History of video games/Platforms/Virtual Boy

History thumb|Virtual Boy logotype. The Virtual Boy was Nintendo's first attempt at semi-portable virtual reality. Background A company in Cambridge, Massachusetts had come up with an inexpensive heads up display that they tried to pitch to several gaming companies, including Sega and Mattel, but only Nintendo took serious interest in the technology. Following a 1991 pitch, Gunpei Yokoi, the head of Nintendo's R&D1 division, took interest in the technology and put his retirement plans on hold. Development Concern about liability from people moving without awareness of their surroundings caused the concept for a wearable virtual boy to be abandoned in favor of a tabletop unit. Hardware testing reportedly involved testers placing their heads in a vice grip, and then undergo pupil dilation and air puffsPerhaps referring to non-contact tonometry? to the eye to then stare unblinkingly for a minute with plastic rods sitting in front of their eyes in addition to a light source.McFerran Damien Nintendo's "Inhumane" Virtual Boy Testing Process Likened To 'A Clockwork Orange' https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/02/nintendos-inhumane-virtual-boy-testing-process-likened-to-a-clockwork-orange 28 February 2022 Nintendo Life 28 February 2022 Launch The Virtual Boy launched in Japan in July of 1995 and in North America on August 21st, 1995Edwards Benj Unraveling The Enigma Of Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, 20 Years Later https://www.fastcompany.com/3050016/unraveling-the-enigma-of-nintendos-virtual-boy-20-years-later 21 October 2020 Fast Company 21 August 2015 at a price of $179.99 with the game Mario Tennis included. On October 18th, 1995 the price of the Virtual Boy was lowered to $159.95. By May 1996 Nintendo dropped the price of the Virtual Boy to $99. Legacy thumb|The Virtual Boy being shown at E3 2006. The console was discontinued in August 1996. Lasting about a year on the market before being pulled, the Virtual Boy was significant as one of the first major game console by Nintendo to fail on the market.Flanagan Graham The incredible story of the 'Virtual Boy' — Nintendo's VR headset from 1995 that failed spectacularly https://www.businessinsider.com/nintendo-virtual-boy-reality-3d-video-games-super-mario-2018-3 21 October 2020 Business Insider March 26th, 2018 The Virtual Boy only sold 770,000 units worldwide. Critics of the Virtual Boy, including founder of Oculus Palmer Luckey, claim it damaged the VR industry in the long term.Whitehead Thomas Oculus Founder Palmer Luckey Believes Virtual Boy "Hurt" the VR Industry, But It's Not All Bad https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/01/oculus_founder_palmer_luckey_believes_virtual_boy_hurt_the_vr_industry_but_its_not_all_bad 21 October 2020 Nintendo Life 11 January 2016 Following the failure of the Virtual Boy, Gunpei worked on the redesigned GameBoy Pocket, then resigned from Nintendo in August of 1996 surprising many in the industry. Gunpei stated that his resignation was not due to the Virtual Boy, but rather to go independent.Ashcraft Brian Game Boy Creator Said He Didn't Leave Nintendo Because Of The Virtual Boy https://kotaku.com/game-boy-creator-explains-why-he-left-nintendo-1825818754 21 October 2020 Kotaku May 7th, 2018 en-us While his independent work would later become the WonderSwan, Gunpei himself died in 1997 from an automobile accident. Nintendo would later re-release two Virtual Boy styled accessories for the Switch line in 2026 for the purpose of playing select Virtual Boy games on the system.Bonk Lawrence Nintendo’s Virtual Boy accessory lets you play VR Mario and Zelda on Switch 2 https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendos-virtual-boy-accessory-lets-you-play-vr-mario-and-zelda-on-switch-2-172138483.html 19 March 2026 Engadget 13 February 2026 Technology Compute The Virtual Boy used a NEC V810 32 bit RISC CPU with additional instructions clocked at 20MHz.Virtual Reality Then: A Look Back at the Nintendo Virtual Boy https://www.techspot.com/article/1085-nintendo-virtual-boy/ 25 October 2020 TechSpotVB Programmer's Documentation http://www.goliathindustries.com/vb/progdoc/VBProg.html www.goliathindustries.com 17 November 2020 The CPU was capable of 18 MIPS.Virtual Boy Specifications http://www.goliathindustries.com/vb/VBSpecs.html www.goliathindustries.com 17 November 2020 The system had 128kb of DRAM and 64kb of WRAM. For graphics there was 128kb of VRAM.Nintendo Virtual Boy Teardown https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nintendo+Virtual+Boy+Teardown/3540 iFixit 25 October 2020 en 3 September 2010 Display thumb|The color spectrum of the Virtual Boy. The Virtual Boy used an oscillating mirror display using red LEDs, similar to the Entex Adventure Vision an earlier and more primitive tabletop console without stereoscopic capabilities. Each eyepiece had a resolution of 384 by 224 and operated at 50 hertz. The display could output black and three hues of red at 128 different intensities. Mirrors were placed at a 45 degree angle.Nintendo Virtual Boy Teardown https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nintendo+Virtual+Boy+Teardown/3540 iFixit 29 October 2020 en 3 September 2010 The LEDs used by the Virtual Boy gave it very good contrast, especially compared to other contemporary display technologies. User specific calibration is important for displays