@@l3gacyb3ta21 is a prequel to the point of the dead by the way the world is the female character in the morning yet and I don't know why I am so i divide both sides by the way the world is in the morning
Nintendo really needs to make a vr headset. They had the virtual boy even though it was bad. The wii which was basically steamvr tracking. They should make really make one
@@eddpumpkinboi4652 it wasn't so bad when it worked. That's the key word, "When it worked". See, most people thought VR was a waste of money, but in reality the stereoscopic on many Virtual Boys was defective so they never really experienced 3D.
I honestly don't know how it made people sick. There's no head movement what so ever. The headaches I get, and I suppose that alone could make someone nauseous? I had one as a kid, and I truly believe the reports of nausea are overblown.
Sega and Atari also developed vr headsets in the early 90`s. They gave up before going to market after realising the tech just wasnt there yet. The lcd screens available at the time just wernt up to the job, I guess thats why Nintendo went with leds and mirrors instead.
You should check out the book "the history of the future", a book about the start of Oculus. It explains a lot about why VR had a bad rap coming from the 80's-90's
@Picolas Cage The original design using full colour led arrays and a head mount would have been pretty impressive. The guy who designed it also made Nintendo millions with the gameboy and game and watch systems and they sacked him for this one screwup when it was really the decisions made higher up that doomed it. Nintendo are a horrible company.
@@meetoo594 Primarily, the tech for the consoles (and even PCs at the time) were not up to the task. Sega would have been sprites in stereoscopic 3d and the jaguar could only manage rudimentary 3d polygons at 15-20 fps in flat. Can you imagine a simplified 3d looking game - not even a fraction as detailed as a saturn or ps1 - at 10fps? Barf-o-rama.
I feel the huge VR arcade rigs in the 90s (with simple polygonal graphics) were the real predecessors to modern VR, Virtual Boy was a big red headache.
I GOT MY OCULUS QUEST IN THE MAIL YESTERDAY IM SO HAPPY i just side loaded pav lov im so shocked this is my first time in vr i watched your videos to catch up whats happening in vr i wouldn't of got one if u were not here thanks!
Loved the video, I still have mine that I bought back in 95. Wario Land was the best game for the Virtual Boy, I really enjoyed it. If anything the Virtual Boy wetted my appetite for VR that was yet to come. I have both the Oculus Go and Quest, both are amazing.
In the U.S. Stores had demo for this, I was able to try it when I was a young teenager. I found the eye strain too much after about three minutes. Felt like someone pointing a Lazer in my eye.
It is all well and good looking at new and amazing headsets on the market but sometimes it is fun to look at where it originated and how it used to work. Great Job Mike 👍👍
In 1995 I had a CYBERMAX helmet at home... 3dof, stereoscopic 3D in full color 640*480 (edited: 505*230)... and it was AWESOME ! (For the very few games supporting it... Flight unlimited, Descent, etc...)... it was EXPENSIVE ! There was much more interesting products than the « virtual boy » at this time.... but it was: too expensive, too complex to setup, too much motion sickness... then no new games were available... Then I bought my second VR headset a month ago (a Quest... and the link cable...), I hope it will convince the mass market finally...
I never got a chance to try it back in the day. But, thank you for the unboxing and the review. This was fun. I will definitely be checking out that emulator.
Defaulty Boy ye, but Mike was right when Nintendo risked and did an idea, it didn’t work, but that helped create an inspiration idea that is in full effect today
Got one still in the box from when they were selling them off. EBGames had a huge pyramid of them for $30 (canadian) each. I should have bought a few of them - knowing that they can fetch almost $400 from collectors now for ones in mint condition.
Reminds me a bit of the old tomytronic 3d games. They looked like a shrunken version of this with the controls on the binocular like case rather than a separate controller. The 3d effect was actually very good although the games were very basic and were similar to the vfd games of the time. I had the one where you had to shoot tie fighter ripoffs with your tank. The display was red on black and very crisp.
According to someone Kent Bye interviewed on Voices of VR, it's because of the Virtual Boy and research that was done for Nintendo before its launch that we have the blanket '13 years and over' warning on all VR headsets. They were petrified of being sued! Great vid, thanks Mike
"For a kid back in the day it may have been an amazing experience" RE: nah, my older brother got one when it first came out for his b-day because we were Nintendo power kids and obsessed over the hype they built for the device in the mag. Anyway, my brother played it the day of his birthday for not even a whole hour, and expressed his huge disappointment and discomfort right away to my mom who promptly returned it from wherever it was purchased for a return refund/exchange. I didn't even get to try it because I was a few years younger, and they worried about the eye stuff, strongly discourage me trying it. I think secretly they worried I just might want to keep it which probably would have spoiled my older bros b-day that much more. I really wanted to try it at the time though, but after all the reviews started coming in, and as I got older, I really didn't miss never having tried it.
