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@Floogle continued the work that mrdanielps originally made for r3Ddragon, now titled "Red Viper", and has managed to make the entire 22 games library of the Virtual Boy at full speed, and not only that, but Floogle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.

​

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

 

[Mips90]

Wario Land completable?

Played the first Level yesterday without any Problems. Very impressed from this APP. I only have to look up the Shortcuts for saving etc.. just quited with the homebutton.

Post automatically merged: Feb 27, 2024

Wario Land completable?

Played the first Level yesterday without any Problems. Very impressed from this APP. I only have to look up the Shortcuts for saving etc.. just quited with the homebutton.

 

[jnl1]

I just don´t understand why all the people get headaches when using the virtual boy. It is an amazing system and I have played the last 2 weeks approx. 20 hours without any issues.

 

[ShadowtearX]

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.

The perfect system would be a VR headset like the Oculus Quest

 

[Evilengine]

Wow, a dream comes true hehe. This is really cool! Floogle does what Nintendon't!

 

[regnad]

Is this on hshop or something similar?

 

[ShadowtearX]

Is this on **redacted** or something similar?

No, you'd have to download the .cia file and install it, or alternatively grab the download link and use a URL to QR code site and scan install it with FBI.

Also please don't mention websites that host roms

 

[Vague Rant]

Is this on **redacted** or something similar?

You can scan this QR code in FBI if you like:

This code points to the "latest" CIA, so the code will still grab you the current build even if there's been a new release after I posted this.

 

[Panzerfaust]

I'd say of the 22 official games, it's something like:

Must play:

• Virtual Boy Wario Land (multi-layer platformer, the original Mario Wonder)

Worth playing:

• Mario Clash (original Mario Bros. spinoff)
• Jack Bros. (Shin Megami Tensei action game spinoff)
• Red Alarm (Star Fox-ish shooter, the most technically impressive game)
• Vertical Force (multi-layer Star Soldier spinoff shmup)

Decent:

• 3-D Tetris (not really "Tetris", but pieces drop down a 3D well instead of traditional 2D)
• Galactic Pinball (all right pinball game, not really enhanced much by being in 3D)
• Mario's Tennis (fun novelty, the start of the Mario sports franchise)

Passable:

• Golf (it's golf)
• Virtual Bowling (it's bowling; "Don't you guys have Wiis?")

Pointless:

• Nester's Funky Bowling (it's bowling, again; how are 10% of all Virtual Boy games bowling sims? Virtual Bowling is better)
• Panic Bomber (just regular 2D Panic Bomber)
• Space Invaders Virtual Collection (just regular 2D Space Invaders; yeah there's a 3D mode but it doesn't do anything)
• V-Tetris (just regular 2D Tetris)

I don't know:

• Innsmouth no Yakata (first-person dungeon-crawling twin "stick" horror shooter; translation patch)
• Space Squash (it's squash ... in space; I don't get the appeal but some people like it--translation patch)
• Teleroboxer (robot boxing, quasi-Punch-Out!! style; people have tried to convince me this game isn't terrible and maybe they're right)
• Virtual Fishing (it's fishing)
• Waterworld (based on the Kevin Costner movie; the music is legitimately fantastic but the game I never clicked with)

Bad:

• SD Gundam Dimension War (mediocre Japan-only tactical RPG, there's a translation patch at least)
• Virtual Lab (just regular 2D intestinal distress simulator)
• Virtual League Baseball (it's baseball)

Honorable mentions:

Ignoring homebrew for now since it doesn't have great compatibility with Red Viper, the other games worth mentioning are the two leaked commercial games.​

• Bound High (really good top-down bouncing ball ... thing, play this)
• NikoChan Battle aka Faceball (very unfinished port of this first-person shooter; even the finished versions on other platforms aren't that fun, probably don't bother)

Homebrew:
Hyper Fighting (basically a Street Fighter 2 port)

I really enjoy Innsmouth, Galaxy Pinball and Jack Bros. on my VB

Nice that we finally have an alternative to a real VB in full 3D. Gonna test this one asap and compare it to original HW experience.

Btw: the VB Homebrew community is surprisingly very active to this day.

 

[Retinal_FAILURE]

This is sick. The VB Wario Land is a godsend of a game! Haven't played any video game in months, but this'll keep me busy.

 

[impeeza]

Hell no. I'm not gonna have myself a headache just for THAT. It's still the Virtual Boy after all.

No need of headache for any body it's like any 3d game on the 3ds and you can change the red color to any color so if you are hyper sensible to the red grey or blue are available as screen colors

Is this on hshop or something similar?

Just download from the GitHub repo
https://github.com/skyfloogle/red-viper. Or use the qr above

 

[CoolMe]

The timing of this is no way an accident, they waited until the exact right moment for them to reveal their end result of their project/work (and that's respectable). Virtual Boy emulation was the most anticipated of all on the 3ds system/s, with the last emulator project that tackled the idea is way back in 2016 or so iirc, and gone cold since.. A big achievement here boys, thanks a bunch for this one, devs!

 

[Elrinth]

Played Bound High to world 4. Really really great game, and plays great with the 3d on, on the 3DS. This is now my favourite way to play Virtual Boy games

 

[SDA]

No need of headache for any body it's like any 3d game on the 3ds and you can change the red color to any color so if you are hyper sensible to the red grey or blue are available as screen colors

I'm not sensitive to red nor I ever tried the consolo myself, but I 100% agree on what they say on the Virtual Boy and the fact it's dangerous for health.

 

[Darksabre72]

Hell no. I'm not gonna have myself a headache just for THAT. It's still the Virtual Boy after all.

i mean you can be able to change the colors to something different, unless it's just the games itself

 

[gohan123]

I can finally play the last wario game. I always hoped for an official port or remake.

 

[Xzi]

The perfect system would be a VR headset like the Oculus Quest

Yeah but then it's right back to causing headaches and eye strain again. Virtual Boy is best experienced outside of a headset because it's a static forced perspective anyway, nowhere near as advanced as today's VR that utilizes proper head tracking.

 

[Subtle Demise]

It's about damn time. I've wanted this since I first got a 3DS. Why did it take so long?

 

[ShadowOne333]

It's about damn time. I've wanted this since I first got a 3DS. Why did it take so long?

Same boat, this is something I wanted day one on the 3DS.
I even sold my New 3DS XL a year ago, now what do I do lol

 

[Subtle Demise]

Same boat, this is something I wanted day one on the 3DS.
I even sold my New 3DS XL a year ago, now what do I do lol

My ex stole mine and have you seen the prices!? Ludicrous! Maybe next year's tax refund

 

[urherenow]

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

You mean sticking with, I take it. Not holding out on... which would suggest you haven't updated to Luma 6.6 or a9lh.

Well, I guess it's time to turn on my 3DS again. Gotta use the battery sometimes so it doesn't swell, and there's no better way (outside of a PC) to play with a C64 emulator. Virtual Boy? Actually there's an emulator that looks proper in a VR headset.