I'm working on building a bit of a retro gaming collection at the moment (see my Dreamcast posts below). This will involve purchasing some consoles that I have never owned; there's one on particular that I've always wanted to own, but really never bothered with:
Yep, Virtual Boy: Nintendo's biggest failure and possibly one of the most embarrassing products in video game history.
What prompted me to buy this, you ask?
Well, for one thing, this system was never released in Australia. Only 800,000 were produced and the machine really only survived on store shelves for about a year before Nintendo pulled the plug.
I'm not sure how true it is, but apparently the console was never really intended to be launched as is. The story goes that Nintendo wanted to focus their attention on the upcoming Nintendo 64 console and the Virtual Boy team was pressured to push the system out into retailers.
This story has appeared in various places (including Wikipedia) and I'm not really sure how accurate it is, but it's interesting nonetheless. It's also interesting to consider that Gunpei Yokoi (Virtual Boy designer and creator of Game Boy, among many other products) was apparently fired over the console's failure (or, perhaps, forced to resign).
So I really view the Virtual Boy as a piece of video game history, even if it's not the most attractive or nostalgic part of that history.
It also reminds me of a time when many game makers seemed to assume that "VR" was going to become the future of the industry. Remember the Sega VR? A number of companies attempted this technology with absolutely no success.
It's instructive to consider that 3D technology (which is kind of the natural evolution of VR in my opinion) is now about to become a reality with 3D flat-panel displays on TVs. Maybe the next generation of consoles will be the first mainstream products to truly embrace this format.
This thing is due to be delivered any day now, so when I get it I should actually tell you my thoughts about playing it. I think I'll have to actually find a game though, so my review may take a little while to surface.
In any case, you know that a product can't be that great if there's an option to take 15 or 13 minute breaks to rest your eyes. Ouch.
