Feb 04, 2026
3 min read
When you look back at classic gaming, there is a lot of room for debate.What was the best Atari game?Which was the best 16-bit console, the Genesis or the Super NES?Would the N64 have been more commercially successful if it had used CDs over cassettes?It goes on and on.Many of these questions are subjective, and have no hard-and-fast answers.
While there are many opinions floating around, there is at least one point that even gaming historians agree on - the Virtual Boy is without a doubt the worst gaming system Nintendo has ever produced.
Released in Japan and North America in 1995, Virtual Boy was hailed as a revolution in gaming.It was the first mainstream consumer device capable of displaying stereoscopic 3D images, with a 20 MHz 32-bit RISC CPU and a custom graphics processor developed by Nintendo that overcomes the unique challenges of playing gameplay from two different perspectives simultaneously.
In many ways, it is the forerunner of modern VR headsets, but its high cost, small game library, and technical limitations of its unique display technology ultimately lead to it being pulled from the shelves after less than a year on the market.
Now, 30 years after its dark beginnings, this revolutionary system is getting a second chance.Later this month, Nintendo will release a Virtual Boy model that players can plug into their Switch or Switch 2.The device works just like Google Cardboard, and with the release of an official emulator, users can play Virtual Boy games with the 3D effect that the system is known for.
It was an exciting time for fans of classic games, as the rarity of the Virtual Boy made it difficult to experience these games the way they were meant to be played.It also reignites interest in this unique device, and while we can't turn back the clock on the Virtual Boy's financial failure, we can at least have a new generation appreciate the engineers who made it happen.
Cutting Edge Technology
Looking at the current Virtual Boy, it is easy to assume that it works on almost the same principles as today's VR headset, with two independent screens used to show players slightly different views of the same scene so that they try to see a three-dimensional image.In fact, that's what it would do today if you picked up a modern version of the Virtual Boy, which is basically how the Switch version of the system works.
Because today, thanks to the demands of the smartphone market, we have access to miniature high-quality displays.But display technology in 1995 was very different, especially for consumer devices.Released just five years ago, the Sega Game Gear had a self-illuminating color display, but it was too large and required power for this type of application.
This solution came from the American company Reflection Technology.In the late 1980s, they created a product called The Private Eye, a wearable monocular display that could be connected to a regular computer.It used the company's patented Scanned Linear Array technology and sold for $795 with a resolution of 720×280.
Reflection attempted to shop Scanned Linear Array technology to other companies, including Sega, but was repeatedly turned down due to cost and complexity.Eventually, Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo's head of R&D and creator of the legendary Game Boy, found the device and was impressed.He believed that a scaled-down version of the technology could create a new type of gaming experience that would be difficult for competitors to compete with, so Nintendo signed an exclusive license agreement for the Scanned Linear Array for the games.
More than meets the eye
Contrary to our modern expectations, the Virtual Boy did not have two screens.In fact, he has none.Instead, a scanned linear array uses only a single LED strip and a rapidly oscillating mirror to project an image onto the user's eye.By rapidly scanning the eye back and forth, visual stability allows the viewer to see the full image.
Private Eye used a single scanned linear array element to create a 2D image in one eye, but Virtual Boy features two identical units to achieve its 3D effect.To cut costs, the resolution was lowered to 384×224, which corresponds to a column of 224 small LEDs for each eye.Recently, The Slow Mo Guys showed on YouTube how the technology inside Virtual Boy actually works.Got some amazing footage of it, using clever video editing to show how each 1×244 LED array is capable of drawing a full frame of video.
As impressive as Scanned Linear Array technology is, it has a critical flaw in that it can only produce an image in red.While you can technically produce a full-color image using this method, it will require an array of red, green, and blue individual cells, in addition to the optics necessary to coordinate their output.
When the Virtual Boy was developed, blue LEDs were available, but they were not yet common and would have significantly increased the cost of the device.But even if this were not the case, there was no way to fit all six LED matrices and the necessary optics into the Virtual Boy.In fact, the system was too heavy to be worn like a modern VR headset and had to be held at eye level with a table stand.Power consumption would also be prohibitive - even with just two LED arrays, the system could only run for about four hours on six AA batteries.
Despite these problems, Nintendo reportedly experimented with versions of the Virtual Boy that could display more colors.But in the end, like the Eye of Reality that came before it, the console could only have a red-black design that users found unpleasant to look at for long periods of time.As if that wasn't bad enough for a gaming system, many gamers experience eye strain from the graphics.of 3D, even Nintendo's own ads stated that children under the age of seven should not use the system because of the possibility of damage to the eyes.
modern solution
While the Switch's support for Virtual Boy games at least means those titles will be played by a larger audience, there's something disturbing about how it works.The Virtual Boy accessory for the Switch is nothing more than a hollow plastic shell with a slot for the player to mount their Switch, and for those who don't want to spend $99, Nintendo says there will be a cardboard version that will accomplish the same goal.Like Google's phone-based VR offering, all you have to do is grab a few lenses and separate each eye.
