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Check Out An RGB Modded Virtual Boy That Probably Won't Give You A Headache
1 hour ago
Modding a Virtual Boy. Whoever would have thought of doing such a thing? In terms of being one of the worst gaming systems ever made, the Virtual Boy ranks close to the top due to how infuriating it is as a device. But, what if I told you that someone actually went out of their way to mod a Virtual Boy and turn it into a playable device that won't give you a headache and send you reeling off to your bedroom to sleep off the dizziness? You would probably have second thoughts about how terrible the Virtual Boy is, wouldn't you? Well, it turns out that someone really did mod the Virtual Boy, adding full VGA support and giving it a visual makeover so that, now, when you play the games they won't give you a headache.
The modded VGA edition of the Virtual Boy was posted on lukemorse1's YouTube channel. He goes through the demonstration of showing how he sent out his Virtual Boy to Furtech in order to have it modified to use dual-VGA monitor outputs on each side of the device.
He mentions that two toggle switches have been added to the side to change the output display. It also cost him several hundred dollars to have the modification done to the Virtual Boy headset.
So, basically, the Virtual Boy was retrofitted with the ability to output it to a VGA monitor. The audio still plays through the original device, but you can also hook up the audio to a monitor and play the games with the option to hear the video through the monitor.
The real highlight is that, with the modded switches on the Virtual Boy, you can toggle between various palette swaps, using an RGB toggle. We see in the video where the game Wario Land is altered to cycle through the iconic red palette to monochrome, green, violet, and a few other colors.
The downside is that this only works if it's hooked up to a VGA monitor. So, if you want to play on the go or bring it over to a friend's house, they will need a VGA-compatible monitor. This shouldn't be too difficult for most monitors on the market, but, as you know, there are a lot of newer monitors that focus on HDMI output.
Additionally, the other downside is that the actual Virtual Boy output does not change its palette or color. If you decide to still use the Virtual Boy output for gaming, you're going to be stuck with that eye-hurting red color scheme, and there's no way to change it.
In a way, it is interesting seeing a Virtual Boy game running on a monitor. I know that emulators exist, but it's been a while since I've seen one of those games in action. And, while they actually didn't look that bad, it was just a shame that they were attached to an early virtual reality device that wasn't quite up to snuff for what the market was expecting. These days, virtual reality has taken some rather large steps forward in immersion with devices like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, so it really makes the Virtual Boy look dated.
But, I guess if you have several hundred bucks to toss around and a spare Virtual Boy device, you could always get it modded so you can hook it up to a VGA monitor.
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