VIRTUAL BOY

Is innovation good or bad? The intent of innovation is to improve on a previous idea and make it more efficient or even better than that idea.

- Jose Alvarez

However, it depends on who you ask. Sometimes innovation can spark success. Sometimes it can utterly fail. It can also teach valuable lessons on what to do next time. Failure is often the motivation to try again — if, at first, you don’t succeed, right? In terms of video game consoles in the 1990s, there were plenty of commercial and critical failures. The Virtual Boy happened to be one of the few blemishes on Nintendo’s otherwise excellent track record.

The story of the Virtual Boy goes back to 1985. Nintendo was not yet a household name in North America. A company called Reflection Technology Inc. (RTI) produced a stereoscopic head-tracking prototype called the Private Eye. The company demonstrated the technology to major toy companies such as Mattel and Hasbro. Ironically, Sega turned this down because of its single-color display and the potential for motion sickness. While Sega took astronomical leaps into the unknown when it came to innovation, Nintendo also had its reputation for doing so. However, the products centered more around the user experience rather than trying to be too far ahead of their time.