aboleth_lich
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There doesn't seem to be a thread on this Nintendo Forum discussing The Virtual Boy (or at least I couldn't find it), so I'm starting one. (I wasn't sure where the best place to start this thread would be, so I'm filing it under Game Boy as it's a "portable" Nintendo console with "Boy" in its title.)
Released in 1995, The Virtual Boy was Nintendo's ambitious attempt at creating an immersive, 32-bit, 3D gaming platform. Unfortunately, it was an infamous commercial failure that was discontinued a year later--largely due to its numerous flaws: graphics limited to a strictly black-and-red pallet, a heavy headset that could not be attached to one's head and was not truly portable, and unimpressive games that failed to live up to the immersive, open world, first person perspective expectations of a true virtual reality console.
I consider the Virtual Boy to be a particularly notable case in Nintendo's long history (especially during the eighties and nineties) of having excellent core conceptual ideas that were simply too far ahead of their time, as in too far ahead of the then current technological capabilities (and perhaps even the cultural Zeitgeist as well in some cases) and were thus rather botched in their execution.
Other examples of this history include: the Nintendo Knitting Machine (which let users design sweaters and the like on their Famicon, and then have it be knitted by an attached printer!), the Power Glove, the microphone built into the original Famicon controller, R.O.B. the robotic buddy, the Roll & Rocker, the Power Pad, and so. (I would honestly even put the Game Boy in this category by virtue of comparing it to Sega's Game Gear, if it weren't such a massive success!)
It's exciting that we've now reached the point where we can properly execute the core conceptual idea of the Virtual Boy vis-a-vis the likes of the Oculus Rift. Virtual reality consoles that now have sufficient graphics with a richer pallet than merely black-and-red, a strap attaching the headset to the player's head, and so on.
Released in 1995, The Virtual Boy was Nintendo's ambitious attempt at creating an immersive, 32-bit, 3D gaming platform. Unfortunately, it was an infamous commercial failure that was discontinued a year later--largely due to its numerous flaws: graphics limited to a strictly black-and-red pallet, a heavy headset that could not be attached to one's head and was not truly portable, and unimpressive games that failed to live up to the immersive, open world, first person perspective expectations of a true virtual reality console.
I consider the Virtual Boy to be a particularly notable case in Nintendo's long history (especially during the eighties and nineties) of having excellent core conceptual ideas that were simply too far ahead of their time, as in too far ahead of the then current technological capabilities (and perhaps even the cultural Zeitgeist as well in some cases) and were thus rather botched in their execution.
Other examples of this history include: the Nintendo Knitting Machine (which let users design sweaters and the like on their Famicon, and then have it be knitted by an attached printer!), the Power Glove, the microphone built into the original Famicon controller, R.O.B. the robotic buddy, the Roll & Rocker, the Power Pad, and so. (I would honestly even put the Game Boy in this category by virtue of comparing it to Sega's Game Gear, if it weren't such a massive success!)
It's exciting that we've now reached the point where we can properly execute the core conceptual idea of the Virtual Boy vis-a-vis the likes of the Oculus Rift. Virtual reality consoles that now have sufficient graphics with a richer pallet than merely black-and-red, a strap attaching the headset to the player's head, and so on.
