Virtual Boy Emulator!

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Evenios
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Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by Evenios »

(Hope its ok to post this if not ..well mums the word) but i was thinking after watching someones first impressions on youtube whos working on a retro type game.. it would be awesome to have the rift working with a virtual boy emulator but corrected for the lens thing.. it can have a smaller feild of view and no head tracking but i imagine would still be pretty cool (for those of us who dont have a Virtual boy and dont wish to pay 80 bucks for one) :-p

Just a cool thought :-)
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squibbfire
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by squibbfire »

No

there is just way to much other content to bring to the oculus....
Virtual boy can wait till the consumer version! hahah
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by scubaSPI »

Evenios wrote:(Hope its ok to post this if not ..well mums the word) but i was thinking after watching someones first impressions on youtube whos working on a retro type game.. it would be awesome to have the rift working with a virtual boy emulator but corrected for the lens thing.. it can have a smaller feild of view and no head tracking but i imagine would still be pretty cool (for those of us who dont have a Virtual boy and dont wish to pay 80 bucks for one) :-p

Just a cool thought :-)
Evenios, I fully agree that a VirtualBoy emulator for the Rift would be amazing to play. More specifically, Red Alarm would be the game I'd load first. I have seen a couple of VirtualBoy emulators which support 3D anaglyph drawing and I'm figuring that it shouldn't be too difficult to take the buffer before final rasterization, place them side by side and perform the warp. Then again, I could easily connect my VirtualBoy and play the game on real hardware. :lol:
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by 2EyeGuy »

What's the FOV and aspect ratio of the real hardware?

If all you want to do is make it just like a real Virtual Boy, that shouldn't be too hard. But I've got some features I'd like to add, like head-tracking, motion parallax, and making things life-sized. After all, it is supposed to be Virtual Reality.
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by PasticheDonkey »

scubaSPI wrote:
Evenios wrote:(Hope its ok to post this if not ..well mums the word) but i was thinking after watching someones first impressions on youtube whos working on a retro type game.. it would be awesome to have the rift working with a virtual boy emulator but corrected for the lens thing.. it can have a smaller feild of view and no head tracking but i imagine would still be pretty cool (for those of us who dont have a Virtual boy and dont wish to pay 80 bucks for one) :-p

Just a cool thought :-)
Evenios, I fully agree that a VirtualBoy emulator for the Rift would be amazing to play. More specifically, Red Alarm would be the game I'd load first. I have seen a couple of VirtualBoy emulators which support 3D anaglyph drawing and I'm figuring that it shouldn't be too difficult to take the buffer before final rasterization, place them side by side and perform the warp. Then again, I could easily connect my VirtualBoy and play the game on real hardware. :lol:
i've emulated virtualboy on a 3dtv with it drawing both views suitable for a passive tv.
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

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IGameArt
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by IGameArt »

That's officially badass. Now to figure out how to get it to recognize both joysticks on my gamepad... lol
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by pizzy00 »

Just played some Tetris. This is cool. I will have to try out some other roms.
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by Parallaxis »

This is so cool.

I have waited years to play Virtual Boy the right way (actually the right way is using the Virtual Boy, but that makes my head hurt)

Wario here I come!
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by Dakor »

Eventhough I love Retro Hardware, the Virtual Boy was always to expensive for me.. (and it gets broken so fast and playing with it is a pain in the.. eye!) well this is SO cool!
Definitely write about it in my Blog :D
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by jack612 »

This rules.
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by stevetb »

Nice find!!!!

I just tested (without a rift) and it all appears to work with no issues. My system played it at 50 FPS and it was like to good old days all over again.

Every OR owner needs to try this.

Thank you to the developer!!!!!
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by stevetb »

Better yet, I uploaded a video of Red Alert. Sorry there is no sound, but it looks great and sounds great when playing.

Hope you all enjoy!

Many thanks to the authors of VBjin, PCEjin, and Mednafen for making this possible!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcdTqOw7ugA[/youtube]
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by jack612 »

I think this is the only thing I've tried on my Rift so far where the screen door effect actually adds to the experience. It looks just like a real Virtual Boy. I have to keep my head still though because looking around without any kind of head tracking is a little disorienting.
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Drewbdoo
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by Drewbdoo »

Guys, I was a kid when Virtual Boy came out too. I, too, thought it was cool.

However, now I'm adult and realize that it was a total piece of crap that hurt my neck a whole bunch just trying to play the demo at Blockbuster.

I personally don't see the thinking behind looking at the rift and thinking "Man, I'd really like to play one of the 14 32-bit, 4 colors of red Virtual Boy Games!"

