Virtual Boy Link Cable Development

I'm bringing this post over from my other site www.mellottsvrpage.com as it's more appropriate here at RetroOnyx.com. This is my original Virtual Boy link cable development blog post that was updated as the design went along. It's a bit outdated now but still gives insight to how things were done and how the design progressed. This was also my first official VB project! It was an exciting time.

The VB link cable design has been updated even further and you can see the latest on the VB link cable product page. Read on below for the original post started in 2017.

Originally Started on July 15th, 2017 Updated most recently on 11/18/2021

I’ve been working on a link cable project so that people can finally play Virtual Boy in 2 player versus mode! The most famous being Hyper Fighting. Then the only other two games that are VB 2 player are 3D-BattleSnake and Tic Tac Toe. All three games are Homebrew as no official Nintendo 2 player VB game was ever released. If you’re interested in a cable send me an email.

And my first VB link cable shown below. Played 2 player Hyper Fighting!

Here’s an updated print with better finish just by changing the print orientation. These are FDM prints.

I had an SLS print also made as well as a nylon print in white. The first two on the left are the FDM Onyx prints, followed by the SLS HP PA12, and then the nylon.

And now a picture of the first cable itself.

The latest parts look really good!

Here’s a few cables made with the new better finish parts.

If you’re so inclined you can 3D print the parts yourself. These are an older design but still work and the parts were tweaked to print best in Onyx on a Markforged printer. Grab them here. You’ll need 2 sets of these parts to make connectors for one cable.

Here’s a picture of my 100th link cable build. I decided to change the color scheme for this last one to make it unique.

And one last picture to show some Link cable games. Currently these are the only 2 player link cable games available as of 11/19/2017. All homebrew. Most recently Mario Tennis has been patched for 2 player action!