I actually think that the author of the article handled the subject rather well. He basically had to approach the subject from the perspective of: how did the large part of the population receive each system, and he was, indeed, accurate with how such population received it.

It actually looks like the author has a heart for both the Lynx and the Virtual Boy. For the Lynx, the author wrote:

“The Lynx makes its way onto this list not because of any of its own inherent shortcomings, but simply because it was never popular” and “there really wasn’t much wrong with the Lynx, but it ended up as a footnote anyway.” It seems that he has played the games and likes them, so he probably has his own nice collection. And what was written is, indeed, true: what was the one title released for the Lynx that really topped the sales charts like Tetris? I don’t believe there ever was one.

I also like the comment about the Virtual Boy:

“the VB has since become something of a collector’s item, much to the annoyance of those of us who didn’t grab a truckload of the things when they were marked down to fifteen bucks”

It looks like the author is trying to add to his own Virtual Boy collection and is discouraged at some of the prices for some of the games… a problem that we all share. 🙂

If you still want Super Off Road, snag it quick!

http://cgi.ebay.com/SUPER-OFF-ROAD-ATARI-LYNX-GAME-BRAND-NEW-V-RARE-/140530305195?pt=UK_PC_Video_Games_Video_Games_JS&hash=item20b84248ab

Mine is already on it’s way in the mail. 🙂

I also really like the Atari Lynx, by the way. Despite the fact that there are a little more than 120 games for it, collecting all of them is actually probably easier than collecting all the ones for the Virtual Boy. It’s certainly easier on the wallet!

I don’t mind the fact that the majority of mankind could care less about the Virtual Boy. In fact, I rather like it, since appreciating the Virtual Boy makes me feel like part of an elite.

colesonwilson wrote:
Correct pronunciation is :

Goon pay yo ko ee

I found a website that corroborates colesonwilson’s pronunciation of Gunpei Yokoi:

http://www.metroid-database.com/faq_metroid.php

There, it reads:

“Why is Gunpei Yokoi’s (pronounced: “GOON-pay YO-ko-ee”) name sometimes spelled “Gunpei” and other times spelled “Gumpei?” Which is correct?”

It’s a shame that the attempt to rhyme with his name seems to have been removed from the poem solely because of the comment of one who is uninformed. I, personally, found the lines now removed to be rather historically accurate and well written. In addition, the properly rhymed lines should cause those who are uninformed in the matter to look into it and learn something from it, but unfortunately, that’s not always the case.

Oh well, I’ll be sure to keep the original lines in my copy of the poem.

Ah yes… that’s the one that was originally available for $1,500.00. Looks like the seller finally decided to drop the price. I have a feeling that this one will sell now.

KR155E wrote:
Talking about overpriced, here’s the obligatory $500 Jack Bros:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nintendo-Virtual-Boy-Jack-Bros-CIB-Complete-Rare-MINT-/300585166725?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item45fc45a785

I would actually expect a $500 price tag on a mint, factory sealed, U.S. version of Jack Bros., since it would be all the more rare.

The problem is, this seller is trying to sell his copy at the factory sealed price, without it actually being factory sealed. I’d be surprised if even a very serious collector purchases this copy at this price.

Well, I do, indeed, hope that you can fulfill your dream and collect every Virtual Boy game ever made. I know the feeling, as I, too, know how incredibly awesome the Virtual Boy is and how there is just that “feeling” inside that tells you “only actual, original, manufacturers’ copies of games count.” It’ll be pretty tough, though, with the top 3 rarest ones.

Right now, I’m on the fence as to whether or not I want to get Virtual Lab. It’s the only Virtual Boy game that I’m missing (since I don’t plan to collect the Japanese versions of games, for which English versions are available). Despite the fact that Planet Virtual Boy has it as the 3rd rarest game for the Virtual Boy, I have only ever seen one copy of it for sale on Ebay since I started tracking the Virtual Boy almost 4 months ago. In that same period of time, I’ve seen, I think, 5 copies of Virtual Bowling and 3 copies of SD Gundam Dimension War on some Ebay site around the world, and I was able to snag one of each (though I had to dig deeper into my pockets than I ever thought I would for a video game!), but getting Virtual Lab seems near impossible.

The main dilemma that I’m facing is that thanks to the FlashBoy Plus and Richard’s awesome reproduction cart, I’ve already played Virtual Lab and know how good of a game it is. Thus, I know that it is not a very good game at all. In fact, I LOVE Waterworld compared to Virtual Lab, but then again, I think I’m one of the few people in the world who actually enjoys Waterworld and thinks it is a fun game that captures the essence of classic gaming. Nevertheless, I must confess that compared to all the other Virtual Boy games, Waterworld falls down near the bottom of the list of favorite games to play.

So the question is: do I really want to spend a ton of cash, just to collect a game and make my Virtual Boy video game collection “complete” (according to my own standards), or should I just let this one go, especially since the game is so bad?

