Virtual Boy - Gaming Historian

Gaming Historian gives the complete history of the Virtual Boy. Released in 1995 by Nintendo, the Virtual Boy was supposed to change video games. Instead, it became one of the worst selling consoles of all time.
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Special thanks to Planet Virtual Boy (www.planetvb.com) for a wealth of information, images, and more.
All background music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

[@Kodeb8]

Holly shit, Yokoi's story actually makes me really sad. He died a year after letting Nintendo down, and he never got to see the 3ds :(

[@bottlesaregreat2865]

and the switch

[@marvelgeek9577]

Yokoi didn’t let Nintendo down in the end. He had intended on retiring sometime after the virtual boy launched, intending the system to be a going away present to Nintendo. Since the console was such a flop Yokoi actually stayed longer than he intended to help Nintendo create the game boy color, making that the last system he designed for Nintendo

[@MrAshtonK]

It's even crazier to learn exactly how he died. He was in a car with other business men and the driver got into a small accident and when all the men got out to check the damage, he got hit by another car.

[@time4manmode945]

@@MrAshtonK notice that the music in this video is royalty free unlike. His other videos im guessing the that video came out copyright laws was extremely strict and it still is now

[@serafinp.13]

Not really, his last console with Nintendo was the Game Boy Pocket.

[@PoopTVYTP]

There are more views on this video than Virtual Boys sold

[@pika62221]

and more Virtual Boys than Wii U's! Have to be, they're both considered commercial failures, thus they both failed to sell 1 million units.

[@linkachu5537]

@@pika62221 what. The Wii U sold 13.5 Million. Certainly a flop, but not "failed to sell 1 million"

[@linkachu5537]

@Frost Aurora goal post moving eh? Sure it didn't sell to 1 million in 6 months, but that wasn't what he said. He said "they both failed to sell 1 million" he didn't say anything about time. Neither did I say it was a success, I said it sold more than 1 million

[@linkachu5537]

@Frost Aurora I'm not agruing it was a success. It's just not right to say the Wii u sold less than the virtual boy even if it sold poorly.

[@vanguard7551]

PoopTV videos are free

[@pvtpain66k]

As a fellow Virtual Boy owner, the "I feel like I took a nap, in a terrible position & had a really weird, unsatisfying dream" would be my best description of how playing it feels.

[@justinf5457]

i remember buying one in college (10yrs after the release) because I never played it. I tried it for a few minutes and had a crazy headache.

[@ntcrawford722]

My mom got me a Virtual Boy back in 95 when I was in the 5th grade we went to toys r us they had it on display

[@CheapCheerful]

So sad what happened to Gunpei Yokoi. Survived the initial crash, but died when hit by another car whilst helping save someones life. Great man.

[@beyondobscure]

o7

[@hontoniarigato7956]

If the Virtual Boy had been in color and focused more on 1st person perspective games like Yoshi's Safari or Doom it would've done better.

[@baigandinel7956]

+Hontoni Arigato Heck yeah, Doom. Would've been amazing.

[@humanshrek1836]

Nintendo wanted it to be in color, but it was too expensive. There was supposed to be a huge list of future games for the system.

[@RarefoilB]

Doom on the Virtual Boy. Why did I not think of that sooner??

[@hontoniarigato7956]

RarefoilB Maybe someone who is talented can Hack the Virtual Boy would be interesting lol

[@humanshrek1836]

Hontoni Arigato Probaily u could.

[@LepricahnsGold]

According to Wikipedia, who quotes Yoshihiro Taki, a colleague of Yokoi's, Yokoi was going to retire at age 50 to go do what HE wanted to do, anyway. Yokoi also created the Game Boy Pocket before leasing Nintendo so the Virtual Boy was not the last thing he made for Nintendo.

[@makutas-v261]

I feel so bad for him.

[@Obironnkenobi]

I remember seeing one of these in a Toys-r-us catalog and wanting it so freaking badly. I pestered my parents for it for MONTHS. I never ended up getting it, but like a year later got the Playstation and forgot all about the Virtual boy. At this point, I knew nothing about what games there was for it. I hadn't seen any gameplay. All I saw was a picture in the corner of a mailer and decided I wanted it. Like 20 years later I started talking about starting a band with this guy I worked with. I was over at his house jamming with him, and as we were tearing stuff down I saw that he had the Virtual Boy. I conveyed the story to him and he laughed. He said "I literally only use that as decoration at this point. I'll sell it to you for 20 bucks." I tried to play it and not only did my glasses get in the way, but my eyes were a bit wider than the max setting so I couldn't see perfectly. I played a little Wario but had to stop within like 5 minutes because I started to get a migraine. I could see what they were going for with this, but honestly it was just way too ahead of it's time. If they released an updated version of the Virtual Boy with modern tech, it would probably make a killing with all the other VR systems on the market.

