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Virtual Boy
Manufacturer	Nintendo
Type	Portable game console
Generation	Fifth Generation
First available	JP July 21, 1995 NA August 14, 1995
CPU	NEC V810
Media	Cartridge
Units sold	770,000[1]
Top-selling game	Mario Clash[citation needed]

Nintendo's Virtual Boy (バーチャルボーイ, Bācharu Bōi^?) (also known as the VR-32 during development) was the first portable game console capable of displaying "true 3D graphics." Most video games are forced to use monocular cues to achieve the illusion of three dimensions on a two-dimensional screen, but the Virtual Boy was able to create a more accurate illusion of depth through an effect known as parallax. In a manner similar to using a head-mounted display, the user places their face inside a pair of rubber goggles on the front of the machine, and then an eyeglass-style projector allows viewing of the monochromatic (in this case, red) image. It was released on July 21, 1995 in Japan and August 14, 1995 in North America and at a price of around US$180. It met with a lukewarm reception that was unaffected by continued price drops. Nintendo discontinued it the following year. Image File history File links Nintendo_Virtual_Boy_logo. ... Image File history File links Virtual_Boy_kit. ... A console manufacturer is a company that manufactures and distributes video game consoles. ... Nintendo Company, Limited (任天堂 or ニンテンドー Nintendō; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 usually referred to as simply Nintendo, or Big N ) is a multinational corporation founded on September 23, 1889[1] in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards. ... A handheld game console is a lightweight, portable electronic machine for playing video games. ... Video games were introduced as a commercial entertainment medium in 1971, becoming the basis for an important entertainment industry in the late 1970s/early 1980s in the United States, Japan, and Europe. ... In the history of computer and video games, the 32-bit / 64-bit /3D era was the fifth generation of video game consoles. ... This article is about the country in East Asia. ... is the 202nd day of the year (203rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... North America North America is a continent [1] in the Earths northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere. ... is the 226th day of the year (227th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... CPU redirects here. ... NEC Corporation (Jp. ... Cartridge for the VIC 20 homecomputer In various types of electronic equipment, a cartridge can refer one method of adding different functionality or content (e. ... This is a list of video game console and handheld game console sales. ... This is a list of video games that have sold one million copies or more. ... Mario Clash is a Virtual Boy game produced by Nintendo in 1995. ... A handheld game console is a lightweight, portable electronic machine for playing video games. ... This article is about process of creating 3D computer graphics. ... Depth perception is the visual ability to perceive the world in three dimensions. ... For other uses, see Parallax (disambiguation). ... an HMD A head-mounted display (HMD) is a display device that a person wears on the head to have video information directly displayed in front of the eyes. ... Something which is monochromatic has a single color. ... is the 202nd day of the year (203rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... is the 226th day of the year (227th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... North America North America is a continent [1] in the Earths northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere. ... USD redirects here. ... Nintendo Company, Limited (任天堂 or ニンテンドー Nintendō; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 usually referred to as simply Nintendo, or Big N ) is a multinational corporation founded on September 23, 1889[1] in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards. ...

Technical information

The system does not have a full 384×224 array of LEDs as a display. It uses a pair of 1×224 linear arrays (one per eye) and rapidly scans the array across the eye's field of view using flat oscilating mirrors. These mirrors vibrate back and forth at very high speed (they are what produce the mechanical humming noise from inside the unit) and can be damaged if the Virtual Boy is hit, knocked over, or used while in rough motion (such as in a car). A full-size display, while mechanically simpler, would have increased the Virtual Boy's physical size and unit cost to the point where the system would become uneconomical. Every Virtual Boy game has the option to pause automatically every 15-30 minutes to remind the player to take a break, to prevent undue eye strain and possible headaches. External links LEd Category: TeX ...

This screenshot from Mario's Tennis running on an emulator. The red/blue format simulates the Virtual Boy's 3D display.

Image File history File links Mario's_Tennis_screenshot. ... Image File history File links Mario's_Tennis_screenshot. ... Marios Tennis is a game for Nintendos Virtual Boy video game console. ... Stereo image anaglyphed for red (left eye) and cyan (right eye) filters. ...