I remember being fascinated by the idea but when I saw that it was a red only display was immediately turned off....(saw it in the cover of EGM.)That being said great video Mike I will take just about any kind of content that you create and give it a thumbs up because you are awesome.
I remember playing an arcade VR game in my teens. It was massive and you sat in it . It was a flight simulator that had you taking off from a aircraft carrier fly around and then attempt to land again on the ship. At the time it blew my mind. Little did I know it'd be 30 years later before I'd try VR again, again it's blew my mind.
I really enjoyed this video. It was nice to see past VR system. I hope you make more videos like this! I am 39 now so was around when this came out but barely new anything about it and never knew anybody that owned one. I only remember seeing a commercial for it maybe one or two times.
Great video Mike! I actually bought a Virtua Boy from Toys R Us when they marked it down to $50 for clearance. It was ok and fun for a little while (gave me headaches and neck strain), but my most memorable true introduction to "Virtual Reality" was when I tried "Dactyl Nightmare" when they had it at the Student Union building at the college I was attending. Though rough and rudimentary, I remember being blown away seeing my hand (holding the gun) in Virtual Reality! It amazes me that now I have my own Virtual Reality systems in my own home (i.e. I own a PSVR, Rift and Quest).
So oddly enough I was that kid who got a Virtual Boy and absolutely LOVED it, at least until they stopped making games for it and pulled them from store shelves. Granted back in the day I was moving up from an old school green barely visible gameboy screen so the fact it was backlight and I could play it in the car at night was amazing (I made my own head strap). Looking back I must have had a stomach made of steel but for years it was a bit of a conversation piece and something people just had to try for the novelty when they saw it on my shelf. Also, on a related side note it's really hard to keep them running since the mirror system craps out pretty easily.
Hi Mike! Just to let you know that you inspire me to create my own VR channel. Been watching you all this years for all VR stuff. Keep up the good work mate. Cheers!
1. Angle the headset upward so you don't have to crane your neck to peer into it, and can just lean down onto it keeping your neck straight. 2. Red Alarm is much better once you learn to play it properly. Practice using the speed up/slow down and the right d-pad to strafe. This greatly improves gameplay. 3. Red Alarm also has a depth adjustment feature in the menu that can reduce eyestrain once adjusted to your liking.
Grate video mate i always wonted to try one as a kid but sadly never had the chance due to living in the UK. It was fun so see and a very cool collectors item.
My brother and I loved our VirtualBoy when it first came out. I don’t remember ever getting eye strain as a kid and my eyes are just fine 20+ years later. :)
My first run-in with virtual reality was exhibit outside a museum of science. Then went from there to renting a virtual boy at Blockbuster while at the same time finding it hard to play and remember thinking they were worse than some of the Atari games I played if I had the money at that age I probably still would have bought it. After not really knowing what happened it was gone with all traces of virtual reality for the next 15 years.
The Funny thing is, is that I've used the Quest to play virtual boy games more than I have it's native games lol I had the VirtualBoy as a teen, and I loved it! Something about stereoscopy in games always clicked with me, RB 3d glasses, Sega vision and PC shutter glasses, and finally proper vr. I'd also love to see a collection of all of the Virtuosity Arcade Games.
Got to try Wario Land at a Blockbuster and Red Alarm at Sears. That's my only experience with the thing. Glad VR is where it is today. Enjoyed the video!
Great video, Mike! Glad you got the opportunity to try out the Virtual Boy. The stand and eye shade are available as accessories and were sold in Japan. The link cable was never released but some folks have made them and enabled two player mode in Mario Tennis and a homebrew tribute to Street Fighter 2. V-Tetris (the Japanese version you bought) is actually a completely different game than 3-D Tetris, the game you showed in the video. I prefer the Japanese one and if you haven't tried that one, I'd give it a shot. Neither Tetris are what I would be considered "good" Virtual Boy games but the Japanese V-Tetris is better than the US 3-D Tetris. Raising the Virtual Boy stand to meet your eyes so you aren't leaning over it improves the neck strain you mention. There's also little to no evidence that the Virtual Boy would cause eye damage. The eye strain comes from incorrect IPD and a pretty small sweet spot. Keep in mind though that the console was meant for children, who have typically smaller IPD and eyes. I didn't own a Virtual Boy until earlier in 2020 and now have 19 of the games, including one that was scrapped just before release. Yes, I can play these games via emulation but I really like the console and the dual d-pad controller. Just as you said, I am glad Nintendo took the chance to innovate in the market even if it failed.
I was 10 yrs old when this came out and i tried the demo out in Toys R’ Us (RIP) and I thought it was the most amazing invention/tech EVER! I’m still shocked it never took off.
I found one of these in 1999 when I was nine at my great aunt/uncle's place that my older cousin must have left there. It only had the tennis game inside it but I remember playing it and having fun with it.