[@ntcrawford722]

Right bro that's where my mom took me and got mine

[@michaelbreen7865]

Actually, the closest thing the Virtual Boy had to competition was Tiger's R-Zone.

[@laggory]

Yeah, but no one talked about it because Tiger games died a long time ago

[@shawnmathews8898]

Verry verry good😀

[@Cash0991]

When you ask for Virtual Boy but get an R-Zone instead....

[@TetsuDeinonychus]

I had an R-Zone, and I liked it better than the Virtual Boy...

[@Nightmare-fx9vu]

And the apple pipin

[@etherraichu]

I own a virtual boy... But I don't have one. Because my mom refuses to give it back. I'm like 29, she's in her 50s.She has pointed out that she, being smaller, can actually use the thing comfortably. And that she actually plays it a lot, and that I basically never would even if I had it. And as much as I want my virtual boy back... I cant find a flaw in her argument. She does in fact play it, a lot. It has pinball games. She likes pinball.

[@sfurtado3]

Yeah I actually loved mine. Kinda got addicted to Mario tennis for a while. I had no problems with the console but after a while of game play it did get uncomfortable to keep playing and there was only so many possibilities of positioning yourself and the console to address this.

[@picketf]

+Sergio Furtado I found the best way to play is to use the device without the stand. Lay on your stomach on the bed and tuck a pillow or two under your chest and chin and hold the joypad on top of the device. I can play VB Wario Land for 90 minutes straight like that

[@MrJPEzra]

I use to lay on my back with the vb on it's stand laying on my chest. I loved the vb it was amazing for it's time.

[@nikokosminen4085]

Gold.

[@barcelonadgreates]

VB was so much fun. Mario tennis and wario land stand out. I also had this cool jet game. Good times

[@Kyubeyisbestboy]

I find the historys about discontinued or the most hated/controvertial gaming stuff the most interesting.

[@leon30517]

you aren't the only one :D

[@Kyubeyisbestboy]

GravityZero What is your icon supposed to be?

[@leon30517]

LittlePip The Light Bringer Icoginito looking in on Google Chrome taking her bra off

[@etherraichu]

The Fallout Equestrian ( Little Pip) I liked the virtual boy. That wario game was reallly good.Just had to be absolutely sure you didnt ever set your hands down on the table, while playing, because the power cord connected to the controller and would easily dislodge if you pressed it down against something.

[@johnhawkeye564]

Minun isn't the virtual boy the worst console ever

[@benepic3101]

The games actually don't look that bad (besides the color)

[@MaxonerousX]

benepic Yeah, if we compare it to handheld graphics, I'd say it would be around the GBA, if it was monochrome. That's fairly impressive for 1995

[@deathglock496]

Yeah but it's 'virtual' boy.

[@tetronym4549]

The Virtual Boy, while being a commercial failure, helped start the journey toward the amazing VR we have today, so I think we should appreciate it a bit more.

[@rerez]

I still want a Virtual Boy pretty bad. When I was a young kid I played it and thought it was so cool!

[@thebipolarbear1]

Rerez make a great collection piece. Remember r-zone? That sucked but seemed so cool

[@ArinKambitsis]

Sega turned them down? You mean, Sega actually made one good business decision in its entire history?

[@darudesandstorm8813]

+Arin Kambitsis That has to be the best BURN ever

[@darudesandstorm7251]

+darude sandstorm my brother

[@titan133760]

+Arin Kambitsis For once, they did made a good decision

[@Tornado1994]

+Arin Kambitsis They let Sega of America make the 32X.

[@TheKorfish]

Arin Kambitsis actually the reason behind them not going with the virtual boy is that they had their own virtual reality headset which like the virtual boy failed.

[@giusepperesponte8077]

This video was made seven years ago. Gaming Historian was really ahead of his time with the KZbin video game essays.

[@tarransanders21]

4:54 Please tell me somebody else saw and loved the fact that the dude was wearing a Nordiques hat.

[@skiptracer2988]

I was happy to see it! RIP Nordiques!

[@GamingPalooza]

i actually loved the virtual boy... owned one... played it till the batteries were dead. never got headaches.

[@ryanknippel828]

Gaming Palooza Empire I want to try it out if only to see if it gives me a headache. The original 3DS never gave me headaches, and I used the 3D all the time.

[@NathanBenedict45]

Ryan Knippel I got it mainly because I'm a Wario fan and I was not disappointed. Tried other games, too. The bomberman puzzle game is great; as well as Jack Bros, Teleroboxer and Vertical Force. I played it for hours and never got a headacke. And I'm one of those people who can't watch 3D movies. I would totally recommend it if it wasn't for the very small library.

