“Nintendo News” is a news letter from Nintendo that was given away at trade shows like E3 and CES ’95. Pictured below are two issues of this news letter, each one has four pages that contain some pretty significant information about the Virtual Boy’s promotional history…

Ever wonder where the Virtual Boy key chain and pens come from? Well, Nintendo News will tell you.

These news letters have alot of other stuff going on with them, but I’ll just let them speak for themselves.

Enjoy the read.

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Nice, that’s some pretty rare (and even first hand) information! Really hard to find otherwise.

Found one more issue mentioning Virtual Boy: http://www.ebay.com/itm/322237325634

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Wow, great find on some more rare information! I like how they suggest the Super Game Boy as a stocking stuffer haha, wasn’t its box like four times the size of normal SNES games?

I can’t help but think that a lot of those VB pens are just sitting in storage, never used, waiting to be found. Has anyone here found one in the wild?

HP Lovethrash wrote:
Has anyone here found one in the wild?

I have 2 red ones, and the last one to sell on ebay was just a couple of weeks ago.

They are quite scarce though.

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KR155E wrote:
Found one more issue mentioning Virtual Boy: http://www.ebay.com/itm/322237325634

Thanks for the heads up but that one is gonna have to wait for my next pay. Hopefully it’s still there.

But check this out…

I’m starting to think that these newsletters were Not something that was given out at trade shows. Instead, I think they were only given to store managers that had subscriptions to Nintendo Power magazine. And here’s why…

Look at the picture provided below and you will notice that the vol 2 issue 11 newsletter looks like a page that was ripped right out of Nintendo Power #75.

Now notice the newsletter says “USE MAGIC GLASSES TO EXPERIENCE OUR FIRST 3-D NEWSLETTER”. Well, we all know that NP#75 came with “MAGIC” glasses, and they work perfectly with the newsletter since it has the same color scheme as the NP#75 magazine.

Check out the back of the newsletter, it’s filled with information that would only mean something to a store manager.

And now look at the cover of newsletter vol 2 issue 9 and compare it to the cover of NP#77, notice anything?! The newsletter matches the NP magazine.

And then they punched 3 holes through the newsletters so they could be placed in a binder since they weren’t attached to the magazine.

What do you think?

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Yeah, the information on the back of the 3 issues of “Nintendo News” shown in this thread definitely reveals that it was intended to be for retail store owners and that it was also connected to Nintendo Power magazine, since on the back of each issue of Nintendo News, it reveals the main contents found in the corresponding issue of Nintendo Power. My guess is that whenever Nintendo Power magazine was shipped in bulk to a retail video game store that would place the Nintendo Power issues out for sale to customers, a copy or two of “Nintendo News” was included in the shipment along with the batch of Nintendo Power magazines shipped, and it was intended to be read by the management team of the retail store but not to be put out for sale to customers.

Wow, that is rare…

Very nice scans and discovery, anybody know what the two N64 games called “Creator” and Buggie-Boogie” are?

Here’s an article on “Creator”:
https://www.unseen64.net/tag/nintendo-ead/page/3/

Here’s one on “Buggie-Boogie,” also spelled “Buggy Boogie”:

Buggy Boogie [N64 – Proto / Cancelled]

I can’t help but think, that there must exist some sort of Nintendo/Pepsi advertising that mentions the Virtual Boy, since it’s mentioned in these newsletters that Pepsi joined Nintendo to bring holiday cheer to millions of video game players with a $10 off Virtual Boy coupon…

So there must be some ol’ Pepsi packaging like cans/bottles or even store promo ads like in the pictures below, promoting the Virtual Boy.

Does anyone here remember such Pepsi advertising from back in the day?

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Oh, and speaking of the Virtual Boy mall tour (Nintendo news vol.2 issue 9 page 2), here’s a Virtual Boy mall tour pamphlet…

There is one of these already pictured on this site, but this one is in its most purest form, meaning that it never had a “schedule of events” or a “mall stamp” ever placed on the last page.

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vuefinder83 wrote:
Oh, and speaking of the Virtual Boy mall tour (Nintendo news vol.2 issue 9 page 2), here’s a Virtual Boy mall tour pamphlet…

There is one of these already pictured on this site, but this one is in its most purest form, meaning that it never had a “schedule of events” or a “mall stamp” ever placed on the last page.

