Virtual Boy VR emulator takes the pain out of playing those old games

In early 1995, I remember reading a letter in a video game magazine that talked about how much momentum Nintendo had with the upcoming Ultra 64 console and the futuristic Virtual Boy. When it launched, the Nintendo 64 (its final name) did fine — although it didn’t beat the new PlayStation system from Sony. The Virtual Boy, however, was an unmitigated disaster.

The Virtual Boy was Nintendo’s 32-bit offshoot of the Game Boy line that you played by sticking your face into a stereoscopic display. The device displayed 3D images with an effective sense of depth. But it failed because it was ugly, uncomfortable, and could only produce various shades of the color red. Nintendo even built a timer into every game that would pause the action ever 15 minutes, because otherwise you could end up with a headache or a crooked neck. The gadget was a nightmare that deserved its discontinuation less than a year after its release.