[@lambsauce7969]

Nathan Fanstooik Maybe someone will find out on making hombrew games?

[@edvance1030]

I played it recently in a gaming convention here in Brazil and I didn't get headaches either. It was underwhelming, though and it would have been uncomfortable to play it if it wasn't for the contraption it was mounted on. Also, it is the ONLY Nintendo console I don't own and when I say the only one, I mean the only one.

[@stihl_joking570]

I remember playing wario when it came out at blockbuster I thought it was cool but I wasn't blown away by it I thought the red was kinda weird, I was 9 when it came out

[@Davidevgen]

i think if the virtual boy displayed color and had a video out to connect to a tv i think it would have done better

[@SilkyLew]

And actually be virtual

[@beatzguy]

That and have better game titles, like make a Mario Kart, a DK game, etc..

[@mowsie2k492]

@poopiepants underrated comment

[@granthohulin6730]

sure

[@SeanOfEarth]

You mean, if it had been a completely different console? And not a VR toy at all? But actually a regular 32 bit console, which would then have to compete with Saturn and PlayStation but be less powerful than either of them!?

[@holadivinusb6350]

Still better than the iphone 10. Headphone Jack

[@Maximus90277]

Good one

[@johncenaplayingstarcraft9580]

Still better than bee S

[@mapleorange3415]

and the controller is so much better, it's not some dumbass brick

[@t6amygdala]

@AAronIsWEIRD gay

[@meat7490]

0:12 the sound that plays every 10 turns in the pacer test

[@Hammerhead547]

"what is the virtual boy?". A $200 migraine headache on legs...perhaps?

[@tenyearsinthejoint1]

I'd rather stare into the sun if i wanted eye strains.... plus its free!

[@drsandoz2810]

Hammerhead547 it's like a pair of eyes on legs

[@bigblujay9729]

@Hammerhead547 How can legs get headaches?

[@michaelfinlay1412]

3ds, it is a worse 3ds, at least it wasn't bulky unlike this monstrosity

[@rickyyoung]

Sounds like my wife

[@mjbreese]

Funny how Nintendo back then insisted sales would pick up if people actually tried the Virtual Boy. They are now saying exactly the same thing about the Wii U.

[@GamingHistorian]

Interesting...

[@BloodRedFox2008]

Unlike the VB though, the Wii U actually has things you can compare it to in order to properly advertise "what it's like to use the GamePad," though sadly (and even Nintendo admitted this) they didn't do the best job explaining these comparisons during the system's first year. The most obvious comparison to make? It's the DS in console form. Two screens with one being a touch screen, boom, easy comparison. Plus you could also say the controller is like a tablet with actual buttons and sticks for playing games where touch-screen only controls might fail. At least the Wii U has a chance of getting better like the PS3 last gen, the VB, with it's issues, felt too "dead on arrival" to have much of a chance. At least the 3DS shows how you can do things right with the technology properly realized (especially since unlike the VB, you can turn the 3D effect off if you're prone to getting headaches).

[@Vitorruy1]

I tested the Wii U and liked it a lot I think one of the reasons for the bad sales was the bad marketing.

[@mjbreese]

Wow, took you a year to comment on this. I actually bought a Wii U since then. I enjoy it for the games and for me it was worth the purchase. As for the controller, it is of zero use to me and have yet to see a single impressive feature. Whenever given the option I always choose the pro controller, which I might add, is an amazing controller. Very little interest in staring at a 5 inch low res screen when a 48 inch 1080p screen is right in front of me.

[@Vitorruy1]

***** Sadly I won't buy it, I'm saving money to college u know..

[@OAleathaO]

1:35 - "They first went to Sega, who turned them down." Could this be the only good decision Sega made during this time period? Amazing! ;)

[@TetsuDeinonychus]

"I'm sorry, but here at Sega we only make good sound decisions. We cannot in good conscience market this product. Now let's get that 32X out onto shelves so we can compete with our own 32 bit system the Saturn! And, speaking of, let's play silly games with the Saturn's launch date to piss off retailers and make sure not to have decent development tools so that only our own programmers (and Capcom) know how to get the most out of our powerful but convoluted hardware!" Yeah, it is pretty bad when Sega's people took a look at the Virtual Boy and decided it was too stupid an idea for them.

[@TetsuDeinonychus]

@Dynamic Mew I *love* Sega, but they have made some amazingly poor business decisions over the years and had a habit of really screwing themselves, despite making high quality games and consoles. They don't suck at all, but they did make some really bone-headed decisions in the 90s. But, when it came to the Virtual Boy, for once they chose the wiser path.

