5 Amazing Technologies That Were WAY Ahead of Their Time

[@Sideprojects]

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[@Everything13ish]

I mean the virtual boy was 3d, so it had one tiny upside

[@davidlevy9430]

BackBlaze sounds like a Simon side project

[@plaguedoct0r]

FYI you screwed up the chapters in this video

[@Thrakus]

Why did push buttons never take off from the 70s future home ideas? will set the water temp did suck as you had to go to the basement and turn a screw, But after you always had the perfect temp shower forever. today with an android app it would be so great.

[@ryvyr]

Simon, seeing you adopt the in vogue mid-video time frame for non-adsense is deeply wounding. For years your videos and channels inspire conversation with friends, and this seemingly unnecessary yet opportunistic shift just hurts. Please place non-adsense at front/end/both, rather than kill the flow mid-video :(

[@btgbullseye]

I remember getting a taste of the Virtual Boy in a Sears for a few weeks... I was visiting my aunt, and the Sears was in walking distance, so I showed up around 10AM, and they kicked me out sometime around 3PM. The only break I would take from it was if someone else wanted to try it, but usually it was abandoned by them within 5 minutes. I got at least 2 days with 5 straight hours of gameplay on it, NO ill effects whatsoever. No headache, no color muting when looking away from the device, nothing. The only game they had for it was the Starfox game, which was basically the prototype of Starfox 2 for the SNES. (it was NOT Red Alarm, even though they are extremely similar) This was the most fun I've ever had in my entire life with ANY Nintendo product. (even Turtles In Time and ALttP can't compare)

[@enoraskye6020]

Having been around in the 90's, and actually working at Toys R Us when the Virtual Boy came out (and using it myself), I can say that no one at the time had any expectations that the headset would track the movement of your head. that would be a modern day complaint, when compared to units today that can do that. Same with the use of a controller. No one had any expectations that anything but a typical control was going to be used. Yes, the image was red wireframe, but the game imgagery was still, 100%, stereoscopic. Wireframe or not, it was still 3D. The biggest issue, in my opinion, was that they called it the Virtual"Boy". Giving it a name so close to Gameboy, I know led people to believe it was portable, which it definitely wasn't. I had a lot of customers come in really wanting one, then immediately being uninterested after I told them it wasn't portable. Now, the VR Headset for Atari Jaguar, which came out shortly after the Virtual Boy (still in 1995), was impressive for its time. Sadly, it's success was tied to the Atari Jaguar.

[@picketf]

at one point there was a headstrap planed, as magazines of the time hinted at; an accessory which never came out. It was battery powered and did no come with a power supply which also suggests it was envisioned as a "semi" portable system much like the Gamecube - a videogame you can easily relocate. One avoidable misconception was the fact that it was marketed as a videogame system. Yokoi was leader of Nintendo's toy division, he helped create the Duck Hunt wall projector game, the stretch grappler, the Game and Watch, the Game Boy and the Virtual Boy, out of all these only the Game Boy is the odd one, console/videogame system - everything else was a novelty toy and had the Virtual Boy been marketed as a novelty toy like a Tiger R-Zone then it could have been a great success.

[@patrickrauh996]

Wasn't the virtual boy the thing that gave you headaches if you played it ?

[@picketf]

@@patrickrauh996 No more than any other 3D glasses would give you headaches at 60Hz today. But it came with big warning signs not to play it more than 20 minutes continuosly without taking a minutes long break. It was even built into the device to pause gaming at a set interval. The field of view was quite a bit limited and would imply eyestrain, but then again this was the 90's where it was pretty common to watch TV on a 10 inch bedroom/kitchen set across the room.....

[@enoraskye6020]

@@patrickrauh996 Yeah, some people it definitely gave headaches. I never encountered that problem myself. kind of like, with current VR, some games cause some people a lot of nausea, while others don't experience nausea.

[@CDRaff]

One thing to note about early contact lenses was that the plastic was hard; hard enough to easily hold it's shape when squeezing it. Even the "soft" lenses introduced in the early 70s were very hard compared to today's standard. It wasn't until the early 80s that actual soft lenses that someone who wears lenses today would be able to comfortably wear came out.

[@p_campbell]

my first contacts were the "hard lenses" very small 10mm and if your eyes were dry and you blinked they would rocket out onto the floor/ground.

