Nintendo Virtual Boy
Glance at a snap-shot of Nintendo’s Virtual Boy today if you’re college age or younger, and you might mistake it for a candy apple red Oculus Rift that’s sprouted a pair of tar-dipped Ostrich legs. Nintendo’s doomed stab at an immersive 3D experience in fact predated today’s wraparound virtual reality headsets by two decades when it emerged in August 1995. But it was “virtual” in name only, employing stereoscopic technology (not unlike a View-Master) to convey the illusion of depth. The device’s awkward ergonomics (you had to place it on a table and lean into it), primitive red-on-black graphics and muddled launch lineup earned it a critical drubbing. Sales were so dreadful that Nintendo quietly discontinued the system less than a year after its arrival.
