Virtual Boy

The 'Virtual Boy is a video game system by Nintendo released August 14, 1995. Its twin eyeglass-style projector displays monochromatic images in black and red once labeled by Nintendo as "true 3D." The console was a flop for many reasons, including its lack of portability and the headaches gameplay caused in a matter of minutes. Concern regarding Nintendo's warnings that the Virtual Boy could cause eye problems also detracted potential customers, though there is an automatic pause every 15 minutes. It was also released before it was ready to keep fans occupied during the long wait for the Nintendo 64, and many weren't willing to invest in the Virtual Boy with another Nintendo system on its way. Due to its failure in less than a year in Japanese and American markets, the Virtual Boy was never exported to Australia or Europe. It only shipped 800,000 units and sold 770,000 of them during its lifetime. After its retirement, creator Gunpei Yokoi was promoted to a position without any actual power, and subsequently left Nintendo in disgust.

The system was codenamed VR32 and was shown in Nintendo's annual Shoshinkai show in Japan. The company unveiled the Virtual Boy, a console Yokoi had worked on for two years. The strange-looking device had a couple of stylish legs on which was a visor one could look into. Upon looking inside, the players were able to play games that appeared to be on a 3D plane.

Controller
The Virtual Boy Controller is the standard and only controller for the Virtual Boy. The controller consists of many buttons, and two d-pads. It strongly resembles the Gamecube controller. It is also the power source for the system itself.

Buttons For the Virtual Boy Controller

 * A
 * B
 * Start
 * Select
 * Two D-pads
 * L
 * R
 * On/Off (slide)

Released

 * Mario Clash
 * Mario's Tennis
 * Virtual Boy Wario Land

Canceled

 * Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
 * VB Mario Land

Demos

 * Mario Demo (Unnamed)

Super Smash Bros. Melee
A Virtual Boy appears in the shelf, in the room where all trophies are kept. Although this Virtual Boy only appears in the Japanese version of the game, the player can still see it by setting the language to Japanese in the game.

Super Paper Mario
Francis, the nerd, has a Virtual Boy in his room in where he also keeps a Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube and Wii.

Trivia

 * The Virtual Boy has an EXT. port that was most likely made to support two-player mode. However, no Virtual Boy games support this mode, due to the fact that the system never caught on and was discontinued so quickly.

Links

 * Wikipedia article