[@evan5935]

@@p_campbell lol thats quite annoying 😂

[@98integraGSR]

I've still got my VirtualBoy... It's honestly not as bad as a lot of the reviews say it is- VL Baseball, Red Alert, Mario Clash, Warioland, and VerticalForce were all good. Wario in particular still holds up. One thing in particular is that it actually displays AND utilizes "Real 3D"- you have depth perception. you can see things coming and time them, move further into the background, ect. it's hard to explain, but it DEFINITELY added something "new" and enjoyable... Although I always used the stand, so nothing was hanging from my head.

[@disassemblyrequired3438]

I totally agree Virtual Boy looks worse in hindsight than it actually was. It was over hyped and then under delivered. That was its biggest problem. The advertising made it look like true VR, when really it was actually a more powerful OG Gameboy with a 3D effect. If it had been advertised with honesty instead of hype, it probably would have sold better. But instead, people were disappointed when they realized what the product actually was, and as a result it tanked.

[@noth606]

Fact is also that true full color VR had existed for some time when virtual boy was released, it was just too expensive. I got to try these things at a tech fair in 94 or so, and they were not super new.

[@disassemblyrequired3438]

@@noth606 I mean, calling Virtual Boy "Virtual Reality" really is stretching the definition to begin with. It was basically a monochromatic SNES with a 3D effect. The lack of color was not it's biggest problem. If you remember, its predecessor was the Gameboy, which was also monochromatic. The lack of color was more a disappointment than a deal breaker.

[@tgmccoy1556]

@@noth606 k

[@JaredLS10]

Still have mine as well, the tennis game was pretty enjoyable as a kid.

[@surelock22]

The other thing you forget to mention about the VB was that the games were in 3D, simply put there wasn't any other mass produced 3D game devices out at the time. This is why it was ahead of it's time, not because of it's Virtual Reality aesthetics. Nintendo would eventually get 3D perfect with the 3DS 20 years later.

[@martinstallard2742]

0:36 parachutes 2:25 contact lenses 4:09 sponsorship 5:30 mp3 players 8:30 computers 12:10 virtual boy

[@nugboy420]

Spoilers

[@LXNL]

🔔! 🔔! 🔔! 🔔! 🔔! 🔔! 🔔! 🔔! 🔚!

[@srice8959]

Thank You Brother! Good Looking Out for us

[@aceundead4750]

Yesterday there was a random youtube ad on a video from a channel that has nothing to do with Simon, that youtube placed ad was a Beard Blaze ad.

[@takeohtyme]

Some companies have it in the ad agreement that they can use the adspot you shoot as a standalone ad.

[@nejm612]

@@takeohtyme Beard Blaze is Simon's own product, not an ad he just happened to shoot

[@takeohtyme]

@@nejm612 for some reason I read "Brain Blaze". Derp.

[@MA-kr6yv]

@@nejm612 so didn’t he just pay for KZbin advertising Whats confusing that his product had a KZbin ad?

[@ilajoie3]

Simon only helped create and definitely does a lot to market it via his own channels. There's also the producer, who probably created the videos because they still needs to move product. You can actually find a Beard Blaze channel here on KZbin

[@paulceglinski3087]

Simon, you are ahead of your time with all the channels. Ya gotta love it! Cheers.

[@Sideprojects]

Thanks :)

[@thejman3489]

I got an HTC Vive back in 2018. The precision and speed in tracking both the headset and controllers was incredible to me. When I turn my head in any direction it's like it knew my actions before I made them and adjusted the screen accordingly. When you try to hold your hand still you can see your controller moving just fractions of an inch as your hand shakes.

[@barriepotter3753]

Along with Babbage we also had Ada Lovelace as the first computers programmer

[@sketchesofpayne]

People in the past: "The Virtual Boy makes me nauseous and gives me a headache." People in the present: "Using a VR Headset makes me nauseous and gives me a headache." (Personally, I've used both and never felt nauseous nor had a headache. Of course, some people get that way just playing normal 3D games on a monitor.)

[@robbob1866]

I'm surprised you didn't mention Ada Lovelace as the first programer writing code for the Analytical Engine for Babbage 🤨

[@twilightgryphon]

I remember trying a Virtual Boy at Toys 'R' Us when I was like 9 or 10 years old. Thought it was pretty neat as a concept but definitely wasn't something I was pestering Mom to get me for Christmas that year, either.

