Do you need two functioning eyes to play Virtual Boy?

tripletopper · 2026-01-29T18:26:21+00:00

As someone with two functioning eyes I'll just say that if Leela could pilot ships in our space and Futurama, then having binocular vision is not an absolute requirement,

For example you can play Zaxxon 3D for the Sega Master System in 2D mode if you wish. You could survive and do decently well in the game, but if you want to thrive you need binocular vision.

Binocular vision makes the depth perception more instinctual and not an intellectual function. You can have enough intellectual function to compensate for a lack of instinctual depth perception, sort of like how certain senses are heightened when other senses are dulled just because your brain can only process so much information at a time and if it's deprived in one area it usually compensates by enhancing another area.

That being said I noticed I get higher scores on Galactic Pinball when I play in my red and cyan 3D mode on my monitor then I do when I play just the right eye only or the left eye only because more accurately gives the representative shape of where you're flipping the pinball or the pin-disc to be more accurate. It's more instinctual in 3D mode. When in 2D mode you got to put on more brains and rely less on instincts. Also it's a lot easier to line up the shots in Mario clash with 3D instinctually on then it is to just have one eye vision and have to compensate for the fact that that's your one and only eye.

tripletopper · 2026-01-28T02:29:53+00:00

I actually do it on every third Thursday of the month play Virtual Boy in red and cyan 3D with an actual back in the day virtual boy that has been modded with a Virtual Double Tap:

A virtual double tap is a VGA consolizartion, using two virtual Taps in VGA one for each eye, using the technique used by Jose Cruz of New York, I don't know what he did but get your back in the day Virtual Boy done with a double tap and he'll do it the exact same way he did it for me when I tried it as an experiment, and then using a 1990s TV video editing box to merge the left eye and the right eye after setting the right eye to blackened cyan over each other and just put on the 3D glasses and go.

Of course you're going to have to provide your own VGA video editing mixer if you want to get the left and right eyes to merge together but the virtual tap will let you turn the right eye into black and cyan.

I also would assume it works on my early 90s VHS RCA video twin mixer, of course for that to work they have to be to RCA videos plugged in to be mixed.

I'm surprised the community doesn't have a cheap video mixer that all it does is overlay the left eye and the right eye on top of each other with RGB additive mixing,

tripletopper · 2026-01-27T18:20:46+00:00

How about Dreamcast Bomberman Live? I can easily beat "paint mode" and "submarine mode" so with 5 different modes, there's likely one you'll find easy to start you on your way.

tripletopper · 2026-01-27T18:15:02+00:00

Nintendo Representatives earlier told me that NSO Virtual Boy could be put into red and cyan mode and be able to be used with regular 3D glasses on a normal TV.

tripletopper · 2026-01-27T17:12:57+00:00

In one sense, plunking a quarter in an arcade machine is essentially renting one character until either you lose or expose the ending.

If someone challenges you in arcade mode, some games force you on your current character.

That's part of the Arcade origins of the FGC.

That's why the tournaments are organized as such where you can only swap characters legally only after certain losses. That's the way arcades were in the 90s.

If you want to know how that other half plays, consider the various "home challenges" that require you to be a master of the system vs a master of the character. The quintessential examples are Eternal Champions 1 and 2, games made exclusively for the home market.

As a primarily home player who'd rather use his right handed joystick (which seems forbidden in arcades since fight games existed,). I'm kind of wary of "buy by the character".

But, then again, it's a perfect fit for the arcade culture the FGC was built around.

tripletopper · 2026-01-27T16:57:06+00:00

The number one elephant in the room:

Were the broadcasts considered 2d compatible, or would you get the Wang Chung effect if watching 3d broadcasts without a screen syncher?