8:26 Every Amiga owner had that game called Blockout and was bored to death by 2D Tetris to begin with... :D You should try getting a Forte VFX1, which was quite an interesting device for the same time period. It ran with some very popular games like Duke Nukem 3D, Quake II, Descent, Jedi Knight, Mech Warrior 2, EF2000 or US Navy Fighters/Advanced Tactical Fighters, featuring full colour display for that time's standards (256 colours), 3DOF tracking and a gyro tracking controller. That all ran under MS DOS. Probably that was the first real usable VR headset on the market, but it was just too expensive ($695 US MSRP) for the general audience, which at that time still was a niche by itself. I always wanted to have that thing since I saw it in the resolution setup of my favourite flight sims, but never got it due to the price tag.
I had it, it was awesome. Never made me nauseous. Before getting for Christmas, I remember my dad and I renting it from our local Blockbuster store. Those were magical times :)
side-note....notice now that EVERY video is scarred by a commercial or two before and after the video? even with ad-blocker they find a way to sneak em in?
I have tried a Virtual Boy myself. i came across one at a video game museum in The Netherlands called Bonami. they let you play with everything they have over there (they also have an arcade with the machines set to free-play) anyways, the game that was in the Virtual Boy was Mario Tennis. i played it for about 5 minutes and my eyes were already starting to hurt. (and the parts in my eyes that are ''supposed to be'' white have now turned red.) it took about 30 minutes for my eyes to recover, i could still see, but keeping my eyes open just hurt. Even though i did have this experience with the Virtual Boy, i'm still happy i tried it, cause it's very rare to come across one, especially in a European country, cause it never made it's way over there.
Thing about it is no one will ever know what it may have been, if indeed it had stayed around a while longer and had a few really good games on it. Was never going to be incredible compared to recent times, but it had a chance at it back then if it was given more support.
I played a store demo of the space ship game. I played for about 30min and I never got a headache or nausea. It didn't really strike me as VR. Just a screen with depth.
I had an occasion to play on that console in 1995 during playbox'95 expo in Poland. I had also a short session with Forte VFX1 (first consumer vr headset) playing the game called "Descent". Since that day I couldn't stop thinking about vr :) I'm rally happy that some smart people didn't forget about it and improved this technology. i I need to get one of vr boys and keep it as a vr relict of good old days :)
I owned one back in the day when I was a kid, actually loved the thing. However I’d say it’s biggest failing was most it’s games really didn’t take Advantage of the 3-D. Few games used a first person view for example. The public concern and uncertainty regarding the health risks of the new technology didn’t help much either, As unfounded as those risks really turned out to be. Nintendo tried to counter the concerns with their numerous disclaimers and safety precautions, which In the end probably backfired more than they anticipated as well. Tough to justify an entertainment system aimed at young people when it’s covered with warnings.
I just spotted the Virtual Boy in a brief scene in the movie "Runaway Bride" a few days ago and wondered what it was.. and here it is in my suggested videos.. the algorithms are getting good...
Nintendo needs to make "WR" or "WiiR" Which is basically a wii but in a virtually reality headset. It would use two wii remotes as the controllers, and play games like wii sports in vr.
Nice video, thanks. To me, the form-factor is reminiscent of the Star Trek (TOS) bridge scanner as used mainly by Spock, but also by Messrs Sulu and Checkov.
If you can get the pinball it is awesome. And if you're playing leaning forward into a table you're doing it wrong you lay on your back and adjust the headset to rest on your head and The legs will support on your chest.
Big fan. I won't buy anything unless it does well on your channel. I liked that you did this episode. I remember when the Virtual boy came out and I remember how badly I wanted one too back then. Ha ha. Great episode.
The thing with the "Virtual" Boy is that it never was VR in the first place. It was simply a stereoscopic display/3D viewer in an over-designed casing--and that does not equal VR. It's really no more VR than the 3DS is VR, or watching a 3D movie at the cinema is VR, or looking into the original View-Master is VR. The only reason Nintendo even stuck the word "Virtual" on the thing was as a marketing gimmick. And clearly it worked because some people still think of it as an early VR headset even to this day. Regardless, I actually tried playing some of the Virtual Boy games (most of them actually) via VBjin running on Oculus Rift CV1, and I have to say that a couple of them are genuinely good games and actually make pretty great use of the stereoscopic depth, with Virtual Boy Wario Land being the stand out shining example of what the device was capable of (although Teleroboxer is pretty sweet too). There's also a few fan-made games and demos for the system that can also be played this way on the Rift too, and some of them are very impressive, such as the actual 3D polygon game, Hunter. Nintendo really should release a Virtual Boy collection for VR headsets or something.
