I. NINTENDO VIRTUAL BOY GAME PAKS Rev. 04/27/98 by Al Backiel and Keita Iida title version mfgr comments 3-D TETRIS USA Nintendo 3-Dimensional Tetris GALACTIC PINBALL JAPAN Nintendo Pinball collection GALACTIC PINBALL USA Nintendo Pinball collection GOLF USA Nintendo same as T&E Virtual Golf INSMOUSE'S MANSION JAPAN I'Max Doom-style game aka Insmouse (Insmouse No Yakata) aka....House/Hotel JACK BROS. JAPAN Atlus Platformer aka Devil Busters 3rd char. is Jack Ripper JACK BROS. USA Atlus Platformer aka Devil Busters 3rd char. is Jack Skelton MARIO CLASH JAPAN Nintendo Based on orig. Mario Bros. MARIO CLASH USA Nintendo Based on orig. Mario Bros. MARIO'S TENNIS JAPAN Nintendo aka Mario's Dream Tennis MARIO'S TENNIS USA Nintendo aka Mario's Dream Tennis NESTER'S FUNKY BOWLING JAPAN Nintendo same as Virtual Bowling PANIC BOMBER JAPAN Hudson Soft Bomberman puzzle game (Tobidase! Panibom) PANIC BOMBER USA Nintendo Bomberman puzzle game RED ALARM JAPAN T&E Soft Vector-like graphics RED ALARM USA Nintendo Vector-like graphics SD GUNDAM DIMENSION WAR JAPAN Bandai Space game aka SD Gundam SPACE INVADERS JAPAN Taito by original mfgr. of game VIRTUAL COLLECTION SPACE SQUASH JAPAN Coconuts Squash T&E VIRTUAL GOLF JAPAN T&E Soft same as Golf TELEROBOXER JAPAN Nintendo Robot boxing game TELEROBOXER USA Nintendo Robot boxing game V TETRIS JAPAN Bullet Proof Straight version of Tetris VERTICAL FORCE JAPAN Hudson Soft Space game w/power-ups(hard) VERTICAL FORCE USA Nintendo Space game w/power-ups(easy) VIRTUAL BOWLING JAPAN Athena same as NF Bowling VIRTUAL BOY WARIO LAND JAPAN Nintendo aka Wario Land VIRTUAL BOY WARIO LAND USA Nintendo aka Wario land VIRTUAL FISHING JAPAN Pack In Video Fishing game VIRTUAL LAB JAPAN J-Wing Puzzler VIRTUAL LEAGUE Different characters but BASEBALL USA Kemco same as VP Baseball '95 VIRTUAL PROFESSIONAL Different characters but BASEBALL '95 JAPAN Nintendo same as VL Baseball WATERWORLD USA Ocean Based on the movie totals: 33 labels released....as....21 different games ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- II. THE RUMOR MILL Rev. 04/27/98 GAMES THAT WERE IN DEVELOPMENT & MAY EXIST IN SOME SHAPE OR FORM by Al Backiel & Keita Iida title version mfgr comments BOUND HIGH JAPAN/ Japan System Puzzler. Like Bubble Bobble? USA Supply Was due Summer'96, Fall'96 ref:Nintendo Power #81-86 (screen shots shown) Demo at Shoshinkai & E3 DRAGON HOPPER JAPAN/ Nintendo Platformer. Like Kangaroo? USA aka Jump Dragon Was due Summer'96, Fall'96 ref:Nintendo Power #83-86 (screen shots shown) Demo shown at E3 G-ZERO JAPAN/ Nintendo Similar to F-Zero USA aka Zero Racers Was due Fall '96 ref: Nintendo Power #86 (screen shots shown) GOLDENEYE JAPAN/ Nintendo Based on a James Bond movie. USA ref:Nintendo store brochure from '95 #NESM128 (screen shot shown) MIGHTY MORPHIN JAPAN/ Nintendo Based on kid show. Dropped? POWER RANGERS USA Was due Fall'95, Winter'96 ref:Nintendo Power #78/79 POLYGO BLOCK JAPAN/ T&E Soft ???? USA Shown at Shoshinkai VIRTUAL MAHJONG JAPAN/ VAP aka MAH JONG-classic game USA Shown at Shoshinkai WARIO CRUISE JAPAN/ Nintendo May be VB WARIO LAND. Hard USA to tell, screen shot looks different. Ref: Nintendo store brochure #NESM128 Totals: 8 more games rumored to exist....all should exist as prototypes. Bound High and Dragon Hopper were close to release. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- III. