Nintendo Virtual Boy

MrFriday18

MrFriday18

CAGiversary!
Got one of these when I was like 6 and i gave me major headaches. But anyways do any of you guys/gals own a VB. Just started to play with it the other day and I'm enjoying Mario Tennis. Sad to here it was such a failure, it was a pretty cool idea.
 
[quote name='jimbodan']Doesn't playing the VB burn your retinas?[/quote]
If that's true, then burning my retinas has never been so much fun.
 
now that's why i can only see some colors, doctors always told me i was color blind. Yes I was born in 1989 so i am 15.
 
[quote name='MrFriday18']now that's why i can only see some colors, doctors always told me i was color blind. Yes I was born in 1989 so i am 15.[/quote]

Anyhow the virtual boy won't make you color blind, just blind in general.
 
I still want one of these, just for collector/nostalgia value. Nintendo doesn't tank often, so it's a piece of gaming history.
 
I was j/k almost had my retina damaged when I was 10, but that's for another day scared the daylights out of me thinking i could of been blinded in my right eye.
 
Only played one once, i believe KB toys had a demo unit. I dont remember what game it was, just that there were a lot of red lines involved. So, basically it could have been any one of the dozen or so games.
 
The Virtual Boy was SWEET. The mistake that Nintendo made with it was that they didn't seem to know what sort of system they wanted to make - a portable game system or an 'at home' system. It was simply too heavy and large to be a portable game system, and the fact that it was only red made it too limited to realistically make it a home system.

I think the system could have succeeded if they had only either made it smaller and lighter so that it was something that you could easily wear on your head, or if they had given up on the whole portable thing entirely and added green and blue. I believe that either path would have been enough to make it a viable system.

I wish someone would make a new 3d system sorta similar to the VB. I think LCD technology is good enough at this point that they could make a pair of glasses with a screen in each lens. The one thing the VB proved was that 3d can add a lot to a game.
 
I have one, but don't pay much attention to collecting;

What are the rare VB games (other than faceball)?

What is a trustworthy non-eBay source for VB titles?

myke.
 
As far as I've read, faceball doesn't exist. The rarest games are some SD gundam game and umm... some other one that usually goes for a decent amount on ebay. Check www.vr32.de for tons of info on virtual boy. Even old commercials.
 
The problem with the VB wasn't all marketing. A lot of it was price. $220 or so when it first came out, in a market that had the 16-bit wars and handheld wars in full swing. Doomed from the start.

Anyhoo, the rarer VB games:

-Jack Bros
-Waterworld
-Virtual Lab
-SD Gundam
-Space Invaders
-Insmouse

Note that the prices vary wildly. Jack Bros and Waterworld might fetch $40-$50 each. Insmouse goes for about $80 or so I think. SD Gundam sold on eBay a while back for $1000 (yes, one thousand).
 
[quote name='PsyClerk']The problem with the VB wasn't all marketing. A lot of it was price. $220 or so when it first came out, in a market that had the 16-bit wars and handheld wars in full swing. Doomed from the start.

Anyhoo, the rarer VB games:

-Jack Bros
-Waterworld
-Virtual Lab
-SD Gundam
-Space Invaders
-Insmouse

Note that the prices vary wildly. Jack Bros and Waterworld might fetch $40-$50 each. Insmouse goes for about $80 or so I think. SD Gundam sold on eBay a while back for $1000 (yes, one thousand).[/quote]

:shock: $1000? Good thing I don't feel for Gundam the way I do for Castlevania!

I think a this magazine has an article about Faceball, but it appears to be a proto, not a release: http://www.retrogames.co.uk/magazine/

myke.
 
Turns out SD Gundam Dimension War (full title) was one of the last VB games produced, thus it had a small print run. Also applies to Virtual Bowling (not to be confused with Nester's Funky Bowling..yes, the VB had TWO bowling games). Virtual Bowling might actually be worth more than Gundam.

Check out Virtual Bowling up for auction

More rare games I forgot about are Space Squash and Virtual Fishing. Most of the expensive titles are Japanese only.

Fun fact: Virtual Lab was only available for a week in Japan. It was recalled a week after hitting store shelves due to various bugs in the game as well as a misprinting of the Nintendo name. Yup, they actually spelled Nintendo wrong.
 
[quote name='PsyClerk'](not to be confused with Nester's Funky Bowling[/quote]

Turkey!


[quote name='PsyClerk']Fun fact: Virtual Lab was only available for a week in Japan. It was recalled a week after hitting store shelves due to various bugs in the game as well as a misprinting of the Nintendo name. Yup, they actually spelled Nintendo wrong.[/quote]

Wow, the VB must have had a curse put on it during development. It's really too bad too, because it's a unique experience playing it. Does anybody know if the VB did worse/as bad as/better in Japan as the US?
 
The VB did just as bad in Japan as it did here. That's why there are so few games for the system even when you include imports. It's also why Gumpei Yokoi left Nintendo.

No, the system does not cause blindness. The only problem I ever had was a little disorientation after playing (the same as coming out of a movie theater in the middle of a sunny day).
 
I've got a couple of VBs. It certainly is a unique system and given it's colossal failure, I don't think we'll ever see a system like it again. Wario Land and Galactic Pinball are the only true must have games for this system.
 
[quote name='anonymouswhoami']Wario Land and Galactic Pinball are the only true must have games for this system.[/quote]

Agreed. Not to say that the other games were horrible though.
 
[quote name='PsyClerk']The VB did just as bad in Japan as it did here. That's why there are so few games for the system even when you include imports. It's also why Gumpei Yokoi left Nintendo.

No, the system does not cause blindness. The only problem I ever had was a little disorientation after playing (the same as coming out of a movie theater in the middle of a sunny day).[/quote]

Didn't Gumpei kill himself?

myke.
 
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The crucial failure for this system was that it wasn't ready yet. The tech available in 95 wasn't up to standards. 3D processing tech was in it's infancy, LCD screens were monochromatic, power-hungry, low resolution, slow refresh beasts.

Look at what the VBoy could be today. The PSP and the N-Gage have 3d processing available in a hand held unit, powering an LCD screen as well. Add another LCD screen, and modify the code a bit, and you've got a sleek little machine.

The other problem would be developing appropriate titles for the system. It'd take a year or two of the device being out before devs could really make excellent use of the technology.

But it will never be, thanks to the colossal failure of the Vboy. No company will ever take a risk on a system that would be instantly linked to one of the biggest failures in gaming history.
 
Gumpei was killed getting out of his car after an accident.

The VB doesn't cause blindness. It's not recommended to play if for an extensive time. Too long and that shock when you pull the system off is brutal.
 
I thought most of the VB games were pretty decent. Tennis was pretty good, though repetitive and had no real Nintendo zing to help out. Vertical Force was a good shooter. And of course, my favorite, Panic Bomber. I've probably put more time into that than the other games combined.
 
The Virtual Boy Is Awesome.....Looking

I don't have one but a friend of mine has one in his gameroom and it just looks cool sitting on his white table.
 
I bought a preowned one for $14.99 back then. I wish I kept it. I sold it in a garage sell and I want it back. I can still remember that day....
 
I got mine off ebay for like 30 bucks. It even came with the original manuals, ac power adapter, Wario World & Mario Tennis. Amazing deal, I wish I could find a good deal on nesters Funky bowling.

Every one should try to find one for cheap, the system is never going to be emulated properly.
 
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