I played Red Alert in the video game section of the store by my house. At the time it was super glitchy and hard to get in the sweet spot to make the 3D work right but I was still amazed. And the controller was so crazy for the time how it had the handles that came down and fit in your hand which is pretty standard now. The whole thing looked awesome but the games and gameplay was meh. Even then I wanted one so bad. The Go/Quest emulator is a super cool way to bring back the nostalgia of playing the Virtual Boy back in the day with a SIGNIFICANTLY improved experience. It's the way they intended to have virtual boy work but the tech just wasn't there yet. Similar to watching 3D movies in a VR headset vs watching in a theater with 3D glasses.
First of all, I truly miss going to BlockBuster in the 80s/90s on Friday and Saturday nights with my kids. Everybody got a movie pizza🍕, popcorn🍿, and candy🍬🍭🍬🍭👍👍👍👍👍.I did actually believe that the Virtual Boy would start a new generation of gaming, but that Bloody Red was BAD❗❗❗This made me hug my Oculus Rift and my PSVR. I'm upgrading my PC now for all the fall Vr and Flat/Pancake games. I hope we get Quest 2 and PSVR2 news asap. I can't wait for the next Oculus Connect presentation.
PS : This was my first VR -> a dentist sold me one. He was puting it on our head while reparing our teeth. I never got the money to buy the tracking device and a PC at the same time, so I played PS1 games with it and asked my brother to move a rocking chair to simulate G forces in Wipeout.
I remember only being able to play it for a half hour or so. There was a lot of hype for it and then VR tech was silent for a long time. Blink frequently if you try to play this headset.
...I remember back in the 90's. Going to Blockbuster video one day. Virtual boy just came out it seemed. And they had theirs used rental sets for sale $30 with a hard shell suit case. Games were like $2. I grabbed all I could. Got a once in a lifetime deal. 10 games. All lost in the past now. I did get an Oculus Quest. And man how far we've come since the 90s tech...whew
Imagine if the Quest had a slot for little Switch-like cartridges and you would be able to buy physical copies of Robo Recall and such. that'd be pretty sick, actually.
I got one for Christmas that year. My brother still has it at his house.
Noice
G yt
Legacy Beta has not yet u i have fo if u g
@@97223k I'm so confused
@@l3gacyb3ta21 is a prequel to the point of the dead by the way the world is the female character in the morning yet and I don't know why I am so i divide both sides by the way the world is in the morning
Me: Mom can we get oculus quest
Mom: No we have Oculus quest at home
Oculus quest at home:
ozwilliam 😆
Lmao
Lmao
Lmao
Lmao
Nintendo really needs to make a vr headset. They had the virtual boy even though it was bad. The wii which was basically steamvr tracking. They should make really make one
Nintendo labo is a start but yeah I see where your coming from
Nintendo Labo is as much VR as google cardboard Nintendo would have to really change their VR since they already make great consoles.
so does microsoft
Maybe virtual tendo? This a joke name
@@Dylan_0130 they just made the g2 with hp and valve
I loved trying the virtual boy at a computer museum once lol.
It made me made feel like my insides were about to turn out
@@eddpumpkinboi4652 it wasn't so bad when it worked. That's the key word, "When it worked". See, most people thought VR was a waste of money, but in reality the stereoscopic on many Virtual Boys was defective so they never really experienced 3D.
@@DiamondPugs the one I tried worked luckily
Oooh which one
Imagine how sickening the virtual boy must’ve been, especially with the old graphics
It was bad. I got real bad headaches playing it as a kid
Made me hella nauseous.
I honestly don't know how it made people sick. There's no head movement what so ever. The headaches I get, and I suppose that alone could make someone nauseous? I had one as a kid, and I truly believe the reports of nausea are overblown.
I got to play one a few years back and it was horrible. I happily returned to my Oculus rift with new found appreciation for modern VR.
@@billothekid I never got sick when I played it. Just bad headaches and eye strain. No nausea.
crazy how this idea was actually being developed so far back, although clearly not very well lol
Sega and Atari also developed vr headsets in the early 90`s. They gave up before going to market after realising the tech just wasnt there yet. The lcd screens available at the time just wernt up to the job, I guess thats why Nintendo went with leds and mirrors instead.
You should check out the book "the history of the future", a book about the start of Oculus. It explains a lot about why VR had a bad rap coming from the 80's-90's
@Picolas Cage The original design using full colour led arrays and a head mount would have been pretty impressive. The guy who designed it also made Nintendo millions with the gameboy and game and watch systems and they sacked him for this one screwup when it was really the decisions made higher up that doomed it. Nintendo are a horrible company.
@@meetoo594 Primarily, the tech for the consoles (and even PCs at the time) were not up to the task. Sega would have been sprites in stereoscopic 3d and the jaguar could only manage rudimentary 3d polygons at 15-20 fps in flat. Can you imagine a simplified 3d looking game - not even a fraction as detailed as a saturn or ps1 - at 10fps? Barf-o-rama.
was in the 60's
I feel that the red screen was the main problem about this headset. even without tracking, a 3d renderer for your favorite games sounds awesome
They had a color version of the virtual boy but red was cheaper
I feel the huge VR arcade rigs in the 90s (with simple polygonal graphics) were the real predecessors to modern VR, Virtual Boy was a big red headache.