[@coolnegative]

I think DaVinci meant for the "parachute" more for escaping fire when trapped in a high place.

[@freshrot420]

Orrrr catapulting soldiers!

[@surelock22]

The Virtualboy had MUCH better graphics than a Tiger Electronics handheld, thank you very much! The simple LCD displays that the cheap $20 Tiger Electronics had was the same technology that was in cheap quartz made in Taiwan watches. The Virtualboy had monochromatic 3D from a reflected LED display. It was definitely a step up from the Game Boy, but bending your head into that visor was a pain, and these games you really shouldn't be playing longer than 20 minutes at a time or you'd get a headache.

[@bradbrandon2506]

That video was so good I put it into my "watch again" list. Thank you, Simon!

[@shuruff904]

Virtual Boy was awesome to me when it first came out....they had one at a Radio Shack that was next door to a Winn Dixie my mom shopped at and I'd run next door to play Tennis or Wario for a half hour- an hour....they also had Pokemon Blue on a Gameboy attached to the wall I'd play sometimes...(sometimes I'd get lucky and people wouldn't delete my file lol) (Edit: Virtual, not "Virtua" lol...damn u Sega)

[@carlstanland5333]

I still have my Virtual Boy and it still works. Every so often I’ll pop in some batteries and get nauseous. That said, you didn’t wear the Virtual Boy, it just sat on a table, and you didn’t move around with it.

[@disassemblyrequired3438]

Or, you could do what I did as a teenager. I'd strap it to my face with medical gauze and lay on my back. The worst part was the lack of padding on the nose bridge piece. It was a horrible idea that really killed my nose.

[@BlackShardStudio]

VirtualBoy was fun. I rented it multiple times back in the day. The best way to play to avoid neck strain was to lay on the floor on your back with the device over your eyes and the stand balanced on your chest. Red Alert and Mario Tennis were the standout winners, both of which saw significant benefits from the added third dimension. It was definitely more of a tech demo than a console, though. It's a shame that years later, Nintendo would again fail to break into 3D with the 3DS , which while it was a successful mobile console, most players quickly opted out of using the 3D function and just played in regular 2D. Most ironic of all, I think... the Switch is literally the perfect form factor for virtual (just slap a Google Cardboard style pair of googles on it), but I think Nintendo's twice bitten thrice shy and probably won't enter that space again for another 5 years at least.

[@bryanx0317]

This is the second time someone called Red ALARM Red Alert in this thread. Dude if Red Alert was on Virtual Boy I'd go buy one today lol

[@picketf]

Even better than laying on your back was to dig a hole into your bedsheets & pillows and just lay on top of it (without the stand), face down like on a massage table. I remember I ripped a 9V CD Portable Player's power brick to rewire it to the 2 Pins on the back of the controller just so I could play without the batteries, good times.

[@Blalack77]

This makes me think of how interesting it would be to either take the knowledge of a handful of modern technologies back in time so these great thinkers could push their ideas further, or to just bring them to the modern time and catch them up on science and technology. Were they just great thinkers _for their time_ or were their minds intrinsically different - if they knew everything modern scientists and inventors know and had the resources and technology, could they accomplish more than their modern counterparts? But I remember I was one of the first people I knew to switch to MP3 players from CDs and tapes (was mainly using MP3 CDs by that time - like 100 songs to a disc) and one of the last to switch to a smartphone and music streaming from an MP3 player. Also, with the contact lenses, my dad is a welder among other things and he claims back whenever contact lenses were first gaining popularity around here, some welders left their contact lenses in while welding and somehow the flash or the heat or the gasses or something caused the lenses to melt/stick to their eyes and the people didn't realize and somehow messed up their eyes when they tried to take them out - supposedly pulling some part of their eye out or something. I'm not sure how much of it is true and how much is myth but several welders were supposed to have been blinded this way.