[@sunshinevapes6486]

I would like to say, thank you for your videos. I have just come across this channel. It is nice to go back in time and see some games I played as a kid. I actually shed a tear remembering the first time I played Smash Brothers. Then remembering buying Super Smash Brothers Brawl for my daughter and playing it on the Wii. Then buying the last Smash Brothers for the Wii U for my son. Getting to remember the times I played it with them just brought a tear to my eye. Thank you for your videos. keep up the good work. you're touching more people than you know.

[@DatNESGuy85]

Was that amazing grace at the end? it made me think like there was a Virtual Boy funeral. I just pictured a little coffin shaped like the Virtual Boy and Gunpei Yokoi and all of the top staff and Nintendo staring into it weeping XD

[@GamingHistorian]

Indeed it was.

[@shreddedWheatz]

It was beautiful :'(

[@MisterTipp]

I thought it was the true grit soundtrack for a while xD

[@darthlobster]

He started the Amazing Grace when he mentioned that Gunpei Yokoi died, though, so I suspect it was more just for him.

[@danielperez3175]

I thought it was a Game Boy

[@SuperDerek]

Hey man, great video. I did hear that Gunpei actually had planned on leaving Nintendo prior to the flop of the Virtual Boy. From what I've heard, he was actually planning on leaving it as a farewell present to Nintendo, but it just turned out far worse than he had hoped. Also of importance, he was also the designer of the D pad as part of a Game and Watch, which was carried over to Nintendo's other consoles.

[@screamingfalcon71]

SuperDerek RPGs Actually, you're mostly right, the Virtual Boy was supposed to be Yokoi's swan song, but due to the failure of the system, he stayed on to essentially clean up the mess that resulted and to help design the true successor to the Game Boy: the Game Boy Advance. After that was done, he left for his own company and died before the WonderSwan even came out.

[@Savepointgaminglounge]

I love your channel so much I’m going back through all the vids for the 3rd time

[@stevestojan]

I’ll be 40 next year. I can still remember the disappointment when I went to the store, traded far too many SNES (or was it N64 at that time?) games and along with some cash, and got this thing. This is where I lost trust in humanity.

[@AlphaOmegaSin]

Teleroboxer and Warioland are all around pretty damn good games, just sucks that your eyes will turn into sinkholes from longer play :\

[@ClockwickProductions]

Then you had to rest till your headace went away

[@SilverKitsunex]

Dudeee. I love your videos. But I was not sure on what your opinion was on the virtual reality thingy that sony is working on. Sorry my english is that good.

[@genosauce_colada]

Would be good to see remakes on the the 3DS, since it actually works.

[@Psychoma99]

Alpha! I love your videos man

[@Tardisntimbits]

I remember trying an instore demo back in the day, and holy crap man, it hurt... I'm an epileptic, and the only time I've EVER played a game and thought I'd end up having a seizure was playing that thing. That being said, as an adult now, I still want one...

[@shawntannehill]

Totally, the not seeing a friend play is a big downfall. Back then not all of us had consoles and would play at the friend's house who did have one. I even remember renting consoles. Half the fun was being a back seat driver as your buddy played. lol

[@nickmanzo8459]

Basically before livestreams, you watched your buddy play and laughed at his folly.

[@sweaterfish6311]

That doesn't seem to have harmed the success of the Gameboy or tons of other handheld systems before and after it.

[@Tacticslion]

Love that "Amazing Grace" at the end. :D

[@TrevorColeman]

These are freaking fantastic and is exactly what I'm looking for! business/tech/marketing aspects of these products historys. Thanks so much for this awesome channel and excellent quality of videos!

[@lmaolmao5587]

I remember visiting this little shop in Akihabara in Tokyo that sold all sorts of retro games. It was a truly magical place, with shelves and shelves full of games for more systems than you ever thought existed, and if you wanted to buy these systems, there were shelves and shelves of those, and they even had some Dreamcast games that I didn't have, and since I always had a soft spot for the Dreamcast, and also because I already had the means to play region-locked games, I bought a few games from them. Can't remember. It's been a while since I pulled out the ol' Dreamcast. This store also had a few consoles that were on display for customers to come in and try out, and of all of those, I remember the Virtual Boy best. There was this huge sign next to it about how they did not sell Virtual Boys, and this was only for demonstration, and that you were only allowed to use it for 15 minutes, or they could get liability problems. (Or something like that? My Japanese was and remains questionable at best. You were limited to 15 minutes and there wasn't exactly a line.) So of course, knowing the infamy of the Virtual Boy, I was super pumped to check this disaster out. So I set the game I want, look into the goggles and my eyeballs pretty much instantly feel like they're on fire, and I try to keep my eyes open as the fire spreads to my temples. I don't last the fifteen minutes, to say the least. Of course, that was pretty much the same experience I had when I saw Avatar in 3D for the first time. I still have trouble not wanting to rip my eyes out to stop the pain when going to 3D movies. I have some pretty severe astigmatism which might be why I'm particularly sensitive to it, but yeah, no 3D movie was ever as piercingly painful as those few seconds of looking into the Virtual Boy.