0:10
Siren head in the 90's was so epic
I mean, it's rather a Terminator reference, but yeah, now that you mention it :D
I GOT MY OCULUS QUEST IN THE MAIL YESTERDAY IM SO HAPPY i just side loaded pav lov im so shocked this is my first time in vr i watched your videos to catch up whats happening in vr i wouldn't of got one if u were not here thanks!
Congrats man!
Side load hyper dash from sidequest
TheRocks, I could walk you through my name in shack is QuietKid
buy superhot vr it is a very good game
@@yoloink5118 i got the demo good game i might
Loved the video, I still have mine that I bought back in 95. Wario Land was the best game for the Virtual Boy, I really enjoyed it. If anything the Virtual Boy wetted my appetite for VR that was yet to come. I have both the Oculus Go and Quest, both are amazing.
I have a Virtual Boy and it is just the coolest thing to showoff in your collection! Most of my friends thought it was a myth and it never existed lol
In the U.S. Stores had demo for this, I was able to try it when I was a young teenager. I found the eye strain too much after about three minutes. Felt like someone pointing a Lazer in my eye.
We called it "the headache-device" here in Germany. How much did you pay for this excellent package? I would love to have one.
Love your vids keep up the good work
It is all well and good looking at new and amazing headsets on the market but sometimes it is fun to look at where it originated and how it used to work. Great Job Mike 👍👍
Hi, I love your vids! You are definitely one of my favorite youtubers. Keep up the good work!
In 1995 I had a CYBERMAX helmet at home... 3dof, stereoscopic 3D in full color 640*480 (edited: 505*230)... and it was AWESOME ! (For the very few games supporting it... Flight unlimited, Descent, etc...)... it was EXPENSIVE !
There was much more interesting products than the « virtual boy » at this time.... but it was: too expensive, too complex to setup, too much motion sickness... then no new games were available...
Then I bought my second VR headset a month ago (a Quest... and the link cable...), I hope it will convince the mass market finally...
Yeah I remember trying these back in the day, as a kid i thought it was super cool, minus the migraines it gave me haha
Let’s hope you can still see
I never got a chance to try it back in the day. But, thank you for the unboxing and the review. This was fun. I will definitely be checking out that emulator.
So basically, the product failed, but the idea was absolutely amazing and the idea was way way ahead of its time
I mean, this was one of the first beginings of Nintendo's history of innovation and risk.
@deafaulty boy Bro youre in every reply
Defaulty Boy ye, but Mike was right when Nintendo risked and did an idea, it didn’t work, but that helped create an inspiration idea that is in full effect today
Nope... there were VERY good VR helmets at this time... VFX1, CYBERMAXX, etc
VR as an idea came from the 1900s. The stereocopes were the first VR experiment.
I loved mine in the 90s. Wish i still had it.
Got one still in the box from when they were selling them off. EBGames had a huge pyramid of them for $30 (canadian) each. I should have bought a few of them - knowing that they can fetch almost $400 from collectors now for ones in mint condition.
I love how Nintendo tries the unknown no matter how risky compared to other companies its one of many reasons I love the company
HaHA! That robot virtual boy advert was freaking epic! Love it!!
Reminds me a bit of the old tomytronic 3d games. They looked like a shrunken version of this with the controls on the binocular like case rather than a separate controller. The 3d effect was actually very good although the games were very basic and were similar to the vfd games of the time. I had the one where you had to shoot tie fighter ripoffs with your tank. The display was red on black and very crisp.
According to someone Kent Bye interviewed on Voices of VR, it's because of the Virtual Boy and research that was done for Nintendo before its launch that we have the blanket '13 years and over' warning on all VR headsets. They were petrified of being sued! Great vid, thanks Mike
"For a kid back in the day it may have been an amazing experience" RE: nah, my older brother got one when it first came out for his b-day because we were Nintendo power kids and obsessed over the hype they built for the device in the mag. Anyway, my brother played it the day of his birthday for not even a whole hour, and expressed his huge disappointment and discomfort right away to my mom who promptly returned it from wherever it was purchased for a return refund/exchange. I didn't even get to try it because I was a few years younger, and they worried about the eye stuff, strongly discourage me trying it. I think secretly they worried I just might want to keep it which probably would have spoiled my older bros b-day that much more. I really wanted to try it at the time though, but after all the reviews started coming in, and as I got older, I really didn't miss never having tried it.
I remember being fascinated by the idea but when I saw that it was a red only display was immediately turned off....(saw it in the cover of EGM.)That being said great video Mike I will take just about any kind of content that you create and give it a thumbs up because you are awesome.
