Virtual Reality Then: A Look Back at the Nintendo Virtual Boy

Virtual reality has become something of a fascination once again every bit consumer devices like the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR take hitting the scene along with other competitors. Just why is it that the thought of VR at dwelling never took off before and at present it seems similar it'll finally come to fruition?

During the 80'southward and 90's, Nintendo experimented with many dissimilar ways to make the domicile console amend, add to the user experience, and keep consoles fresh and fun. We can detect plenty of examples in the add-ons for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) similar the Ability Pad, Power Glove, and Zapper -- all enabling new ways to play games.

Past mid-90's the Super Nintendo was becoming obsolete and newer consoles were even so a year away from release. During the expect for the Nintendo 64, the company produced a new console hoping it would tide people over until the N64 was fix and bring a new experience to the home console experience. Meet the Virtual Boy.

Note: This characteristic was originally published on December seven, 2022. We've since revised and bumped it as part of our #ThrowbackThursday initiative.

At the 1995 Consumer Electronics Evidence, Nintendo unveiled a device known as the VR-32 and claimed information technology allowed players to exist immersed into the game they were playing. Information technology would later come to be known equally the Virtual Boy, the starting time home VR device for gaming.

The Virtual Boy was officially released in ii markets; Nihon received the console on July 21, 1995 while North America received information technology almost a month subsequently on Baronial 14, 1995. Like most Nintendo consoles of the time, the Virtual Boy came with one game out of the box, Mario's Tennis, which would be the first taste of VR technology for home users.

For 1995, the Virtual Boy was very ambitious and took a lot of risks showcasing an thought that had not yet been explored by home panel makers. And then how did they reach such a feat?

Under the hood

Virtual Boy teardown. Image courtesy iFixIt

The Virtual Boy was Nintendo'due south first 32-flake game console. Information technology was powered past a customized NEC V810, a 32-bit RISC Processor clocked at 20 Mhz. This flake allowed the console to produce higher quality graphics -- at least for a "portable" panel at the fourth dimension -- comparable to what you would expect to encounter coming from a standard home console. Other specs included 128kb of dual-port VRAM, 128kb of DRAM, and 64kb of WRAM.

However, the primal element here was the pair of displays (one for each eye) that enabled the 3D issue and the experience of VR to the player. Each screen contained a monochromatic crimson LED display capable of a 384 10 224 pixel resolution, with iv simultaneous shades per 4-pixel column -- black and three reds with approximately 128 levels of intensity -- and a 50hz frame charge per unit. Of course, considering of the screen used this meant all the games were colored in black and red, similar to how the Game Male child's were colored in black and greenish.

The dual screen pattern allowed the person viewing the Virtual Male child to encounter two different images at the same time, which created the illusion of 3D using 2D images, while a slider allowed gamers to adjust the screens to better lucifer their eye distance and optimize the feel.

To accompany the VR concept, the controller was setup with 2 directional pads at reverse ends, each with ii buttons on the front and ii bumper buttons on the bottom. The controller as well served every bit the betoken where the power source for the device was hooked up, which had the option of an Air-conditioning adapter or AA battery pack.

With all this, the Virtual Boy was setup to exist a small "portable" game organization with power at least on par with the Super Nintendo, while delivering a more virtual experience. While technically a 32-scrap game console, a mix of keeping costs and size down kept the console specs closer to the Super Nintendo.

Games and how they played on the Virtual Boy

As far every bit games go, non many were produced. In that location was a total of 14 games released for the U.S. market and 19 for Nihon -- 22 different games total.

Out of all the games available, nigh are viewed equally at to the lowest degree decent and fun games though very few actually took reward of the virtual experience and instead focused on the 3D aspect. Only ii truly attempted to make an experience that felt what the Virtual Male child was going for: Teleroboxer and Cerise Alarm.

Both are shot in a outset person perspective; Red Alarm had first person view as an choice, while Teleroboxer was first person only and made apply of both directional pads. The latter is probably the best game on the system, if annihilation for showing what the console was capable of. Unfortunately the rest of games did not take reward of what made the Virtual Boy unique.

Why we don't remember much almost the Virtual Boy

Kickoff and foremost, reception of the console was bottomless. The organisation hanged on for less than a year in the United States earlier it was discontinued. In Japan it fared even worse, the console lasted a paltry v months in shop shelves.

The Virtual Boy is Nintendo's second everyman selling console of all fourth dimension. While there were many reasons that explained the console's poor reception, here are some of the large ones:

The console was not very hands played on the go. Without a head strap, the Virtual Boy had to exist placed on tiptop of a table or on the floor, it wasn't a truthful portable console every bit advertised.
The games, while decent, were awkward to play in a visor and didn't offer a different plenty experience to what you lot would get on the SNES or Game Boy in a much easier fashion.
The Virtual Boy caused eye strain and headaches after playing -- for some it was minutes for others near an hour, but the result was ever the aforementioned.

No multiplayer. While the Virtual Boy contained a special port that was intended for this (labeled EXT Port on the console) no games supported the feature. Waterworld did accept a multiplayer role but it involved passing the console around. Though it was said that Waterworld and Panic Bomber originally were programmed to have the functionality, Nintendo did not accept whatsoever plans to release the console link anytime soon so it was removed.
Information technology was expensive. The "portable" panel retailed for $179.99 in the U.South. Considering the Super Nintendo (and later on the Nintendo 64) was launched at $199, the Virtual Male child felt expensive for what it offered. Perhaps most importantly, the Game Boy was $89.99 and offered a robust library of games making the Virtual Boy a hard sell.

Remembering the Virtual Male child

Image courtesy Gamesniped

In spite of a heavy marketing push, it didn't accept long before Nintendo deemed the device a commercial failure and quickly discontinued it. Complaints included its high price tag, lack of color and the fact that it was uncomfortable to use. In full, 770,000 units were e'er sold.

The Virtual Boy was simply too early and not quite prepare to take on the mass market. The technology behind it was absurd and ambitious and nosotros'll always remember it every bit one of Nintendo's experiments that gave united states of america a taste of things to come in the future.

Now twenty years later on, Oculus is in good company equally new companies lead the way on the return of VR.

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