Unreleased Nintendo Virtual Boy Games | Cancelled Virtual Boy Games
Vložit
- čas přidán 10. 09. 2024
- Episode 71 - This is the first of a new series called Unreleased Virtual Boy. This episode covers all canceled games scheduled for release on the Virtual Boy, mostly alphabetically.
Follow me on twitter to keep up to date on the latest happenings concerning this channel. Also for those post containing the occasional farm animal.
/ jenovi
-Jenovi
Retro Impressions
Some Sources Relied on for this video.
01. • DF Retro: Donkey Kong ...
02. www.planetvb.c...
03. Dengeki Super Famicom Vol 1 No 1
04. Video Games Magazine (DE) Issue 56 Pg 20
05. Man!ac Issue 33 Pg 24
06. Nintendo Power Issue 86 Page 18
07. www.planetvb.c...
08. Rare Scribes Letter Page August 10th 2001
09. www.planetvb.c...
10. iwataasks.ninte...
11. www.planetvb.c...
12. www.planetvb.c...
13. www.planetvb.c...
Segments were used from the following videos.
• MIDI Maze (1987) - Fir... - Midi Maze
• Maze War (1978) - Firs... - Maze War
• Donkey Kong Country 2 ... - DK2 Commercial
• E3 1996 Virtual Boy Booth - E3 ‘96
#Unreleased #Nintendo #VirtualBoy
Any collector who holds a prototype but refuses to dump it should be ashamed.
100%
They're essentially letting video games DIE.
It just proves that they don't collect for the passion, but for the money and that is just disgusting
I love the stories where people in the community spend exorbitant amounts of money for a long lost prototype...and then immediately release it to the public! God bless you, sir!
Red Alarm for the Virtual Boy is the greatest hidden gem of the 90's
Stupid CZcams's bell, it only notified me when the last part of this series of videos was released. *Sigh* Sorry for comming too late, Jenovi, I swear that it was not my fault.
I just love the Virtual Boy community, it's just nearly so active and united as the Atari Jaguar community. It's a shame that the collectors doesn't share the same spirit.
The game of the ones that you told about in this video that I like more it's Bound High! It's an excellent title for the system because it uses the 3D capabilities on a quite fun way. Thanks for making this video!
Virtual Boy was released 2 days before my 13th birthday. I was super into VR back then, although I had never experienced it outside some of the early arcade stuff (I remember one time at Adventure World they had a stand-up VR version of Rise of the Triad that I played which I thought was just freaking awesome). So the idea of anything remotely similar coming home at a reasonable price was mind-blowing to me. I was super happy to get it that year for my birthday.
At the time, the only thing that really disappointed me was the lack of a way to strap it to your face. Of course, the thing was too heavy to do that, but I sometimes would improvise by laying on the couch and sitting it on top of my face. I never had a problem with the graphics or the monochrome red, I found it perfectly suitable for the games I had played. To me, the 3D effect at the time was pretty amazing, far better than anything else I could experience at home. I had Mario Tennis, Galactic Pinball, and Red Alarm, all three of which I played to death. I'm also probably one of very few people who have ever rented a Virtual Boy game, in my case it was Teleroboxer. All four of those games I enjoyed quite a lot and I had strong hopes of there being a lot more cool games to play on Virtual Boy... until I started seeing it being sold in stores for $25. I was so disappointed that Nintendo had given up on the system so quickly.
I think it's actually a great system, with at least a few great games. It's unfortunate that it was rushed to market, then abandoned so quickly. It's definitely not for everyone, but I think with a price drop to $99 and better software support, it could have caught on with a larger number of people than it did.
Thank you for this post and for sharing your experience. I too think it's a conceptually great system with some massive flaws. I had eye strain issue caused by playing it make any kind of long play session a non option for me. I'm extremely happy that there is now a consolized mod on the market as the game library is quite good. The decision to not relaunch at the lower price point was the wrong way to go IMO. I think Nintendo would have found success with sales had they gave it a go.
@@Jenovi Yeah, I agree. I do think the variability in the experience was a significant detractor. I never had any eye problems with playing it, and would often turn off the Autopause feature (10 minutes was just too frequent and therefore annoying). I would typically spend over an hour every night playing it, and that's not counting the times during the day. But it was pretty clear even before launch day that some people experienced significant eye strain and/or discomfort, which was mentioned in various gaming magazines I used to read at the time. I think that automatically made people hesitant to buy it, and who wants to spend $170 on a gaming machine that you can't play because it physically pains you?
One thing I forgot to mention is the controller, which was absolutely sublime. I still feel it's one of the most ergonomic controller designs I've ever used, and probably the best aspect of the system, as it's incredibly easy to use even with your face inside the unit. That's the one thing I believe Nintendo really nailed with the Virtual Boy.
By the way, I forgot to mention it in my previous comment, but this was a great video. I have both love and hate for cancelled games, I love to hear about them and see them eventually released, but I hate when good games get cancelled! I really wish some of these games had been released!
man, glad to see you're still around. i hope you're doing alright. i haven't watched the video yet, but figured i would drop a comment for the algorithm.