I don't even have my rift yet and I already think there's much better uses of my time/rift. But that's just me :)
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by scubaSPI »

:woot This is awesome news as I've been wanting to play Red Alarm again. Forget the naysayers up above, and thank you to all those involved in making this happen.
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by stevetb »

Drewbdoo wrote:Guys, I was a kid when Virtual Boy came out too. I, too, thought it was cool.

However, now I'm adult and realize that it was a total piece of crap that hurt my neck a whole bunch just trying to play the demo at Blockbuster.

I personally don't see the thinking behind looking at the rift and thinking "Man, I'd really like to play one of the 14 32-bit, 4 colors of red Virtual Boy Games!"

I don't even have my rift yet and I already think there's much better uses of my time/rift. But that's just me :)
Are there better uses for the Oculus Rift.......sure! But, emulation on a PC or MAME is another example of a platform which could also be better utilized but instead allows a user to go back to a prior experience and relive the moment. Using this software not only can we do this, but we can do it with better hardware than we initially had.

I understand where you are coming from. I understand the bad wrap that people always had for the Virutal Boy (well.....not really as I loved the Virtual Boy). And I also understand that yes we can be doing better things.

But............this is Day 1 of VR, it truly is. The more we immerse ourselves in this and test and develop the better. The last thing we really want to do is stiffle innovation and tell people "now why would you want to ever do this". because if its been done, its obviously been something someone wanted to do.

If we look through this forum alone I have seen at least 3-4 threads on the Virtual Boy alone. There obviously is a need for this and a community of people out there that want this. Otherwise there would be NO threads or questions about it, let alone discussions as we have seen in countless Oculus Rift videos where the Virtual Boy is mentioned.

Why is the Virtual Boy a topic of discussion?
Well, for many including myself, it was our first exposure to VR. I still have one to this day that I picked up at KB Toys for like $30 (games I believe were all $5 each or something totally reasonable) on clearance. We could not afford to go to the mall and play on the large VR machines in the 1990's but this piece of hardware in the end, at clearance, I could finally afford. This is the draw to us children of the 80's and 90's. This is how we first experienced VR.

I just wish we could drop the whole "Why would we ever want to emulate the Virtual Boy" discussions.

** Wanders off of soap box now ;)
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by jf031 »

Interested to try out some Virtual Boy games with the Rift, I guess. I'll at least try the Wario game.

---

I'm personally interested in trying out other emulators (NES, Genesis, various arcade games [MAME]) in a window that takes up approximately half the screen width, just to see how bad/interesting the experience is without warp correction (and one eye, but thankfully that will just create an enhanced depth effect in a game with parallax [versus viewing mono with two eyes - try playing a FPS shooter game with just one eye open; it will give you a sense of depth at some point(s)]).

I'm going to try Sonic the Hedgehog first, hah. The speed will either be fun or vomit-inducing (especially with the screen warp). I really like the backgrounds of some of the Acts, though - that is the main reason why I want to try it taking up the horizontal FOV of (one eye through) the Rift: to see if, via the parallax, I get a slight sensation of looking into the world (through a single fisheye lens, with my head attached to the world itself).
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Evenios
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by Evenios »

wow nice you got one working already sweet! wouldnt you need a little pre-warping though to account for the fisheye? hmm i dunno :-p sounds awesome though!
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by braindx »

Thanks guys! Great to have a positive response. I'm glad it's working for all of you. Personally, even though I own a Virtual Boy, I'm interested to play through Wario since I never got a chance.

Also, regarding the warp shader, it is most definitely in there already. You can see it in the YouTube video that was posted. If you're not seeing it locally, make sure you're using the settings recommended on the Google Code page, specifically setting the display in the View menu to Oculus Rift.
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by Parallaxis »

Virtual Boy Wario Land is the best Wario game ever made by far. I have completed it several times with the emulator, but never in 3D. So I am looking forward to doing this very much :)
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by stevetb »

braindx wrote:Thanks guys! Great to have a positive response. I'm glad it's working for all of you. Personally, even though I own a Virtual Boy, I'm interested to play through Wario since I never got a chance.

Also, regarding the warp shader, it is most definitely in there already. You can see it in the YouTube video that was posted. If you're not seeing it locally, make sure you're using the settings recommended on the Google Code page, specifically setting the display in the View menu to Oculus Rift.
brainx, thank you! thank you! thank you! I cannot thank you enough for getting this out to us. It's huge! Mine looks and plays perfectly, I can't thank you enough!

