Virtual Boy

[Mystic of Dark]

I laugh when people claim Virtual Boy is Nintendo's biggest failure, as its not even close.

1) Nintendo iQue (An update to the Nintendo 64, released before Gamecube, it did so horribly that it never made its way to the U.S.), they built 200,000 and sold 15,000 (Out for 2 years)
2) N64 DD (An Diskette based system released for N64, had inproved graphics but sold poorly and never got released in the U.S.), they built 800,000 and sold 20,000. (Out for 1.5 years)
3) Gameboy Light (A backlit handheld, sold right before Gameboy Color; sold poorly and did not ever arrive in the U.S.), they built 250,000 and sold 25,000
4) Famicom Disk System (Sold poorly, never made its way to the U.S.), they built 500,000 and sold 95,000 (Out for 3 years)
4) NES Toploader, they built 300,000 and sold 150,000. (1 year)
5) AV Famicom, they built 600,000 and sold 250,000 (1 year)
6) Virtual Boy, they built 1 million and sold 770,000. It was cancelled mainly because of N64 coming out and Nintendo wanted to place it resources onto that instead. 770,000 sold for a niche 3D based system only out for 1 year is actually a success.
7) Game Boy Micro; they built 5 million and sold 2.4 million. (2 years)
cool Color TV Game; they built 8 million and sold 3 million (6 years)

[Raven Xavier Kitari]

I wish I still had my virtual boy despite the fact it sucks. The collector's value with a complete set of games is really up there... its actually worth more than what I spent on it

[2_Lemmy_Koopa_2]

Marquis Aldon

I laugh when people claim Virtual Boy is Nintendo's biggest failure, as its not even close.

1) Nintendo iQue (An update to the Nintendo 64, released before Gamecube, it did so horribly that it never made its way to the U.S.), they built 200,000 and sold 15,000 (Out for 2 years)
2) N64 DD (An Diskette based system released for N64, had inproved graphics but sold poorly and never got released in the U.S.), they built 800,000 and sold 20,000. (Out for 1.5 years)
3) Gameboy Light (A backlit handheld, sold right before Gameboy Color; sold poorly and did not ever arrive in the U.S.), they built 250,000 and sold 25,000
4) Famicom Disk System (Sold poorly, never made its way to the U.S.), they built 500,000 and sold 95,000 (Out for 3 years)
4) NES Toploader, they built 300,000 and sold 150,000. (1 year)
5) AV Famicom, they built 600,000 and sold 250,000 (1 year)
6) Virtual Boy, they built 1 million and sold 770,000. It was cancelled mainly because of N64 coming out and Nintendo wanted to place it resources onto that instead. 770,000 sold for a niche 3D based system only out for 1 year is actually a success.
7) Game Boy Micro; they built 5 million and sold 2.4 million. (2 years)
cool Color TV Game; they built 8 million and sold 3 million (6 years)

All of those systems (excluding Color TV Game, which technically did better) were a secondary to an already made system. Like a Wii Family Edition. The Virtual Boy is the least successful system on its own. A lot of the reasons why those systems didn't sell well is because people who wanted to play Nintendo games already had the system already.

[Mystic of Dark]

I guess that's true.

[SaberSaiyan]

Heck yeah! Wanted to steal my friends

[Lord Burn]

I got one shortly after it died for $29.99. Mario Tennis was supurb on it, and The Wario game I think is the best one they've made. I'm surprised I've never seen a port of it on another system. Teleroboxer and Mario Clash...not so much.

The thing is fun, but its biggest issue is the 6 or 8 AAs that it needed to power it. That sucks. I had NiCads, but they drained in no time.

[The_Great_Pumkin]

Vornwrath

2_Lemmy_Koopa_2

*Setting aside a grammar error and spelling "Virtual" wrong.*
They are pretty awesome. First system to be 3D and VERY unique (which is a goal of Nintendo), but it's monochromatic (red), only 14 available games (in the USA), and the system itself was clunky. It probably wasn't that great because Shigeru Miyamoto barely supported it while they were creating the product.

The Sega Master Syester and its 3d peripheral says hello.

Playing the game for more than about 15 minutes gave most people a head ache, and the system is not port able despite being advertised as portable. It was the biggest disaster Nintendo has ever made by far.

i dont think its the worst theyve done i think the worst theyve done was letting "those people" use The Legend of Zelda if yah know what i mean

[Tiana Luscinia]

I played a Virtual Boy demo console in Toys R Us back when the system was released. The game was Wario Land. I actually thought the game was really good. I liked the visual effect but it started to hurt my eyes after a few minutes. The red sprites and tiles on a black background caused some eye strain. It's a shame because the graphics were nice. But when I pulled away from the console I was still seeing red and black for a few seconds.

Your experience may vary depending on your eyes. But a lot of people say it caused eye strain.

I only played the demo console a few times and it was bolted to a table. But one of the biggest flaws was no head strap. I know a lot of headsets from that era had head straps made of pure evil that just didn't fit right and the units were heavy anyway. But there was just no option here. So you were forced to play the console set down on a flat surface at eye level. It just wasn't very portable or practical. Having to endure a fixed position like that in heated gameplay could make your neck sore. Of course you should be taking breaks. But sometimes you are so into the game that you don't realise the time flying by and the cramping from being in the same position for awhile.

Overall I think it was a very interesting concept for its time. But it was just doomed to fail. The red and black display wasn't very easy on the eyes. There should have been an option to change the color of the display or use black and white. At least with the 3DS you can turn the 3D off if it bothers your eyes.

[Tezuka-Zone11]

what you're looking at is one of nintendo's greatest mistakes.
whoever developed this system probably forgot that too much red is bad for the eyes.
maybe i would have gotten myself a Virtual Boy if the consumers/players were allowed to change the color settings.

[Vornwrath]

The_Great_Pumkin

Vornwrath

2_Lemmy_Koopa_2

*Setting aside a grammar error and spelling "Virtual" wrong.*
They are pretty awesome. First system to be 3D and VERY unique (which is a goal of Nintendo), but it's monochromatic (red), only 14 available games (in the USA), and the system itself was clunky. It probably wasn't that great because Shigeru Miyamoto barely supported it while they were creating the product.

The Sega Master Syester and its 3d peripheral says hello.

Playing the game for more than about 15 minutes gave most people a head ache, and the system is not port able despite being advertised as portable. It was the biggest disaster Nintendo has ever made by far.

i dont think its the worst theyve done i think the worst theyve done was letting "those people" use The Legend of Zelda if yah know what i mean

That was not really a Nintendo made disaster. It was a Phillips made disaster that Nintendo allowed to happen

[Mystic of Dark]

Philips CDi! heh!