of this form, and the Virtual Boy is no exception. The console had controls for adjusting focus, as well as a dial for adjusting inter-pupillary distance. Nintendo - Customer Service Virtual Boy Image Troubleshooting https://web.archive.org/web/20021220100132/http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/virtualboy/trouble_image.jsp#blurry web.archive.org 18 May 2021 2002-12-20 Hardware The Virtual Boy supported 16 bit sound. Cartridges can have between 512 kilobytes and 2 megabytes (2048 kilobytes) of ROM for game data and can have up to eight kilobytes of battery backed RAM for game saves.Virtual Boy System Info http://www.vgmuseum.com/systems/vb/ www.vgmuseum.com 17 November 2020Miscellaneous Attributes : Battery Backed RAM https://www.mobygames.com/attribute/sheet/attributeId,175/p,38/ MobyGames 17 November 2020 Controller The decision to use two D-Pads was said to be spurred by Gunpei Yokoi.Feature: The Making Of Red Alarm, The Virtual Boy's Answer To Star Fox https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/12/feature_the_making_of_red_alarm_the_virtual_boys_answer_to_star_fox 23 June 2021 Nintendo Life 2015-12-03 Software thumb|Virtual Boy Game Paks. About 30,000 lines of assembly code is used in the Virtual Boy game Mario Tennis.A Modder Brings Multiplayer to the Virtual Boy, Nintendo’s Most Anti-Social Console https://www.vice.com/en/article/3kkpb5/a-modder-brings-multiplayer-to-the-virtual-boy-nintendos-most-anti-social-console www.vice.com 28 November 2020 en Games The Virtual Boy only saw 22 games released across all regions during its production.Feature: Every Virtual Boy Game Ranked https://www.nintendolife.com/guides/feature-every-virtual-boy-game-ranked 20 October 2020 Nintendo Life 25 August 2020 1995 Golf Panic Bomber Innsmouth no Yakata SD Gundam Dimension War Space Invaders Virtual Collection Vertical Force Virtual League Baseball Mario Clash Mario's Tennis Teleroboxer A well received boxing game. Read more about Teleroboxer on Wikipedia. Virtual Boy Wario Land Often regarded as the best game for the system. Read more about Virtual Boy Wario Land on Wikipedia. Waterworld This game was considered among the most notable third party titles for the Virtual Boy.Greenwald Will The worst game console(s) ever https://www.cnet.com/culture/the-worst-game-consoles-ever/ 3 May 2022 CNET en This game supported single console multiplayer, which was done by having users play compete in individual sessions.Frear Dave Review: Waterworld (Virtual Boy) https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/2009/06/waterworld_retro 3 May 2022 Nintendo Life 22 June 2009 This game received poor to mediocre reception.Waterworld Virtual Boy Review https://www.popculturemaven.com/games/waterworld-virtual-boy-review/ 3 May 2022 Pop Culture Maven 4 November 2015 Read more about Waterworld on Wikipedia. Galactic Pinball The performance of the announcer in this game led the voice actor to strive for a more energetic performance in the later Nintendo 64 game F-Zero X.Hagues Alana Random: The F-Zero X Announcer's Voice Was Inspired By Ridge Racer https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/05/random-the-f-zero-x-announcers-voice-was-inspired-by-ridge-racer 3 May 2022 Nintendo Life 3 May 2022 Read more about Galactic Pinball on Wikipedia. Jack Bros A well received Halloween themed action game. This game featured the Jack Bros from the Megami Tensei series, and was the first entry of the series to have an international release.Eight Attempts To Take Gaming Into the Third Dimension https://www.escapistmagazine.com/eight-attempts-to-take-gaming-into-the-third-dimension/ 3 May 2022 The Escapist 30 September 2015Shin Megami Tensei's First US Release Is the Rarest Game on Nintendo's Worst Console https://www.cbr.com/smt-virtual-boy-jack-bros/ 3 May 2022 CBR 12 August 2021 Read more about Jack Bros. on Wikipedia. Red Alarm An ambitious and technically impressive flight combat game. The game did not receive a great critical reception, in part due to a lack of shading making gameplay difficult. Developers of Red Alarm had to contend with the then new idea of 3D console gaming, and how such a game could be easily controlled by the player. Read more about Red Alarm on Wikipedia. 1996 3D Tetris Nester's Funky Bowling A tie in with the magazine Nintendo Power. Read more about Nester's Funky Bowling on Wikipedia. Canceled and Unreleased Dragon Hopper - Action adventure game. Bound High! - Action puzzle game. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - Port Galaxian3: Project Dragoon - Port Worms - Port Star Fox Tech demo at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show of 1995 and E3 1995.StarFox [Virtual Boy - Cancelled] - Unseen64 https://www.unseen64.net/2008/05/18/star-fox-virtual-boy/ 23 June 2021 Unseen64: Beta, Cancelled & Unseen Videogames! 2008-05-18 Zero Racers/G-Racers F-Zero game said to be completed but unreleased.McFerran Damien Mythical Virtual Boy F-Zero Spin-Off Was 100% Complete, According To Former NOA Staffer https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/02/mythical-virtual-boy-f-zero-spin-off-was-100percent-complete-according-to-former-noa-staffer 28 February 2022 Nintendo Life 28 February 2022 Read more about Zero Racers on Wikipedia. Gallery Virtual Boy Controller Accessories Display Output Virtual Boy usage Console Internals References Virtual Boy Gunpei Yokoi Virtual Boy 2 Notes 100%__NOTOC__