[@cloudtx]

Cool story!. (no sarcasm)

[@xXHacksAndTipsXx]

If it had at least 16 colors, was light and a headband it would may succeded.

[@gabrieleriva651]

Call_Me_Mad keep 8n mind that in 1995 there were no blu led. It became commercial viable only a decade later. You could only have red or yellow leds.

[@Azrdraco]

it was too heavy for it

[@R.B.564]

If you had a basic knowledge of language, you'd be able to construct a coherent sentence.

[@janssen18]

@@gabrieleriva651 that’s false, blue and yellow LEDs just weren’t as efficient and thus the rate of 50hz couldn’t be achieved, so Nintendo chose to use the efficient red-LEDs to have 50hz :)

[@ianeons9278]

It would have been WAYYYY too expensive for 1995.

[@mrdudelove1]

Man i love your content!!! Keep up all the good info

[@johnnywood1559]

Just discovered your channel but I really like your videos:)

[@Larry]

I'm not surprised that it never came out in Europe, mainly as Nintendo foolishly let a company called "THE games" publish all games here and they were completely incompetent. Over charging, releasing games six months-a year late and not releasing some games at all, such as Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG. They weren't even going to release Ocarina of Time at all here until Nintendo stepped in and forced them to, eight months later. But they absolutely destroyed Nintendo's foothold of Europe as their stupid practices encouraged people to import or even pirate games and those scenes really didn't die down until the release of the Wii.

[@AdmiralMcFish]

"and those scenes really didn't die down until the release of the Wii." Even then that continued for a fair while, Larry. The fact that we got Brawl nearly four mouths after the US, in the 2008 of all things, was fairly atrocious. And with the lack of region-lock on the Wii, it almost seemed like they were encouraging importing.

[@Larry]

AdmiralMcFish Oh yeah, forgot about that, when we had a Brawl tournament for TV on Xleague, we had to import several copies of the Japanese version. But there was a region lock dude, I had to mod my Wii to play US games, and you still couldn't play them if they had firmware updates on the disc in fear of bricking your machine. So you just used a firmware ripper and re-burned the disc to a DVD-R. But I don't think a lot of companies realized that piracy and importing was so successful simply because their release schedules were so terrible. and the excuse for delays in localization is rubbish. Importers had no issue at all playing US games. And if language was an issue, they should have banded the UK, Ireland and Australia with the US/Canada market.

[@thatguyontheright1]

You guys really did get gyped. Didn't you get two versions of the NES, and sometimes games could not be played on one version?

[@Larry]

***** You saw my video? Yeah, there were two NESes released here, one by Mattel and one by Nintendo and they weren't 100% compatible with each other.

[@thatguyontheright1]

No, I never saw your video about that, just something I saw a long time ago when I was just getting into retro British gaming.

[@ProtoMario]

I recently decided to do a video myself on this, I always wanted to. I decided to come on KZbin to see if there were alot or not, and I am glad I stumbled across this one. You are really awesome at reviews man!

[@polrealfake]

ILL WATCH IT!

[@jbrannon509]

I never owned one of these but in the 90s when this came out our local Sears had one on the counter that you could demo. For several weeks I'd find a way to sears and play it. I love this era so much. I'm 35 now, born in 86 and I still yearn for the past.

[@coffeelord906]

I feel you, the 90s were pretty cool :D

[@TelesplashGaming]

Been binge watching this channel to make up for lost time. Great content.

[@A_Dopamine_Molecule]

Dammit, another channel to binge-watch... I'm never gonna get a job at this rate.

[@EWUFBIiswatching]

Dopamine So this is why I’m always depressed?!?! Get your shit together Dopamine, I have stuff to do!!

[@CazTheGamerGuy]

Happy 25th Game Boy, let's look at your illegitimate son! Ah, good times.

[@GamingHistorian]

He's just misunderstood! :)

[@CosmoShidan]

***** Gundam rocks! Great vid btw!

[@jeremym9011]

CosmoShidan I agree! I too love Gundam!

[@kalulofer4638]

Caz k

[@GreggyZ]

I love the fast piano piece you used for parts of this

[@tylerkeller8869]

Ha! I totally forgot about Nester! 9:25. This is why I love your channel.

[@thrillhouse_vanhouten]

I always love hearing the historical research your put into these videos. Great job bud!

