RetroGaming @lemmy.world jeffw @lemmy.world 7mo ago

Virtual Boy: The bizarre rise and quick fall of Nintendo’s enigmatic red console

arstechnica.com Virtual Boy: The bizarre rise and quick fall of Nintendo’s enigmatic red console

How Nintendo took a gamble on a new kind of gaming experience in the '90s.

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I, for one, loved this thing. And the only reason I was ever able to own one was because of their downfall also coincidentally happening about the same time EB Toys was going out of business, so I was able to get the Virtual Boy and most of the games for under $50 due to the extreme discounts.
- That's literally how I got mine, though from Babbages when they were still a thing. I think I paid like $35 + tax for the unit (which came with Mario Tennis) and Wario Land.
  
  Loved it, but I can see why it failed. Still, 3D Mario Tennis was amazing.
  
  AND warioland!!!
  
  The virtual boy is Nintendos coolest console that deserved to fail. It had some good games in it's tiny library. It brought some cool concepts to the project. But the virtual console deserved to die.
- My best friend had one and Mario tennis was my favorite thing ever.
  
  I loved the virtual boy
- EB Toys??? We had KB Toys (or Kay Bee Toys), and we had Electronics Boutique. Which sold video games and small electronics.
  
  But you had EB Toys???
  
  KB! I meant KB! lol
  
  They've been gone hella long I just conflated the two.
If you've got a modded 3ds, Red Viper works extremely well to emulate Virtual Boy games, if you're curious about them. Arguably it's a better experience than playing them on a Virtual Boy.
- But are there any games worth playing?
  
  The Wario game is pretty good if you liked the original Game Boy Wario games.
  
  Mario Clash is a fun take on the original Mario Bros game which didn't need to be 3D, so I'm a little disappointed they haven't revisited it.
  
  Jack Bros. is notable for being Atlus' first release in the West, and I remember having some fun with that one.
  
  Mario Tennis was also pretty good, but there are probably better Mario Tennis games by now.
  
  How many consoles can say that ~28% of their library is worth checking out? Haha
- I love my 2ds but virtualboy emulation makes me crave an upgrade
Pretty sure I still have a headache from using one in a Blockbuster in the 90s.
- That was the just eye / face gunk from previous users.
  
  Why would a dirty face cause a headache?
At the heart of Yokoi’s design philosophy lay a concept he called “lateral thinking with withered technology.” Yokoi’s design philosophy can be summarized as an approach that emphasized finding novel uses for existing, inexpensive technology. His philosophy arguably runs counter to conventional game industry wisdom where newer, flashier, cutting-edge technology is (assumed) better.

I think this is still Nintendo's philosophy. I see a lot of people complaining that the Switch is "outdated hardware" compared to PlayStation and Xbox, not understanding that they're not trying to make the same thing.
- framerates and graphics are all that matters. clearly
- Those people aren't the switch's target demographic at all. The target market love it, I guarantee.
I loved my virtual boy when I was a kid. It felt like the future or something. It didn't have a lot of great games, but I did get most of the best ones when blockbuster video started clearing out their inventory and sold games for like $5 each.
My parents rented me and my brothers one of these from blockbuster for a night. It was great and I'll never forget it.
I remember seeing these for $30 in Toys R Us clearance bins and I still kick my kid self for not picking one up.
you can now play nintendo virtual boy games on iphone using retroarch, from the app store today.

and it supports vision pro. is this a killer app?
Ugh I wanted one of these so fucking badly when I was a kid.
- They hurt your eyes and head.
  
  That sentence is past and present tense
  
  I think this is kind of a thing for a lot of stereoscopic 3d technology.
  
  I could play the virtual boy, 3ds, watch 3d movies, etc. for hours without issue, and other people can't take it at all.
  
  I don't know what factors play into that, maybe it's genetic, maybe there's some kind of skill/technique/habits about how you focus your eyes, or how often you blink, maybe it's just luck of the draw that your pupil distance is just right or wrong. Maybe it comes down to something ridiculous like how many hours you spent trying to make sense of Magic Eye books when you were a kid.
- Hi, former kid here. No, you really don't. Your eyesight and general health thank you.
I somehow ended up with 2 of these things in my collection. I have a consolizer mod kit for one, that I still need to install. Additionally, I managed to nab one of those everdrive-like carts that displays the label of the ROM in e-ink.
That shit hurt my head the only few times I played it
The only good game was Mario Tennis.
- Going to have to disagree, Teleroboxer and Red Alert were awesome.
- The Wario Land game was top tier. Probably the best game on the system.
- Nah, Mario clash was fun

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