It was supposed to be a lightweight head-mounted affair. The original tech was a portable fax reader for executives on long flights… because the 1980s were like that. Nintendo built a whole new factory just in time for Japanese safety regulations to get stupid. They had to lock everything down and then plaster the box in warnings or they’d be blamed for absolutely anything children did while wearing their electric blindfold. (Edit: Okay, yeah, this article also covers that.)
If that liability nonsense had happened earlier, Nintendo could’ve pivoted to a standalone device that made more sense than a not-quite-headset on little stick legs. Something with a CPU that wasn’t designed to run on batteries. Maybe a stereo microscope affair, with arcade buttons on the heavy base. Unfortunately the hardware and software were too far along to fix much. They did their best and it wasn’t nearly enough.
I’d genuinely love to see someone hack together a sensible version in either direction. Either a lightweight-by-90s-standards headset (with no head-tracking whatsoever) or a handsome compact tabletop affair. Some one-off glimpse of what might have been.
Interestingly the machine did okay in the US. Nintendo of America opposed its discontinuation, arguing it could become profitable if given time, but Nintendo of Japan wasn’t doing any of that Sega shit. NoA exists as a PR firm. They don’t make decisions unless asked.
What the Ars article bodges in its final paragraph is the implication Yokoi retired because of the Virtual Boy. Quite the opposite: it was supposed to be his final gift to Nintendo. He wanted to get back to making proper toys. The VB was a finale, a send-off, something that might mirror the success of the Game Boy and give Nintendo a whole new market for years to come. Which obviously did not work.
It’s okay, though. His apology was to stick around a little longer and crank out the Game Boy Pocket just in time for some second-party game called Pocket Monsters.
See also this post-mortem from a decade ago.
It was supposed to be a lightweight head-mounted affair. The original tech was a portable fax reader for executives on long flights… because the 1980s were like that. Nintendo built a whole new factory just in time for Japanese safety regulations to get stupid. They had to lock everything down and then plaster the box in warnings or they’d be blamed for absolutely anything children did while wearing their electric blindfold. (Edit: Okay, yeah, this article also covers that.)
If that liability nonsense had happened earlier, Nintendo could’ve pivoted to a standalone device that made more sense than a not-quite-headset on little stick legs. Something with a CPU that wasn’t designed to run on batteries. Maybe a stereo microscope affair, with arcade buttons on the heavy base. Unfortunately the hardware and software were too far along to fix much. They did their best and it wasn’t nearly enough.
I’d genuinely love to see someone hack together a sensible version in either direction. Either a lightweight-by-90s-standards headset (with no head-tracking whatsoever) or a handsome compact tabletop affair. Some one-off glimpse of what might have been.
Interestingly the machine did okay in the US. Nintendo of America opposed its discontinuation, arguing it could become profitable if given time, but Nintendo of Japan wasn’t doing any of that Sega shit. NoA exists as a PR firm. They don’t make decisions unless asked.
What the Ars article bodges in its final paragraph is the implication Yokoi retired because of the Virtual Boy. Quite the opposite: it was supposed to be his final gift to Nintendo. He wanted to get back to making proper toys. The VB was a finale, a send-off, something that might mirror the success of the Game Boy and give Nintendo a whole new market for years to come. Which obviously did not work.
It’s okay, though. His apology was to stick around a little longer and crank out the Game Boy Pocket just in time for some second-party game called Pocket Monsters.