VBoy Color: a new emulator finally lets you play Virtual Boy games in colour

Nintendo's Virtual Boy only ever displayed shades of red on a black background, and that is exactly what VBoy Color, a new emulator reported on 10 October 2026, aims to change. Its author, yuk27, offers to render the console's games in colour, on PC and on Meta Quest, with real stereoscopic display on the headset and matching colours for each eye. The developer states the project was built with the help of Claude, and the press notes that some inconsistencies and bugs may remain.

Several colourisation modes are available. The default Auto mode assigns colours based on what drew each pixel, such as background depth or a character's palette, and colours games without tiles according to the distance between the two eyes' images. Multicolor gives each of the console's four shades its own colour, Gradient maps brightness onto a gradient (Jade, Ocean, Sunset...), and Tint reproduces the classic monochrome look, in red or a colour of your choice.

Hand-painted palettes and comfort tools

The emulator also supports "color packs", hand-painted colour sets for specific titles, which override the default settings when a .vbcp file is placed next to the ROM. Built-in packs cover Wario Land, Mario's Tennis and Space Invaders Virtual Collection, among others. There is also a game library with box art from libretro, multiple save-state slots with colour thumbnails, screen filters and 3D modes for PC, video recording that compares the original and the colourised version, and playback of TASVideos TAS movies in colour.

VBoy Color is a free download from the project's GitHub page, and the color packs documentation works as a getting-started guide for creating your own palettes. As with any downloaded file, it is wise to check what you install.

Source: Retro Dodo