I didn't see any other threads devoted to the VB, so I thought I'd create this.
How many here have ever experienced one? I actually own one somewhere in the attic. I got it not long after it came out. Originally, the price was $179.99 (or something like that) but it very quickly dropped as stores began to clear inventory of it, and within no time the price was down to $29.99 at KBtoys. I begged my mom to get it for me, and it was a good thing I did because soon it was gone from stores entirely. And I managed to get a few games for it. I can't remember all of them, but I remember there was a boxing game with robots, and a shooter called Red Alarm which was kinda like Star Fox.
The controller on it was really weird, because it had two D Pads on either side, if I recall correctly. That was so you could move around in the three dimensions. This was like a year before the N64 came out, so the analog stick concept hadn't yet been invented, but the VB certainly could have benefited from it. The main problems with it was that it wasn't really a portable in any realistic sort of way. I think it had very, very, terrible battery life which made it as bad or even worse than a Gamegear, which meant you really needed to have it plugged into something. You also couldn't strap it onto your head, and it had this stand thing which you either sat on a table or on your lap and then stuck your eyes into the headset. I think if you could have strapped it to your head it would have done a lot better than it did.
Another serious problem was it had extremely poor third party support, and first party support for it wasn't much better. Unlike all other Nintendo systems, the VB lacked major franchises like Zelda and Metroid and so on. It had a few Mario games, but if I recall correctly they were sports games like Tennis and one like the original arcade Mario Bros. The only game I can remember for the system which I could consider significant was Wario Land. Other than that, the games were okay but nothing that you'd really justify buying the system for. And I think Nintendo cut support for it even before they released it. I think they realized it was going to be a disaster so they stopped all development, and I think they only released the system just so they could get rid of the systems and games they had manufactured.
It was Gunpei Yokoi's only real disaster, but it was a disaster which devastated him and cost him his job at Nintendo. It is amazing that this is the same man who was behind the wildly popular Gameboy. What went wrong? Only thing I can think of was he lost his mind or something. But still, the VB could have been more successful than it was if Nintendo threw more support behind it with strong games and advertising. If it had Metroid, Mario, Zelda, Kirby, etc on it then maybe it could have realized its full potential and maybe third parties would have also backed it better. They also should have made the headset strappable to your head, and it would also have helped if they could fix the eyestrain and headaches you would suffer from playing it for a long time. But I don't think that could have been fixed, just because of how the system is.
In those days they had to use red laser because they were the cheapest, but now they could probably make a VB that was in full color and with stunningly amazing graphics. Will it ever happen? I'd like to think the idea of virtual reality gaming isn't gone forever and that maybe Nintendo will look into a Virtual Boy successor someday. But for now, all we can do is wonder what the VB could have amounted to if it was given the proper chance.
What do you guys think about the Virtual Boy?
Edit: And there was also an episode of Home Improvement which featured the Virtual Boy. So if nothing else, the system will live on in that episode.
Topic: The Official Virtual Boy Discussion Thread! (Read 3587 times)