Wow it's in great shape! Also nice one to have in the collection. And Virtual Boy Go is definitely worth the try. Nice one Mike!
I think oculus could work with Nintendo to make a special edition quest that looked like the virtual boy
Awesome review! Thank you! I didn’t know this thing even existed.
I remember playing an arcade VR game in my teens. It was massive and you sat in it . It was a flight simulator that had you taking off from a aircraft carrier fly around and then attempt to land again on the ship. At the time it blew my mind. Little did I know it'd be 30 years later before I'd try VR again, again it's blew my mind.
I really enjoyed this video. It was nice to see past VR system. I hope you make more videos like this! I am 39 now so was around when this came out but barely new anything about it and never knew anybody that owned one. I only remember seeing a commercial for it maybe one or two times.
Great video Mike! I actually bought a Virtua Boy from Toys R Us when they marked it down to $50 for clearance. It was ok and fun for a little while (gave me headaches and neck strain), but my most memorable true introduction to "Virtual Reality" was when I tried "Dactyl Nightmare" when they had it at the Student Union building at the college I was attending. Though rough and rudimentary, I remember being blown away seeing my hand (holding the gun) in Virtual Reality! It amazes me that now I have my own Virtual Reality systems in my own home (i.e. I own a PSVR, Rift and Quest).
So oddly enough I was that kid who got a Virtual Boy and absolutely LOVED it, at least until they stopped making games for it and pulled them from store shelves. Granted back in the day I was moving up from an old school green barely visible gameboy screen so the fact it was backlight and I could play it in the car at night was amazing (I made my own head strap). Looking back I must have had a stomach made of steel but for years it was a bit of a conversation piece and something people just had to try for the novelty when they saw it on my shelf. Also, on a related side note it's really hard to keep them running since the mirror system craps out pretty easily.
are you interested in modern day vr? what do you think about it?
Hi Mike! Just to let you know that you inspire me to create my own VR channel. Been watching you all this years for all VR stuff. Keep up the good work mate. Cheers!
1. Angle the headset upward so you don't have to crane your neck to peer into it, and can just lean down onto it keeping your neck straight.
2. Red Alarm is much better once you learn to play it properly. Practice using the speed up/slow down and the right d-pad to strafe. This greatly improves gameplay.
3. Red Alarm also has a depth adjustment feature in the menu that can reduce eyestrain once adjusted to your liking.
I just ordered an oculus quest and I’m so exited.
Where are you exiting
Lucky you
Mine is arriving tomorrow
@@zapra4992 The real world
Imagine not having a gaming pc
Great video - big thanks for sharing. I love these old retro game machines. We are lucky we now live in the future ... exciting times.
It's was a nice format. You are a great narrator!
Grate video mate i always wonted to try one as a kid but sadly never had the chance due to living in the UK. It was fun so see and a very cool collectors item.
Awesome video! I only remember this from the commercials.
Cheers Justin! []-)
My brother and I loved our VirtualBoy when it first came out. I don’t remember ever getting eye strain as a kid and my eyes are just fine 20+ years later. :)
My first run-in with virtual reality was exhibit outside a museum of science. Then went from there to renting a virtual boy at Blockbuster while at the same time finding it hard to play and remember thinking they were worse than some of the Atari games I played if I had the money at that age I probably still would have bought it. After not really knowing what happened it was gone with all traces of virtual reality for the next 15 years.
The Funny thing is, is that I've used the Quest to play virtual boy games more than I have it's native games lol I had the VirtualBoy as a teen, and I loved it! Something about stereoscopy in games always clicked with me, RB 3d glasses, Sega vision and PC shutter glasses, and finally proper vr. I'd also love to see a collection of all of the Virtuosity Arcade Games.
Got to try Wario Land at a Blockbuster and Red Alarm at Sears. That's my only experience with the thing. Glad VR is where it is today. Enjoyed the video!
Great video, Mike! Glad you got the opportunity to try out the Virtual Boy. The stand and eye shade are available as accessories and were sold in Japan. The link cable was never released but some folks have made them and enabled two player mode in Mario Tennis and a homebrew tribute to Street Fighter 2. V-Tetris (the Japanese version you bought) is actually a completely different game than 3-D Tetris, the game you showed in the video. I prefer the Japanese one and if you haven't tried that one, I'd give it a shot. Neither Tetris are what I would be considered "good" Virtual Boy games but the Japanese V-Tetris is better than the US 3-D Tetris. Raising the Virtual Boy stand to meet your eyes so you aren't leaning over it improves the neck strain you mention. There's also little to no evidence that the Virtual Boy would cause eye damage. The eye strain comes from incorrect IPD and a pretty small sweet spot. Keep in mind though that the console was meant for children, who have typically smaller IPD and eyes. I didn't own a Virtual Boy until earlier in 2020 and now have 19 of the games, including one that was scrapped just before release. Yes, I can play these games via emulation but I really like the console and the dual d-pad controller. Just as you said, I am glad Nintendo took the chance to innovate in the market even if it failed.
