DP ServBot
06-13-2015, 03:00 AM
http://forum.digitpress.com//images.eurogamer.net/2013/articles/1/7/6/0/7/6/0/rich-stanton-on-virtual-insanity-1434105451398.jpg/EG11/resize/300x-1/format/jpg/1760760.jpgOne of my heroes is Gunpei Yokoi. Nintendo's master engineer in the early years, Yokoi transitioned from designing physical contraptions like the Ultra Hand to the calculator-inspired Game & Watch and then the Parnassus of the Game Boy. Yokoi was a genius and yet, at the end of his time at Nintendo, there is one haunting image.
At the Shoshinkai Game Show in 1995 Nintendo is showing off the N64, and the stunning Super Mario 64 in playable form, for the first time. Company president Hiroshi Yamauchi knows that Sony's Playstation is the new threat, and focuses the company's presentation on the new machine. In a room off the main corridors Gunpei Yokoi - immaculately presented as always in suit and tie - personally demonstrated the recently-released Virtual Boy, his 'virtual reality gaming headset,' to a bare trickle of people.
No-one was interested because the Virtual Boy was fated to fail, rushed to launch so Nintendo could focus on the N64 and quickly abandoned when initial sales were low. The investment was nevertheless significant, and though Yokoi would finish up by designing the Game Boy Pocket he soon left Nintendo, the company he had helped build.
Read more… (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-06-13-rich-stanton-on-virtual-insanity)
At the Shoshinkai Game Show in 1995 Nintendo is showing off the N64, and the stunning Super Mario 64 in playable form, for the first time. Company president Hiroshi Yamauchi knows that Sony's Playstation is the new threat, and focuses the company's presentation on the new machine. In a room off the main corridors Gunpei Yokoi - immaculately presented as always in suit and tie - personally demonstrated the recently-released Virtual Boy, his 'virtual reality gaming headset,' to a bare trickle of people.
No-one was interested because the Virtual Boy was fated to fail, rushed to launch so Nintendo could focus on the N64 and quickly abandoned when initial sales were low. The investment was nevertheless significant, and though Yokoi would finish up by designing the Game Boy Pocket he soon left Nintendo, the company he had helped build.
Read more… (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-06-13-rich-stanton-on-virtual-insanity)