Your pamphlet doesn’t just seem to be of a “purest” form but rather of a different form. If you compare yours to mine, you’ll notice that the “3-D” on the front of my pamphlet is white, while yours is red, and the back of your pamphlet has a “MALL STAMP HERE” note, while mine evidently never had one. It appears that these are two different versions of the pamphlet made at two different times of printing.

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Benjamin Stevens wrote:

Your pamphlet doesn’t just seem to be of a “purest” form but rather of a different form. If you compare yours to mine, you’ll notice that the “3-D” on the front of my pamphlet is white, while yours is red, and the back of your pamphlet has a “MALL STAMP HERE” note, while mine evidently never had one. It appears that these are two different versions of the pamphlet made at two different times of printing.

Wow, I didn’t notice that. Nice find there!

Actually, looking at them now, I can notice that the red color on the background of your pamphlet fades away in a lined pattern as it nears the bottom, where as mine seems to just gradually fade away.

But what I think is really cool and funny at the same time is this…

Take a good close look at the picture of the Virtual Boy on the cover of your pamphlet, notice the positioning of the unit and the way it’s sort of leaning…

Now have a good look at the picture of the Virtual Boy on my pamphlet, and you’ll Notice that under the legs of the stand are the display props that were used to give the ‘lean’ to the Virtual Boy on the cover of your pamphlet.

Hmm. I’m starting to think there’s a possibility for my pamphlet being a pre-production maybe?

That looks like the case, there’s definitely blocks in the first one.

Ben.

What do you get for measurements on your pamphlet when it’s closed?

I get a little over 3 and a half inches across, and 8 inches high.

Also, does your pamphlet feel smooth like a magazine page?

Mine almost feels like it was printed on construction paper.

My pamphlet is stored at my apartment, and I don’t think I’ll be returning there for a few days, so I will have to make myself a reminder to check it out and measure it.

I do want to say that I think the lined pattern of the red as it nears the bottom is some sort of distortion created by my scanner. I’m pretty sure that to the naked eye, it appears to gradually fade away the same as yours, but this is something else that I will verify when I check it again.

Benjamin Stevens wrote:
My pamphlet is stored at my apartment, and I don’t think I’ll be returning there for a few days, so I will have to make myself a reminder to check it out and measure it.

I do want to say that I think the lined pattern of the red as it nears the bottom is some sort of distortion created by my scanner. I’m pretty sure that to the naked eye, it appears to gradually fade away the same as yours, but this is something else that I will verify when I check it again.

Thanks man, that would be much appreciated.

My pamphlet is 8 and 7.5/16 inches high, and since it isn’t folded perfectly into thirds, I measured it across while fully opened and got 10 and 15/16 inches wide, so divide that by 3 to get what it should be across when closed.

The paper is definitely of high quality, like a pull-out poster you’d get in a magazine, with a glossy finish.

I verified that the lined pattern of red as it nears the bottom was, in fact, the result of distortion created by my scanner, so my pamphlet, to the naked eye, appears to fade away gradually the same as yours.

Benjamin Stevens wrote:
8 and 7.5/16

8 15/32

Sorry, just clarifying.

Benjamin Stevens wrote:
My pamphlet is 8 and 7.5/16 inches high, and since it isn’t folded perfectly into thirds, I measured it across while fully opened and got 10 and 15/16 inches wide, so divide that by 3 to get what it should be across when closed.

I just measured the height of my pamphlet again and it’s actually 8 and a half inches high, not 8 inches as I originally stated. I too, get 10 and 15/16 inches wide when the pamphlet is fully opened.

The paper is definitely of high quality, like a pull-out poster you’d get in a magazine, with a glossy finish.

No glossy finish here, your pamphlet is definitely a polisheded-up/final version of mine.

I verified that the lined pattern of red as it nears the bottom was, in fact, the result of distortion created by my scanner, so my pamphlet, to the naked eye, appears to fade away gradually the same as yours.

That’s weird, the lines look more like a design than they do distortion. They even appear on the scans pictured here…

http://www.planetvb.com/modules/hardware/?type=vb&sec=images&show=ad&aid=16&page=1

Pretty strange.

Thanks for the information, it’s cool to compare these kinds of things.

vuefinder83 wrote:

That’s weird, the lines look more like a design than they do distortion. They even appear on the scans pictured here…

http://www.planetvb.com/modules/hardware/?type=vb&sec=images&show=ad&aid=16&page=1

Pretty strange.

Yeah, I don’t know why two different scanners with two different but very similar pamphlets would produce the same look. Perhaps certain resolution settings create the lined pattern illusion, while other resolution settings do not. I think mine was on the 200 ppi setting.