Virtual Boy in Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader

Oct 02, 2012 • 16:39

I got a copy of the book “Uncle John’s Unsinkable Bathroom Reader,” the 21st book in a series of humor/reference articles made, like the titles suggest, to read while going to the bathroom. After reading the Virtual Boy’s entry in an article called “High Tech Toy Flops,” all their info they gather becomes more suspect. Read and laugh along with me.

“In the early 1990s, the next big thing in electronics was supposed to be virtual reality. Wearing a special helmet, a person would be able to inhabit lifelike imaginary, computerized worlds. But the only virtual reality product ever released was a dud: Nintendo’s Virtual Boy video game system. The $180 machine looked like a pair of binoculars perched on a tabletop tripod. There were two problems with the setup. First, it wasn’t adjustable, resulting in lots of neck cramps; second, it was impossible to play with eyeglasses on. On top of that, the games weren’t in color – that would have pushed the price to more than $500, so they were rendered in a fuzzy black, red and blue display which created a 3D effect. Th eimage was so difficult to see that headaches due to eyestrain were common (the Virtual Boy had a built-in feature that made it turn off every 15 minutes to give players a chance to rest their eyes.) Only 14 games were made for the system, including Virtual Bowling and Virtual Fishing. Only about 700,000 were sold, making it the biggest flop in Nintendo’s history.”

Where did they get the color blue thing from? I guess since red and blue were used in 3D displays?

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8 Replies

Oct 02, 2012 • 18:10

Benjamin Stevens

The reference to the North American release total of 14 games followed by the reference to 2 of the 8 Japan-only titles allegedly being included in the total of 14 makes me smile.

Oct 02, 2012 • 23:53

Super Bros.

Excellent, a mention from a person whom never used a VB in their entire lifetime. I hate people whom think they know about VB, but really are only reposting the lies they have heard.

Oct 03, 2012 • 04:05

foil_lone_wolf

Wow, I count 6 errors. No true facts, and only one true opinion “looked like a pair of binoculars perched on a tabletop tripod.”

Dreamary, I personally appreciate the people that propogate the errors of VB….it makes it easier to acquire them.

Oct 03, 2012 • 17:18

Virtual_Link

I like the game screw up. “Virtual Bowling” and “Virtual Fishing” were only released in Japan. Fools!!!

Oct 04, 2012 • 03:40

Lester Knight

First, it wasn’t adjustable, resulting in lots of neck cramps; second, it was impossible to play with eyeglasses on.

i adjust mine all the time. i’ve never once had a neck cramp or back issue and i game on it for hours at a time. i also wear corrective lenses. while these seem to cause the red lenses to “curve” the graphics a bit more than usual, they never once made it impossible to play.

On top of that, the games weren’t in color – that would have pushed the price to more than $500, so they were rendered in a fuzzy black, red and blue display which created a 3D effect.

red IS a color. i don’t recall ever seeing blue? hehe.

The image was so difficult to see that headaches due to eyestrain were common

they were? odd, i’ve never heard of anyone who owns the system telling me they had eye strain. the first time i used a 3ds i got extremely tired after 20 minutes. many people who own the 3ds complain about sickness, dizziness, and headaches. yet the only people who relate these same issues to the VB seem to be those who have never actually used one. i find the red/black graphics incredibly soothing and relaxing to my eye. the only issue is if you play in a lit room. pulling your eyes out of the VB can cause your eyes to adjust rather quickly to light. its weird but it doesn’t cause me any discomfort.

interesting read. do you happen to have a contact e-mail for the author or the publisher? i would like to send them a few corrections and discuss their speculative comments.

Oct 04, 2012 • 04:07

VirtualChris

Here’s their website, with a Contact tab:
http://bathroomreader.com/

Dec 11, 2012 • 17:25

VirtualChris

I found this little tidbit in “Uncle John’s Ahh-Inspiring Bathroom Reader”, #15 in the series.
Needless to say, Yokoi made Nintendo a lot of money over the years. What did he have to show for it? Not much – in 1995 his Virtual Boy, an addition to the Game Boy line that was kind of like a 3D View-Master – bombed. The red LED display gave so many players headaches and dizziness that when the product was released in the US it came with a warning label. One reviewer called it a “Virtual Dog.”
Nintendo lost a lot of money on the Virtual Boy, and Yamauchi apparently decided to humiliate Yokoi publicly by making him demonstrate the game system at the company’s annual Shoshinkai trade show, even though it was all but dead. “This was his punishment, the Japanese corporate version of Dante’s Inferno,” Steven Kent writes in The Ultimate History of Video Games. “When employees make high-profile mistakes in Japan, it is not unusual for their superiors to make an example out of them for a period of time, then return them to their former stature.”
Yokoi must have decided not to wait around for his restoration. He left the company in August 1996 after more than 27 years on the job, and founded his own handheld game company called “Koto” (Japanese for “small town”). It produced a game system similar to the Game Boy, only with a bigger screen and better speakers. We’ll never know what kind of gains he might have made against the Game Boy, because on October 4, 1997, he was killed in a car accident. He was 56.

Dec 19, 2012 • 17:36

Super Bros.

Wonderswan! It’s actually a pretty good handheld, with good game ports.

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Virtual Boy in Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader