[HN Gopher] Virtual Boy Architecture: A Practical Analysis
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       Virtual Boy Architecture: A Practical Analysis
        
       Author : strangecasts
       Score  : 32 points
       Date   : 2021-02-12 19:31 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.copetti.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.copetti.org)
        
       | dvno42 wrote:
       | If you're curious what the "VUE Development Station" looked like.
       | http://brasilbign.blogspot.com/2017/03/saiba-o-que-os-consol...
        
       | corysama wrote:
       | Note that this is part of a series:
       | https://www.copetti.org/writings/consoles/
        
       | jandrese wrote:
       | It's not that hard to figure out why the Virtual Boy was a market
       | failure. It had so many headwinds at launch the biggest mystery
       | is why Nintendo thought it would be a success.
       | 
       | It's a portable that isn't portable. It combines the worst of
       | both worlds by being a battery eater while also being too big to
       | fit in your pocket and needing a table to play it on. It's clear
       | the original idea was to put a head strip on the thing so you
       | could wear it, but concern about kids falling into open manholes
       | killed the idea. They were also way ahead of their time on the
       | technology front, so you got the expensive and fragile moving
       | parts that ended up providing only a lame low resolution all red
       | display. The computing power required meant you had to put a high
       | power CPU as well, which meant short battery life. IMHO the box
       | should have come with the AC adapter instead of the battery pack
       | on the controller, not that it would have solved the other
       | issues, but at least it would indicate that it's really a home
       | console not a portable. Probably worst of all it was competing
       | against the Gameboy, a runaway success with an enormous game
       | library that didn't require mandatory nag screens warning about
       | eyestrain.
       | 
       | Ultimately it was a product about _25 years_ ahead of its time.
       | Even today people are struggling to get VR right.
        
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       (page generated 2021-02-12 23:01 UTC)