All the heavy lifting is done in the computer, with two views of the game displayed on a separate screen.It's a simple and easy-to-implement solution that takes advantage of the Switch's widescreen display and new processing power.
It's a logical solution to a problem that once took hundreds of dollars of custom hardware to solve, and will undoubtedly work even better than the original version.This is especially true since Nintendo said they plan to add support for rendering games in colors other than red.
However, it's nowhere near as impressive as the engineering that went into the Virtual Boy itself.So if you find yourself playing Mario Tennis or Galactic Pinball through the rose-colored glasses of the upcoming Switch accessory, take a moment to appreciate the incredible work that went into developing the hardware that was capable of producing them three decades ago.
I have 2 original VB units (bought them back when Nintendo discontinued them in the 90's) and have always loved the system for it.The display was faster than any other portable at the time and the sound (32bit, IIRC) was great.
People tried to make emulators, but the games don't work well on a 2D screen, and it wasn't until I came up with Quest that I really enjoyed it, although I prefer playing on original hardware, especially since the controller is quite strange and difficult to duplicate.
I remember playing Mario Tennis for about 5 minutes on a Virtual Boy in a game store when I was 10. It really wasn't that impressive.
A few months later, there were heaps of them on clearance, like $24, software, etc.I always regret not getting it.
You can actually simulate it in stereoscopic 3D with retrorech on an Android phone, then pop into an inexpensive VR headset.It works as well as I remember.Apparently there is also an emulator for 3Ds.
The screen was really good!Monochrome but otherwise good!
I had a P4 Private Eye in the 90's after finding it on eBay.An ISA video card adapter is required, it can output 80x25 text (in other words, a full normal sized terminal screen) and how impressive and impressive it is for any "mini" display is hard to overstate.
Of course, it could only print solid red, but it was CRISP.
Fortunately, stores like Stone Age Gamer make parts and repair parts for these units, as many displays suffer from connectivity issues from being stored in hot rooms, and some have found unreleased titles and made reproduction carts (Faceball explains) that work perfectly on the computer.
If you really want to make it shine, there is an emulator for 3DS... The best way to emulate it!
It can also be emulated in stereoscopic 3D using reverse arches and cheap virtual bodies on Android smartphones.
In a way, yes.Although as someone who lived through those days, I'd say the Forte VFX1 cyberhelmet and the many cheap goggles for DOS computers with VGA CRTs were available around the same time.
Games like Descent support LCD BIOS or similar DOS drivers.
This way at least an abstraction of the underlying hardware is created.
The shutter glasses sold for computers were very cheap compared to this.
because these were just two LC filters that turned dark.
The interface was sometimes very primitive.
Only three wires for left/right/ground are connected to a 3.5mm plug plugged into the serial port dongle (using RTS, DTR, GND, etc. pins).
The Sega Master used a similar type of glasses system in the 80s, I think.
I think Amiga users have probably also used such glasses.
At the end of the 90s, the Elsa 3D Revelator shutter glasses are probably the most forgotten for many here.
The glasses support normal Live 3D games in Windows 98 without special support,
as the depth information was normally already there.
Or plugged into a VGA pigtail adapter to tap directly into the refresh rate of GPUs/monitors.
Yes, good point!Lausoki gogoratzen dut 90eko hamarkadaren erdialdeko PCI txartel grafiko batzuek 3,5 mm-ko jack bat zutela VGA konektorearen ondoan.
The website http://www.stereo3d.com/ has more information I think.
If I were to make a color version of this, I would stagger the frame with 3 rows of red, green, and blue LEDs one or two pixels wide.This way it will start showing red (R) and green (G) for frame row 0 (R0) and nothing for blue (B).Then it will zero the mirror by one pixel, R to R1, G to R0 and B, move the mirror another pixel so that G overlaps the first R, showing R2 for R, R1 for G and B for B.Now eye stiffness R0 will full color.
The hardware would be the same except for the two extra leds on each side and would probably require a faster processor.I'm pretty sure it would not be feasible at the time of the original virtual buoy due to the price and availability of blue LEDs, the need for a faster processor and the steep price hike.
Interestingly, blue LEDs (or white LEDs) did not exist at the end of the 20th century.
wellThey "existed" as prototypes in labs, but they were never actually sold.
Common types are red, yellow (orange) and green (more or less).
Which is interesting, because yellow and green are competitors.
The first old colors taught in children's books and schools were red, yellow, blue (RYB) instead of red, green, blue (RGB).
Of course, there are also cyan, magenta, and yellow due to the additive and substratitive primary colors.
But yellow is the 4th primary color, depending on how we look at it.
Some CRT and LCD monitors include quad-color for more vibrant colors.
Anyway, this only comes to mind because red, green and yellow LEDs were around at the end of the 20th century.
It will be interesting to see what color combinations will be possible for games using them.
Not a replacement for RGB for real-world color mixing, but for color, rather.🙂