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Rev. 04/27/98 answers by Al Backiel & Keita Iida Q. What exactly is Virtual Boy? A. Virtual Boy is a 3-dimensional, cartridge-based, stand-alone, immersive, video game system. It has a 32-bit RISC chip that uses (2) high-res LED displays, (2) oscillating mirrors and (2) focusing lenses which when picked up by both eyes simultaneously produces a 3-D effect. A parallax effect is achieved by moving the two images closer or farther apart. To put it simply, it's like magic, it's done with mirrors. Q. But, is it really Virtual Reality? A. No, not in the strictest sense. Virtual Reality is a total interactive experience. If you move your head left or right, you should see a continuous view of another direction. In fact your virtual world should stretch in any direction. You should be able to see your hands or feet on-screen if you look at them. Virtual Boy only provides an impersonal, dead ahead view. Q. What's with the red screen? A. Nintendo has never really explained their rationale behind this. The best educated guess is that a color monitor was too cost prohibitive. A so-called "monochrome" display was the answer. But, black and green was done before on the Game Boy. Been there, done that. Besides the display wasn't that crisp and clear and was prone to blurriness at high speed. Red and black has a lot sharper contrast. Actually there are 4 shades of red used. It's as close to color as you get while being essentually "black and white". Q. Why is it on a stand? A. I'm sure the original concept was for a head band to form a helmet apparatus. Then the so-called "portability" aspect killed that. Crazy kids are apt to walk in traffic with a helmet blocking their view. It's bad enough with a Walkman, you become oblivious to the outside world. It looks like those two rubber ornaments on the side of the goggles are the vestigial remains of where the straps would have been attached. Q. When was the Virtual Boy born? A. It was unveiled on Nov.15,1994 at the Shoshinkai Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan. This is Nintendo's own trade show to line up retailers, wholesalers and interested third parties. It was released in Japan several months later. It was released in the USA in August of 1995. Its original code designation was the VR-32. Q. What are the specs on the VB? A. Processor: 32-bit RISC CPU Speed: 20 MHZ Display: RTI dual mirror-scan, high-res LED displays Resolution: 384 x 224 pixels for each eye Software: 8 or 16 megabit Rom game paks Sound: Digital stereo sound Controller: Double-grip with two directional control buttons Power: Six AA batteries or AC adapter or rechargeable battery 2-Player: Playlink cable (connects 2 virtual boys) (not released) Measurements: 8.5"H x 10"W x 4.3"D (Head unit only) with Weight: 760 grams Orig.Price: $207 (Japan), $179 (US) Q. Who's created the VB? Whose idea was it? A. The technology behind the VB was developed at Reflection Technology INC. of Waltham, Mass. They own the patents on the LED display. There was an unofficial race to come up with a VR system for the home. There were several prior attempts. Most involved putting a small game screem monitor direcly in front of the viewer. Atari planned to release a VR helmet for the Jaguar, but it never made it past the prototype stage. The "father" of the Virtual Boy was Gumpei Yokoi, the chief engineer of one of Nintendo's R & D teams. Mr. Yokoi was the genius who came up with the Game Boy, one of Nintendo's biggest successes. He also worked with Shigeru Miyamoto on the Donkey Kond coin-op. Q. When did the VB die? A. It sort of died a quiet death. Blockbuster Video eventually sold off their rental units for $30 and their games for $10 each. Toys 'r' Us discounted new systems down to $25 and games to $10-15 in early 1996. The store stock lasted about another 6 months. Nintendo Power dropped listing upcoming titles in the Nov '95 issue. Q. Why did it die? A. It started off as an expensive system. A. It wasn't in color. A. Third party support was minimal. A. People were either mystified or turned off by the red screen. A. It was a one-player game system only. Even 2-player swapping wasn't feasible. A linking cable to hook up 2 VB's may or may not exist. A. The press hated it and predicted a quick demise. A. No audience was possible. The player could not