Unraveling the enigma of Nintendo's Virtual Boy

http://www.fastcompany.com/3050016/unraveling-the-enigma-of-nintendos-virtual-boy-20-years-later

by technologizer • 11 years ago

74 20 11 years ago

dvh• 11 years ago

Scroll down for actual article.

echelon• 11 years ago

I knew the Gunpei Yokoi part of this story since it makes the rounds every year or so. I'd never heard the Reflection Technology story before, though, and it was thoroughly fascinating.

It's a strange feeling to project these tales of business, technology, and marketing back onto simpler memories of my own naive youth. My younger self had no idea that these people were trying to succeed in their careers and life-long creative endeavors--I was content to play Mario Tennis to pass time, completely ignorant of the human struggle and engineering effort backing the hardware.

Now I'm especially conscious of this new narrative, of careers and adulthood, yet simultaneously filled with the nostalgia of my own carefree youth and time spent playing the Virtual Boy. It's strangely pleasant. I can relate to both feelings, though one is all but a fleeting memory.

Getting old is so weird.

knodi123• 11 years ago

Getting old is so weird.

Sure is. But it's better than the alternative!

kethinov• 11 years ago

Getting younger? I could go for that! ;)

ctdonath• 11 years ago

Yup. Been there, done that, getting old is preferable (despite the aches & angst).

nlawalker• 11 years ago

> It's a strange feeling to project these tales of business, technology, and marketing back onto simpler memories of my own naive youth.

I agree! If that feeling is something you want more of, I highly suggest _Game_Over:_How_Nintendo_Conquered_the_World_ by David Sheff.

lanewinfield• 11 years ago

Sounds perfect. Purchased!

benihana• 11 years ago

Did it cause headaches?

It did for me. I was 12 when it came out, and the local Blockbuster Video had one and they let me play it from time to time that summer (I rented games from there every weekend during school so they kind of knew me). I seem to remember getting a headache and feeling queasy.

But what I remember most, and what articles about the Virtual Boy never seem to mention is that the games were dull and boring. The 3D effect was interesting, but I was a 12 year old kid used to brightly coloured characters running around fluidly and responsively in a moving world. Playing the Virtual Boy was dismal - it was all high contrast black and dark red. And making Mario Tennis feel more 3D doesn't change the boring gameplay of Mario Tennis.

laumars2• 11 years ago

what articles about the Virtual Boy never seem to mention is that the games were dull and boring.

This article does mention that though. There's quite a few paragraphs dedicated to discussing how Virtual Boy games were rushed; how Nintendo's IP wasn't fully utilised; and how this console was designed in contrast to the evolving arms race of the colourful high resolution graphics of that era.

jerf• 11 years ago

If you can stomach his style, the Angry Video Game Nerd walked through the entire library in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyVAp0tOk5A

wanderfowl• 11 years ago

I had a similar experience. I was really excited, told I could have one, but at my parents' advice, we rented one from Blockbuster with its full host of games before we bought. I had it for 2 or 3 days, invited a friend over to play, and then returned it with little fanfare, and the clear understanding that I wasn't interested.

The games were enjoyable, but the ergonomics were the tough part. I never quite could figure out a way to play comfortably with the furniture and tables and chairs available, so there were head and neck aches associated.

VirtualBoy stands out for me as the first time an expensive toy was so disappointing that it wasn't even worth spending my parents' money.

sanjaynegi89• 11 years ago

cool

niix• 11 years ago

Interestingly enough, I just recalled that I had one of these as a child. As if it was some lost memory that has been found by reading this article.

I guess that means it didn't make much of an impact. I remember playing Mario Tennis and getting headaches from it, but don't remember very much else.

sopooneo• 11 years ago

Anyone know why the mirrors in the displays oscillated instead of spinning? Was it just a matter of it somehow being easier to keep the phase and frequency correct with oscillation? Because it seems like it would be much simpler mechanically to spin them.

laumars2• 11 years ago

My guess would be that there would be a brief pause between scanlines where the angle of the mirror was acute. Where as oscillation ensures there is always a section of the viewable screen being rendered. But this is just an educated guess so I too would be interested to read the actual reason.

deelowe• 11 years ago

Galvos were fairly common back on those days. For such a simple device (it's just a voicecoil) you can get very precise alignment assuming it's well designed mechanically (e.g. properly damped). Not sure about spinning mirrors like those used in barcode scanners, but I'm guessing gavos were preferrable at the time for things like this. Galvos were heavily used in laser light shows back then which would have been very popular when this was being designed. To be honest, when I heard single line LED display utilizing 2 mirrors (one for each eye), my first thought was "Just like a laser light display." Clever, but relatively evolutionary if you know how existing tech worked at the time.

The other reply below/above isn't correct about there being a pause between scans. A common implementation for rotating mirrors is to use an octagonal mirror [1]. With that implementation, there's no pause. The image just jumps immediately back to the left/right. The issue is more likely controlling the speed of the motors would be difficult to keep synced with the requisite precision.

[1] http://cdn.iopscience.com/images/0034-4885/76/8/086801/Full/...

cma• 11 years ago

Maybe the mirror would hit the optics otherwise and would have to be moved back, resulting in smaller field of view, requiring more sophisticated optics.

thedaemon• 11 years ago

I still have mine. It was not comfortable to play for very long and they never really produced a great game. The best game that I had was the boxing one.

Unraveling the enigma of Nintendo's Virtual Boy

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