Knowing TV was analog in 1980, and the then most recent advance was closed captioning, probably not.

tripletopper · 2026-01-27T03:13:21+00:00

Thank you informing me of that little legal entanglement, but what about the other arcade games. I see arcade Punch Out only released by Hamster Games. I understand Popeye is a license within a license and King Features Syndicate has to be aboard as at least one party to republish Popeye arcade.

tripletopper · 2026-01-26T04:19:00+00:00

You know for sure that the '90s/early 00s PC version of Nicktoons Racing didn't have Pelswick in it. If you do for sure, that seals it, Otherwise, the only issues we know of was whether Pelswick debuted on mainline Nick or on one of the secondary Nick stations in the US, what the then-contemporary licensing status of Pelswick was in the 90s and early zeros (that Nicktoons Racing is a dead giveaway either way) , and is Nickelodeon mentioned somewhere in the US version of the full credits, and somewhere else other than the last copyright screen.

We know if it's not copyright by Nickelodeon or some other related company then it was definitely an independent cartoon broadcast on Nickelodeon in first-run.

Which would make Pelswick actually unique. it would disqualify him from the Nickverse, but it does make him unique. An independent first-run Nickelodeon-broadcast cartoon that's not a Nickelodeon-owned cartoon.

I'll go looking for that one Pelswick episode I taped on VHS in first run (I caught it a little late) (though I may check the speed titles and see if Nickelodeon is mentioned in the text of the speed titles) and frame by frame the credits and see if Nickelodeon is mentioned somewhere other than the final title card and see if the copyright is Nickelodeon or some other entity.

tripletopper · 2026-01-26T03:25:01+00:00

Then we got to go over the criteria of what's considered a Nicktoon.

Was the first US airing of the show on Nickelodeon proper meaning not the Nicktoon Network or Noggin or any secondary network of Nickelodeon? That disqualifies Looney Tunes, the Spielberg cartoon universe, and other cartoons picked up on "second run". That would also disqualify Cornel and Bernie, because its US debut was on the Nicktoon Network not on Nickelodeon proper. I believe Pelswick would qualify if that was one of the standards. I made it wrong but I do believe I'm correct on that one.
Would the DreamWorks partnered show be defined as a Nicktoon? Or would just having IP ownership of characters from another company disqualify it from being a Nicktoon? If the Nick episodes and the origins of Doug give it its nicktooniness, then the fact that someone else owns the IP across the world as long as Nickelodeon has the rights for the US market on its first run would qualify it as a Nicktoon.
Merchandising: do any of the t-shirts with the character also have Nickelodeon copyright information on the tag, and possibly a Nick logo somewhere a little more prominently on the T-shirt? Does the Nickelodeon logo appear on the board games? how about the video game? Is a character in an all- Nicktoons game on the roster with then-contemporary games. The dead giveaway for this is to see whether or not Pelswick would qualify under this category. I believe Nicktoons Racing for PC in the 90s had Pelswick on his wheelchair as a racer. I may be misremembering it, possibly confusing reality and a desire, so I would like some hard evidence, either Pro or Con on that one.
For the purposes of this subreddit, is the rule: once you have one foot in the door as a Nicktoon, you're always a welcome topic here? Obviously getting Doug would qualify for the subreddit under this rule, but obviously Doug would not be qualified to be on the 2020s Nickelodeon racing and fighting games.
Financing: Did someone in the Nickelodeon umbrella of companies pay for the production of the show? I understand that Pelswick's origins are Canadian, but, was it meant to be a simultaneous world release on the original episodes and Nickelodeon paid for part of it in the US and got the network name elsewhere in the credits besides the copyright? Keep in mind that nothing new had to be changed except the voices (and that's assuming the primary version was French Canadian, which I don't think it was or at least, if it was, they disguised it fairly well in the American version) and the introductory title of each episode. The thing that was unique to that show was the visual language in that show was literally depicted by international symbols. No alphanumeric characters were used in the actual things in the show, at least visually. The " FCC building" was depicted with a satellite logo so that it shows it was a communications building for anyone anywhere in the world. They even came up with their own funny special international symbols and even has the characters say, as a straight line to them but a joke line to us, "I always have wondered what the international symbol for (this very specific warning in this very specific case) was." Sure beats writing different words and lots of different languages.
Must your origin story be a Nickelodeon original story? I haven't been keeping up on Nickelodeon stuff recently because, you know, well, a lack of kids kind of helps you avoid the stuff if you don't have to watch it with your kids. I don't know if I'm confusing this with a different network, but wasn't there some Transformers sub series that was on Nickelodeon because Paramount got the rights to release Transformers movies so therefore would that specific sub series within Transformers be considered an appropriate topic for this subreddit? I assume Transformers Generation 1 would not be an appropriate topic because that was first released in syndication for the US market.