Monochrome display

The Virtual Boy is iconic for its monochromatic use of red LED lights. The use of the red LED lights was chosen for being the least expensive, the lowest drain on batteries, and for being the most striking color to see. The use of other LED colors proved to be too cost prohibitive and would have forced the system to retail for over US$500. It would not be until 1996 that high-efficiency indium gallium nitride (InGaN) blue and green LEDs would become available from Nichia. During development, a color LCD was experimented with but was found to just cause users to see double instead of creating the illusion of depth. Gallium nitride (GaN) is a wide bandgap semiconductor material used in optoelectronic, high-power and high-frequency devices. ... This page has been deleted, and should not be re-created without a good reason. ... LCD redirects here. ...

The Virtual Boy, which uses an oscillating mirror to transform a single line of dots into a full field of dots, requires high-performance LEDs in order to function properly. Because each pixel is only in use for a tiny fraction of a second (384 pixels wide, 50.2 Hz scan rate = approximately 52 µs per scanline), high peak brightness is needed to make the virtual display bright and be comfortable for the user to view. The two-screen system demanded a fast refresh rate, unlike the original Game Boy which had blurry motion, so using an LCD was not an option. For the entire Game Boy series of handheld consoles, see Game Boy line. ...

Controller

The Virtual Boy controller

The Virtual Boy, being a system with heavy emphasis on three-dimensional movement, needed a controller that could operate along a Z-Axis. The Virtual Boy's controller was an attempt to implement dual digital "D-pads" to control elements in the aforementioned 3D environment. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2048x1536, 686 KB) Summary Virtual Boy contoller Licensing I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2048x1536, 686 KB) Summary Virtual Boy contoller Licensing I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ...

The controller itself is shaped like an 'M'. One holds onto either side of the controller and the part that dips down in the middle contains the battery pack. There are six buttons on the controller (A, B, Start, Select, L and R), the two D-pads, and the system's 'onoff' switch. The two directional pads are located on either side of the controller at the top. The 'A' and 'B' buttons are located below the pad on the right side and the 'Start' and 'Select' buttons are located in the same spot on the left side. What would normally be called 'shoulder buttons' ('L' and 'R') are located behind the area where the pads are, on the back of the controller, functioning more as triggers.

In most games for Virtual Boy, like Mario Clash or Jack Bros, the directional pads are interchangeable; both do the same thing. For others with a more 3D environment, like Red Alarm or Teleroboxer, each pad controlled a different feature. For Red Alarm one directional pad controls pitch and direction of the protagonists' ship, while the other controls forward, back and strafe movement. For Teleroboxer, each control pad, in conjunction with the triggershoulder buttons, controlled the position of the corresponding fist of the character. Notably, the game Vertical Force featured the option to mirror-image the controls to help left-handed people feel more comfortable playing. This is made possible by the Virtual Boy's symmetrical controller. This kind of concession to left-handed people was repeated with Nintendo 's Wii console. Mario Clash is a Virtual Boy game produced by Nintendo in 1995. ... Jack Bros. ... Red Alarm is a game for Nintendos Virtual Boy video game console. ... First Person View boxing simulator for Virtual Boy, Nintendo game system. ... A protagonist is the main figure of a piece of literature or drama and has the main part or role. ... Vertical Force is a vertical shoot-em-up scroller game, with two layers (to utilize the 3-D features of the system) for Nintendo Virtual Boy video game system. ... Nintendo Company, Limited (任天堂 or ニンテンドー Nintendō; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 usually referred to as simply Nintendo, or Big N ) is a multinational corporation founded on September 23, 1889[1] in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards. ... The Wii (pronounced as the pronoun we, IPA: ) is the fifth home video game console released by Nintendo. ...

One of the most unusual features of the controller is the extendable power supply that slid onto the back. It housed the 6 AA batteries required to power the system. This could be substituted with a wall adapter, though a 'slide on' attachment was required to accomplish this. Once the slide on adapter was installed, a power adapter could be attached to provide constant power. An AA battery is a standard battery size commonly used in medium portable electronic devices that need more life time than AAA batteries but same power. ...

EXTension Port

The system's EXT port, located on the underside of the system near almost under the UP Link so called poofy controller port, was never officially supported since no official multiplayer games were ever published, nor was an official link cable released.

