge stuff like this in 2024

[@bland9876]

As a person with an unmoded 3DS through the is a bit scared to do it and doesn't really care because I have other ways of playing stuff This is making me want to mod my system.

[@rjlindeman]

A was expecting some videos sbput this when I discovered this this morning. Nice one

[@justinmillard8196]

Jon’s enthusiasm is amusing as always. Would love to find out if he gets to try Bound High.

[@BIayne]

I have been waiting for this since 2011. Lets goo!

[@JitterBob]

I can’t wait to try this out. I’ve never played one and the fact that you don’t need to use the painful red color omg… can’t wait