I don’t think the VB failed, I think the biased media failed on the VB.
The only downfall was that the VB had no killer App besides Wario. But just the same, the 3DS had no original killer app until 3D Mario Land.
The VB gives you headaches, can cause color blindness, will give 137% of users an epileptic seizure, will make your grand kids infertile, etc etc.
It was nothing but the rumormill that ultimately milled away at the VB’s potential success IMO.
“”Nintendo had developer hardware that could display VB games in 2-D on a TV screen, but they never shared it with us,” Bieniek says. “In fact, they didn’t even use it to display games at trade shows. I didn’t find out that it existed until many years later, long after the VB was discontinued.””
For Christ’s sake, more media BS. “$%*IN FACT*$%” the “Projection unit” more commonly known as the TV-boy was used at both E3 1995 and 1996. Yes it could display in 2d via S-VHS and Composite, but the unit was a very expensive device and only a handful were made for large screen presentations. If the guy had any knowledge of what he’s talking about, he’d be aware of all the super high resolution 2d slides for every game that were sent to the media…
Just more lies from the biased media, surprise surprise.
RunnerPack wrote:
This “good ol’ boy” has a few theories: 😉1. It doesn’t mention the VB or anything VB specific (like adjusting the focus/IPD) directly, so it may just be a generic “video games can kill joo!!!!111one” thing put on there by a paranoid store owner in some extremely litigious locale (*cough*California*cough* ;-)).
2. It might be that those stickers were included with every demo VB, but most store owners/employees were too lazy to put them on. Has anyone ever found a complete, unopened demo unit including all the ephemera that came with one?
3. It could be some wiseguy just sticking random stickers on VBs to make them more attractive to collectors. I obviously hope it’s not that, but I had to mention it…
(BTW, DogP is far more knowledgeable than I concerning things “VB”).
Howdy RPack, I have some very surprising new info TBA soon…
I apologize, I thought this was a cool find and I was playing coy. It is what it is, unfortunately the VB scene has died and shifted away to 3DS. I have no questions to ask, I know what I have and buy. The other good ol’ boys are KR155E, runnerpack,and mawa. They have the authority.
I still enjoy brand new VB discoveries, as anyone here should.(?)
I’m just somebody that I used to know.
I’d say we should ask the pros, but I do in fact own 3/5 of the earliest VB consoles in the world (4/5 including from my proto that I inherited from KR155E). While I consider myself an authority, I was hoping other authorities would chime in on this new discovery. This is the real deal, so others that see such can hopefully add light to this new addition in VB history.
At face value, this is IN THE LEAST a USA Demo with a rad unknown sticker applied. I’d gauge it as something property of Nintendo. We also don’t even know what these USA Demo consoles were for(?), since the USA never had an official Nintendo display unit.
Design Phase was 2nd party and non-Nintendo, and real Nintendo displays were only officially released in Japan.
mbuchman wrote:
I don’t think the cartridge is anything special, the “property of Nintendo” stickers you show were clear plastic but the cartridge you showed clearly was a paper label.My guess is Blockbuster demo? And the sticker would have been the bar-code label? I don’t remember seeing those stickers back when Blockbuster rented them, but that was a while ago and I was 9…
What are those purple booklets?
The white paper on the center of the sticker residue looks to have been a fiber adhesion, as in a cart had a sticker pulled off and was left on another piece of paper. It’s still slightly tacky, I fear the seller tore the property of Nintendo label off before shipping to me.
Blockbuster demo consoles came WAY WAY after this serial number, it’s much more in line with standard USA demo consoles. (This serial comes in 3rd as the earliest VB console known period).
As I personally own a brand new USA Demo, I can verify that the USA Demos come with no sticker. The ONLY other person in the world with a serial number lower than me is the member Marulu, whom also coincidentally has “property of Nintendo” stickers on the back of his carts. Out of 630,000 consoles this one comes in as the 3rd.
Marulu has Console number 830, unboxed with property of Nintendo carts.
I have console number 940 brand new in white USA Demo box. No sticker on console. No games included.
This console is number 1157, sticker on it, and the cart residue in line with Marulu’s carts.
If this wasn’t the 3rd earliest console known to man that exists, I’d probably have my doubts. However, this thing sets off more alarms than one should. I have no doubts of the authenticity, and the only other person I can compare to is the one person that has the one out of the 3 earliest consoles known aside from me personally. Mawa is the only person with a serial in the original run, and it comes after these 3.
Blockbuster came in at units 3500-4000, not anything like the 1157 unit shown here.
What makes this unique is the sticker, the serial, and obviously the history of such. being one of the 4 very earliest units known to man, I don’t see why the residue factor on the cart should be snuffed out. The seller made no profit on a $71 console after all, and the serial just proved how cool this really is.
On the other question, the purple booklets are sealed Nintendo-Power 3D glasses which were only offered to subscribers of Nintendo power for 1 single issue, so this may have just been a demo console sent to Nintendo Power reviewers.
The console sticker is strange, the serial is on par with being a demo, and the included cart has demo adhesive like with the other console in the category of first 3 VB units found.
Hedgetrimmer wrote:
Oh yeah, so long as its ‘crazy weird’ not ‘crazy knife wielding scary’ (image of Virtual Jockey in boiler suit jumps to mind), but I only ever take knives to vegetables.
Mind you, I do not eat mammals for a truthful fact. I haven’t had beef or pork in well over 3 years. I’m a strict pesce-pollotarian.
Other than that…
Happy Halloween PVB! 😀
Just scored an auction for a VB with a strange sticker on it for $71. I won this auction for a great price when taking the 2 Nintendo Power 3D glasses into consideration. I can’t make out what the sticker says in that low-res pic, but it looks looks official to me. The sticker sure does appear to have a lot of text on it, most likely 3D safety precautions.
The console has grey knobs and a matte finish, so it’s definitely not pre-production. Maybe a non-Blockbuster rental unit since the Blockbuster rentals had all that info on the inside of their hardcase, and the non-blockbuster travelmaster rental case has no info inside?
This is all pure speculation on my part. If you’ve seen this sticker before, please fill me in on the history. 🙂
Attachments:
Cheap complete US Jack Bros for $139.98
http://www.ebay.com/itm/270840926590