Specifications

Static random access memory (SRAM) is a type of semiconductor memory. ... For other uses, see cache (disambiguation). ... “NES” redirects here. ... A mebibit (a contraction of mega binary binary digit) is a unit of information or computer storage, abbreviated Mibit or sometimes Mib. ... A mebibit (a contraction of mega binary binary digit) is a unit of information or computer storage, abbreviated Mibit or sometimes Mib. ... A mebibit (a contraction of mega binary binary digit) is a unit of information or computer storage, abbreviated Mibit or sometimes Mib. ... A kibibyte (a contraction of kilo binary byte) is a unit of information or computer storage, commonly abbreviated KiB (never kiB). 1 kibibyte = 210 bytes = 1,024 bytes The kibibyte is closely related to the kilobyte, which can be used either as a synonym for kibibyte or to refer to... A mebibit (a contraction of mega binary binary digit) is a unit of information or computer storage, abbreviated Mibit or sometimes Mib. ...

Development

The console was designed by Gunpei Yokoi, inventor of the Game & Watch and Game Boy handhelds, as well as the Metroid franchise. While compact and seemingly portable, Virtual Boy was not intended to replace the Game Boy in Nintendo's product line, as use of the system requires a steady surface, and completely blocks the player's peripheral vision. According to David Sheff's book Game Over, Yokoi never actually had intended for the console to be released in its present form. However, Nintendo had grown impatient with the amount of time that he had taken with the project. It wanted to focus on the Nintendo 64, and quickly rushed the Virtual Boy to market. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... (New Wide Screen), 1982 The Game & Watch (G&W) series were handheld electronic games made by Nintendo and created by its game designer Gunpei Yokoi from 1980 to 1991. ... For the entire Game Boy series of handheld consoles, see Game Boy line. ... This article is about the first game in the series. ... The Nintendo 64 ), often abbreviated as N64, is Nintendos third home video game console for the international market. ...

Reception

Hype surrounding the device included public musings by Nintendo that the device might resemble a gun set vertical, projecting a 3D image in the air. The actual device was considered a disappointment compared to this description.

"...the Virtual Boy produced very impressive 3-D effects, although the monochromatic graphic style proved to limit the appeal of the visuals." - (Nintendo of America website) [1]

Video game analysts believed Virtual Boy was a flop in the marketplace, for several reasons: Nintendo Corporation, Limited (Japanese: 任天堂; Ninten is translated roughly as leave luck to heaven or in heavens hands, do is a common suffix for names of shops or laboratories; TSE: NTDOY) was originally founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards, for use in... As a hit-driven business, the great majority of the computer and video games industrys software releases have been commercial failures. ...

• To fill for in the delay of the Nintendo 64, it was pushed to market before it was ready. The public was unwilling to spend money on what they saw as a stopgap videogame system, especially knowing the Nintendo 64 was coming shortly.

• It was marketed as a portable system, but it was not as portable as gamers thought it should be. Due to its size and weight, the Virtual Boy was nearly impossible to use while in motion, and doing so could cause damage to the unit.

• It was considered too expensive, with a US$180 initial price.

• The console's box and manual warned that the display could cause eyestrain and eye problems, especially for those under seven years of age. Despite having been added primarily for liability reasons, the warnings frightened away potential buyers. Some players suffered from headaches or even seizures from short times spent using the machine.^{[citation needed]}

• There was a poor selection of games available at launch and very few software developers wanted to invest in a new, unproven gaming system. In total only 22 titles were available between the North American and Japanese markets. Other game problems were related to the format of the console, which did not seem suited for certain types of games, giving players the impression that it was a rather limited system.

• The base of the system could not be adjusted vertically. This meant that the system has to be placed on a table to play (which could be uncomfortable, particularly for the player's back) or that users had to lie down to use it. The base was also somewhat flimsy and replacement parts were not very common. A vertically-adjustable stand was planned but never brought to market.

• Due to the nature of the Virtual Boy system, other players could not watch, which took away the social aspect of gaming. A multiplayer option was in development, via a cable that would hook two units together, but the product flopped before such an addition could be made.

• Because of its poor performance in the Japanese and American markets, the console was never released in Australia or Europe. This contributed to a supply-and-demand problem (undersupply) for Nintendo products (especially Super NES and Super Famicom games) in the middle of the 1990s that existed mainly due to continuous delays of the Nintendo 64.

