Nintendo’s 1995 Virtual Reality

39 Comments

1. Sorry about the audio at the end of the video! Bloomin’ nightmare!! Thanks for checking this video out! Thought it would be nice to unbox and check out a virtual boy since I’ve not actually used one before! Hope you enjoy!

   Oh and thank you for watching the AD! As I am sure you are aware the help is much appreciated as I still don’t have a shower. This is paying for the bathroom to be done!

2. The intro to this video should have been Nintendo’s entire marketing campaign for the virtual boy. They would have made millions!

3. The Nintendo Virtual Boy… Oh Boy…

   (Edit: that was the original title of this video by the way)

4. The virtual boy. Oh boy

5. Many Headaches!

6. Great video yet again Elliot, but Gunpei Yokoi was not fired, he actually left on his own because of how he felt responsible for the failure of the Virtual Boy, which he would then start his own company which would make its own handheld system called the WonderSwan, I just wanted to correct you Elliot!

7. Your in

8. youtube does support vr viewing for any 360 video,
   but I guess that doesn't really let you do the two different views that would be needed to really show what the vr on this looks like

9. "plug some headphones in and look even weirder" well at leat you cant hear what everyone is saying about you ???

10. tetris doesn't use any of the virtual boys unique features in any gameplay sorta way, mario tennis IS really fun but the virtual boy version is a very… ahem… shallow entry to the series. the wario game though, thats a stone cold classic game right there, so sad its never been released on anyfink else

11. Yokoi wasn't fired, he was already planning to retire before the virtual boy was even conceived. It was supposed to be his last hurrah, but it ended up failing for… many reasons

12. You know maybe if it had grey graphics it could have been a success

13. I saw a whole stack of these at Toys R Us on clearance. They looked cool, until I saw the graphics… BIG NOPE!

14. Way ahead of it's time… this might be controversial but i think Switch 2 might go down the Oculus Quest 2 route… this is the future.

15. Why did you bought the Japanese one? And how much did you paid for that ?

16. I used to love the Virtual Boy when it dropped in the mid 1990s. as both I and my neighbor had one. I would actually like to round up another one. Although it was not intended to be part of the Game Boy line, which was also to the dismay of Miyamoto. I think had Nintendo been more careful with the marketing, many of the shortcomings could have been overcome as the console lifecycle progressed. Also, the Virtual Boy had a few tricks that you didn't acknowledge, such as some of the games let you swap the action buttons and the Start/Select buttons (say, Wario Land lets you use Start and Select to jump and do Wario things, whereas the pause would be B if I remember correctly.) …and if anyone is wondering, the battery adapter took the Super Nintendo power brick, which you also had to buy separately.

    …though I believe the main reason the head strap wasn't produced, is because of the weight of the console. While the console wasn't overly heavy for what it was (and was actually a feather weight) having it hang off the front of your face and supported by your neck would cause a bit of neck strain. …though, "true" VR units had 20 pound helmets, each with two CRT displays for each eye during this time. How well would you think the Virtual Boy would sell had it looked more like a crash helmet with a massive camcorder battery strapped to the back? I have also heard that the adjustable stand also was never produced, though it was featured in the commercials over here in the US.

17. Thaha.. you made me want to buy one and NOT at the same time! How do you manage to trick my mind every single time :') Also, I don't remember these coming out in Europe?!

18. Gunpei yokoi didn't get fired for the virtual boy. He was planning on retiring but when the virtual boy flopped he put it off for a little while longer and created the gameboy pocket as his last Nintendo product.

19. Virtual Boy suggest the presence of Actual Boy.

20. After watching the "Oled Switch" video and this, the dead pan delivery has me wondering about how cool that thing actually is. 🙂

21. i this is the most positive review of Virtual Boy in this era.

22. I loved the Sound of Silence playing at the end of the vid ?❤?

23. Well the v-boy isn’t all that bad! I gotta get one too!

24. Since you and Freya are such big Tetris fans, be sure to "rotate" the Tetris field using the shoulder buttons – as far as I know, that Tetris is the only one that lets you do that, so it's like playing like four Tetris fields at once. It's kinda hard to explain… check it out!

25. I watch every console unboxing video but I never owned one.

26. I found one of these in my atic of my old house and I sold it for 300 ! You got a great deal ?

27. Why

28. I played the entire Virtual Boy library on my Oculus Quest 2 using an emulator and, even though I wasn't playing on the original hardware, I got eyestrain and a bit of headache after 15 minutes.

29. 12:01
    visible confusion

30. Gunpey Yokoi was NOT fired from Nintendo due to the Virtual Boys commercial failure. He had already decided to retire at age 50 to spend time on his own projects and ideas but delayed that retirement to continue his role at Nintendo per their request. Gunpey Yokoi did not want to release the Virtual Boy as it was, he felt that it needed more work and further refinement, however it was Nintendo who insisted that it be released as they wanted to concentrate development on the N64. When Gunpey finally left Nintendo, several of his staff left with him as Gunpey started the Koto company, which lead to the development of the impressive WonderSwan. Great video but Elliot, please do your fact checking first.

31. nintendo should release a new virtual boy in 2021!

32. oh god I feel a headache coming on at 9:45 mark this thing gives you a headache just after 10 minutes of playing it

33. A few points.
    1. “I don’t know how small people were back then” Elliot, do you mean a c h i l d ? Playing a toy made for A C H I L D ?
    2. “I recorded this on my phone, because emulating is bad!” i ReCoRdEd ThIs On My PhOnE bEcAuSe EmUlAtInG iS bAd clearly emulated boss man. Come on.
    3. “Unfortunately you can’t see 3D on YouTube” my dude did you forget about the button on YouTube that makes things 3D? Coulda used that weird bit of cardboard to use Google Cardboard. JS.

34. I just got a nes. I’m so happy.

35. it's less VR and more head-mounted headset. because of the lack of tracking.

36. Ok, here is how you play the VB. Get a cheap bookshelf, install no shelves and play it standing. Not joking. It takes a deicated set up.

37. The Red Color is the Big thing on this. It was not a good decision. Actually Exist Color Mods for the Virtual Boy, but only with one Color too…

38. I LOVED the dual d-pads. I love my VB. I got it plus most games for $100. I have the cursed ac adapter. The adjustable stand is only barely better.

    Added: oh this was back in the day at our local toys r us.

39. Play Dragon Hopper!

Comments are closed.