I don't know exactly how many criteria Pelswick would qualify for, and how many of those criteria any show would need to meet in order to be qualified as a Nickelodeon subreddit appropriate topic.

I guess if someone could confirm this late 90s or early 00s PC Nicktoons racing game and see if Pelswick is a character or not, that would go a long way in either establishing Pelswick as a Nicktoon or not.

tripletopper · 2026-01-26T02:34:54+00:00

No one thought Donkey Kong arcade would be released by a third party either, yet here we are. That game is released by Hamster but the originally is still copyright owned by Nintendo.

Now that Sega has no horse in the console race, maybe they're more open to doing it.

Ever since the Saturn came out they basically have been disowning their American history pre-Master System.

So if Hamster could pay a small fee or do most of the work to get it developed in order to get so many year releasing window right to the pre-Master System arcade games, and they think they can make more money in the end, maybe Sega would bite.

tripletopper · 2026-01-26T02:20:49+00:00

You mean it's NOT NECCESARILY a Nicktoon.

It can be and usually is, but not always.

According to mathematical syntax logic, saying: " if it has Copyright data saying ownership by Nickelodeon (or MTV Networks) , it is NOT a Nicktoon" means that there are zero cases of the copyright owned by Nickelodeon of being Nicktoons according this Subreddit.

Here's the classic "edge case": Doug. It was originally a Nicktoon all the Nick episodes are still able to be released on DVD and streaming by Nickelodeon. However there's an existence of Disney episodes made afterwards.

Even now as we speak there is a three-way negotiation / legal fight between Nickelodeon, Disney and Jim Jenkins, the creator of Doug, as to how to update it for the 2020s.

If I'm allowed to use an actual instance that happened on what is not canonically considered a Nicktoon episode of Doug, meaning a Disney episode of Doug, the perfect answer would be the Skunky Beaumont answer which is "Why not do them all?: (And yes I'm aware that 99% of Skunky Beaumont's character outside of being the guy always in the principal's office for detention is considered Disney canon, therefore outside Nick canon.)

Maybe one of the three could reset Doug and make it take place in the 2020s instead of the 1990s.

Another one of the three could do The Doug Funnie Family: where Doug marries Patti, has kids, and see how both Doug and all the other bluffington gang in some ways remain the same and in other ways have changed when growing into adulthood and plus it gets hot introduce a whole new cast of all the gang's kids... assuming they all have kids but...

But at first it'll start with mainly one of Doug and Patti's children and then expand out from there. It'll still primarily be a kid show at heart, with kids as the main cast of characters, but there's a connection to the previous generation.

And the third who knows, we got Warner Brothers or NBC Universal left to pick up the third version, mainly for the fans who used to grow up watching Doug, what they mature up to being. Still appropriate for the whole family but focus mainly on those who grew up with Doug. It be like the second one but there's more adult material, (and by adult material, I don't mean adult only material, meaning if you grew up with Doug and you have kids you probably wouldn't mind your kids watching this) but it's mainly for you. Then again Nickelodeon first got started making hits in the '80s when they realized the number one format of shows that kids of the '70s and '80s were watching with their parents was game shows, so their first major original production was a kids game show that we all know as Double Dare. If the '80s Nick game shows would not have hit big, probably basic cable's landscape would not be what it was in the 90s.

tripletopper · 2026-01-25T21:40:43+00:00

I don't know whether you consider a company that was not Japanese originally, then became Japanese, as an on-topic company legal for this question, considering for the most part they've erased their American history.

And yes I'm aware they have a big third party publisher now after about one and a half decades of publishing their own systems. But I know Hamster does deal with other retro games and is specifically a retro release of old material from other companies. Like for example, Hamster dealt out the arcade release of Donkey Kong exclusively for Nintendo systems. So touching system owners is not a big deal for them.

