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Virtual Boy cab on KLOV

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shmokes:
I suppose it's just not for everyone. I love the Virtual Boy and I think its untimely death speaks to a character flaw in society, rather than Nintendo. I mean, there were some serious issues with it. Primarily, it was too big/heavy to play comfortably for an extended period of time. But Nintendo is universally derided for Virtual Boy when they deserve our respect, even if the experiment was ultimately a failure. But ultimately, it's hard to convince people to pay for the unfamiliar. It's why this Halloween we'll be treated to Saw 12 and next summer we'll get another Transformers, and this summer we'll get a ---smurfing--- reboot of Spider-man, which was only rebooted to critical acclaim and enormous commercial success like a decade ago. Everyone just wants the same thing over and over and over again.

For all their flaws (lately there seem to be more and more), Nintendo is a company that doesn't rest on its laurels. Compare them to Sony and Microsoft. What have those companies ever done but provide incrementally better versions of what had already been done before? Between the two of them, about the only innovation we have that wasn't just an incremental improvement on something already done is the Eye Toy/Kinect (products that are at least as flawed as the Virtual Boy). The Virtual Boy was a legitimately 3D system, and it had a highly innovative gamepad attached to it that gets almost no attention because it's upstaged by its display. But more importantly, this was something unlike anything that had ever been done before. How many times has Nintendo done this? The gamepad. The analog stick. Rumbling controllers. Shoulder buttons. Motion controls. Touch controls (DS). Camera controls. Power pad. And that's just hardware. Nintendo gave us the platformer, the side scrolling platformer, the 3D platformer. And other quirky gems like Animal Crossing, Pokemon, Pikmin, F-Zero, Star Fox, etc., etc., etc.

The Virtual Boy is a videogame experience unlike any you had ever had before. And moreover, it's a pretty cool experience. But whether you like it or not, you ought at least appreciate the fact that it exists. It's pretty amazing that a corporation the size of Nintendo signed off on such a risky project.

Ginsu Victim:
My only problem with the Virtual Boy is the same as any VR helmet....I can't see. It's too close to my eyes and it's just blurry (which is weird because I'm near-sighted). This cabinet at least solves the problem of making it easier to use.

ChadTower:
Looking at that cabinet makes me peer curiously at the project Battlezone I have in my basement.   :o

DaveMMR:

--- Quote from: shmokes on July 05, 2012, 10:00:11 am ---The Virtual Boy is a videogame experience unlike any you had ever had before. And moreover, it's a pretty cool experience. But whether you like it or not, you ought at least appreciate the fact that it exists. It's pretty amazing that a corporation the size of Nintendo signed off on such a risky project.

--- End quote ---

I agree with your assessment of Nintendo as a company - I often stick up for many of their decisions on these very boards.  But, sorry, the Virtual Boy was a major misstep with a gimmick Nintendo didn't need at that point (having just come out on top of the 16-bit war in the US). It's not a portable system - but also not a traditional console. The system was seriously uncomfortable to play. It gave players nausea and headaches. There was zero social element to it (although there was a link cable attachment planned but not released). It was pretty much rushed out the door so Nintendo could focus on the Nintendo 64 so many of those glaring issues were not addressed.

But it is practically Nintendo's only major hardware misstep and for that it makes the VB far more interesting that, say, the 32X, and for that I can see it's appeal. As I said, I'd buy a VB and display it proudly. And it'd be cool to fire it up to show it off to others as a nice segue into "remember when everything was 'virtual' in the 90's" discussions. But as for some serious gaming, it doesn't hold a candle to most other consoles where you can actually play for more than 15 minutes without worrying about your eyes.

But, you know, YMMV.  :dunno




Player 3:
The style is oozing. Shame there aren't quite readily-available plans for this thing.

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