Amazing content as always, Mike! Cheers from Brazil!
We have one of these in our office! Along with many other museum pieces 😊
I loved the VirtualBoy. still have mine! The Quest version is even better.
Great video!
I was 10 yrs old when this came out and i tried the demo out in Toys R’ Us (RIP) and I thought it was the most amazing invention/tech EVER! I’m still shocked it never took off.
I found one of these in 1999 when I was nine at my great aunt/uncle's place that my older cousin must have left there. It only had the tennis game inside it but I remember playing it and having fun with it.
That was a really interesting story about the VB. Thankyou.
8:26 Every Amiga owner had that game called Blockout and was bored to death by 2D Tetris to begin with... :D
You should try getting a Forte VFX1, which was quite an interesting device for the same time period. It ran with some very popular games like Duke Nukem 3D, Quake II, Descent, Jedi Knight, Mech Warrior 2, EF2000 or US Navy Fighters/Advanced Tactical Fighters, featuring full colour display for that time's standards (256 colours), 3DOF tracking and a gyro tracking controller. That all ran under MS DOS. Probably that was the first real usable VR headset on the market, but it was just too expensive ($695 US MSRP) for the general audience, which at that time still was a niche by itself. I always wanted to have that thing since I saw it in the resolution setup of my favourite flight sims, but never got it due to the price tag.
I had it, it was awesome. Never made me nauseous. Before getting for Christmas, I remember my dad and I renting it from our local Blockbuster store. Those were magical times :)
This vids gonna take off good work
side-note....notice now that EVERY video is scarred by a commercial or two before and after the video? even with ad-blocker they find a way to sneak em in?
I have tried a Virtual Boy myself.
i came across one at a video game museum in The Netherlands called Bonami.
they let you play with everything they have over there (they also have an arcade with the machines set to free-play)
anyways, the game that was in the Virtual Boy was Mario Tennis.
i played it for about 5 minutes and my eyes were already starting to hurt. (and the parts in my eyes that are ''supposed to be'' white have now turned red.)
it took about 30 minutes for my eyes to recover, i could still see, but keeping my eyes open just hurt.
Even though i did have this experience with the Virtual Boy, i'm still happy i tried it, cause it's very rare to come across one, especially in a European country, cause it never made it's way over there.
Thing about it is no one will ever know what it may have been, if indeed it had stayed around a while longer and had a few really good games on it.
Was never going to be incredible compared to recent times, but it had a chance at it back then if it was given more support.
I played a store demo of the space ship game. I played for about 30min and I never got a headache or nausea. It didn't really strike me as VR. Just a screen with depth.
I had an occasion to play on that console in 1995 during playbox'95 expo in Poland. I had also a short session with Forte VFX1 (first consumer vr headset) playing the game called "Descent". Since that day I couldn't stop thinking about vr :) I'm rally happy that some smart people didn't forget about it and improved this technology. i
I need to get one of vr boys and keep it as a vr relict of good old days :)
0:15 that's the 90s version of the Boneworks Headcrab.
I would like to see some of these games remastered for modern day vr.
I owned one back in the day when I was a kid, actually loved the thing. However I’d say it’s biggest failing was most it’s games really didn’t take Advantage of the 3-D. Few games used a first person view for example.
The public concern and uncertainty regarding the health risks of the new technology didn’t help much either, As unfounded as those risks really turned out to be. Nintendo tried to counter the concerns with their numerous disclaimers and safety precautions, which In the end probably backfired more than they anticipated as well. Tough to justify an entertainment system aimed at young people when it’s covered with warnings.
Cant wait for someone to 3d print a virtualboy cover for the quest, vive etc
I just spotted the Virtual Boy in a brief scene in the movie "Runaway Bride" a few days ago and wondered what it was.. and here it is in my suggested videos.. the algorithms are getting good...
Nintendo needs to make "WR" or "WiiR" Which is basically a wii but in a virtually reality headset. It would use two wii remotes as the controllers, and play games like wii sports in vr.
The Virtual Boy has become something of a running gag with Nintendo as of late.
Hell, Luigi uses one as a communicator and map in Luigi's Mansion 3.
Nice video, thanks. To me, the form-factor is reminiscent of the Star Trek (TOS) bridge scanner as used mainly by Spock, but also by Messrs Sulu and Checkov.
If you can get the pinball it is awesome. And if you're playing leaning forward into a table you're doing it wrong you lay on your back and adjust the headset to rest on your head and The legs will support on your chest.
