Ok, as promised here is Part 2 of my trip to the Nintendo Museum the last week of December 2024 in Kyoto Japan! The below description is from the No-Photography section of the Museum. This section has employees everywhere, holding signs that say no cameras, and they have security cameras everywhere… Hopefully one day this rule is removed, and photos of the sections can be taken and shared. Anyway, its long, but here it is:

After waiting in queue and watching the video explaining how the museum works, and that there is a zero tolerance for cameras of any kind, you are allowed to use the escalator to the 2nd floor of the museum. There are silhouettes of the Nintendo systems over the years. The Virtual Boy Silhouette is to the right of the escalator entrance. 

As you enter the 2nd floor of the museum, there is an employee posted at the top of the escalator holding another “no photos” sign. Above her is a cube LCD displaying the start up screen for the Nintendo systems on loop on all sides. I sat and watched this screen, but there was no Virtual Boy start up “warning screen” as I would have hoped. 
The first thing you see in the Virtual Boy section is the giant Virtual Boy controller hanging from the ceiling. This can be seen in the background of the Nintendo Museum trailer online, 1:09 (https://www.youtube.com/live/JApUMBscKOc?si=4K3qRFCkrjIIxtGI). It is a faithful giant recreation of the Virtual Boy controller, with the giant OEM battery pack on the back. 

The next part of the Virtual Boy section is a 20-30 foot wall titled “立体視 STEREOSCOPIC 3D”. This wall has a Virtual Boy behind glass, S/N V10141141, surrounded by five (5) Virtual Boy visors mounted at various heights for viewing games on the Virtual Boy. The “games” shown were 2D on a very pixelated screen, not stereoscopic like the Virtual Boy. I guess these 2D screens are Nintendo switches, as there was an interview with Miyamoto (https://jp.ign.com/nintendo/76625/interview/) where he said so, but I could not tell myself. It was quite disappointing that the area literally titled “Stereoscopic 3D” had nothing stereoscopic to display. Anyway, the video (same video on all five (5)) was about 30-45 seconds of footage of gameplay from Mario Clash, Teleroboxer, Warioland, Mario Tennis, Galactic and Pinball in a loop.

There are three glass displays with Virtual Boy goodies inside. To the left of the “立体視 STEREOSCOPIC 3D” wall is the two main glass displays. Above these glass displays the wall says “1995 Virtual Boy”, and has a sales volume pie chart on the wall showing that the VB had 20% sales in Japan and 80% sales in The Americas. 

The first, on the left, is a column of the NA and JPN CIB releases next to each other. Top to bottom was Galactic Pinball, Teleroboxer, Mario Tenis (NA was loose, no Blockbuster Display only Box), Mario Clash, and Warioland. Under these were the JPN hardware box sets, the power tap, headphones, and replacement visor. 

The second glass cabinet, has a small monitor in the center playing the Virtual Boy commercials from JPN and NA on loop. Surrounding this display is every other game CIB (not in the first cabinet). Some of the  games were displayed like the first cabinet, Japanese next to NA, but others did not make any sense. For example, JPN Panic Bomber is next to Virtual Bowling, Space Invaders is next to NA Baseball. It was an odd choice where to put the games. This display also had the JPN Virtual Boy Flyer, NA Virtual Boy Manual, and the JPN Mario Clash flyer. On the base of the display it also had Nintendo Power Vol 77,  Virtual Boy Tsūshin, Weekly Famicom Tsūshin 346, and another Japanese magazine I did not recognize and could not translate.

The last glass case, in the middle of the walkway has a JPN and NA retail VB console box, with a VB set up, SN V10175459, and another VB headset and controller, taken apart to show the internal components. 

Other VB items throughout the museum were:

– In the prototype section there is a VB headset and controller. Photos of these were leaked online and posted to PVB already (https://www.virtual-boy.com/forums/t/nintendo-museum-virtual-boy-hardware-prototypes/#post-1056980).

-In the Mario section, there is JPN Mario Tennis CIB, JPN Mario Clash CIB, and the JPN Mario Tennis playing cards. 

-In the Manuals and Instructions section, there are JPN and NA console manuals.

-In the controller section, there is a VB controller taken apart to show the internals, and cord length. 
In the exit hallway section behind glass, there is a Virtual Boy set up, SN V10147717

Anyway, that is all I captured in my notebook :😊 I hope this is enjoyable for those that cannot go to the museum, and hopefully we one day get photos of all the goodies I described 😊

Thank you very much for this exhaustive description 🙂
Looks like your collection of VB stuff is way more completed than Nintendo´s 😉

Not even Nintendo can afford NA Jack Bros 🙁

Great write up! Super jealous, I’d really like to go see that museum. And to pick up some Virtual Boy stuff like two coffee mugs…!