Context: I am on a personal agenda to backup all my games myself. In this search I landed on the Open Source Cartridge Reader (OSCR) it was expensive so I held off until a few months ago when I could finally afford it.
When I got it, I also bought every adapter I needed including the Virtual Boy one, which comes as a Kit. I didn’t think it looked bad, which is why I ordered it. But I held off on making since I started getting cold feet.
Today however I got the courage to try and… it was awful. 60 teeny tiny pins needed to be aligned and individually soldered. It was setup so a skilled micro solder could doing the job in an hour or so… it took me 4 hours and scouring the floor finding pins which fell. Let alone unclogging holes which were accidentally soldered.
However after testing my patience and redoing the last step 3-5 times. It works!!!!!!!!
Now I can play Jack Bros without a VB, and Viper on 3DS is amazing.
Shoutout to Save The Hero Builders. I got everything from them and they were extremely helpful with a noob like me.
Virtual Boys are sadly fragile systems. Specifically the displays. They are glued down and the adhesive is corrosive and failing to hold up. Getting mine repaired soon.
I sold mine when the 3DS was about to be released. Since it was still in perfect condition it seems I made the right choice while it was still good.
(I thought the rotating mirror or whatever would wear down)
Those have been the more reliable components on mine 🥲