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Comment by benihana | Hacker News Reader

>Did it cause headaches?

It did for me. I was 12 when it came out, and the local Blockbuster Video had one and they let me play it from time to time that summer (I rented games from there every weekend during school so they kind of knew me). I seem to remember getting a headache and feeling queasy.

But what I remember most, and what articles about the Virtual Boy never seem to mention is that the games were dull and boring. The 3D effect was interesting, but I was a 12 year old kid used to brightly coloured characters running around fluidly and responsively in a moving world. Playing the Virtual Boy was dismal - it was all high contrast black and dark red. And making Mario Tennis feel more 3D doesn't change the boring gameplay of Mario Tennis.

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> what articles about the Virtual Boy never seem to mention is that the games were dull and boring.

This article does mention that though. There's quite a few paragraphs dedicated to discussing how Virtual Boy games were rushed; how Nintendo's IP wasn't fully utilised; and how this console was designed in contrast to the evolving arms race of the colourful high resolution graphics of that era.

If you can stomach his style, the Angry Video Game Nerd walked through the entire library in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyVAp0tOk5A

I remember a time when I enjoyed AVGN and his ilk, but man, I find it harder and harder to stomach the obnoxiously over-the-top outpouring of anger over such inconsequential things (e.g. the Pixels rant). It's particularly frustrating seeing this sort of thing in contrast to the story of the struggles the Virtual Boy developers went through.

I had a similar experience. I was really excited, told I could have one, but at my parents' advice, we rented one from Blockbuster with its full host of games before we bought. I had it for 2 or 3 days, invited a friend over to play, and then returned it with little fanfare, and the clear understanding that I wasn't interested.

The games were enjoyable, but the ergonomics were the tough part. I never quite could figure out a way to play comfortably with the furniture and tables and chairs available, so there were head and neck aches associated.

VirtualBoy stands out for me as the first time an expensive toy was so disappointing that it wasn't even worth spending my parents' money.

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