The is a 32-bit table-top 3D video game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was marketed as the first "portable" video game console capable of displaying "true 3D graphics" out of the box.
It was released on July 21, 1995 in Japan and August 14, 1995 in North America at a price of around US$180. It proved to be a commercial failure and was not released in other regions. Its negative reception was unaffected by continued price drops. Nintendo discontinued it the following year on March 2, 1996. The Virtual Boy is Nintendo 's lowest selling console.
History
Development
The New York Times previewed the Virtual Boy on November 13, 1994. The console was officially announced via press release the next day, November 14. Nintendo promised that Virtual Boy would "totally immerse players into their own private universe." The system was formally unveiled the next day at the Shoshinkai Show. Nintendo of America showed the Virtual Boy at the Consumer Electronics Show on 6 January 1995. This was following the collapse of a potential deal with Sega, which decided to pass on the technology.
Problems emerged when Nintendo attempted to turn its vision into an affordable console, searching for low-cost hardware components. Color was also said to have caused "jumpy images in tests." Design News described the Virtual Boy as the logical evolution of the View-Master 3-dimensional image viewer.
A number of technology demonstrations were used to show what the Virtual Boy was
Consider the situation faced by Nintendo, the oldest video-game company in the world. The company had positioned its line of developing good games for all age stages and strongly opposed to violence and pornography. In 1985, shortly after the company’s introduction of Nintendo Entertainment System to the United States, Nintendo met its match when Japanese entertainment giant Sony and American tech behemoth Microsoft entered the field with the PlayStation and Xbox.
The birth of Nintendo dates back over 100 years ago and originally made only Japanese playing cards. This paper will explore how Nintendo started out as a playing card company and became one of the biggest gaming corporations that are alive today. It will also explore the success and failures of the company and how it achieved the status it has today. We will discuss the technology of gaming and how it evolved over time.
The first console was called the Brown Box and was mad by a TV maker, Ralph Baer. The Brown Box was made in 1967. Nolan Bushaell bounded Atari in 1972. Atari then had its first big hit with the infamous Pong. In 1980 Mattel releases the Intelivision which is the first challenge against Atari’s rule. Nintendo wasn’t always the video game we know, it was originally a Japanese playing card company. In 1985 Nintendo releases the Nintendo releases the Nintendo Entertainment System, Wow what a creative name that is. Then in 1989 they released their second smash hit with the Gameboy, to compete with other companies such as Atari, Who released their Atari 2600. It included the newly released Tetris which would grow to become a massive hit to top off the huge sales of the Gameboy. In 1991 the super Nes is released. Then the original PlayStation is released in 1995 becoming extremely popular. To combat this popularity Nintendo released the Nintendo 64 in 1996. It includes favorites such as Mario 64, Zelda, and Metroid. The PS2 is released in 2000 marking the beginning of a new era of game consoles. It is the first console to include 128 bit graphics. A problem with original game consoles such as the Atari 2600 is they had little memory. With such little memory Graphics could only be up to 160 by 228 pixels. The normal today is 1925 by 1080 pixels. Some of the earliest adventure games used text instead of images to create the world you’re in. The first of these “text” games was
The head of Microsoft, Bill Gates, first introduced the console at the Game Developers Conference in 2000 and it was a huge success. Bill went on to tell everyone that the Xbox was not just another console, it was going to be the most powerful console to date (Marshall, R).
Miyamoto designed three more games for Nintendo’s franchises, 2 for Mario and 1 for The Legend of Zelda, and also created another memorable series called Star Fox. Miyamoto used the new hardware in the console to allow the game to have an early implementation of 3d graphics. Just 10 years later Nintendo would release their second biggest console to date, which was named the Nintendo 64. Miyamoto designed Super Mario 64 which would pave the way for many more 3d platformers to come later.
The Nintendo brand has changed over the years, starting out as a simple card company that has expanded into the massive electronic giant we know today. They have had their ups and downs through their time as a gaming company but they always have the gamer’s interest in mind. As the late CEO of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata said, "On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer" (Yu, E., & Chan, W.
