Nintendo's forgotten console: The Virtual Boy

shuandrew | March 30, 2008 | News | Nintendo 64 Company Gaming Tech/Hardware

With both the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS flying high in the present videogaming world, Nintendic takes a look back at one of Nintendo's greatest ever hardware flops - the Virtual Boy.

As we discussed in a previous article here at Nintendic, even Nintendo, for all the fantastic good it has done in serving the videogames industry over the years, sometimes gets it wrong. Aside from software bungles, one of its biggest hardware misjudgements was the ill-fated Virtual Boy. Invented by Gunpei Yokoi (the man behind Game & Watch, Game Boy and Metroid) and released in 1995, the console that aimed to provide “3D games for a 3D world” lasted little over a year, sold badly, made gamers ill, and turned out to be one of Nintendo’s biggest ever flops.

3 comments | go to source (www.nintendic.com) | Add to favorites!

favourite this article |

send to friend

89	Virtual Console Reviews - Best of 2008 (4) December 31, 2008
121	Super Smash Bros. coming to Virtual Console 2009 (14) December 26, 2008
49	New to European Virtual Console - Sonic The Hedgehog 2 & Secret Of Mana (0) December 22, 2008
54	Two WiiWare Games and One Virtual Console Game Added to Wii Shop Channel (0) November 3, 2008
113	Wii Has NOT Forgotten the Non-Casual Gamers! Have your Fill! (15) October 10, 2008

Comments

0 thumbs!
kEaNo10 | March 30, 2008

I have never seen that for sale beofre, let alone heard of it. But from what I have just read, seems like a bit of a flop. Also, how did it make gamers ill ?
0 thumbs!
shuandrew | March 30, 2008

To use it, players had to stare into the visor at a LCD screen lit with a bright LED light. Just looking at some of the screenshots gives me a headache. =P
0 thumbs!
Sonic Flash | March 31, 2008

I recall playing it for demo in a K Mart while picking up Sonic 3D Blast for the Sega Genesis. The game was Red Alarm and afterwards I was awakened to the harsh K Mart lighting...