[@zenmart]

In 1996 I went to my local Soft Etc to buy my sister a $60 PS1 game for her birthday. As I entered, they had Virtual Boy's for sale. They were either $50 or $40. I can't remember. The games were 5 to 10 dollars each. I decided to get her a virtual boy with about 3 games for almost the same price as one PS1 game. Anyhow, that birthday she was so happy with her virtual boy. I enjoyed playing it as well. She still has it to this day, and keeps it for sentimental reasons. lol Anyhow it was an odd system. We had fun with it though.

[@jkdredd]

I tried it out once when I was a kid at a display at the local Ames and my biggest issue was that back then it took me longer to memorize the controls. An issue I grew out of very quickly

[@moniaco3462]

UNTIL Manuel Gutiérrez Novelo, the Mexican with the most patents and the first in the world to show a compatible Full HD 3D Blu-ray in 2007 and creating virtual reality as it is currently known, even his technology is used at NASA to see images of Mars in real time. It's a pity that being Mexican, the American government would find a way to forget it by buying it and filling it with dollars. And I doubt that those of this channel (Gaming Historian) are interested in talking about its history. Why? He's Mexican.

[@LordVerkins]

Eventually parts of the Virtual Boy would be later used on the 3DS and Switch.

[@user-wv1jc6pt4j]

the original oculus rift

[@DFX2KX]

oh lord no, regardless of what you think about HMDs, even the knockoff Chinese one my phone fits in is better then this thing.

[@user-wv1jc6pt4j]

***** captain genius

[@user-wv1jc6pt4j]

AGM Official who cares

[@starfireat2011]

well you got to remember it was one of a kind at that time

[@bloodrosereaper2099]

The progenitor, a prototype even, but far from the original.

[@manchesterunitedno7]

The main problem with Virtual Boy, there is nothing virtual reality about it. It's like selling cheeseburger but no cheese in it.

[@leon30517]

ha nice one....... its like hamburgers with no ham.........and there isn't even ham in hamburgers

[@JonasWEBnorge]

GravityZero Yes there is, in Bulgaria i bought a HAMburger with cheese, got a bun, with a slice of ham with melted cheese...

[@leon30517]

Jonas Rygh I WANT THAT

[@JsRetroVideoGames]

No sandwich is complete without Bacon. lol

[@manchesterunitedno7]

JsRetroVideoGames Hmmmmm..... bacon. BRB!

[@rwdplz1]

Finally bought one of these. They never went on sale that I can remember, our local stores probably never got them. I just remember drooling over them in Nintendo Power when I was a kid.

[@Walczyk]

so high quality. love this channel

[@krisjones5125]

them eye warnings still stand today for nintendo 3ds

[@grimTales1]

I was thinking the same

[@GiordanDiodato]

rather they be sued?

[@mariajimenafigueroa8311]

You can just trun the 3D effect off

[@genosauce_colada]

Even though I never played these games, it would be cool to see a remake of them on the 3DS since it actually works.

[@JonnyNitpick]

I Like that idea. Except I hope they would fix the "Red Only" display and make the games show more... color.

[@genosauce_colada]

Maybe they can make it into the right color. Like in Wario Land. They can re-color it to the most suitable color style.

[@groszak1]

But then they wouldn't have money for 3d technology

[@JeanSebastienRicher]

very interesting as usual! love this show!

[@bazzfromthebackground3696]

"...Nintendo thinks the future of gaming is crude, red, and headache inducing." The reality: gaming is crude, brown, and headache inducing.

[@shibba2517]

Wesly Z ...crude, brown...you mean shit? xD

[@batmanlink3453]

+Krupier X r/woooosh

[@mantra3000]

I dont get the joke...

[@biobthe1613]

+Batman Link r/woooosh

[@KineticManiac]

Can someone explain the joke please?

[@TheLionKiller101]

Nester and the Virtual Boy robot from that commercial should be playable characters in the next Smash Bros.

[@n64glennplant]

Great episode, really enjoyed this

[@topherd1011]

I personally loved the platform as a child. My mother rented it from Blockbuster for me for my birthday. Idc if it’s crap. It’s a very fond memory for me. She worked extra just to be able to afford the rental.

[@rpavlov33]

Super educational! Thank you very much for the upload =)

[@RetroOdin]

Wario Land is REALLY good. I like what they did with the simple 3D.

[@arowe199102]

Everyone talks so much trash on the virtual boy but growing up with it I loved the system. I appreciated the advanced steps Nintendo took in trying to push technology forward.

[@gopats85]

Agreed, I got one for Christmas as a kid and absolutely loved the thing honestly sure it didn’t have the best games but it really was advanced for its time for sure.

[@juniorsanchez7441]

@@gopats85 Ahead of its time just like the Dreamcast

[@gopats85]

@@juniorsanchez7441 Yep I enjoyed the Dreamcast too, had some really good games but Sega had messed up really bad at that point with past decisions and Bernie Stoller running them into ground so badly here in the US.

