More to come, but this is the first one I can contribute with:
– Hobby Consolas (the best-selling videogame magazine in Spain at the time) was surprised with the unexpected presentation of the “VR System” in their number 40, pages 20 and 21, from January 1995. The picture shows the early controller with the color buttons and their description is pretty accurate (I guess it is all based in the same press release). “Mario Bros VB”, “Punchout” and “Space Pinball” appear to be the first three games to be released.
If needed, I can translate further, but I guess this info was the same worldwide. These two are high quality scans.
Attachments:
Same goes for the direct competition, SuperJuegos. In their number 33 from the same month (January 1995) a small announcement was included in page 9. Information provided is very similar but shorter, skipping the game names and many details.
Here’s a curiosity: the game on top of the page, Chiquito de la calzada challenge, is an April Fools’ joke. The equivalent of April Fools in Spain takes place on the 28th of December so it was natural to have it published in Jan’s number. Chiquito de la Calzada (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiquito_de_la_Calzada) is a very particular and “folkloric” celebrity in Spain. Hard to explain, really, but particularly well-known in the crazy 90’s. All in all, many people believed that news and they had to clarify that all was a joke in February’s number.
Attachments:
To keep the flow going, I’ll post the two other references I’ve been able to find in Hobby Consolas so far.
– First is page 27 in number 41 (Feb 1995). In summary, the snippet at the bottom of the page talks about the Winter CES in Las Vegas, where the editor had the chance to test the VB. “Nintendo didn’t try to surprise with their games. This time they did so presenting a really revolutionary console: the Virtual Boy”. He really had difficulties explaining the concept; the VB is introduced as a “Game Boy but with faster graphics and in red and black […] all in 3D!”.
– Second is a deeper report in October 1995, number 49, p. 26-28, although in the last paragraph the editor warns the readers: “it is very possible that we won’t ever see this device in Spain”. The language used is interesting overall, but the most particular point is in the game list. If you look at the screenshots at the bottom of page 27, they don’t look at all like the games.
Galactic Pinball: the picture doesn’t look like a pinball table at all and the snippet suggests that the game is not played “as a pinball game”.
Mario Clash: the picture looks more like a concept than the real thing. It’s weird as the snippet reads that “first, [Mario] will appear in an adventure similar to Mario Bros. and later in a Tennis game full of surprises.”. Mario Clash was released in October, but Mario Tennis was a launch game a few months before.
Golf: it actually talks about Virtual League Baseball and an “untitled” golf game.
Vertical Force: ¿what’s that screenshot?
Jack Bros: the last one is almost a joke. Jack Bros is referenced with a ¿coliseum? touristic screenshot and is summarized as “an interactive adventures at the likes of Doom”. ¿What?
Wario images at page 28 are scary, too.
They all came from the tech demos for the Virtual Boy, I guess, but it’s kinda surprising that the editors took that as screenshots for the coming games – or, otherwise, it’s hard to believe that they actually tested the games.
More to come, please let me know how these could be added to the Magazine Scans section (to make it bigger),
m.
Let’s continue with Superjuegos, the second most important magazine at that time. These are quite simple, however.
– Number 34, February 1995: a short snippet that reads that the “Virtua [sic] Boy is the main weapon that Nintendo has to fight the Mega Drive 32X”, from the Winter CES 1995.
– Number 38, June 1995: again, a short snipped regarding the Virtual Boy in the E3, this time with the final console (check the buttons). Some games are called by their prototype names (Wario Cruise, Mario’s Dream Tennis) while others are final. Release date in the US is correctly stated and there is no mention of the Japanese release.
– In number 48, April 1996, a reader asks about the Virtual Boy. The editor compares it again to the Game Boy and then states “I can tell you that it didn’t get the expected success and sales are expected to rise with the future launches of Star Wing and Zelda.” A little optimistic, isn’t it? It’s probably made up.
Next to come, the third in order of relevance: Nintendo Acción, the official Nintendo Spanish Magazine.
I spotted to extra nice snippets in both the Superjuegos magazine for July 1996 (number 51, p.14-15) and Nintendo Acción (number 44 p.19).
– Nintendo Acción reads:
From the darkness to the light in three days Rumours and only rumours were condemning the Virtual Boy. In the E3, Nintendo demonstrated how the 3D machine still has years ahead of itself. And to celebrate it, they showed a couple new programs, Dragon Hopper and Bound High, that were loved by the people visiting the ministand VB, quite big by the way, in place for the occasion.
– Superjuegos reads:
The sadly failed Virtual Boy also had its share of space, with titles such as DRAGON HOPPER and BOUND HIGH.
It’s lovely to see the screenshots in page 15 🙂
