Happy 20th Birthday Virtual Boy, You Hot Mess

One of the main talking points at this year’s E3 was virtual reality technology and how it’s going to shape the face of gaming forever. While VR gaming may be the future of gaming, it isn’t the first time it’s showed up. 20 years ago today, Nintendo unleashed the Oculus Rift’s grandfather, the Virtual Boy to the unexpected eyes of North American gamers.

The Virtual Boy was the newest thing from the Gameboy and Game & Watch creator Gunpei Yokoi, first revealed to the public at the Shoshinkai Show in Japan on Nov 15, 1994. During the event, Nintendo made the rather lofty promise that the Virtual Boy would “transport game players into a virtual utopia with sights and sounds, unlike anything they’ve ever experienced.”

While Nintendo may have promised a virtual reality experience, that was a bit of a lie. According to the Gaming Historian video, it was actually built using “2 separate LED screens [which] would reflect into each individual eye”. Nintendo didn’t develop this technology themselves, it was actually created by a company called Reflection Technology.

The Virtual Boy went through multiple different prototypes, including the idea of making it a headband mounted system. According to Gunpei Yokoi’sinterview with Next Generation Magazine in 1994, part of the reason why they decided against the headband mounted system was because oddly enough, they were worried about people using it while wearing make-up. No, seriously, here’s the quote:

“We are worried about the possible danger of HMD technology, but we also considered the fact that if a woman wearing make-up was to use the head-mounted design, the next person might be hesitant in wearing it! So we changed the design so that you can just look into the viewing apparatus and still appreciate the 3D experience.”

The interview further revealed that Gunpei Yokoi also wanted to release a “shoulder-mounted adapter” on a later date which would’ve made the Virtual Boy way more comfortable and convenient to use outside. Unfortunately for Gunpei’s team, Nintendo were also working on the Nintendo 64 at the time time, so the company’s attention was divided. Around this time, Nintendo also decided that the Virtual Boy needed to be cheaper, so Yokoi had to use red LEDs, which at least gave the handhelds its ‘distinctive’ and eye destroying color palette.

Ahead of the Virtual Boy’s release, Nintendo held a massive, $25 million advertising campaign. While the Japanese ads showed a child being sucked into the world of the Virtual Boy, for some reason Nintendo of America decided that their ads needed to be more-edgy, if you want to count turning a Virtual Boy into a walking monstrosity that hunts for human eyes as edgy.

Along with these terrible ads, Nintendo also teamed up with Blockbuster so that during the month of Dec 1995, Blockbuster customers could rent a Virtual Boy for three days for only $9.99. As an advertising campaign, it was a great idea and steps above the kidified Terminator ads, one of which you can see above.

Unfortunately advertisements weren’t enough to convince people that this was a good piece of hardware.The Virtual Boy was released to a critical panning on July 21, 1995, in Japan and Aug 14, 1995, in North America. Gamers and the press had tons of problems with it, including the fact that the Virtual Boy was a pain in the ass (and eyes) to use. Despite being advertised as a PORTABLE console, the Virtual Boy was too bulky to use outside, though then again would you like to be seen trying to use a Virtual Boy in public. The Virtual Boy really could have done with that “should-mounted adapter” that Gunpei Yokoi wanted to release.

Despite being advertised as being a way to immerse yourself in a virtual reality, the Virtual Boy was way better better at ‘immersing’ you into the ‘magical’ world of screaming headaches, migraine hell, and eventual dizziness.

The Virtual Boy launch titles were Mario’s Tennis, Red Alarm, Teleroboxer, and Galactic Pinball. Luckily for North American costumers, Nintendo of America decided to include a copy of Mario’s Tennis with each Virtual Boy. In total, only 22 games were made for the Virtual Boy, but these games include a Bomberman game called Panic Bomber, and even Wario himself get in on the action with Virtual Boy Wario Land. 

There was even a Virtual Boy Mario Land game planned, but Nintendo sadly discontinued the Virtual Boy after less than a year. The reason for this was because the Virtual Boy only sold 770,000 units and 630,000 of those units were sold in North America.

While the Virtual Boy was a commercial disaster, Nintendo has made small references to the Virtual Boy in later games. For example in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Nintendo hid a Virtual Boy in the gallery which can only be seen if you switch it’s language to Japanese. You can also find a Virtual Boy in both the Game & Wario stage Gamer as well as Gamers Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U, resting next to the TV.

While Nintendo may not have made any recent announcements that they will be jumping back in the VR gaming scene, the President of Nintendo America Reggie Fils-Aime did state in a recent interview with Fortune that they’re keeping an eye on it so who knows maybe if the Oculus Rift turns out to be the next big thing in gaming after all, Nintendo might just jump back in with a Virtual Boy 2.

Nowadays, the Virtual Boy is viewed as something of an oddity and despite all its many problems, the Virtual Boy has that odd Nintendo charm about it and has managed to attract an awesome fanbase who are creating home brew games.  In Feb 2015, a Virtual Boy fan ported Street Fighter 2 to the Virtual Boy under the name Hyper Fighter and in April 15, Planet Virtual Boy member Thunderstruck revealed his home brew demo of Hideo Kojima’s cyberpunk graphic adventure game, Snatcher.

That’s the Virtual Boy, a portable console by the father of the Game Boy which sadly suffered from being too far ahead of its time. Regardless of how it turned out, here’s to the 20 anniversary of Nintendo’s weirdest handheld, the Virtual Boy, and to eventually seeing your games on the eShop sometime. Hopefully without making your eyes explode.