Big fan. I won't buy anything unless it does well on your channel. I liked that you did this episode. I remember when the Virtual boy came out and I remember how badly I wanted one too back then. Ha ha. Great episode.
The thing with the "Virtual" Boy is that it never was VR in the first place. It was simply a stereoscopic display/3D viewer in an over-designed casing--and that does not equal VR. It's really no more VR than the 3DS is VR, or watching a 3D movie at the cinema is VR, or looking into the original View-Master is VR. The only reason Nintendo even stuck the word "Virtual" on the thing was as a marketing gimmick. And clearly it worked because some people still think of it as an early VR headset even to this day.
Regardless, I actually tried playing some of the Virtual Boy games (most of them actually) via VBjin running on Oculus Rift CV1, and I have to say that a couple of them are genuinely good games and actually make pretty great use of the stereoscopic depth, with Virtual Boy Wario Land being the stand out shining example of what the device was capable of (although Teleroboxer is pretty sweet too). There's also a few fan-made games and demos for the system that can also be played this way on the Rift too, and some of them are very impressive, such as the actual 3D polygon game, Hunter.
Nintendo really should release a Virtual Boy collection for VR headsets or something.
I like how you can obviously see that Mike has hidden a teleprompter next to the camera.
I played Red Alert in the video game section of the store by my house. At the time it was super glitchy and hard to get in the sweet spot to make the 3D work right but I was still amazed. And the controller was so crazy for the time how it had the handles that came down and fit in your hand which is pretty standard now. The whole thing looked awesome but the games and gameplay was meh. Even then I wanted one so bad. The Go/Quest emulator is a super cool way to bring back the nostalgia of playing the Virtual Boy back in the day with a SIGNIFICANTLY improved experience. It's the way they intended to have virtual boy work but the tech just wasn't there yet. Similar to watching 3D movies in a VR headset vs watching in a theater with 3D glasses.
The product is beautiful and so retro looking. I like that
First of all, I truly miss going to BlockBuster in the 80s/90s on Friday and Saturday nights with my kids. Everybody got a movie pizza🍕, popcorn🍿, and candy🍬🍭🍬🍭👍👍👍👍👍.I did actually believe that the Virtual Boy would start a new generation of gaming, but that Bloody Red was BAD❗❗❗This made me hug my Oculus Rift and my PSVR. I'm upgrading my PC now for all the fall Vr and Flat/Pancake games. I hope we get Quest 2 and PSVR2 news asap. I can't wait for the next Oculus Connect presentation.
Yeah, red, are you kidding
Very interesting video Mike. I would love to see more like this :)
I had one and loved some of the games on it. Teleroboxer, red alarm, and warios whatever it was were great games.
My parents told me VR was a gimmick because they remember this. Then I showed them my oculus, now they think its the future.
I still have mine from when I got it for Christmas as a kid. I plan on firing it up after watching this.
Now that's a headset I wouldn't want to dive in
Try the VIO-I-Glasses, the first real consumer VR
PS : This was my first VR -> a dentist sold me one. He was puting it on our head while reparing our teeth. I never got the money to buy the tracking device and a PC at the same time, so I played PS1 games with it and asked my brother to move a rocking chair to simulate G forces in Wipeout.
I like this. It'd be cool if you did more vr history videos during the times when modern vr doesn't have much new news.
I never even knew this existed. Interesting video!
I got it for my 10th bday in 1995. I thought it was a lot of fun. Loved Teleroboxer and galactic pinball.
I really liked Red Alarm when I was a kid. But yeah, I remember it strained my eyes after awhile.
I'll never forget how unreasonably intense old Nintendo commercials were.
This is an amazing, interesting and important video :)
Careful with the stand hinge. The plastic connector in the middle cracks easily.
How much do these go for nowadays?
I remember only being able to play it for a half hour or so. There was a lot of hype for it and then VR tech was silent for a long time. Blink frequently if you try to play this headset.
...I remember back in the 90's. Going to Blockbuster video one day. Virtual boy just came out it seemed. And they had theirs used rental sets for sale $30 with a hard shell suit case. Games were like $2. I grabbed all I could. Got a once in a lifetime deal. 10 games. All lost in the past now. I did get an Oculus Quest. And man how far we've come since the 90s tech...whew
I am having biggest motion sickness from watching the gameplays from VRboy. Xddd
Good video, Mike! []-)
Imagine if the Quest had a slot for little Switch-like cartridges and you would be able to buy physical copies of Robo Recall and such.
that'd be pretty sick, actually.
I’m thinking of getting a quest. I don’t know where to get it though
Get it from the oculus website. I am in a discord server that notifies me of the stock if you want to join.
Ivan Merk there is currently 1 seller on Amazon that reliably sells oculus quests and it is oculus. And from Amazon that shit ships in 1 to 2 months.
I'm very inspired by your channel to start uploading some quest content with my Quest 2.
great video, the history of the VR is very cool