Ask API. GET https://whichemulator.wtf/ask answers questions from the same data as this page, and it is the only place the setup steps are published. It takes the question as q and, optionally, this page's path as page, and returns JSON with answer, sources and follow_ups, or Markdown with Accept: text/markdown. No key needed.

curl -G 'https://whichemulator.wtf/ask' --data-urlencode 'q=Which Virtual Boy emulator should I use on a Mac?' --data-urlencode 'page=/virtualboy/'

Questions it answers:

Guide: /skill.md. This page as Markdown: /virtualboy.md

Best Virtual Boy emulator: Mednafen, the Gold Cartridge pick

Nintendo Virtual Boy, Nintendo, 1995.

Recommended: Mednafen

whichemulator.wtf calls its recommendation for each system the Gold Cartridge pick. For the Virtual Boy, the Gold Cartridge pick is Mednafen.

Mednafen's Virtual Boy emulation is accurate, and it has the widest choice of ways to see the 3D: red/blue anaglyph, side-by-side for VR viewers, the CyberScope headset and interlaced 3D monitors. It's a command-line program with an in-game settings menu rather than a friendly app, which is why most people actually play it through RetroArch.

Runs on Windows · Mac · Linux. Open source. Download: https://mednafen.github.io

Picking a 3D mode: Anaglyph is the default and works with cheap red/blue glasses. Side-by-side is for phone VR headsets and similar. Switch to a single eye's view if you just want flat 2D.

Alternatives

Red Viper (see notes, closed source): For a modded Nintendo 3DS, where it uses the console's glasses-free 3D screen, probably the nicest way to play these games today. The source is public, but part of it carries the original Reality Boy licence's conditions, so it isn't open source in the strict sense.

RetroArch cores

Beetle VB: Mednafen's VB code, with all the 3D modes

The easiest way to use Mednafen's Virtual Boy emulation with a normal menu.

Hardware

CPU: NEC V810 @ 20 MHz
Display: Red LED, one per eye
Resolution: 384×224 per eye
Colours: 4 shades of red
Library: 22 games

Notes

Emulating it is easy; viewing it isn’t

The hardware itself is simple to emulate. The hard part is that every game is drawn twice, once for each eye, and a normal screen only has one picture to show.

Mednafen gives you several ways round that. Anaglyph is the quickest to try, side-by-side gives the cleanest result in a headset, and the left-only or right-only views drop the 3D completely.

Mednafen or Beetle VB

They share the same emulation code. Standalone Mednafen offers official builds only for Windows; on macOS and Linux you install it from Homebrew or your distro’s packages. If that sounds like a chore, load the Beetle VB core in RetroArch and set the 3D mode in its core options.

You can also change the palette from red-on-black to something easier on the eyes if you’re playing for long stretches.

Reference: WEM-VIRTUALBOY-G4AQ