[@Matthiasflint]

That sounds implausible, but not entirely if they weren't using the safety equipment that they should have been anyway. Your eyes will (unless a great and magnificent fuck-up has happened) never experience heat that could melt or fuse a contact lens to your eye while welding, that would be VERY BAD for anyone with eyes, regardless of the presence of contact lenses, if the surface of their eyeballs got that hot. Torch welding usually isn't as brightly energetic as arc welding, and should present an even lower risk. If they were experiencing naked UV from an arc welder impacting their eyes without a sun-gazing capable visor, then they weren't professional welders, or the incidence was so brief that only temporary damage was incurred. I could only find one instance of a welder with contact lenses complaining of problems after witnessing an arc flash, and that was from Bethlehem Steel in Baltimore, 1967, and that particular incident has a few other factors, but no permanent vision loss . Sometimes, we catch a glimpse of an arc flash without protection, but you're gonna avert your gaze toot suite. That arc will BURN YOUR FLESH WITH UV RADIATION, much less the delicate organs in your skull xD

[@Nethershaw]

I remember demoing the Virtual Boy in a Toys R' Us back when I was a few years old and those things were new. After only a few minutes -- my eyes hurt. I told my mom no one would ever want one. XD

[@ZazuYen]

All that Babbage and no mention of Ada Lovelace? She wrote the first program ever written, for Babbage's differencing engine that was never built. In some way's she understood the possibilities of the engine better than Babbage himself, writing in 1842 "[the engine] might act upon other things besides number, were objects found whose mutual fundamental relations could be expressed by those of the abstract science of operations, and which should be also susceptible of adaptations to the action of the operating notation and mechanism of the engine...Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent."

[@aggonzalezdc]

I can tell you've never seen a real virtual boy, because you think it's waaaay smaller than it really is. Also, it was friggin awesome. I played so much virtual boy. God my neck hurt and I was a little kid and still invincible.

[@Matthiasflint]

That Wario game on the VirtualBoy was actually pretty good, and the wacky (fairly) hi-res stereoscopic vision was pretty unique for the time, but as the rise of the GBA put a lot of other Nintendo projects to shame, it was pretty obvious there wasn't much future in the VB.

[@insane0042]

@ 6:10 I can confirm. I was one of the first to get a Rio Mp3 player when it broke down to the $200 mark, and everyone who saw me asked me what it was. Thought it was a mini disc player since it was so small. I told them it was an mp3 player, and no idea had any idea what mp3s were.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

0:40 - Chapter 1 - Parachutes 2:30 - Chapter 2 - Contact lenses 4:10 - Mid roll ads 5:35 - Chapter 3 - MP3 Players 8:35 - Chapter 4 - Computers 12:15 - Chapter 5 - Virtual boy

[@believeinmatter]

Did you give up half way through? Someone already did it btw

[@nicholasperrin1097]

I got the Virtual Boy for Xmas as a kid. We played the hell out of that thing. I will say, extended use definitely gave all of the side effects, but it was such an awesome concept that we kept on playing. I still wish I had mine at times just to dive back into that nostalgia!

[@jnsnj1]

I remember getting to play the virtual boy in a department store and thought it was the coolest shit ever.

[@disassemblyrequired3438]

Honestly, people love to dunk on Nintendo's Virtual Boy, but it really wasn't a bad system. I owned one as a teen, and it was fun enough. The real problem was a lack of software. It only released around 12 games, and only about 3 were worth playing. Namely: TeleRoboxer, Wario Land, and Jack Bros. It was inconvenient to use, due to it requiring a desk top sitting mounting stand. This, in combination with the lack of software to justify the inconvenience were the real problems. The fact that the graphics were only displayed in red was really a non-issue. It was unimpressive, but the original Gameboy was a monochromatic display too. Most people at the time did not view the red as a deal breaker for the Virtual Boy.

[@J.R.Carrel]

The world's first computer was the Antikythera Mechanism

[@knurlgnar24]

It wasn't a general purpose machine so most people don't consider it even as much of a 'computer' than a slide rule. It certainly was impressive though!

[@williamoverton7775]

the DLP in the virtual boy is till the highest quality design pardigm for fmds. the problem is it's heavy and consumes a lot of power but the the Vuzix (I think) was designed with a tri color version of the same mechanism that produced a 720p image. which is also weak. but it it has superior pixel fill resulting in better antialias and a total lack of screen door.

[@believeinmatter]

Virtual Boy seemed like such a cool idea, until you actually wore it and realized it felt like 2 laser’s cooking the surface of your eyes. It literally hurt to use

[@sketchesofpayne]

That's bullshit. It was just two red LCD screens. I don't know what laser eye-cooker someone tricked you into using, but it wasn't a Virtual Boy.

