http://www.pixnlovepublishing.com/Gunpei-Yokoi.html

This book is said to be a translation of the biography Yokoi has that was previously only released in Japan (this book was also translated into French recently, by the same publishers of this English version)

I wonder what Virtual Boy-related info is contained inside of this book…

I really can’t wait to read this! 😀 :thumpup:

Pre-ordered! I’ve waited ages for these books to be available in english, it was tempting to order them in French before.

I find it interesting that the author of the brief description of the book on the webpage seems to intentionally go out of the way to NOT mention the Virtual Boy at all in the description, though it necessarily has to be in the book since it says that the book includes info on every one of his inventions. It’s almost like the author didn’t want to mention the Virtual Boy, in case that would detract people from buying the book.

I would also be very curious to see what and how much info is included on the Virtual Boy.

Gunpei Yokoi was vilified at Nintendo after the Virtual Boy nearly crippled the company. Despite the fact that it was not rushed through R&D by him, he was made the scapegoat of course.

I imagine they’re paying respect to his memory in their own way, by not spending time on his ‘failure’, even though it was not his fault that it failed. If they’d have waited one more year, the VB could’ve/would’ve/should’ve been full colour because the red and blue LEDs came on the market at an affordable price.

L___E___T wrote:
…If they’d have waited one more year, the VB could’ve/would’ve/should’ve been full colour because the red and blue LEDs came on the market at an affordable price.

Actually, even as-of this moment, a full-color VB display would be vastly cost-prohibitive compared to LCDs, OLEDs, etc. (which is no doubt the main, if not only, reason Nintendo went with the Reflection Tech. displays in the first place).

Yes, blue and green LEDs are plentiful and (relatively) cheap nowadays, but they don’t come pre-packaged in dense linear arrays containing built-in communication circuitry like the VB’s red ones do (they were/are used for LED printers; like laser printers but cheaper). Such full-color arrays would have to be custom made, making them economically infeasible.

However, if they would have released Bound High, Dragon Hopper, and maybe a real Mario game, it might have been able to grab more attention and sell enough units to become mainstream. I guess we’ll never know…