How many of you know about the Virtual Boy? Probably very few of you, because the ones who did play it back in the day undoubtedly have amnesia or crippling migraines too terrible to even read these words. It was Nintendo’s attempt to bring virtual gaming to the masses back in the 90s, and it didn’t exactly have the desired effect that they were hoping for.
The Virtual Boy itself was kind of like something you might see in an X-Men film… or maybe a budget YouTube fan version. It sat on a table and you put your head into it, as opposed to actually wearing it on your head. It wasn’t the kind of thing that you could whirl around playing Beat Saber with or anything like that, and the red and black colour scheme that created depth through a parallax effect made people feel sick and dizzy as opposed to happy and content.
Still, the games themselves were good, it’s just a shame that many people didn’t actually get to try them out. It’s also a shame that the Virtual Boy never really got to be… well, virtual, or at least not in the way that Nintendo intended. Kudos to Ninty for trying to bring the future to us, but I think it was a case of ‘too much too soon’.
Thanks to the VirtualFriend emulator on the App Store, however, iPhone users can log on and play VirtualBoy games on either their iPhone, iPad, or using the Apple Vision Pro. Yes; you can finally play VirtualBoy games in VR, the way the gaming gods intended.
I have to admit that I haven’t tried VirtualFriend using a Vision Pro as A) I don’t own one and B) because any kind of VR makes me feel sick. Still, I’ve played some games using my iPhone and it works a treat, with players having the option to keep the red and black colour scheme or change to Greyscale or Game Boy graphics. Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend playing anything with the Game Boy graphics as it’s even more confusing than the original red and black. Virtual Boy Wario Land was unplayable with the DMG look, but Greyscale worked really well.
Of course, if you play using the Vision Pro, the 3D elements of the game such as objects swinging towards the screen will be much more realistic, but for someone just looking to experience games they’ve never had the chance to play before, you can’t go wrong with VirtualFriend emulator on the iPhone!