[@brothernobody1775]

@@sketchesofpayne it was sold as lasers, which was a catchall term thrown around then for marketing. Most people I knew just complained of headaches and eye strain from how shitty the graphics were along with being hunched over the stupid things 😂

[@joshuamidgette4846]

The reason it hurt to use was the headset weighed quite a bit. Using it upright it crushed your nose and laying down it crushed your face.

[@JaleDoris]

The vomit inducing migraines were real.

[@joshuamidgette4846]

@@JaleDoris No doubt, and the pressure on the sinuses did not help.

[@Bare_Essence]

If the Virtual Boy was ahead of its time, what does that make Sega 3-D Glasses for the Master system in 1987? This actually had 3D color gaming ... in 1987. As did the Amiga. Granted each had limited gaming available, but both way way ahead of the Virtual Boy. Sega's 3D was only a $39 addon at release.

[@justin8894]

MP3 players! The Diamond Rio! A company called Pine made a portable CD player that would play all the MP3s on the disk. At the time having 50 or 60 songs available was quite amazing.

[@vcupiano]

This guy is putting out docs like they’re going out of style but they’re always very entertaining.

[@paradox206]

I was a play tester for the Virtual Boy back when I was a kiddo. We were all super excited to give it a try, but the headaches started in about 20 minutes, and the researchers were constantly swapping out AA batteries. 100% of us said it needed to ship with an AC adapter otherwise people would be angry. Still, it was a pretty cool thing to get to go to the Evaluation Center and share our feedback way back when.

[@charlesmcmanus4229]

I got my Virtual Boy on clearance (along with about 10 games) after Nintendo gave up on the system. I would always lay on my back, resting the weight of the system on my forehead (and the legs would rest on my chest). It made the experience pretty comfortable.

[@quitcallinmebill1699]

Arnold Schwarzenegger had an mo3 player in the last action hero in 1993 when he's racing down the highway with the kids. It was filmed in 1991

[@patriautism]

The virtual boy was way ahead of it's time, it gave you a modern screen glare headache in seconds.

[@disassemblyrequired3438]

I have to disagree. I owned one and would play it for hours. Zero issues with headaches.

[@patriautism]

@@disassemblyrequired3438 Are you sure you just don't have one bad eye?

[@disassemblyrequired3438]

@@patriautism Well... now that you mention it, I am a cyclops. So depth perception has never been my thing. 👁

[@patriautism]

Oh yeah well my fadda was an Odysseus, what about it now huh?

[@disassemblyrequired3438]

@@patriautism No kidding! My uncle was Polyphemus! He really can't use a Virtual Boy after what Odysseus did to him.

[@HardTimesFamilyPride]

People always overlook that the man who created the Virtual Boy - Gunpei Yokoi, who also invented the the D-Pad, helped develop the Game Boy, and influenced Nintendo with his "lateral thinking with mature technology" approach to development - did not think it was actually viable as a commercial device, but Nintendo's president at the time put it on the market anyway

[@Alacritous]

I owned a 3D virtual headset in 1996 called the I-Glasses from Virtual - IO. 640x480 resolution and 256 colors I think and proper VR. I could play a game called Descent on them. A 3D space ship you navigated through a 3D underground maze to kill bad guys and destroy the evil base.

[@blueredbrick]

Descent was the best, it supported a whole list of different VR sets. Lacking money, I ended up building a setup of cardboard and prisms. The effect was magnificant, I can recall the projection of the 2d sprites floating in 3d midair and also the background music.

[@cargo_vroom9729]

Saying the Virtual Boy's graphics were like a Tiger Electronic Game is doing it a major disservice to be fair. Before LCD came along games functionally similar to the Tiger ones were done with *a few blinking lights*. You showed footage from Red Alarm, with 3d polygonal graphics.

[@NightWolfx03]

I remember that I paid $20 for my virtual boy brand new at toys r us when they were on the way out and I was just like "I always wanted to see one of these" and bought it

[@picketf]

One very profitable investment, as they go for at least $200 in barely working condition now on Ebay

[@p_campbell]

Have to call you on one thing. You said that the Virtual Boy's graphics were similar to a Tiger game of the same time. Tiger was around 5-8 years before virtual boy. PS1 was already out. So think of Teken 1 vs that red imaged game play. 🤔

[@nathanmckee5006]

I own 2 Virtual boys... one still in the box, i love em

[@eadweard.]

