Greg from Laser Bear has just opened pre-orders on three separate Virtual Boy power solutions: One USB power adapter and two separate rechargeable battery pack replacements. Prices range from $30 – $55 and they’re due to ship in February. There’s a lot to discuss, so check out the details below the links:
Virtual Boy Pak’s: https://retrorgb.link/vbpowerpak
USB Charger: https://amzn.to/3RBPe2I
2-Pack USB Charger: https://amzn.to/47dFJwm
The first device is the Power Pak – A $30 adapter that allows you to power your Virtual Boy via a USB charger. You only need a 500mA PSU, but I always suggest using “tablet chargers” for things like this, that are 1a or more. I have links above to chargers I’ve recently been using with a fully-loaded MiSTer, so they should be great for this as well. You could also use a 1a USB Power Bank along with this, however Greg’soptions below feel like a better fit…
As a note, the Virtual Boy is powered by an attachment to it’s controller. Nintendo offered an AC adapter that let you use an SNES PSU, as well as a battery pack that fit AA batteries. These Laser Bear adapters also clip onto the controller and are a bit smaller.
The next product is a $50 battery pack that’s about the same size as the original, but a bit thinner. You’ll need to supply your own batteries (Greg links to recommended types in the listing), but these will provide 2-4 hours of play time on your VB.
There’s also a larger version of the pak for $55, which uses bigger batteries that can get you about ten hours of gameplay. I love the VB, but my eyes might explode if I played it for 10 hours straight…
Anyway, both of the battery pak’s can also work while the VB is charging, making them dual battery + AC adapters. All three are excellent choices, so make sure to check out Greg’s post to see what’s a good fit for you…and once again, make sure to use the links on that page to get the correct batteries for the system!
If you’re interested in what other awesome accessories are available for the Virtual Boy, the first fifteen minutes of this livestream shows off new hardware and the rest is homebrew gameplay footage:
