Akihabara, Tokyo, October 2010. It’s true. You’re looking at an almost mint boxed and wrapped Nintendo Virtual Boy. Oh how I want it! Sadly it wont fit in my carry on or checked luggage. But how sweet it is. I hankered for one of these when they first came to light around 1994. Back then the idea of putting on goggles that threw you into a surreal 3D virtual world was awesomely amazing, even if it was only a monochrome display that had the tendency to make the user seriously nauseous.
Developed by Nintendo legend Gunpei Yokoi, it was an even bigger flop than the GameCube for Nintendo. But that just makes it even more collectible. At 148,000 yen it’s a bit of a steal as well. I would give you the address so you could rush here and buy it but addresses in Tokyo confuse Tokyoites even more than they do foreigners. You would just end up somewhere in North Korea by accident, and we really wouldn’t want that. Although I hear Kim Jong Il is a mean fisherman.
On a serious note, they are not hard to find in Akihabara, and Akihabara in turn is not hard to find. I think I just drooled.
Damian Francis is the editor-at-large for Australian T3 and contributing technology editor for GQ Australia. He is in Japan as a guest of Toyota Australia.
chumplunt
October 20, 2009 at 12:18 PM
Screw the address, I want to know how you managed to time travel?
Report PermalinkMat Perovic
October 20, 2009 at 1:39 PM
Couldn’t you just post it to yourself?
Report PermalinkDamian Francis
October 20, 2009 at 2:29 PM
You time travel by flying Japan Airlines from Brisbane to Japan… at least it feels like that on an old 767 Chumplunt!
Yeah, I probably could post it back to myself Mat. But I’m pretty flat out getting stuff done for Giz. And there is one more problem, I’m a journalist, we don’t earn money. They pay us in Cheetos, which is fine unless you’re lactose intolerant.
Not so much because Cheetos have lactose in them, but more because the machines that make them have traces of nuts, dairy, and alien spacecraft from Area 51… or so I’m told.
Report PermalinkMarc
October 20, 2009 at 8:11 PM
Hahaha, i actually have one of those, original box with like 5 games and everything. Bought it when i was a kid in LA, used for about 2 weeks before the novelty of it wore off.
Report PermalinkMark
October 21, 2009 at 1:47 AM
GameCube sold 22 million units and hundreds of millions of games, generating billions in profits. Hardly a “flop”. I’d like the author to point to a business enterprise that he managed that was more successful.
Virtual Boy was a flop. Don’t put GameCube and Virtual Boy in the same breath.
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