They're shite.

[@theprinceofinadequatelighting]

"What's wrong with my pronunciation of polynominals? I think I'm saying phenomenomials just fine! How do YOU say polynecronomicons?" -Simon

[@KoopaMedia64]

As a fan of the virtual boy, I had hoped for a more generous and realistic description of the Virtual Boy that wasn’t riddled with lies (the VB is significantly more advanced than a Tiger electronic game) and the tired, decades old hyperbole (The VB doesn’t cause headaches or eye strain in the vast majority of use cases).

[@novakonstant]

If that mechanical computer was made, we would literally lived in a steampunk world. Big machines ran by steam, valves and copper tubes. That would've been awesome!

[@evilben3810]

no mention of Ada Lovelace when talking about the analytical engine? she wrote the first computer programs on a machine that didnt even exist. talk about really ahead of your time!

[@ValosiTiamata]

The Virtual Boy was actually a lost gem that was intentionally hijacked by Nintendo itself. The company was falling behind in the console race, with the Dreamcast, Atari Jaguar, and Playstation all coming out before Nintendo could develop their own next gen console. As a result, they commissioned a stopgap system to ensure they had a product on the market while development on the real next-gen console continued. The VB was modelled after apopular toy called the ViewMaster, in which disks containing layered animation cels were inserted. Because the same image appeared for both the left and right eye, it gave the illusion of 3D. A lever on the side allowed the user to flip to the next image on the disk, and a movie such as Bambi would typically be retold across 3 to 5 disks sold as a set. To save on costs, Nintendo chose to use an LCD display. Some testing led to the conclusion that the human eye would be most reactive to red, as opposed to blue or green (the same reason why warning signs are red). A strap was available to allow you to wear the VB on your head, but most people preferred to use the included stand. When the VB was reelased, it was given almost no fanfare, and many of the warnings were given by Nintendo themselves to ensure the system didn't accidentally become a hit. Only around 30 games were ever commissioned, some of which never saw official release. Years later, the VB would gain a small cult following through emulation and many homebrew games were created for it. Of all the consoles in my former collection, my VB was treated with the most reverence, because it was a great idea that was never allowed a chance to shine.

[@RainbowTheSnail]

I would love to have a vr attachment for the switch.

[@TheEvilCommenter]

Good video 👍

[@laurenmp7486]

With the MP3 player, he just just barely missed it. WinAmp, a program to play MP3s was introduced in 97 and was downloaded like crazy as people realized they could store enitire albums of music on their computers. Which lead to more people downloading mp3s, for the sources of the day, mostly usenet user groups. I remember the first, or one of the first two or three mp3s I downloaded was the Banana Splits TV show theme song. Within a year of WinAmp being released it had been downloaded over 10 million times and kept being downloaded by millions for a few more years. So yeah poor guy juuuust missed out on making it wth an mp3 player.

[@wolfdeguerre9952]

guys, her family name is MP74, i think she's the definitive expert on all things MP, probably being a time traveller here to guide our development towards her creation :) btw, my first mp3 was Nick Cave & Kylie Minogue - Where the Wild Roses Grow. i still remember the day, i was introduced to Winamp, MP3s AND nick cave in one visit to my friend henri. oh, the days of early P2P... kids these days have so much (artificial) anxiety, but know nothing of the existential terror of staring at the transfer of an MP3 that entered the high 90% stage.

[@thisguyagain7857]

backblaze sounds like a body area specific hair remover.

[@mikec5400]

i remember my mom getting me an ipod for christmas and it took me like a month to get a decent amount of music on there cause of dial up internet. One song took hours to download

[@chekote]

The benefit of the Virtual Boy would be stereoscopic vision.

[@nofosho3567]

Dude no one, I repeat NO ONE on the internet hustles as hard as Simon Whistler. It's fucking appreciated mate, you and your whole team. Throw some cookies down in the basement for them will ya?

[@soggycracker5934]

The Virtual Boy was a gimmick in 1995, and vr is STILL a gimmick, in 2022. Yeah, if you look at the Hardware Survey on Steam... It kinda says it all.

[@belterglj]

It's practically criminal that Babbage was included, but Ada Lovelace was not. Of coarse even a century later the creators of the eniac were lauded as revolutionary inventers while its programmers were ignored, who were also women (mostly).