The commercial demise of the Virtual Boy was regarded by many as the catalyst that led to Yokoi being driven from Nintendo. According to Game Over, the company laid the blame for the machine's faults directly on the creator. The system was listed as number five in PC World's "The Ugliest Products in Tech History" list.^[2] USD redirects here. ... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ... The Super Nintendo Entertainment System or Super NES (also called SNES and Super Nintendo) was a 16-bit video game console released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia, and Brazil between 1990 and 1993. ... For the band, see 1990s (band). ... The Nintendo 64 ), often abbreviated as N64, is Nintendos third home video game console for the international market. ... PC World may refer to one of two topics: The American computer magazine The British computer store chain This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Cultural references

• In 2001, the Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. Melee had a Virtual Boy in the Trophy Collection Room on a shelf. Due to its failure, however, Nintendo of America decided that it was best not to display that particular system and it is removed from localized versions.
• In the Wii game Super Paper Mario, a Virtual Boy can be seen on the shelf of one of the rooms of Fort Francis.
• A Virtual Boy is seen strapped to the head of a hotel desk aide in the Julia Roberts blockbuster Runaway Bride. The sound indicates that he is playing Mario Tennis.

• In an X-Play episode, "The 10 Scariest Games of All Time", the villain named Memory Card tortures Attack of the Show host Kevin Pereira using a Virtual Boy to parody the "Reverse Beartrap" scene from Saw. The police comment they found the victim with his eyes burned out, mocking the Virtual Boy's tendency to cause eye strain.

• In the Nintendo Wee game WarioWare: Smooth Moves, one of the minigames, requires you to sift sand away revealing on level 1 a pack of Nintendo Cards, on level 2 a Game Boy and finally on level 3 a Virtual Boy.

• In the online Comic, "Acorn Grove," A character's torture chamber, in addition to whips, batteries with jumper cables, and ball gags, a Virtual Boy is visible in the corner.

• In The Simpsons Game, when Bart purchases a Grand Theft Scratchy copy, you can see a picture of the Virtual Boy near on the side of the counter.

Super Smash Bros. ... The Wii (pronounced as the pronoun we, IPA: ) is the fifth home video game console released by Nintendo. ... Super Paper Mario ) is a platform/role-playing video game developed by Intelligent Systems, a division of Nintendo. ... A runaway bride is a bride who runs away from the wedding chapel, usually shortly before the ceremony. ... Mario Tennis is a video game series that began in 1995 with Marios Tennis for the Game Boy. ... X-Play logo X-Play (previously Gamespot TV and Extended Play) is a video game review television show hosted by Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb. ... Sarah Lane is hott! Attack of the Show! (previously named The Screen Savers) is a live gaming and entertainment television program shown on G4 in the United States, G4techTV in Canada, and the HOW TO Channel in Australia. ... Kevin Pereira (born December 28, 1982[1]) is co-host of G4s Attack of the Show! (formerly The Screen Savers) with Olivia Munn. ... One of the main focuses of the Saw film series are the traps, more commonly referred to as games and tests, that the characters Jigsaw and his apprentices Amanda and Hoffman created for their victims. ... This article is about the 2004 horror film, Saw. ... The Simpsons Game is a video game based on the animated television series The Simpsons. ...

Trivia

• None of the Japanese games were packaged in shrink-wrap like the American versions.
• Complete sets of games (19 Japanese, 14 North American) are very rare to find, fetching extremely high prices (especially in Europe where the Virtual Boy was never released) if in mint condition.
• Voice-overs for advertisements were done by Dylan Bruno. ^[3]

See also

• List of Virtual Boy games
• List of cancelled Virtual Boy games
• List of Virtual Boy demos

This is a list of games for the Nintendo Virtual Boy video game system, organised alphabetically by name. ... Bound High, considered to be one of the most promising Virtual Boy games. ... Due to the Virtual Boys short life span, there were few games made for the system. ...

References

Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 124th day of the year (125th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... GamePro is an American video game magazine published monthly. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 329th day of the year (330th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... PC World may refer to one of two topics: The American computer magazine The British computer store chain This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 285th day of the year (286th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... JPG redirects here. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 200th day of the year (201st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Virtual Boy

• Nintendo of America's list of US-released Virtual Boy-games - includes licencees and release dates
• PLANET VIRTUAL BOY - Big Virtual Boy related archive
• VIRTUAL-BOY.NET - Large Virtual Boy fansite
• The Unofficial Nintendo Virtual Boy Home page - Virtual Boy development info
• Virtual Boy news, informaton and emulators