Meet The Virtual Boy Fan Making New Tech And Games For Nintendo's Console Curio

Virtual Boy Hardware — *Image: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life*

As the reputed black sheep of the Nintendo console household, one would possibly assume 1995’s Virtual Boy to be the final piece of {hardware} able to garnering an fanatic following in the present day. Discontinued after lower than a yr in the marketplace and by no means launched in Europe, the elusive red-and-black headset is remembered as a headache-inducing, seemingly epic misfire from legendary Game Boy creator Gunpei Yokoi.

Nonetheless, a small however passionate group of engineers and builders is working to maintain the Virtual Boy alive almost three many years on from its untimely and unlucky demise. Their wares, which embody high-quality after-market {hardware} and commercially profitable small-batch bodily copies of newly developed video games, are an indication of sustained curiosity within the system.

Virtual Boy Link Cable — Mellot’s authentic Virtual Boy hyperlink cable — *Image: RetroOnyx*

“Everyone always points to the Virtual Boy not being as successful as Nintendo wanted and them basically wanting to forget that system ever existed,” says engineer Kevin Mellott, the person behind retro gaming {hardware} maker RetroOnyx, by means of which he produces and sells all the pieces from Virtual Boy energy adaptors and reprogrammable printed circuit boards to boutique flashcarts.

Collaborating with builders Christian Radke and Jorge Andres Eremiev, creators of the VUEngine, an open-source recreation engine constructed particularly for the Virtual Boy, Mellott additionally funded the event of the lately launched Virtual WarZone, a tank fight recreation constructed across the console’s distinctive {hardware} attributes and parallax results, which create visible depth.

In an interview with Nintendo Life, we unpack Mellott’s ardour for Nintendo’s console curio, hear about his favorite video games for the {hardware}, upcoming tasks from the VUEngine crew, in addition to a smooth new flashcart he’s growing, which is able to give gamers entry to the Virtual Boy’s complete library together with a rising choice of more and more subtle homebrew titles.

Nintendo Life: How did you start creating after-market retro gaming {hardware} for the Virtual Boy by means of RetroOnyx?

Kevin Mellott: When I used to be a child, I needed a Virtual Boy. My mother and father would not purchase me one as a result of it was a bit bit costly on the time, no less than in my dad or mum’s eyes. So, after I was older, 18 or 19, I ended up shopping for one after I was out at tech college and performed with one for a couple of years. I ultimately offered it after which after a few years after that, after I was ending up my grasp’s diploma, I made a decision to look into it once more.

It was throughout that point after I joined the web group on Planet Virtual Boy taking a look at what that they had been as much as and constructing. One of the issues I got here throughout at the moment was a hyperlink cable design that customers had labored on, and I believed, ‘Hey, I can probably do that.’ And that kicked issues off about six to seven years in the past. That’s how I received began doing gear; simply an curiosity from the previous, the training, and the aptitude after a few years of being an engineer and a tech to have the ability to contribute there.

Nintendo Virtual Boy — *Image: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life*

The Virtual Boy is Nintendo’s most abject {hardware} failure. As far as consoles go, it is one of many strangest and most area of interest. Critics had been by no means type to it, and it has a repute for inflicting eye pressure and complications. How did you develop such a ardour for the maligned Virtual Boy? What attracted you to it as a youthful individual?

The first time after I got here throughout it, it was at a Circuit City in Southern California. I used to be possibly 12 or one thing, and that sort of 3D illustration simply blew my thoughts. I feel they had been operating a demo of Red Alarm and I [had] simply by no means fairly seen something like that. We after all had seen 3D films with pink and blue glasses and that sort of factor, however taking part in a online game in 3D, I consider that is the primary time I’ve ever seen something like that, no less than at the moment, so it simply caught my creativeness. The Virtual Boy disappeared in a short time, nevertheless it has simply caught with me through the years and pulled me again in a lot of occasions.

RetroOnyx is finest identified for Virtual Boy-compatible flashcarts. Take me by means of the method of growing that {hardware} and the motivations behind it.

I used to be speaking with individuals within the Virtual Boy group about what sorts of issues they wish to see. Then I got here throughout these eInokay panels and had this loopy concept of placing one in a flashcart. My first flashcart was the HyperFlash32 as a result of it was 32 megabits and will maintain the complete Hyper Fighting [a well-known unlicenced homebrew port of Street Fighter II] ROM. There had been copies of these going for $1,200 on eBay, so it simply sort of blew my thoughts that carts which are principally reminiscence chips had been that costly.