[@eadweard.]

This is revisionist, ideological drivel unfortunately.

[@belterglj]

@@eadweard. citation needed

[@fredflintstoner596]

Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view !" Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam ." Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!" Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..." Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!" Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky." Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction." Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment ?"

[@usonumabeach300]

Back in 95 I had a friend downloading mp3s on mIRC using ftp servers, it was super niche back then, and with earlier dial up speeds it took over an hour to download a medium quality bitrate song of about 3 minutes in length, and hard drives were rarely even 1 gigabyte. My family's first PC had 24megabytes of ram and a 640mb hard drive. That's when CD ROMs were bougie, and games like Jet Fighter 2 came on I think it was 4 floppy disks, lol. Man I feel old now.

[@rachelann9362]

I was going to say.. it was absolutely possible and it could be found if you knew how to look for it in non-google days. Before Napster and other torrent type programs, I do also remember getting software to rip off mp3s from my cds to fill up my first MP3 player. Granted that MP3 player was outdated like 3 months later lol. Definitely wasn’t the first one, but I had one pre-napster. But of course, I was the younger gen (gen y/late gen x) on early computers and quickly learned beyond my techie dads skill-and honestly a lot of programs and websites back then were INSANELY easy to exploit. I was a HEAVY telnet user in middle school before most homes had a pc. When people say SimCity, I automatically think of the OG game not the character based ones people think of introduced much later on.

[@NoName-en4op]

Ah the Virtual Boy. I loved that thing and still do (just played street fighter on mine yesterday). Too bad it got a bad rap, wasn't really portable like advertised, the 2-player option was not enabled (but can be for some games like tennis), and cost too much initially.

[@evilbeetlekustomscreations4965]

Weird I just searched KZbin for Virtual Boy info because I just dug mine out after 25 years of sitting and it works great and I see this video being posted👍

[@The_Blazement]

Wario Land for Virtual Boy is actually quite a good game

[@vidarCRC]

I've heard good stuff on that. I guess it's time to emulate it on the Quest 2 VB emulator.

[@timg2727]

I'm one of the few people who owned a Virtual Boy and actually liked it. It was a fun little system.

[@cammando2363]

Oh Nintendo. They also were ahead of their time with the virtua glove for the NES. And their light guns. While not fully realized yet. VR still try to make peripherals similar to those products.

[@Faction89]

I actually loved my virtual boy. Red alert and mario tennis were both great, of course, I was only 9

[@stevesloan6775]

I love how the frequency of the structure is key. That’ll still ring true for any structure. 🤓🤓🤓🤓

[@sirsir9665]

The fact people were able to desgin computers many years before their time is mind boggling. The Romans created a all gear based computer of sorts and that alone is incredible it makes me question modern reality and Technology

[@BleachDemon707]

200 years later, we're holding that analytical engine in our hands... Im thinking, 200 years from now, will we be traveling at the speed of light? Will we have warp drives?

[@danielhenzphotography]

I tried the virtual boy a few weeks ago. Quiet interessing for the time. But I did not experience any bad symptoms.

[@donaldwatson7698]

Da Vinci just wanted to do some BASE jumping from cliffs, canyons, and cathedrals.

[@DJRonnieG]

The VirtualBoy did in fact provide stereoscopic depth perception. This can be noticed when playing Mario Tennis.

[@aggonzalezdc]

Virtual Boy wasn't wearable btw. So it wasn't weird at all that it didn't move with your head, because you couldn't move your head! It was sitting on a table!

[@adamsmith1267]

I guess adults at the time hated the Virtual Boy. As for me, being something like 10 or 11 when it came out, I loved it!

[@Drjtherrien]

Probably just as well that contact lenses were not ready for real use until later, considering it preceded Joseph Lister's discoveries.

[@gordonwallin2368]

Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.

[@nancyallen8497]

I've always open my eyes underwater while swimming occasionally I'll get an air bubble trapped I guessed on top of my eye ball and it's like wearing goggles or vision becomes crystal clear rather than blurry like when the water is touching your eye

[@adamgallagher9822]

I got mine for Christmas years ago, I don't have any of my old systems anymore but I loved it. reviews are way to harsh on it.

[@rachaul]

Even at the time I remember thinking virtual boy was bad. The graphics were like looking directly into the barcode scanner at the grocery store.

