As we discussed in a previous article here at Nintendic, even Nintendo, for all the fantastic good it has done in serving the videogames industry over the years, sometimes gets it wrong. Aside from software bungles, one of its biggest hardware misjudgements was the ill-fated Virtual Boy. Invented by Gunpei Yokoi (the man behind Game & Watch, Game Boy and Metroid) and released in 1995, the console that aimed to provide “3D games for a 3D world” lasted little over a year, sold badly, made gamers ill, and turned out to be one of Nintendo’s biggest ever flops. Head inside the the full story on one period in its history that Nintendo would probably prefer to forget.

After such huge success with his previous projects, Nintendo gave loyal Nintendo employee Gunpei Yokoi their full blessing when it came to the Virtual Boy, something that both hoped would provide a fully immersive virtual reality-esque experience for gamers. Players would press their face against the device, peering into the visor at a pair of LED displays lit by a red, monochrome display - other colours (blue and green) were planned, but were both too expensive and unworkable when trying to create the illusion of a 3D image.

The Virtual Boy, being a console that boasted ‘true 3D’ games, needed a control input that would allow players to explore them with ease, something the traditional D-Pad just wasn’t up to. So, before the innovation of the Nintendo 64’s 360 degree analog stick, what did Nintendo plump for? Yep, dual D-pads, one on each side of the controller. The pad also housed the console’s battery pack, which needed six AA batteries to power the Virtual Boy.

The Virtual Boy received its first public showing on November 15, 1994, at Nintendo’s own, now-defunct games show, Spaceworld, and launched in Japan and North America on July 21 and August 13 respectively. Nintendo marketed the device as a portable system, but its significant size and weight meant that next to its much more compact handheld counterpart, the Game Boy, taking it anywhere was a ridiculous prospect for most owners. Compounding this was the fact that the Virtual Boy’s internal components were rather fragile and temperamental, meaning that even so much as a bumpy car ride could cause technical hitches, leading to a frustrated phone call to Nintendo’s customer care line.

It could be argued that Nintendo had never really excelled in the marketing strategies for its consoles until the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii came along, and in amongst its past calamities, the Virtual Boy was no exception. For the first six months or so after its launch, it is said that advertisements for the system didn’t even show off gameplay - perhaps not the best strategy to emply when trying to convince consumers to shell out some $180 USD for a strange, new videogame console. The firm’s uneasy relationship towards third party developers was also present, reports suggesting that Nintendo was afraid that, unable to guarantee their quality, the Virtual Boy would be flooded with poor releases. That said, many developers were reluctant to invest time, effort and money into an untested system anyway.

As it turned out, the Virtual Boy’s library of software never even stretched beyond 22 games in total (shared between 19 releases in Japan and only 14 in North America). Its launch games included Mario’s Tennis from Nintendo and Panic Bomber from Hudson Soft, but many gamers never got to play them for very long periods at a time, thanks to another of the Virtual Boy’s shortfalls. The bright red LED display was known to cause eyestrain and headaches after prolonged periods of staring at it through the machine’s goggles, especially for those under seven-years-old. Nintendo knew this, even including a warning on the console’s box and in the Virtual Boy’s manual. Worried about damaging their peepers, many consumers, understandably, shied away from making an investment.

Nintendo planned to sell 1.5 million Virtual Boys by the end of 1995, but only managed to shift 770,000 in the machine’s whole lifespan. As such, the machine was never released in Europe, Australia, or any other territories for that matter. With the Sony PlayStation and SEGA Saturn making tracks, Nintendo was keen to focus its efforts on the much-delayed Nintendo 64, so declared the Virtual Boy “dead” at the end of 1996. Despite helping to earn Nintendo millions over the years, the commercial failure of the Virtual Boy crushed its inventor’s spirits, with claims suggest Gunepi Yokoi was treated as an outcast at Nintendo thereafter. He resigned on August 15, 1996, just days before the release of the Game Boy Pocket.

The Virtual Boy was something of a comedy of errors from beginning to end, made worse by the fact that Yokoi is said never to have intended to release the machine in the state that it eventually was. Not even the popularity of Nintendo was going to be enough to sell such a peculiar-looking device, even less so when its catalogue of games was as weak as they come, and that any fun to be had had with it was tinged with the risk of damaging players’ health…

…Surely no level-headed gamer would fall for that ol’ chestnut again? Say by, for instance, waving their arms about manically for hours on end in a game of virtual tennis. Nah…

What are your thoughts and memories of Nintendo’s Virtual Boy? Eyes still aching? Let us know in the comments section below.