Nintendo started as a small Japanese business by Fusajiro Yamauchi near the end of 1889 as Nintendo Koppai. Based in Kyoto, Japan, the business produced and marketed a playing card game called Hanafuda. In 1956, Nintendo’s president Hiroshi Yamauchi began to realize the limitation of playing cards business because it was viewed as a mere tool of gambling. In order to overcome the limitation, Nintendo struck a deal with Disney in 1959 which allowed them to put Disney characters on their playing cards. This opens up new markets where both children and homemakers started purchasing playing cards.5 Due to this success; Nintendo went public in 1962 and became a listed company in Osaka Stock Exchange. Soon after, Nintendo started to venture in
When the NES came out Nintendo started a licensing company for third party games to produce their games in Nintendo factories. After the NES was created Nintendo redesigned the Famicom (the game cartridge) to look like a VHS tape to help grip the system grip it better. Also, the rarest game in NES history is the boxed version of Stadium Events, “but only a handful of boxed, complete copies have ever been seen in the wild, and they can fetch anywhere from $35,000-45,000 at auction” (www.usgamer.net). The best selling game in NES history was Super Mario Bros as it sold a total of 40 million copies (www.usgamer.net). Before the NES came along, Donkey Kong was the king of gaming. The reason for this is because arcades were the only way to play at the time. Luckily, NES games were playable in the arcades. Games like Ninja Gaiden and Super Mario Bros were stretched into the arcades by a system called Play-Choice10. In conclusion, the NES was part of a revolution in
Everyone was excited about a new gaming system that was coming out;“Nintendo first released the handheld Game Boy system in North America on July 31, 1989” (Epstein pg.45). Many families stood in line for hours trying to get their kids the Nintendo, some parents didn’t stand in line for their kids they stood in line for themselves. When the Game Boy first came out they were only $89.99, today they are $169.99. They were the new toy that every kid wanted to have. Parents started
Released in 1996 it was not the first 3D game in the market, but it did everything right. “It also took Mario's existing framework -- running, jumping, swimming, and flying -- and evolved those mechanics to a staggering degree” (Sliva). The game was revolutionary, one could control the camera angle, the 3D graphics were different, and had a great plot. The game was a staple to the success of the console Nintendo 64(Welshman). The game still had the same formula that Mario games had, but the game had managed to still improve and surpass its predecessor. All of it combined helped to push the game and change the gaming industry once
The 1980’s is when the video game industry began to take off in earnest. In 1977 came the Atari 2600. Intellivision came next, introduced by Mattel in 1980. Intellivision, which featured better graphics compared to the older Atari 2600, became very popular. The ColecoVision, the most powerful console to date, appeared in 1982. Like the others, its sales also grew. However, having three major consoles on the market, a
The Nintendo 3DS XL introduces many new features off of the original design of the DS. The gaming company Nintendo released the original DS in America in November 21st, 2004, The DS grew throughout the years from DS, DS lite, DSi, to DSi XL finally landing us with the 3DS XL released in June 21st, 2012. The Nintendo 3DS added many features, but the ultimately noticeable feature being the 3D option. This excited numerous Nintendo fans because they believed they were obtaining the future. These features make the Nintendo 3DS a great handheld gaming system.
The latest product launched by Nintendo has been the Game Cube, a video game console which will undoubtedly prove to be yet another bestseller.
The role of technology is vital in this industry as it focuses on technological efforts for competitive advantage. Every new development uses new technology. Though there are restricted innovations in the gaming industry, the speed of technological transfer is very high. Nintendo’s role from playing cards to toys to video games and then with each console introduced, included many technological changes. Technological up gradation increased hardware costs and discouraged innovation. The online capability of Nintendo Wii was a major change in the technology of the video game industry though they were not able to do as well as their competitors (Sony, Microsoft).
Nintendo first started in 1889 under the leadership of Fusajiro Yamauchi, who named the company at first “Nintendo Koppai” (Jones, 2013). He started his company by selling Hanafuda Cards; these are simple cards that are used to play multiple games – much like the more common standardized 52 playing card sets (Jones, 2013). The name Nintendo originally is a Japanese metaphor and basically means “leave luck to heaven” (How Nintendo, Lego, Adidas and 17 other Major Companies Got Their Names, 2013). The Nintendo’s Corporations’ real boost in there business was their trip to the United States when Hiroshi Yamauchi, Fusajiro’s grandson, met the largest card manufacturer in the country and was stunned by their small offices (Jones, 2013). After that, he concluded that his business was limited and has a small angle and he has to think of an alternative in order to keep his place in the market (Jones, 2013). Their first innovation came by having a joint venture with Disney in order to print their characters on their cards that helped the business to jump into an entire new market that helped them in becoming global and grew to be known overseas (Jones, 2013). Moreover, with their new young audience target, Nintendo created books that explained new games that could be played with these cards (Jones, 2013). After that, the company with their new venture decided to go public in 1962 and that helped them in having other joint ventures (Jones, 2013). A sample of these