[@sikliztailbunch]

If you consider headaches, a hurting neck, black and white graphics with a slightly stereoscopic parallax effect with otherwise 2D pixelgraphics,with no motion sensoring whatsoever to be "ahead of its time"... well, then.... There was a reason the V-boy flopped

[@donovandelaney3171]

Whitehead has finally been credited for the first flight.

[@theunspoke815]

I'm 47 with an exceptional memory and I've NEVER heard of Virtual Boy!!! 🤔🤔🤔

[@GAMakin]

VIRTUAL REALITY SPECTACLES! SHADES OF TRON! A friend of mine was a member of a test group for 3rd generation, "free standing" 3D goggles. Apparently his middle ear and "imagination" couldn't compensate for the lack of physical feedback. He fell over, barfed, seized and pissed himself. He was quite disappointed. A Jessica Rabbit-type vamp was featured in the Test Platform. He'd be getting to the messin' when down-he'd-go! He had the same problem in the "REAL-REAL" World. Something to do with the consumption of excessive amounts of alcoholic beverages. Reality, Virtual or Actual... It's not for everybody.

[@onemorechris]

anyone else thinking Leonardo da Vinci is getting a little bit too much credit sometimes: he just drew a picture of something, he didn’t invent it

[@kasahadragon9499]

There has been research don't to show he probably copied others work from a hundred years before him. Its been a long time since I saw the show on the topic but it was very convincing

[@onemorechris]

@@kasahadragon9499 interesting! ill have to look that up. If Leo invented parachutes and helicopters, Emmett Brown invented the time machine.

[@kingjames4886]

wonder if that MP3 player adopted the new USB connector invented in the same year or still used serial port :P

[@bioLarzen]

Bummer... seeing the chapter title I was soooo looking forward to learn which medieval genius first came up with the idea of the mp3-player :D

[@Stuntsnik11]

I got an eye-strain headache just remembering this video game relic.

[@jasonp3253]

The world's first programmable computer was invented at Iowa State University in 1929!

[@BustaHymen]

My eyesight is getting worse by age, I'd like one of those portable fish tanks 😂

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

I did not know someone had actually built and flown a _da Vinci parachute._

[@kev3d]

Virtual Boy: It hurts your neck, gives you a headache, everything's red, and the games suck. SIGN ME UP.

[@PuffinPass]

Virtual Boy only took the video game Battlezones concept and made it more portable with headaches

[@odinsbaer]

Memories of the virtual boy fun but solo headaches

[@05Rudey]

I would love to see Nintendo make a modern Virtual Boy, with similar graphics but the headset working in the same way as a modern VR headset.

[@zeroworldcraft]

Most people think that there are 22-ish Virtual Boy games. I actually have exactly 45. There are a bunch of Public Domain games. I can play them on my HD TV. Hehehe. However, I have not achieved the hyper-rare "Emerald Virtual Boy". There is a way to get it to cycle through colors with a custom button press. Red, purple, green, blue& orange. I haven't figured it out yet though.

[@nickolaswilcox425]

first im hearing of it, the 22 number is the officially released stuff, a bunch of prototypes and fan made stuff have popped up over the years and flashcarts and custom pcbs have made them usable on real hardware, as for color... never heard of that before, everything ive ever found says it uses red leds which by their nature cant emit another color unless you are doing something inadvisable to them and given the rarity of vb display units i wouldnt risk it

[@zeroworldcraft]

​@@nickolaswilcox425 You could have just held your tongue at the words: "Emerald VBoy". Don't tell me things about what you don't know about... & you weren't listening.

[@nickolaswilcox425]

@@zeroworldcraft you could also not be a jerk and better explain what you mean, i had the sentence order wrong i know about the games, but im genuinely curious about the emerald thing, my searches pulled up barely anything and what little it did only reinforced my thought that the display cant do other colors without extensive modification and i didnt find anyone who had actually made such a modification so if you have any other info that would be cool

[@babagandu]

I remember the Nintendo Virtual Boy ... it was on display at a retailer 🤣

[@TheRavenMagi]

I actually told a friend of mine how to make a Gameboy store and play music in 1993. Too bad I didn't patent it or see about getting it made.

[@crouchinggiraffehiddenllam7764]

Anyone remember Kazaa? Man piracy was easy back then any game any movie any song any corn