In 1995, Nintendo tried to cash in on the virtual reality craze... sort of. That year, the company released the Virtual Boy console, which didn't technically count as virtual reality. It offered gamers a 3D experience they couldn't get on TV screens or handheld devices. Unfortunately, the Virtual Boy didn't click with customers, and it was discontinued less than a year after its debut. With around 770,000 units sold, it remains Nintendo's worst-selling console of all time.
We got our hands on a vintage Virtual Boy at the retro video games store VideoGamesNewYork in Manhattan's East Village to get a better idea of why the system stumbled out of the gate, existing as a bizarre blemish on Nintendo's otherwise impressive record. To learn pretty much everything there is to know about the history of the Virtual Boy, we highly recommend visiting the Planet Virtual Boy website, where you'll find an exhaustive, comprehensive library of almost everything ever written or researched about the Virtual Boy.