The HyperFlash32 has an eInokay display screen that updates if you load in a ROM and capacitive contact buttons on the again to undergo the sport menu system. It’s nonetheless a single-game-at-a-time flashcart, and there was quite a lot of over-engineering for enjoyable. A yr or two later I did the HyperBoy, which was meant to be a less expensive model by eradicating the eInokay display screen and all of the over-engineering. It’s nonetheless known as the HyperBoy as a result of it could possibly maintain that full Hyper Fighting ROM. I simply received into it for enjoyable and it has stored going.

There had been solely 22 video games formally launched for the Virtual Boy in North America and Japan. What would you say are the titles most worthy of replaying in the present day and why?

One of my favourites is Red Alarm. Maybe some individuals will not agree there, however that is simply because I’ve a nostalgia for that specific recreation, having performed it within the shops after I was a child. Wario Land is kind of good and often considered one of many higher ones. I like Teleroboxer as properly. Bound High is one that individuals have a tendency to love, it was a near-complete recreation that was by no means launched as a result of the Virtual Boy was discontinued, however the ROM was finally patched and located its means on-line, and it turned fairly well-liked. I’ve all the time had a comfortable spot for Space Invaders, most likely some hyperlink from my childhood as properly.

Virtual Boy Games — *Image: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life*

The homebrew scene for the Virtual Boy is surprisingly full of life and owes an ideal deal to your merchandise, by means of which newly developed video games could be performed on authentic {hardware}. One such title is the RetroOnyx-funded Virtual WarZone, a tank fight recreation developed on the VUEngine that launched in 2022. Can you share your motivations for supporting the sport’s improvement?

The two main guys behind the VUEngine are Chris and Jorge, and so they’ve been within the Virtual Boy group far longer than I’ve. I’d name them true Virtual Boy builders, and there aren’t a lot of them. They put out authentic content material and so they’ve developed that complete engine to assist different individuals produce content material.

For Virtual Warzone, I connected with Jorge to develop this recreation as a result of I all the time thought a Battlezone-esque sort of wireframe recreation would present properly on the Virtual Boy, sort of like how I take pleasure in Red Alarm. I reached out to Jorge and we began growing that, after which Chris helped out as properly. Chris runs Planet Virtual Boy and has performed so for a few years earlier than I got here round.

We had another individuals assist out as properly. An on-line group member does my field artwork manuals and one other person helped with a number of the 3D content material just like the tank cockpit and what that appears like. I’ve identified these individuals by means of the group for years now. I simply reached out to them about growing this recreation. Jorge agreed and did all of the heavy lifting and many of the improvement.

They’re an ideal group to work with and will have a second recreation launched by the top of the yr known as Formula V, which is sort of a top-down F-Zero meets Micro Machines on a racetrack. It’s additionally tougher to play than it appears to be like. Jorge likes to construct video games like that. It’s fairly polished, even the demos they put out for that recreation are very polished. It’s received all of the bells and whistles of the VUEngine that they’ve developed through the years. It’s going to be an ideal showcase of what’s potential on the VUEngine and one other welcome boost to the homebrew scene.

That’s improbable. Do you plan to assist extra of those retail-quality authentic titles from the VUEngine crew going ahead?

I wish to. On Formula V, I’ll assist them create bodily carts for them to promote and be concerned that means. I might see myself doing one other full sort of Virtual Warzone recreation. Virtual Warzone has performed decently for a Virtual Boy homebrew title. I recovered improvement prices, which I depend as a win for growing video games for a system like Virtual Boy with a small area of interest group of customers. So yeah, I can see myself doing it sooner or later.

What’s subsequent for RetroOnyx? You’re at present growing a “MultiBoy” flashcart with an eInokay on-screen menu for recreation choice. How does this new product differ out of your earlier flashcarts and when will it’s out there?

The in-development MultiBoy VB — Image: RetroOnyx

A multi-game cart has lengthy been on the listing, and all of the design classes that I’ve discovered on my earlier carts will instantly feed into the MultiBoy. The intention there may be it is extra like an EverDrive, with on-screen – or in-headset – recreation choice fairly than on an eInokay show, and it holds greater than only a single recreation at a time. I’ll add some elements on there to permit builders to do some {hardware} acceleration on the cart, just like the SNES Super FX chip sort of stuff, primarily to assist calculations, most likely simply floating-point assist, issues like that. I’d love to try this sort of factor.

I’ll most likely make the eInokay display screen an non-compulsory merchandise as a result of it does elevate the price a bit, and it makes a bit bit much less sense right here as a result of it is going to be an on-screen show the place you choose your video games. That’s actually what individuals nowadays assume flashcarts are, principally all of the issues that an EverDrive will do. Virtual Boy nonetheless would not have a real multi-game cart, so I’d like to complete that out. That’s actually the subsequent large one on the listing.

Thanks to Kevin for talking with us. You can discover his merchandise on the RetroOnyx web site, and extra details about developments within the Virtual Boy homebrew scene at Planet Virtual Boy.

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