Thanks amigo. I'll try having part 2 out this Tuesday. Live was busy before this pandemic hit.
You are a rare visitor to my Timeline Jenovi. Glad to see you back with another highly interesting topic. Especially for me because this thing was never released in Europe.
If you’ve never used one, it’s essentially a Red and Black 3DS, but your face is
attached to the hardware. Thanks you for checking this out, and for the comment. I’ll try putting out more regular content during this down time.
@@Jenovi Sounds like the perfect system for me who get's motion sick when the 3DS 3D is turned on xD To be fair, I'm getting motion sick even with Capcom's RE Engine. But I am curious enough to try it at least a single time. Really looking forward to your upcoming stuff. Stay healthy and beest wishes from Germany.
These unreleased videos are some of my favorites. I’m really enjoying these Virtual Boy entries into the series. Keep it up I can’t wait to see what’s next.
I think it’s just one more part for this series. The research is done, but I’m still writing it, so it depends on how long the script is as I’m trying to keep things under 15 minutes for my own sanity.
Here's a fact most people don't know, Gameboy color only sold 1.1 million units in it's first year, because not everyone was on board with upgrading when games stayed compatible between handhelds (that's why the black cartridges), they didn't even make GBC exclusives for the first 2.5 years.
I'm sure Nintendo was sweating on that situation as well but around the 2 year mark it really kicked off.
So honestly if they had waited it out Virtual Boy may have gained traction or maybe not, who knows for certain. I have always loved to play mine and especially more on recent years with the many new physical releases.
I'm sure they would have given it at least 2 years, but there was a major problem that I think played a HUGE role in it's early cancellation. I don't know where you live, but here in the US they covered the VB on the local news. What they said about the console was extremely damaging to it's reputation. IIRC, they claimed that it caused people headaches, dizziness, was bad for your eyes, and that it wasn't safe to drive right after playing it for awhile. No doubt that was going to do permanent damage to sales numbers in the US which is obviously a major market, and Nintendo was probably terrified of the potential lawsuits. It just wasn't worth the risk of sticking with it. A console redesign to address the issues (although I doubt all issues could be fixed) would have cost them God only knows how much money, so that would have been a very bad idea too, especially considering they'd be putting all that money into fixing a console that had already flopped like a fish. It would have been a far bigger gamble then sticking with the console as it was.
That said, it is a crying shame it turned out the way it did. Even though it was very flawed, the tech was very impressive for the time. I would have loved to have seen what could have been if the VB had been successful and had a nice 5 or 6 year life cycle.
Awesome man! I remember you telling me about this at PRGE! Stay healthy brother!
I was thinking about you and that sweet consolized VB system as I was editing this! Yeah, this one has been in the pipeline for a while. I imagine with this quarantine, I’ll be getting out more content while life is on hold.
It's a shame, the display technology used by the Virtual Boy was really advanced for the time. Remember in the 1990s there were no low persistence LCD panels. They all had terrible ghosting during motion. That makes for awful VR. The Virtual Boy displays may have been monochrome but being LED based they were extremely low persistence. A low persistence stereoscopic display with a reasonably large field of view for $180 in 1995 dollars is an amazing feat.
If they had just shelved the technology though and waited for the price of blue and green LEDs to come down, we could've had a full color, low persistence home VR system paired with either the N64 or the Gamecube as an optional peripheral for enthusiasts. Leaving the 32 bit RISC based onboard graphics hardware out would have brought down the price as well. Given that the N64 launched at $199, if the Virtual Boy could maintain the $180 price point with full color, and omitting onboard computing, you'd be looking at a full color, polygonal 3D home VR setup for $380 in 1996.
Adjusting for inflation, that's almost exactly the price of the Oculus Rift CV1 at launch, which did not come with the computer necessary to render the visuals.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. I wonder if a full color lower price point was an option by '96 considering the reduced price point of $99 targeted for that summer.
You always make such great content. So well written and always very interesting. Thanks man...you do so much for our community.
Amazing. Keep up the amazing work. The research needed for these videos is crazy, and the fact that you have high quality captures of all of this means you played all these games, so kudos to you.
Thanks Mr Mejia. Your check is in the mail sir.
I knew about Bound High, but not most of these! That 007 Racer-esque seque to Goldeneye looks interesting. Hope a prototype of that is found some day.
Crazy deal is a 007 racer released shortly after on the PSX. I wonder if it was worth a darn?
@@Jenovi I have it. It's not.
This is great. Keep them coming.
Awesome work!
Jenovi videos are the best, so much effort put in to each one.
Thank you Inignot, I'm happy to see you've stuck around while the output hasn't been as high.
Well researched, well spoken, well worth the watch! Thanks for uploading.
Thank you very much for the kind words, and for watching.
An unexpected but welcomed episode :)
Glad you enjoyed it. I imagine it’s about 1-2 more parts in total.
Chalbo was supposed to be a Virtual Boy game?! Whoa, I just got the Game Boy game
Another amazing documentary review of a great system. You clearly do your research and don't just spout shit opinions like some reviewers do. You deserve a ton of credit and subscribers!
Thank you Kyle, glad to hear you enjoyed this one.
