I, for one, loved this thing. And the only reason I was ever able to own one was because of their downfall also coincidentally happening about the same time EB Toys was going out of business, so I was able to get the Virtual Boy and most of the games for under $50 due to the extreme discounts.
That’s literally how I got mine, though from Babbages when they were still a thing. I think I paid like $35 + tax for the unit (which came with Mario Tennis) and Wario Land.
Loved it, but I can see why it failed. Still, 3D Mario Tennis was amazing.
AND warioland!!!
The virtual boy is Nintendos coolest console that deserved to fail. It had some good games in it’s tiny library. It brought some cool concepts to the project. But the virtual console deserved to die.
Yeah, it was a cool concept, but the execution was terrible. For all its faults, the one I can’t overlook is the fact that it required 6xAA batteries (that it would chew through in 2-3 hours). LIke, WTF? Its design literally required you to use it on a table/stationary location. They sold an AC adapter for it, but it was a separate purchase.
EB Toys??? We had KB Toys (or Kay Bee Toys), and we had Electronics Boutique. Which sold video games and small electronics.
But you had EB Toys???
KB! I meant KB! lol
They’ve been gone hella long I just conflated the two.
Ugh I wanted one of these so fucking badly when I was a kid.
I think this is kind of a thing for a lot of stereoscopic 3d technology.
I could play the virtual boy, 3ds, watch 3d movies, etc. for hours without issue, and other people can’t take it at all.
I don’t know what factors play into that, maybe it’s genetic, maybe there’s some kind of skill/technique/habits about how you focus your eyes, or how often you blink, maybe it’s just luck of the draw that your pupil distance is just right or wrong. Maybe it comes down to something ridiculous like how many hours you spent trying to make sense of Magic Eye books when you were a kid.
My parents rented me and my brothers one of these from blockbuster for a night. It was great and I’ll never forget it.
I somehow ended up with 2 of these things in my collection. I have a consolizer mod kit for one, that I still need to install. Additionally, I managed to nab one of those everdrive-like carts that displays the label of the ROM in e-ink.
I loved my virtual boy when I was a kid. It felt like the future or something. It didn’t have a lot of great games, but I did get most of the best ones when blockbuster video started clearing out their inventory and sold games for like $5 each.
