Celebrating Console Virtual Reality

There is little more exciting than technological advancements in gaming technology, and boy has this year been good to us in that regard. Last month we were greeted to not one, but two separate technologies that have fully realized some long-time dreams of gamers around the world. Console-powered Virtual Reality from the tech-teams over at Sony, and a console-handheld hybrid from those innovators over at Nintendo. You may be asking yourself, "What does this have to do with retro-gaming though? These are new technologies.". You'd be forgiven for thinking so. However, both of these technological concepts were present in another special gaming device that came out 21 years ago. So today at Emuparadise, we are turning back the clock all the way to the early 90's. A time when Nintendo was king, and after the massive success of the SNES in the 16-bit arena, it was time to move into 32-bit. Nintendo, being Nintendo after all, shot for the stars and made a bold move to try to bring handheld and console gaming together, and then put it all in virtual reality.

Today, we look at the Nintendo Virtual Boy.

If you are at all familiar with the Virtual Boy, you know full well of its commercial failure to take off as a viable gaming device in the handheld, console, or virtual reality realms. What you may not know though, is that despite it's early demise, there's an interesting history behind its development and its ambitious goals. Spearheaded by the man behind the Game & Watch handhelds, and the Game Boy; Gunpei Yokoi wanted to deliver a bold vision of a device that would change the landscape of gaming. What many people don't know, is that the product we received was considered unfinished by Mr. Yokoi. After a round of focus groups, he felt that 2 aspects of the device needed to be addressed. Namely the eye-strain that some were experiencing, and the distinct lack of color. However… Nintendo had their 64-bit console just around the corner, and was increasingly losing faith in the 32-bit era. They denied the team more funding, and rushed the product to market. A decision that has stamped the 32-bit era of Nintendo's history with a very distinct, red & black stain. All of this history aside, the Virtual Boy was home to some really great games. All of which are now playable through this wonderful world of emulation. Many emulators even offer a selection of 3D based effects to help re-create the visual effects of the original headset; this includes things like the red/blue 3D glasses we all know and love, as well as more modern stereoscopic offerings in certain programs. If you're looking for some gems to play from this special device of the 90's Emuparadise has got you covered! Read on to find out more about the Virtual World of an era-gone-by.

Virtual Boy Wario Land

Despite its exclusion of a number in its title "Virtual Boy - Wario Land" was actually the 2nd entry in this long-running series. This particular entry played with the Virtual Boy's 3D effects by having you jump back and forth between the background and foreground, as well as various objects that would scale to give you that 'in-your-face' effect. With a whole myriad of powerups to collect and combine, treasures to collect, and enemies to throw around, there's no wonder this is considered a must-play for anyone interested in the system or the Wario Land series in general.

Red Alarm

One of the greatest showcases of "Virtual Reality" on the Virtual Boy, and one of the system's few third-party titles, was this gem from T&E Soft. "Red Alarm" was one of the only titles to use 3D polygons for its graphics, albeit in wireframe mode due to hardware limitations. None-the-less, this game had you piloting a ship through cramped corridors and arenas, slightly reminiscent of the descent series. It is highly recommended to play this with one of the various 3D modes available on modern emulators however, as the wireframe mode doesn't translate well to 2D. Once you get past that caveat though, you are treated to one of the best examples of VR that we could muster up in the 90's.

Mario's Tennis

Not to be confused with the similarly named "Mario Tennis" on the N64, and its Game Boy Color counterpart, this entry in the series actually came out first; preceding the launch of those titles by 5 years. As a pack-in game for the system, this was easily the most played title in the Virtual Boy catalogue. One of the great features of this game was the ability to link 2 Virtual Boy sets together so that you could play head-to-head Virtual Tennis with your friends; somewhat of a homage to Pong and the 2-player "Video Tennis" crave it started.

Mario Clash

Shigeru Miyamoto whipped up this game initially as a straight Virtual remake of the original Mario Bros. it became somewhat of a spiritual successor instead by adding the ability to throw shells and navigate between the foreground and background. One of the most interesting facts related to this game is Shigeru Miyamoto's desire to develop a number of games for the system; rumor has it many of these games were programmed to a certain degree, but were never finished or released. However, Nintendo's lack of faith in the hardware continually pushed Miyamoto to focus his attention on the upcoming Ultra 64 (Later known as the N64) hardware. It makes one wonder, what other wonders the master of Nintendo had in store for us in this Virtual space.

While the Virtual Boy didn't manage to capitalize on the popularity of either its VR or Handheld/Console hybrid concepts, it has certainly made its mark on gaming history. Indeed, for 20 years, it stood as the only official attempt of any console manufacturer to enter the realm of virtual reality. It is a testament to the ambition of Nintendo's long-standing vision; to bring us new ways to play.

So if the modern real world has got you down, and you're yearning for the simpler days of yester-year, come check out the virtual world of the 90's over at Emuparadise.