Gunpei Yokoi saw the potential of the Private Eye system as a possible solution for the declining innovation he saw at Nintendo. Becker had shopped around the technology, which he called “Private Eye”, to numerous firms (including Sega, Mattel, and Hasbro) for different possible uses. The core technology was not actually developed by Nintendo internally, but by Allen Becker and his firm, Reflection Technology.Originally known as the VR-32 while in development (or the “Virtual Utopia Experience” at the earliest concept stages), the Virtual Boy was rushed through development, against chief designer Gunpei Yokoi’s wishes, to make up for the slowing development of the Nintendo 64.Nobody will chose the Virtual Boy on a shortlist of essential consoles, but it has become an interesting option to list to a larger retro collection, serving as a conversation piece and an exploration of interesting technology - perhaps in the same place of gaming devices like a Vectrex, Atari Jaguar or an Entex Adventure Vision.Įven if you don’t want to invest in the Virtual Boy hardware, we will dig into ways to experience the Virtual Boy games in emulation - which is a bit more unusual than your typical retro game emulation. Now that the gaming world has moved on, the Nintendo Virtual Boy now is an interesting curiosity that has some dedicated fans. Eventually Nintendo would recover, but not before losing one of the company’s most important designers amongst a slew of other defections from various supporting companies. The frustrations with the lack of success with the Virtual Boy was just a part of a string of problems that Nintendo began facing in the decade, but it was perhaps the most obvious example to the gaming public. Some of this may be due to the pressure to release something to appease a market that was demanding a 64-bit console while both Sega and Sony waited in the wings with CD-based technology. While the technology was interesting and the industrial and graphic design for the product were excellent, the Virtual Boy was a rather rushed product in certain standpoints. Nintendo obviously has had many successes in the company’s lengthy history, but of all the mis-steps Nintendo took in the 1990s, Virtual Boy was perhaps one of the biggest disappointments.
VIRTUAL BOY EMULATOR FOR MAC SERIES
The RetroGaming 101 series is aimed at gamers who are just starting out in the classic gaming scene or are curious about an older console that they don’t know much about yet. Presented by Ack, Racketboy, and Tom Bordelon Nintendo Virtual Boy 101: A Beginner’s Guide