The Virtual Boy Officially Lands on MiSTer FPGA, With Real 3D Rendering

Nintendo's most unusual console has finally joined the MiSTer FPGA core family. Developer Kitrinx released a dedicated Virtual Boy core on August 6, 2026, for the 1995 3D console, with full support for several stereoscopic display modes.

Several ways to relive (or discover) the 3D effect

Released in 1995 and discontinued by Nintendo just a year later due to poor sales, the Virtual Boy relied on a unique concept: displaying a red-and-black stereoscopic image directly inside a tabletop headset to create the illusion of depth. The new MiSTer core faithfully reproduces this behavior while also offering several modern alternatives that don't require the original headset: an anaglyph mode compatible with standard red/cyan glasses, and a side-by-side mode for displaying the 3D effect on a compatible 3D TV. Native CRT output is also supported for purists running a cathode-ray tube display.

Beyond faithfully reproducing the original hardware, the core adds quality-of-life features that never existed on the original console, starting with working save states. Installation is handled simply through update_all, the platform's standard update utility, which automatically downloads the new Virtual Boy core along with its documentation. Newcomers to the platform can check the MiSTer FPGA Bible getting-started guide for the basics, then toggle the "Eye Drawn" option and set "Scale" to "Normal" in the core's menu to enable the 3D modes.

Source: RetroRGB