With Nintendo’s surprise announcement that Virtual Boy games are coming to the Switch 1 & 2, we thought it a good time to explore Virtual Boy Go, an open-source app for Quest that promises similar functionality.
I’m a real Virtual Boy freak. I was eleven years old in August, 1995, when Volume 75 of Nintendo Power Magazine arrived in my mailbox with a twenty-page feature on Nintendo’s new 32-bit ultra-immersive 3D headset. I devoured those pages for months, obsessing over the upcoming Teleroboxer, Mario’s Tennis, Jack Bros., and Red Alarm. When my Virtual Boy arrived on Christmas, it was love at first sight.
Hindsight (and an army of YouTubers who weren’t born when the thing debuted) tells us the Virtual Boy was Nintendo’s greatest failure, and it’s true that the system is weird and awkward and silly. But that’s also why I love it.
Photos by James Tocchio.
It’s 2025 now, and Nintendo has just announced that their Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription service will offer all 14 US released Virtual Boy games (eventually). These will be playable in stereoscopic 3D through the use of a special Virtual Boy accessory that the Switch and Switch 2 will slot into (a cheaper cardboard model will also be available for $25). All of this is coming in February, 2026.
But you don’t have to wait, if you don’t want to. By sideloading the open-source app Virtual Boy Go on a Quest headset, you can play Virtual Boy games in 3D today. It’s not as effortless a process as Nintendo’s offering will surely be, but it’s doable.
Nintendo Switch & Switch 2 Getting Official Virtual Boy Accessory
Switch and Switch 2 are getting official Virtual Boy accessories that Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers can slot their consoles into to play classic 3D games like Mario’s Tennis.
The Virtual Boy Go Experience
Virtual Boy Go is a sideloaded app available through SideQuest, a platform that enables Quest users to install unofficial VR apps. Once installed, the results are remarkable.
Virtual Boy Go runs games smoothly, and the app and headset faithfully recreate the depth-based visuals that are so distinctive to the original hardware. Images are sharp and punchy, with great contrast and vibrant reds. There’s a neat sort of wrapping effect which isn’t found in the original, where the play area very subtly shifts around you, which is nice.
Moreover the app is highly customizable, allowing you to change the color palette from the native red to more comfortable colorways (if you’re a coward), and to modify viewing modes from 3D to 2D (again, why?). There’s also complete button-mapping customization, which is great, a broader FOV, and the headset itself is intrinsically more comfortable than the Virtual Boy’s was back in the day.
Captured by James Tocchio on Meta Quest 3S.
Rose-Colored Lenses
There are two unfortunate drawbacks; setup, and the questionable legality of using emulators.
The initial setup of SideQuest and Virtual Boy Go is tedious, bordering on painful. To get things running, you need to enable Developer Mode on your Quest, which requires registering as a developer and confirming your identity, download and install SideQuest, install Virtual Boy Go, and then transfer Virtual Boy games onto the headset.
3D Tetris, Red Alarm, WarioLand VB captured by James Tocchio on Meta Quest 3S.
Any conversation about emulation inevitably circles around to legality. Downloading ROMs of games that you don’t own is copyright infringement and you should not do this. You can purchase original cartridges from used markets and make backups of your own games. For most users, this isn’t viable. I own all of the Virtual Boy’s limited games and I’m very experienced at this. If not for these two facts, playing Virtual Boy games on my Quest would be problematic.
Of course, the alternative is to wait for Nintendo’s official solution in February. You’ll need to subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, buy the accessory, and you’ll never truly own the games. Perhaps that’s all worth it to avoid operating in a legal gray area? Personally, I’ll be buying the new Virtual Boy, gimmick or not.
For those unwilling to wait and comfortable with a tedious onboarding process, the reward is worth it. Virtual Boy Go is a fantastic app, amounting to what is essentially the best way to play Virtual Boy through a headset today. I love it almost as much as I love my original machine from 1995. Who could’ve seen that coming?
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