What did you think of the Virtual Boy in 1995?

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Forget about the years of retrospect. Forget about the reappraisal, the homebrew, the YouTubers, the forum posts, the mods, all of it.

What did you think about the Virtual Boy when it was on the market?

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

When i first saw it, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I begged my dad to rent it from blockbuster so I could try it. I played it for like 3 hours on my dinner table, had serious neck pains afterwards and my eyes were hurting. Didn't touch it for the whole weekend after that.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I probably would have loved it... But I only heard about it after the YouTube era, where its reputation had already been firmly cemented.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

When i first saw it, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I begged my dad to rent it from blockbuster so I could try it. I played it for like 3 hours on my dinner table, had serious neck pains afterwards and my eyes were hurting. Didn't touch it for the whole weekend after that.

I feel like I’ll hear this story a LOT in this thread.

 

[NeonKnights]

I was lucky enough to try it at a random toy store, a KB's I think right after release.
I spent a good 20 minutes playing Red Alarm and thought it was pretty neat.
I remember the 3D effect looked amazing at the time though I'm pretty sure I didn't play it long enough for my eyes to start hurting or for any headaches to develop so I guess that was fortunate. To this day Red Alarm remains the only Virtual Boy game I have actually played.

 

[RustySK]

I didn't even know it existed until the late 2000s, since it was never actually released in Europe and no gaming magazine I was reading at the time even mentioned its existence.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Didn't Even exist when it was released (1997 boy here)

But let me tell you something, when something cool shows up, the piracy market gathers like ants and try to either replicate or pirate the software, even when i was a child i never saw it be referenced in magazines or gaming showsm so here in Mexico it may as well not exist

 

[Spoopz]

Wasn't born till 2000 but i feel like my reaction would have been the same as I watched pewdiepie first play with the oculus back in like 2011 2012 i think.
which was like waow! cool!
and never get it cause its expensive asf

 

[RageBurner]

I didn't think much of it back then to be honest. Massively gimmicky, and I could see that for miles.

 

[gwardojones]

My brothers and I rented it from Blockbuster for a weekend and I played the crap out of it. They both lost interest pretty quickly, but I thought Mario Tennis and Teleroboxer were amazing.

My only real problem with the Virtual Boy was that it made it so I couldn't see red for an hour or two after a long play session, which freaked me out as a kid. "Will it be like this forever?" You know, kid fears and whatnot. Well, that and they didn't have any games for it. Once it was established that it was a failure and no more games would be coming, I stopped caring. Still, I wish it did better so I had a reason to pick one up for Christmas or a birthday.

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

The design of the Virtual Boy was awful. They expected you to place in on a table or desk and play it that way. But they didn't consider that the average table is usually around elbow high and the tripod that held the VB was far too short. So you'd have to lean down and hold a bad posture to play the games. Which is not an issue for short playing times, but for longer playing sessions, it was really bad. I think eventually I would've figured out an ergonomic way to play, but its a weird fumble for Nintendo that they didn't figure this out in user testing.

On top of that, the red LED they used for the display was far too bright in my opinion. I think they even acknowledged that in the manual, they wouldn't recommend play sessions of longer than 30 minutes or so, IIRC. I know when I played it for a few hours I had a serious case of eye strain and a headache/neck pain.

The other issue was that none of the games were true 3D, they were 2D games with extra layers to allow for a better sense of depth. Which was cool for 1995 but it wasn't the 3D effect promised in the marketing.

 

[χKai]

I thought it looked stupid, like they were trying too hard to become the next step in technology in gaming and I suspected it would damage your eyes.
Turns out I was right.

 

[iamthemilkman]

Since I was so young, I thought it was really cool and innovative, however I didn't get it when it came out. I was able to get it at KB Toys for $24.99 when it was being liquidated. I remember sitting at my childhood home's dining room table and playing Mario Tennis, Mario Clash, Wario Land, Bomberman, etc., with my parents. Both of my parents thought it was incredibly neat, too.

 

[NotReallyHere]

...I didn't get it when it came out. I was able to get it at KB Toys for $24.99 when it was being liquidated.

I remember seeing that same bargain bin! Been kicking myself for not picking one up at that price, ever since.

Really, it really should have been about that price from the jump. I know that wasn't feasible, given the technology involved, but the Virtual Boy seemed from the get-go like it would never amount to anything more than a novelty, something akin to a Tiger Electronics handheld that you might get for your birthday.

I do remember there being a bit of hype. I subscribed to Nintendo Power, and they dedicated an entire issue to the Virtual Boy launch - complete with a pair of 3D glasses that would make the pages of the magazine look like they were in 3D! Honestly, it was a pretty cool effect for 1995 - and maybe more impressive than the Virtual Boy, itself

Like others have said, I tried some demo units they had set up in stores. I played Mario Tennis at Sears, but really didn't like it, or think much of the 3D experience, either. I played Red Alarm at, I think, Service Merchandise? I liked that one a little better, though I kept getting hung-up on the sorta-invisible wireframe walls, and never really found my way around.

The game I really wanted to play was Teleroboxer. I was a huge fan of the Punch-Out games, so if that had been on one of the demo units, who knows, maybe it would have shifted my opinion a bit? Same goes for Wario World, or Mario Clash. Anything but Mario Tennis. That's a fine game for a pack-in, but as something to really show off the hardware...? I think they could have made a better choice for the in-store demo title.

Thankfully, I never played any title long enough to get eye, neck, or head pain. But I think that's simply because I didn't experience any Virtual Boy game that I wanted to play for more than five minutes

 

[FrootyLoopsSamurai]

I was only 5 years old when the virtual boy came out and didn't experience it until a couple of years later when my dad brought one home from the pawn shop he managed. I only had mario tennis on it. I thought it was neat at the time but not mind blowing. I was curious about the other games for it pictured on the box, but it wasn't until I dug it up years later that I played anything else on it. I think I had an easier time playing it as a kid vs now. I think I had just the right chair/table height, so I didn't get any neck cramps from it. Never got any headaches or anything like that from it then or now.