Right now, I’m looking at the one available, new copy at gamebaz.com, and I’m not motivated to spend that kind of cash on such a bad game (plus, I don’t currently have the cash, so I couldn’t right now even if I wanted to). But I suppose that, if one does pop up on Ebay again in the near future for a price that is more reasonable, others might have to contend with me in the auction.

Well… if you’re the only person in the world offering something for sale, you can pretty much ask whatever you want for it.

There is a used copy of Space Invaders: Virtual Collection available at http://www.gamebaz.com for $159.30

http://www.gamebaz.com/?a=i&i=44054U

Chances are, it is only the game cartridge, but if that is the case, you can choose to receive an additional 10% discount on the product at checkout. You can also ask them what all comes with it before you make the purchase, but as I’ve found out, they get a little cranky when people do that, but they, nevertheless, return your message.

That is actually one of the cheapest copies of the game that I have ever seen. I can’t imagine a cheaper one ever popping up on Ebay. It’s certainly worth it if you’d like to add an original manufacturer’s cartridge of the 4th rarest Virtual Boy game ever to your collection.

Wow… born at the time the VB was still being sold? That makes you quite the youngin 😉

Let’s see… I would have been in the 8th grade when the Virtual Boy was released, but since I wouldn’t have my first job until 12th grade, I had no ability to jump on the Virtual Boy bandwagon, since my parents swore that they would never buy me another system after the NES, a promise which they kept, and since the VB was already defunct when I actually had money to start buying it and its games.

It actually wasn’t until April of this year, literally less than only 4 months ago, that I first thought of the Virtual Boy again, after many years of writing it off, and decided to get one, primarily because I wanted to collect every Mario game ever made and had to get a Virtual Boy in order to do so. Little did I know what great obsession would result! 🙂

I don’t know… to me, simpler is always better. I like the fact that right now, each item in the picture represents a genuine piece of Virtual Boy history, and I also like the fact that nothing in the picture is anything of my own. But of course, if others would like to add a border or adjust the colors, brightness, etc., that would be up to their own personal tastes. 🙂

Well, it was intended that my wallpaper would be a place to start from. Each person has a different sized monitor which would display the picture differently. One could simply re-size my picture to one’s liking and then center it and have a background color of one’s choosing, over which the icons would go. I, personally, would never place icons over any of these box arts, so my icons go over the background color (black) that surrounds the picture on my computer.

Very nice!

Thanks.

Hey gunpeiyokoifan,

Can you put your Gunpei Yokoi picture collage on this thread? I am curious to see it.

Thanks for the compliments. 🙂

Here is my attempt at wallpaper. Feel free to use it as your own wallpaper or post it anywhere online! 🙂

Attachments:

1. 

   virtual-boy-wallpaper.bmp
   

As far as I know, copyright law really only counts if the copyright holder actually cares and takes action. If the copyright holder doesn’t care, then there’s really nothing to worry about.

Thus, if the copyright holders of games like Virtual Lab, SD Gundam Dimension War, Virtual Bowling, Bound High, and Dragon Hopper actually cared, then they might try to prosecute people for playing ROMs or reproduction carts of such games. The thing is, though, if the copyright holders of such games actually STILL cared, then they would currently be making more manufacturer’s copies of such games and getting profit off of their copyrighted work (Bound High and Dragon Hopper would be getting their FIRST manufacturer’s copies out there), which isn’t happening and never will.

Thus, the way I see it, if the only way you can play such games is via downloaded ROMs, because obtaining the games in any other way is not within your reach, then by all means, play the ROMs and sleep easy at night. And if the copyright holders come knocking at your door, then ask them nicely for manufacturer’s copies of the games.

I’m pretty sure that when a copyright lawsuit occurs, the copyright holder has to produce an amount of income lost as a result of illegal copies of the product. In the case of products that are no longer in production and for which the copyright holder is no longer getting any profits anyway, I really don’t know how punitive damages could be assessed, if there would be any at all, so no such case would even be worth the effort on the part of the copyright holder, but I’d be more than happy to read if anyone else knows more about such copyright cases. I’ve tried to look into it and have had a hard time finding pertinent information.

Oops… The way that the site had the links listed made it look like it was among the 3DS titles. It would be awesome if they would release it for 3DS, too.

As if Mario Kart and Super Mario weren’t enough to tempt my addiction, I had to take a look at the trailer for Zelda: Skyward Sword.

http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a323712/zelda-skyward-sword-trailer-released-out-2011-e3-2011.html

It is settled. I will be getting a 3DS a short time after the price drop.

By the way, the fact that it seems that Mario will be jumping on a flagpole again at the end of each level in his new 3-D world strongly reminds me of what would have been implemented in the VB Mario Land that just wasn’t meant to be. I really like that.

I watched the video on my computer at work, which doesn’t have any speakers, so I can’t vouch for the sound, but I was very impressed with the video quality. It looked much clearer than what I would have expected. For some reason, though, the video freezes for me at the 2 minute and 12 second mark, so I only got to see the first insect move a little to the right of the second one. I’d be curious to see how the battles play out. 🙂