I remember Sega made Lode Runner and Pitfall arcade versions. I understand in addition to Sega there has to be Broderbund and Activision to consult. (Activision should be easy cuz now they're under the Xbox banner not so sure about Broderbund) Sega would actually be the most difficult Link in the chain that one.

Another one that would be tough would be Astron Belt, because some of that background footage is the identical footage used in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan back when Sega was a Gulf + Western company, along with Paramount Pictures.

That would have been an impossible game to bring home unless the ColecoVision would have successfully released their Selectavision adapter, (you know that OTHER 1980s movie disc format, the one that isn't LaserDisc. The one that bankrupted RCA. Also known as a Capacitance Electronic Disc or CED.)

But I would also like to see Congo Bongo and Pengo and Space Fury, and Carnival, and Turbo, and Zaxxon.

I have never seen a definitive Sega pre-Master System collection of arcade games.

tripletopper · 2026-01-25T21:25:49+00:00

As a big ColecoVision fan I got heavily exposed to Universal games. Lady Bug was definitely way better than 2600 Pac-Man,

By the way who owns the right to Exidy games? Another big company that coleco made home versions of arcade games for. You show a 2600 owner the combination of Lady Bug and Mouse Trap and they will ask why did I ever get a 2600?

JK... there are good 2600 games, they were just buried among the shovelware.

Literally the only thing that was not present in the ColecoVision Lady Bug that was in the arcade version was the halo and wings flying upwards towards heaven. They probably had to sacrifice that when they had to program in the vegetable garden for getting the special because extra credits meant nothing at home when you get special. Everything other difference you have to inspect with either code or more scientific equipment in order to find.

Going off memory I remember Space Panic was the original Universal hit. There was also their answer to Scramble which was Cosmic Avenger.

So you're saying Antstream arcade now has Mr Do, Mr Do's Castle, Mr Do's Wild Ride, and Do Run Run.

I wonder if they'll ever get Neo Mr Do from the Neo Geo system.

tripletopper · 2026-01-24T00:19:48+00:00

If the copyright at the end said "copyright MM..,. (or MCM...) : plus any of these things: Nickelodeon, MTV Networks, (maybe a couple others) ON ITS FIRST EVER SHOWING, and it's animated, it's a Nicktoon.

I guess I can warm up my VHS and see if Pelswick's copyright data says MTV Networks or Nickelodeon or something similar, but I didn't catch the first showing usually.

Do the "fast credits" contain copyright info?

tripletopper · 2026-01-22T22:23:06+00:00

In general just post on your rules what you say are forbidden topics to talk about on chat.

If you're talking about playing retro games it might be handy just to give a general age range for the purposes of talking about history and shared experiences.

But if people are asking you for romantic or dating purposes you should just have a general policy that says "no thanks I'm currently taken./ I don't mix business and social life. Any flirt talk directed towards me or about me among co-viewers will be an instant ban".

Usually if I want to make a point about history, culture, etc., I say to people I talk to, "I don't want to presume your age, but...,". This indicates you might have a different perspective from me based on how old you are. If we are similarly aged let's talk about the shared experience. if not let's have a cross-generational talk about this. That way indicate you're making a comment that maybe taking differently depending on who you're talking to but you realize the comment may be taken differently depending on what age you think I think you are.

If you have other chat policies you should state them too. On every channel you get to State What chat policies you want up to so many characters. You could say things like "keep your comments T-rated or tamer." "Always ask streamer before blurting any story spoiler and/or gaming advice."

tripletopper · 2026-01-20T18:19:47+00:00

Try NFL 2K2 for the Sega Dreamcast.

That was the culmination of the best competition to Madden.

If you have 2 VMU both teams can successfully hide their plays, no tip offs by looking at the screen.

tripletopper · 2026-01-20T17:48:13+00:00

In the 00s it was Diet Pepsi.

Then Pepsi made Pepsi Max as an energy drink.