[@curiousottman]

Great quality content. The author knows his stuff. One of my favorite channels.

[@jimijames27]

Funny story about this: When I was a kid growing up in Redmond, WA. A friend told me if I wrote to nintendo and asked to test games they would get in touch and bring me in. I wrote a letter and after a few months completly forgot. Probably a year or two later I got a response and was really excited to go be part of a test group. A group a other kids around my age were there and we tested a couple of games but the biggest thing was the Virtual Boy. I think I may have tested two games but the one that sticks out the most was a flying game. It was very rudimentary and I remember having a hard time telling who or what I was. I gave a very negative feed back for the Virtual Boy. In fact everyone in my test group did. We all said it should have colors that red and black wasn't very fun. I am not surprised it was the failure. I would be willing to bet that the all the test groups gave less than favorable results. Thanks for this video!

[@Jamie-yp7qz]

Was the flying game Red Alarm?

[@VectrexRoli]

Honestly I can play the Virtual Boy for hours without feeling that "I just woke up from a nap", but my eyes are fine and my Virtual Boy is alligned properly.

[@nailspine2553]

Great episode. You know, my best friend and I actually enjoyed the system, and spent HOURS playing this during multiple sessions back in '95. On another note: Gaming Historian, I've really come to appreciate your channel for the mostly objective analysis of systems/developers/games - keep up the great work GH!

[@0whitestone]

I'll never forget seeing one as a display at blockbuster, I was enthralled. I got to play it for a minute before my dad made me leave the store and I never got to play it again. I thought it was the successor to the SNES and when the display disappeared and I never heard about it again, I was so confused. Then I saw the N64 and and thought the virtual boy was a fever dream for a long time.

[@TehDrewsus]

Amazing Grace riff at 12:30 to the end. Wow. Love it!

[@jettaphi1e]

I remember buying mine in KB Toys at my local mall, they were buy 2 get 1 free, $24.99 each. I got most of the games for it in a discount bin at Walmart for $3 each.

[@MegaManNeo]

Sounds like Nintendo's old president must've been a dick to force Yokoi-san to release the system this early. I'm from Europe and would have really liked to see what it plays like and I'm sure, if Nintendo were taking their time, it eventually would have become a good system. Not that I'm a fanboy or anything but I'm interested in technology.

[@kuriousstylez]

last year, I was cleaning out my parents' attic so they could sell their house. I opened a box and found my old Virtual Boy. I replaced the batteries and it worked like new. I didn't play it for very long but it was a nice nostalgia trip because I thoroughly enjoyed it as a kid.

[@chickenlegsmcgee9246]

Epic

[@rudyvasquez4512]

You ended up selling it??

[@chrisjohnson9542]

Lyrics to ending song: Amazing grace how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now I'm found Was blind but now I see 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear And grace my fears relieved How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come This grace that brought me safe thus far And grace will lead me home When we've been here ten thousand years Bright, shining as the sun We've no less days to sing God's praise Than when we first begun Amazing grace how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now I'm found Was blind but now I see

[@jpmoney53]

That one friend who thinks hes cool, "I got the PlayStation " "I got a virtual boy" room goes silent

[@GeminiSaint1]

If only Nintendo would port Wario Land VB to the 3DS... *sigh*

[@pinksheep752]

GeminiSaint1 the closest we got was Mutant Mudds...

[@mikeluna2026]

I'm an Indie developer working on small projects for Rift and Vive and can kinda feel their pain. Poor guys didn't have a clue about the quirks and limitations of virtual reality back then. What things to do or not to do to keep the players comfortable... We still keep learning new things every year ourselves. In the end, they were probably too ahead of their time.

[@DemocracyDiesInDarkness]

I managed a retail store at the mall and got one when it came out. Never had an issue with issues with headaches but did have issues with neck pain.

[@soulfreaz]

I had this when i was younger. It made me temporarily color blind after playing it every time.

[@Saxcat20]

I remember renting it from Block Buster Video...god it sucked, but I still want one anyway.

[@damonkatumaru]

If Nintendo makes the Virtual Man, I would get it since it's a 3D headset and I feel it could compete in the market.

[@nickmanzo8459]

The commercials were better than the console itself. I still remember the Virtual Boy attacking people running away like an AT-ST. That was badass. Actually playing this thing at Toys R Us made me legit sick.

[@paperclip9558]

For those who have quest 2 headset, there's emulator for this console, complete with its 3d effect. You can also do savestate, change color pallete other than that cursed burning red, etc. I'm actually surprised there's a horror game for this console, although japanese only.

[@shitchops]

So interesting, i remember the hype to do with anything that was virtual reality in the 90s it was an exciting time but no one could pull it off how we all wanted it to be.

