Labo VR Will Reportedly Be Compatible With Virtual Boy For Switch Online

It's cardboard, so don't take it to the tip at all! Recycle, people.

This is what I've been hoping for! Nice to see Labo VR getting a new lease of life seven years after release (😵)

Too bad a Switch 2 probably doesn’t fit into it. Because Virtual Boy was running with ca. 50 Hz, and while the VRR screen of Switch 2 can display that correctly, the Switch 1 screen can‘t.

Hey @Olliemar28, which one of you lovely staff members will get the honor of reviewing Resident Evil Requiem? 😊

Well, that's good news for those who got one! I am personally considering getting the cardboard one for Switch 2. The Virtual Boy shell is just too unwieldy in my opinion. No matter how cool it is to have a piece of Nintendo curiosa.

Will have to dig out my Labo VR for some Virtual Boy games then! Very excited to try this out

It still strange to me that you cannot play the games in 2D. I get that they were not meant to be played this way but I guess neither were the other consoles that are part of Switch Online. And this means that you cannot play the games at all in Switch Lite.

It'd be cool if Nintendo updated their LABO VR compatible games to work with the Switch 2 when it's in the Virtual Boy Cardboard Model (sans the actual LABO VR Toy-Con games due the headset's inability to fit into the Toy-Con when a Switch 2 is inserted and the Joy-Con 2's larger size when compared to the original Joy-Con).

The images would have to be displayed at the size they are on an 6.2" screen instead of a 7.9" screen. I suppose you could still do it, as they still seem to play fine on the Switch OLED's 7" screen, but I imagine a significant amount of the image wouldn't be able to be seen.

Captain Toad is really cool in VR.

Brilliant sub-heading XD

@Olliemar28 as you were, then.👍

does that mean the labo vr game will be compatible with the virtual boy headset?

There is no way it can't be compatible with Virtual Boy. Its just displaying two viewports on the screen that are shown through lenses in a headset made out of either cardboard or plastic. There are no electronics. The only reason it wouldn't be compatible is if Nintendo put some form of chip inside the Virtual Boy headsets but even if they did, there is no sensor in the Switch or Switch 2 consoles that would be able to pick up on whatever that chip is. The only thing the Switch has that could pick up on that is the NFC sensor but they reside in the controllers and not the console itself.

@belmont i also question it. the 3ds has already proved that games dont NEED to be in 3d to be playable. even if the VB was never built to have a 2d mode, idk maybe they could still give us the option to choose either the left eye or right eye screen?

@boxyguy Of course you can play them without 3D, you can do so in Virtual Boy emulators.

The difference between the 3DS and the Virtual Boy is that the 3DS was designed to be played in both 3D and 2D modes, Virtual Boy was only designed to be played in 3D. Nintendo always strides to recreate the intended experience in any of their reproductions of them. So this is not a technical feasibility issue, this is a design boundary they don't want to cross because they feel it will misrepresent the intended experience.

My hopes are met.

Would have been completely stupid to not have it compatible. Imagine you get a message saying "wrong cardboard" when launching the app... that would have been insane.

@Max_the_German Most displays, even non-VRR ones usually have different display modes. What VRR does is allow how to dynamically change the refresh rate while keeping the image active. A mode change like this will cause the image to go black for a moment while it changes the mode. Back in the day, TVs had to have both 50 and 60 hz mode for NTSC and PAL. If you've ever switched between 50 and 60 hz in an old PAL game, you know what it looks like.

The Steam Deck doesn't support VRR but you can use the Performance panel to make it display different static refresh rates natively. The LCD model I believe can do anything between 40-60hz while the OLED can do 48-90hz. The homebrew Virtual Boy emulator that was made for Nintendo 3DS was also able to set the 3DS screen to update at 50hz.

So I would say its highly likely that Nintendo will make the Switch screen change into a 50hz display mode when using the Virtual Boy app. I would say the only reason they wouldn't do this is if they were oblivious enough to the stutter that running 50hz content on a 60hz display causes so to not think of doing it.

Im still salty that these games cant be played without some kind of peripheral that costs additional $$$ on top of an NSO subscription. I would have loved to try out the games I never owed, especially if theyre allowing the color to change from red to something else.

The irony of the pricing is that I paid less for a new Virtual Boy and several games than the VB headset being released by Nintendo for the Switch.

@DennisLofgren i can see that, but i do feel like we're past the point of authenticity when the default way to play most NSO games are with joycons, with their respective controllers being paid extras

i dont have the nso expansion so i cant really comment on how much the subscribers care. still for such a high tier, skipping the option to play directly on switch is weird to me

@DennisLofgren

And while the 3DS has a 50 Hz mode, which is used by VB emulators (which slow the games down from 50.2 Hz btw), from everything I know, Switch 1 hasn’t. Switch 2 could present VB games with perfect 50.2 Hz.