I have only played on a Virtual Boy twice: once at a museum, and once at a UGVM meeting in honour of Owen. Both times were brief, uncomfortable, and underwhelming. I suspect there were some hardware adjustments which may have helped, but the screens were dim and blurry, and I had to sit at an awkward angle to use it. Nevertheless, the 3D nature of the console was very clever, and the games I played (3D Tetris and Golf, I believe) used that to good effect. I did once try Virtual Boy emulation on my computer, and it just seemed a bit pointless because of the fact it lacked the third dimension, meaning you are left with middling games in monochrome.

Having modified my 3DS, however, I now have access to a 3D screen which is perfect for trying out Virtual Boy games as they are supposed to be seen. The screen is, obviously, of a much higher quality as well, and there’s no restricted positioning. All good, yes?

Mostly. I started with Mario’s Tennis, having recently been playing the N64 game with Edward. It’s a pretty standard tennis game, but with a much lower viewpoint than normal. This would make it more difficult to place the ball, but of course the 3D is supposed to help with that. It sort of did, but it took some time to work out the best way to judge and also when to press the button. I lost my first match 6-0 to Toad, but by the second I was mostly keeping serve, and I narrowly lost to Peach after a very long game of alternating advantages and deuces. I won my third match, against Yoshi, quite comprehensively. Maybe I should move off the easy difficulty level.

Things improved a lot when I investigated the options for the emulator and found that I am not constrained to the original red and black. You can set any colour you like, but there are two presets – red and grey – and the latter makes the games a lot easier to see and play.

I completely forgot about those options when I played other games.

I have only played on a Virtual Boy twice: once at a museum, and once at a UGVM meeting in honour of Owen. Both times were brief, uncomfortable, and underwhelming. I suspect there were some hardware adjustments which may have helped, but the screens were dim and blurry, and I had to sit at an awkward angle to use it. Nevertheless, the 3D nature of the console was very clever, and the games I played (3D Tetris and Golf, I believe) used that to good effect. I did once try Virtual Boy emulation on my computer, and it just seemed a bit pointless because of the fact it lacked the third dimension, meaning you are left with middling games in monochrome.

Having modified my 3DS, however, I now have access to a 3D screen which is perfect for trying out Virtual Boy games as they are supposed to be seen. The screen is, obviously, of a much higher quality as well, and there’s no restricted positioning. All good, yes?

Mostly. I started with Mario’s Tennis, having recently been playing the N64 game with Edward. It’s a pretty standard tennis game, but with a much lower viewpoint than normal. This would make it more difficult to place the ball, but of course the 3D is supposed to help with that. It sort of did, but it took some time to work out the best way to judge and also when to press the button. I lost my first match 6-0 to Toad, but by the second I was mostly keeping serve, and I narrowly lost to Peach after a very long game of alternating advantages and deuces. I won my third match, against Yoshi, quite comprehensively. Maybe I should move off the easy difficulty level.

Things improved a lot when I investigated the options for the emulator and found that I am not constrained to the original red and black. You can set any colour you like, but there are two presets – red and grey – and the latter makes the games a lot easier to see and play.

I completely forgot about those options when I played other games.