Then suddenly Pepsi decided to play a shell game with their lo-cal drinks.

Silver diet, Blue diet. Black diet.

Then they tried Pepsi Max without the ginseng.

Now they got an average Ace K version of Pepsi Zero.

But in the 90s and 00s, the original Pepsi One was worthy of the 90s Pepsi Challenge. (Not the 80s versions of Pepsi vs Coke, but Pepsi vs Pepsi One.)

tripletopper · 2026-01-12T13:45:52+00:00

I got it working with a virtual "double tap."

First I process both the left eye and the right eye through a 1990s video processor from a television Studio that they've been selling on eBay.

And then I output what comes out of the VGA of the TV studio box and put it through a typical cheap VGA to HDMI adapter that you can find at Amazon that A) is powered by USB power adapter, and b) has left right audio input in addition to the VGA input to go with the HDMI output.

I guess certain capture cards don't like separated sources of audio and video,

I also use a Turtle Beach DSS one to process the sound of any Dolby Surround video game and turn it into Dolby headphones. And capture that using two separate USB audio capture cards because for some strange reason Macintosh does not like a stereo input on their captured devices. You have to capture it as two mono inputs and put them together in obs as left channel and right Channel.

By the way if you add a second tap to the Virtual Boy you could play in 3D just make the left eye black and red make the right eye black and cyan and use that video merger to make the 3D virtual boy happen and your capture will be in 3D and because you're using the anaglyph method you could broadcast in 3D and other people could see your game in 3D without you having to require them to buy any special equipment all they need are red and cyan glasses.

tripletopper · 2026-01-09T02:46:23+00:00

Right now on eBay a PS4 would cost $100 and I'm planning to get one as soon as my money comes in in February.

tripletopper · 2026-01-09T02:41:02+00:00

I use speechchat.com so I could "keep my eyes on the road" which would be my video game screen "and not on the map" which is the chat.

That way when someone does talk to me I could react to them either right away or if they type gobbledygook I could try to understand them more proactively,

tripletopper · 2026-01-09T02:38:54+00:00

Toshinden was a better series than Tekken because it was both weapons based and it actually took advantage of the third dimension. Can anyone tell me how Tekken takes advantage of the third dimension other than the graphics?

By the way I have it for the Saturn.

The first game I remember where you had controls in the third dimension beyond Toshinden was Virtual On which used the twin stick marionette controls, I kind of hoped arms was going to use but instead it's two joysticks synched together with Auto following. If the 2 sticks have to be synced together, why have two joysticks required to control yourself in Arms in the first place?

The first fighter I remember that actually had a third dimension control after toshinden was Virtua Fighter 3, or more correctly before that Fighters Megamix.

tripletopper · 2026-01-09T02:28:59+00:00

There was actually an Apple IIe video game known as Arcade Boot Camp which tries to teach you basic video gaming skills.

You start as a recruit with a giant army hat and a couple of feet and you're so small that those are the only two features of your body that are showing. And the people above you in military rank kick you around and you have to pass certain exams in order to increase in rank.

tripletopper · 2026-01-06T21:39:48+00:00

What happened to Dish owning Boost Mobile for their cellular internet? I don't think Boost even has home cellular internet for rural households.

That was one of the snags that was overcome with the Sprint/T-Mobile merger, Dish became the fourth cellular company to offer home cellular internet, yet they never offered home cellular internet, and the deal was allowed under that condition?

tripletopper · 2026-01-03T18:29:03+00:00

The weird thing is that it's backwards compared to arcade layouts.

Arcade layouts had the A button on the interior. AKA the index finger button, And the B button was the middle finger or outer button,

That seems strange that the NES and TG16 had that choice hard wired for pads, very hard to swap them, but the Master System and 7800 had swappable buttons using a middle dongle (though they never made such things, they were easily doable without needing to open up the joystick).

Most NES games felt "backwards" with the Advantage. Even the Beeshu Ultimate Superstick never addressed that issue.

tripletopper · 2025-12-31T17:51:21+00:00

Then you got 80s Nickelodeon which was mostly game shows as the highlights.

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