[@moniaco3462]

UNTIL Manuel Gutiérrez Novelo, the Mexican with the most patents and the first in the world to show a compatible Full HD 3D Blu-ray in 2007 and creating virtual reality as it is currently known, even his technology is used at NASA to see images of Mars in real time. It's a pity that being Mexican, the American government looked for a way to leave it forgotten and that nothing is ever heard of it, how?, buying it and filling it with dollars.

[@LunaTheStars]

“Virtual Boy is one of the worst selling video game consoles” have you heard of the R-Zone?

[@KizulEmeraldfire]

What the heck is an "R-Zo-" - ohhhh, I see what you did there…

[@Colin12475]

I heard it from the nerd.

[@cheeseboi588]

“One of”

[@Wis_Dom]

@@cheeseboi588 _"People don't be doing school good nuff to no how words mean"_ - Albert Einstein

[@lapz78]

I like how you are one of the only channels who doesn’t just say it’s bad the whole video (:

[@fartknockerR17]

Amazing Grace at the end is a really nice touch!

[@fenomozo9108]

lol, the i hate everything music

[@user-ym3nv2ml7z]

Fabián Mozo when

[@fenomozo9108]

from 2:25

[@DogsRNice]

Fabián Mozo do I hate mars bars

[@Dionicio3]

its officially called "local forecast", but yeah, IHE song

[@bunkerdown8494]

Its stock music.

[@Shinobi33]

i cant believe i threw mine away with 3 games. i only paid $25 for it. now it costs over $200 to get one

[@imal25]

28 YEARS AGO NINTENDO VIRTUAL BOY WAS RELEASED IN UNITED STATES ON MONDAY AUGUST 14, 1995.

[@ScreamyngYoshi]

Your reenactments are the best!

[@TheLightningDragon42]

*10 YEARS AGO* Virtual Boy: I have 3D! Kids: Cool! *All the kids die because of the crappiness* *NOW* The Virtual Boy: I really screwed up. 3DS: Yeah, yeah you did.

[@jimefigueroa2574]

R.I.P Gunpai Yokoi

[@blah6028]

It was 3DO not 3DS.

[@rippetoe38]

Lol.

[@VirantRoss]

*Maybe the only great thing about the virtual Boy is the CONTROLLER! VB may have the best Controller in Nintendo or even Gaming history! It was hard for me to see when playing though*

[@caktalfraktal]

I love your channel; I can't stop watching. They make great before bed videos instead of tv hehe. They're very well done and you know your stuff! Thanks for all your videos!

[@AmyTheJawsTerminator]

I actually played on one of these recently at a convention. It didn't give me a headache/migraine, but I can see how it could. I didn't know it could be adjusted, so it was very bright. But beyond that, it was really fun to play and an experience to remember. If any of you get the chance to play and/or buy one, do it. I recommend it if you're a Nintendo fan.

[@gaoutlaw]

I gave a test run on Virtual Boy at a Walmart back in the day. Even then, I knew it was terrible.

[@TheChoaticOne]

IronDawg Shut up nerd.

[@TheChoaticOne]

***** Shut up nerd.

[@louiszarrillo1904]

IronDawg Yea I rented it from blockbuster with like mario tennis... it was bad.

[@TheChoaticOne]

Louis Zarrillo Shut up nerd.

[@Tophnpenguin]

+Steven Horton comments are forever

[@AwesomeShocker]

Somebody should really make a ROM hack of Wario Land in colour, if Nintendo doesn't re-release the game, which is highly unlikely. I'm pretty sure they don't even wanna think about reviving any speck of relation to that console.

[@groszak1]

It's already in red color

[@bullhead3852]

Damn, i love this channel !

[@dtdimeflicks6708]

After playing this for an extended period of time, you start to relate to Kramer in "The Chicken Roaster" episode of Seinfeld.

[@kawaii-pikachuva3555]

RIP Yukoi, the father of the Gameboy

[@davecarsley8773]

Did you just assume his gender?

[@VictorCN]

And Game and Watch

[@skyking2325]

@@davecarsley8773 he is a man.

[@tetrisdave]

Nice job. I agree that they should port or even remake Wario Land for the 3DS. The 3DS would work great with a lot of the VB games.

[@TheRamblingG]

I had one of these in High School when they first came out. I traded it for a mongoose... grrrr Not something I'm proud of :) I wish the Historian would put out some more vid's. Dude reek's of retro gaming love

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

Silver lining: Yokoi was apparently going to resign anyway, and only stayed longer so it wouldn't look like he had been fired. He left on good terms with his co-workers, and Nintendo still gives him credit for most of their early video game success.

[@michaelmartin9022]

I see secondhand shops around me filling up with the newer VR systems, too...