The Nintendo 3DS is already past its prime, both in life-cycle and its homebrew scene, and while its homebrew scene still continues to be strong to this day, many people have moved away from it and are instead focusing on the Nintendo Switch.

While the 3DS did get its fair share of emulators from previous Nintendo consoles, even up to a Nintendo 64 emulator with DaedalusX64-3DS, one specific console from Nintendo's history of failures is the Virtual Boy, and given the 3DS feature of playing games in actual 3D, it was a lost opportunity for Nintendo not to capitalize on the success of the 3DS' 3D technology to revive the Virtual Boy in its full 3D glory, without the headaches of the actual red-lenses visor that the original Virtual Boy was known for.

Despite the Virtual Boy's failure, some people are still interested in it, and 10 years ago, a user by the name of mrdanielps worked on an initial Virtual Boy for the 3DS, titled r3Ddragon. The project itself was more of a WIP, and it never got developed further, until today.

@Floogle continued the work that mrdanielps originally made for r3Ddragon, now titled "Red Viper", and has managed to make the entire 22 games library of the Virtual Boy at full speed, and not only that, but Floogle also added the feature to play the games in proper 3D, utilizing the 3DS' 3D upper screen for this achievement, effectively making the Virtual Boy revival that many wanted since the inception of the 3DS and its homebrew scene.

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The full features of the Red Viper emulator for 3DS include the following:

• All officially licensed games are playable at full speed, even on the original 3DS
• 3D support
• Game saves are supported
• Map either the A/B buttons or the right D-Pad to the face buttons, with the other being on the touch screen
• New 3DS C-Stick is also supported
• Configurable face button mapping
• Configurable color filter

Floogle also lists possible future additions to the emulator:

• Support for PCM samples
• Savestates
• Homebrew support
• Circle Pad Pro support
• Button controls for menu
• More versatile color filter
• A forwarder to allow loading a specific game from the home menu

Those interested in trying out the emulator and discussing it can do so at the GBATemp's release thread for the project by Floogle.

Red Viper Release Thread on GBATemp
Red Viper GitHub Repository

 

[BaamAlex]

Definitely interesting.

 

[JuanMena]

Aw, wish my old3ds didn't died in 2018

 

[DinohScene]

Sicc, I can still remember the early stages of the emu, never thought it would gain traction after almost a decade.

 

[Xzi]

Wow, it seems so obvious after the fact that 3DS is the perfect system for emulating Virtual Boy. Never crossed my mind before, but then again, I've never spent any notable amount of time thinking about Virtual Boy emulation. Neither has Nintendo apparently.

 

[AdenTheThird]

That's incredibly neat. The 3D implementation is rather genius. I may have to check this out for myself.

 

[simbin]

The Killer App for 3DS has finally come to make me update! Been peacefully holding out on A9LH Luma 6.6 for years lol.

 

[Smoker1]

One old VB Emulator for Windows had a Cheat File included (just labeled rd38), curious if it can work with this, or if Cheats can be done.

 

[KingVamp]

Wow, it seems so obvious after the fact that 3DS is the perfect system for emulating Virtual Boy. Never crossed my mind before, but then again, I've never spent any notable amount of time thinking about Virtual Boy emulation. Neither has Nintendo apparently.

I wonder how VB would look in Labo VR.

 

[drasglaf]

And you can change the colour, I love it.

 

[Smoker1]

Just tried testing the Hyper Fighting Game that was made. Wont work.

 

[furbi963]

Tendré que meter al congelador la batería para revivirla por ... TERCERA VEZ jajaja.
... Pobre 3ds a vivido tantas cosas, una vez hasta nado, se ahogo y vivo zombie.

I'll have to put the battery in the freezer to revive it for... THIRD TIME hahaha. ...Poor 3ds has experienced so many things, once he even swam, drowned and became a zombie.

 

[a_username_that_isnt_cool]

If the 3ds can run Virtual Boy, can it run Real Boy?

 

[Davrid]

Cries in 2DS

 

[AmandaRose]

All officially licensed games are playable at full speed, even on the original 3DS

Not exactly true as myself and others have had numerous crashes with 3d Tetris which makes it pretty much unplayable but apart from that every other game seems to work good.


(edit) Seems like red alarm also crashes.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/red-viper-virtual-boy-emulator.649360/#post-10365590

 

[hippy dave]

I wonder how VB would look in Labo VR.

It's doable using retroarch and a custom shader, it works well, but playing it in Red Viper on a 3DS is much more comfortable tbh!

Ten years since the original project started, damn! I was so excited for it back then, and it was sad when it lost momentum - am really happy to see a new dev take it over the finish line! This was the 3DS's destiny.

Played a good amount of Wario Land and a bit of Mario Clash today. Any other strong recs?

 

[PopcornSweetie]

I remember checking out r3Ddragon back when it was released. Afaik it ran very poor. But this is a huge W for the homebrew community. It always makes me smile seeing new homebrew being released for 3DS, Wii, Wii U and Switch (other consoles too but i have a soft spot for those.)

 

[Xzi]

If the 3ds can run Virtual Boy, can it run Real Boy?

Not quite powerful enough to run Lies of P.

 

[AmandaRose]

Played a good amount of Wario Land and a bit of Mario Clash today. Any other strong recs?

Jack Bros is a really fun action adventure game. And Vertical Force is a fun little shmups and that's coming from someone who mostly hates shmups lol.

 

[lordelan]

Good reason to blow the dust off my N3DSXL