Virtual Boy: the rise and quick fall of Nintendo's enigmatic red console

There is a new VirtualBoy emulator that runs on the Nintendo 3DS so that you can play these games again in 3D. And yes, you can adjust it to play in a different color than red. Some of the games, especially Wario deserve another look from retro game fans. https://github.com/skyfloogle/red-viper

Part of my childhood was walking to the local Target and on the counter they had a Virtual Boy with Red Alarm that you could play.

I think every kid in the neighborhood / walking distance of that shop spent hours there playing that game. It was one of those systems that you could really enjoy, but not enough to buy one and take it home.

I bought one of these from Toys R Us and have such fond memories of Wario Land, Telroboxer, and even Mario Tennis. For as much flack as this system received, I thought it was just coolest thing ever but finding games felt next to impossible. Every now and then I'll still boot it up and play a few rounds.

I started working at Toys R Us in October 1997 and stayed until December 2024.

When I started, we still had several "New-Style NES", Game Gears and eventually Virtual Boys. That no one wanted to buy. For years.

The deep regret I feel at not stashing them away when I had the chance still stings at times.

Playing the Wario game on the Virtual Boy is a very nostalgic memory for me. It was short lived though, my parents got rid of the device because it was giving me headaches. What a blast from the past!

I imported one to the UK in 1998/1999. Not a very practical system but Nintendo likes to try new things.

I hadn't heard of Virtual Boy until I stumbled on the virtual Virtual Boy game inside the game Jazzpunk.