-Steve
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by jf031 »

Tried Wario Land in the vbjin emulator with anaglyph 3D. Pretty neat! The 3D effect is clean (even in anaglyph) and quite pronounced. The game itself - eh, I don't know. Cool to jump into the background, but hopefully there is more to the gameplay in later levels.

I'll definitely try out quite a few Virtual Boy games in that emulator once I get my Rift.

If I had as much nostalgia/interest about the Virtual Boy as I do the NES and Genesis, I would be probably be more excited to test the VB out than what I have planned to do with classic monoscopic games. The Virtual Boy obviously makes much more sense for full-screen Rift viewing.
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Post by BloodShed »

Drewbdoo wrote:Guys, I was a kid when Virtual Boy came out too. I, too, thought it was cool.

However, now I'm adult and realize that it was a total piece of crap that hurt my neck a whole bunch just trying to play the demo at Blockbuster.
I'm 33 and I still enjoy my Virtual Boy (it's sitting in my living room). I've played through Red Alarm more times than I can count. I don't see how age has any relevance.

By the way, in my own experience, I almost never played at a table. I'll agree it's uncomfortable. I prefer to lay down in bed while resting the Virtual Boy on my head with the rubber tips of the legs laying on my shoulders to hold it up. I have played for several hours like that comfortably.
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cybereality
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by cybereality »

This is awesome! Just played Red Alarm, my favorite Virtual Boy game, on the Rift. It works!!!!!
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by 2EyeGuy »

That's great. I'm looking forward to trying it when my Rift arrives, since I never got to try a real Virtual Boy.

But I'd still like to add a little more VR to the Virtual Boy. Partly because it's cool and because the Virtual Boy is supposed to be more VR than it was, and partly so we don't get so motion sick if we move our head. I'm going to try rendering the parallax layers as quads at appropriate locations and sizes in space, so we can move our heads around and have it look correct. I don't know how to do that with Red Alarm though.
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by IGameArt »

The best option honestly is to render the left and right eyes to a single plane in 3d space, and change the texture of the plain for each eye, that would allow any game to have orientation support without too much extra hassle.
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by 2EyeGuy »

IGameArt wrote:The best option honestly is to render the left and right eyes to a single plane in 3d space, and change the texture of the plain for each eye, that would allow any game to have orientation support without too much extra hassle.
That would be good. It would be like a 3D TV though, rolling your head would destroy the 3D effect.
Most of the 3D is done just by setting a parallax value on each sprite. So I figure we could just apply the parallax in the proper direction and amount whatever their head orientation or position is, by rendering them in layers.
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by IsoMacintosh »

Does anyone know what is the required directx version?
also, now we only need emulator for "famicom 3d system" and "master system 3d glasses" and thats all the retro 3d console games covered. (just think about rad racer on a rift. :woot)
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by rowanunderwood »

I LOVE this emulator. Was a owner of the original Virtual Boy, but sadly my unit no longer works. Been making youtube videos for this all morning, have a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqiNN_ksQw8
This is actually a ton of fun, tetris is so much more difficult in 3d.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE-0kocNNIw
This is a not that great hack-together homebrew. . . but I was quite impressed by the graphics and the 3d effect here. Kind of makes you wonder what Nintendo could have wrung out of the system if they stuck around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98ZlDCEkH6U
It's no Rockstar's Table Tennis, but it's got the basics covered.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2_zxss_mAU
OMG this game is nuts, you can fly backwards, you can sideswish in four directions! And the graphics, wow, all that on a 20 MHZ processor. I wanted this game so bad when I was a kid, but couldn't quite afford it :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ-hgQyUxtI
This Homebrew is actually extremely impressive, taking a similar approach to Rad Racer on the NES, but bumping up a few notches with spot-on 3d. Sadly, no sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KZXC26IM44
This is your basic top down shmp, but with layers. And a robot that does everything for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtaeQKutN48
Space Invaders is still a bugger.
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by rowanunderwood »

IsoMacintosh wrote:Does anyone know what is the required directx version?
also, now we only need emulator for "famicom 3d system" and "master system 3d glasses" and thats all the retro 3d console games covered. (just think about rad racer on a rift. :woot)

That's RIGHT, I totally forgot Rad Racer had a 3d mode.
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by Direlight »

I have a method I'm going to try that should work on anything that has video out connections. Remember all the wii games with awesome VR controls, if only someone paired that up with the Rift and could make the graphics better.

I actually finally get my Rift tomorrow.

cool VB screens! :o
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cybereality
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Re: Virtual Boy Emulator!

Post by cybereality »

Thanks for the videos, rowanunderwood.
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