share the experience. A. Any of the above or combinations of the above. Q. What was Nintendo's arrangement with Blockbuster Video? A. Nintendo needed some way to promote the VB. Since it was in 3-D, it had to be seen to be appreciated. The regular advertising outlets were not able to convey the experience. Nintendo was hoping that renting out the system and the games would help to sell the whole system. The deal was that for $9.99 you got the use of the VB and 2 games for 2 nights plus a $10 coupon towards the purchase of a VB unit. You also got a chance in the NBC sweepstakes promo. Q. How do the two adjustments work? A. The knob adjusts the Inter Pupil Distance (how far the eyes are set apart) . Turn until you can see a square in each corner. The sliding adjustment is for the focus. Turn until picture is perfectly clear. Q. What peripherals were available? A. There was the all-important AC adapter. It's the same one as for the SNES. A plastic carrying case with molded foam compartments was available from Blockbuster Video when they sold out their stock. A game link to link up 2 VB's was announced, but so far its existence is unknown. A stereo headset was available in Japan. Q. Can I screw up my eyesight by playing VB? It's like with anything else. If done in moderation, there shouldn't be a problem. Nintendo does not recommend it at all for children under the age of 7. They also do not recommend playing for than 30 min. at a clip without taking a break. Hey! if you stare directly at the sun you'll burn out your corneas. Q. What happened to Gumpei Yokoi as a result of the failure of VB? A. He left Nintendo or more likely was forced after after the VB did not sell as well as anticipated. He started his own development company. All this ended abruptly when he was killed in a car accident. It seems that he was with another companion in a car that rear-ended another vehicle. They got out of the car to inspect the damage when they were struck by a third vehicle. Q. How does it compare to previous 3-D game systems? A. It beats Vectrex in total games and quality. Vectrex used a color wheel which showed ghost images a lot of times. It beats TOMY 3-D. Tomy closely looked somewhat like a kids 3D pop-up book. Very litle background detail. Sega had what looked like a pair of hip-looking sun glasses which were connected via card port. A shutter mechanism in each lens was in sync with the on screen action. Similar to Vectrex. From what I've seen so far, it looked pretty good. I can't comment on Nintendo's Japanese 3-D system since they're rarer than hen's teeth. It defintely beats the NES 3-D games. Rad Racer was too dark with the 2 color glasses even when it was daylight. Orb 3-D was dizzying. 3-D World Runner came out the best, but wasn't too spectacular. Q. Are the US and Japanese versions of the same game alike? A. Most are alike except for the obvious language differences in text. The packaging is similar in most of the cases. Jack Bros. (Japan) has Jack Ripper as the third character. The manual is done in portrait format. Jack Bros. (US) has Jack Skelton as the third character. The manual is done in the usual landscape format. Virtual Force (Japan) is supposedly more difficult than the (US) version. Besides the name change the baseball games have different looking players. The box for T&E Golf (Japan) has a 3-D stereogram. One of those computer generated pictures where you have to let your eyes go slightly out of focus to see. No hidden picture, just layers of trees. Q. What do you think of the VB as an investment? A. It looks like a blue chip investment. It should achieve cult status if it hasn't already. It should become the next "VECTREX". A stand-alone system with a small diverse quality library that had a very short life span. Already some of the rarer Japan only games are selling for many times over their original cost.