Your videos are great. I love that you don't just mention the games and what they are about but also give information on the company that made them, the situation at the time and some other extras.
I also like that you switch between showing the game footage and yourself on camera. It gives the video a feel like "you are here, with us".
On a different subject, would it be possible for you to make a video about OG Xbox cancelled games? There were some interesting exclusive ones on that system that were cancelled.
On top of that, there were many Japanese exclusive games cancelled as well. This is quite interesting since everyone knows the Xbox was a failure in Japan but the ammount of cancelled games show that, at some point, Japanese companies were interested in the system.
I've been considering the OG Xbox or Gamecube for a while. You'll almost certainly see something on these in the future. Thanks for the comment.
Awesome video! Never heard of these. Fun and interesting as always.
Thanks!
I don’t usually comment, but I just wanted to let you know that I love your content. It’s always well researched and it’s easy to tell that you love the subjects.
Thanks John. Your comment mean a ton to me. I really appreciate the support and it's nice to know people really are enjoying the effort invested in these videos.
Lots of effort put in your videos. Keep it up!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed this.
Considering the Nintendo leaks that have happened over the course of these last several months, I wouldn’t doubt that Dragon Hopper would be in an internal Virtual Boy lotcheck repository of some sort.
We can only hope.
Would Nintendo REALLY want to hold on to any Virtual Boy prototypes?
That site is awesome for vb stuff. Coulda swore the song discussed during bound high was the chorus to a Rick Astley song. Look forward to the next video!
Hope to have it out Tuesday.
Very cool retrospective of this device. The only time I got to experience one was at a Blockbuster video and came away with some eye strain lol! 👊💥✌
That blockbuster deal with Nintendo was brilliant. Rent the Virtual Boy and the cost of rental goes toward the purchase price if you should decide to own one. They banked on people falling in love after trying it. Unfortunately the eye strain was real for many and 5-7 months was to little time. They should have gave it a second go in ‘96 imo.
Great video. I got a virtual boy book by Jeffery all about the VB games. I’m hoping to get a complete US set but I def want some Japanese games. That faceball game looks awesome.
Same here, I mean 22 games isn’t a massive challenge. Thanks for stopping by Russ.
You should turn up the heat in your house. You're always so bundled up.
That's the main issue, I don't have room in my home to do this, so I set up up a spot in my barn. I have a heater out there, but it's too loud to record with. So during the cold months I need a jacket out ther,e and the warm months? Well it's very hot. It's not the ideal place, but better than nothing.
@@Jenovi Oh, haha; carry on then.
Side note: you should totally do one episode completely auction-style.
I wish I knew if Nintendo thinks that WiiU was considered a failure or not. 😂😂 Anyway, I have a high respect towards Gunpei Yokoi, the creator of Game&Watch, GameBoy and Virtual Boy ( and WonderSwan).
If they stopped at the WiiU, then yes. However I would argue that the WiiU gave way to the Switch and in turn allowed for some very successful and profitable second dipping on prior released games. So it was a win due to the result of the long game. Also, it's hard not to love Yokoi and all the work he did. Everything he touched was awesome.
@@Jenovi By the way, excellent video as always. Cheers, mate!
Jenovi, just an all-around cool chill dude.
I'll say it right now: This console is better than the Atari 5200, & Tiger R-Zone.
If some guy has the prototype for Star Fox and isn’t dumping it because they think it’ll make their cartridge worth more should be ashamed because that game is absolutely HUGE and I think EVERYONE wants to play it.
That Anne thumbnail 😂
Nerdgasm! Thank you once again!
You’re very welcome.
I love that Proteus Zone boxart at 8:42, What's the original image from?
The virtual boy to me, is still a portable system. He just built different.
I saw a virtual boy set up in a blockbuster video. I played it for 5 minutes, got a headache and never touched it again.
How dare you use "CD-I" and "disaster" in the same sentence 😤
Great video, jenovi. I never really got into the virtual boy but it's cool learning about this stuff. However, we all know Faceball would've been best on the CD-I.
I really wonder why Phillips didn't try it. I mean, we got Faceball on Game Gear, Game Boy, and the PC Engine. Imagine the FULL POWER of the CD-i and Faceball combined? It would have been like Voltron!
Jokes aside, Faceball on the CD-i using the same engine as that online FPS would've been pretty rad!
I like the thumbnail, from what it come from?
Where does the picture for the thumbnail come from?
How are you going to play a Zelda style adventure game on a system that gives you a headache after 20 minutes of play?
I think private collectors who keep their games and don’t dump them suck. I mean they have the original if they dump it they still have the original. It’s not like they’re losing value of the cartridge and game itself.
Great video, but I don't understand how the thumbnail art relates to the video. Is it boxart or something to a virtual boy game?
This comes from an obscure Japanese Virtual Boy publication that was in print during the consoles lifetime. I thought it was interesting so included it there.
@@JenoviI'm curious about that. Do you have the page it was on online? I'd like to read what they were talking about.
The Sega Saturn was profitable? Do you have a source on that?
I did a video titled “Why Did Sega Fail?” Sources for everything discussed are included with the video.
@@Jenovi I'll check it out, thanks!