The

Virtual Boy The Virtual Boy is a 32-bit tabletop portable video game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. Released in 1995, it was marketed as the first console capable of displaying stereoscopic "3D" graphics. The player uses the console like ...

is a

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in 32-bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform large calculation ...

tabletop Tabletop may refer to: Mountains * Table Top Mountain in Rangeville, Queensland, Australia * Table Top Mountain (New York) * Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa * Tepui, flat top mountains in South America Places * Tabletop, New South Wale ...

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...

developed and designed by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

, first released in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

on July 21,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

and later in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

on August 14 of the same year. The following lists contains all of the games released for the Virtual Boy. Originally unveiled at Nintendo's Shoshinkai Show in Japan on November 15,

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

and at Winter CES in North America on January 6, 1995,Boyer, Steven. " A Virtual Failure: Evaluating the Success of Nintendos Virtual Boy." Velvet Light Trap, No. 64 (2009): 23-33. ProQuest Research Library. Web. May 24, 2012. it was never intended to be released in its final form but Nintendo pushed the Virtual Boy in its unfinished state to market so that it could focus development resources on the then-upcoming

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and Au ...

and arrived later than other 32-bit systems such as the

3DO Interactive Multiplayer The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, also referred to as simply 3DO, is a home video game console developed by The 3DO Company. Conceived by entrepreneur and Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, the 3DO was not a console manufactured by the company ...

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

and

Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it was the successor to the succ ...

but at a lower price, retailing at

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

179.95 but in mid-

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

Blockbuster Blockbuster or Block Buster may refer to: *Blockbuster (entertainment) a term coined for an extremely successful movie, from which most other uses are derived. Corporations * Blockbuster (retailer), a defunct video and game rental chain ** Bl ...

was selling Virtual Boy units at $50 each. The system was overwhelmingly panned by critics and was deemed a

commercial failure Failure is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success. The criteria for failure depends on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. One ...

, selling only 770,000 units before being discontinued both in Japan and North America on and March 2, 1996 respectively, making it the second lowest-selling console by Nintendo after the

64DD The is a magnetic floppy disk drive peripheral for the Nintendo 64 game console developed by Nintendo. It was announced in 1995, prior to the Nintendo 64's 1996 launch, and after numerous delays was released in Japan on December 13, 1999. The ...

and its marketing campaign was commonly thought of as a failure. Several additional titles were announced to be released for the Virtual Boy at

E3 1996 E3 (short for Electronic Entertainment Expo or Electronic Entertainment Experience in 2021) is a trade event for the video game industry. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) organizes and presents E3, which many developers, publisher ...

, but ultimately they were never released due to the system’s discontinuation by Nintendo themselves, as were several localizations that were only released in one region. The system was never released in other markets.

Games

Listed here are all 22 officially released Virtual Boy games. Of these, eight titles were exclusive to Japan and three to North America. North America and other

NTSC The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...

territories saw 14 releases and Japan, Hong Kong and other

NTSC-J NTSC-J is the informal designation for the analogue television standard used in Japan. The system is based on the US NTSC (NTSC-M) standard with minor differences. While NTSC-M is an official CCIR and FCCNational Television System Committee (1 ...

territories had 19. A number of games were either announced or already in development before ultimately being cancelled including ''

Bound High! is an unreleased action- puzzle video game that was in development by Japan System Supply and planned to be published by Nintendo on a scheduled 1996 release date exclusively for the Virtual Boy. In the game, players take control of a transfo ...

'', ''

Dragon Hopper ''Dragon Hopper'' is an unreleased action-adventure video game that was in development by Intelligent Systems and planned to be published by Nintendo on a scheduled 1996 release date exclusively for the Virtual Boy. Along with Japan System Supply ...

'', and ''

Zero Racers ''Zero Racers'' is an unreleased racing video game that was in development and planned to be published by Nintendo on a scheduled 1996 release date exclusively for the Virtual Boy. Had it been released prior to cancellation, it would have become ...

''.

Notes

References

External links

List of Virtual Boy games
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Virtual Boy games Nintendo-related lists Video game lists by platform

Games

See also

Notes

References

External links