Virtual Boy Price-Drop Advert [August 1996]

While reading up on the Virtual Boy, I was surprised to read that the system was originally released at $180! To make matters even worse, this advertised price drop touting “an entirely different world” ran in August, five months after Nintendo officially discontinued the device.

Even though I was aware of the Virtual Boy’s existence during 1995, I never picked up at how quickly the thing failed. However, I DO remember seeing stacks of these things sitting on top of the shelves at Kay Bee Toy Stores but never pulled the trigger on getting one. Instead, I opted for Tiger Electronics’ new hot-shit handheld, the Game.Com!

Looking back — probably not the right decision.

Cipater writes:

“I applaud anyone looking to pick up a Virtual Boy, but I hope you’re ready to do some soldering - they have notoriously shitty ribbon cable connections held on with a relatively weak adhesive.”

It’s been a while, but I think I can handle it. I’ve got experience with fix the cables in my old Super Nintendo controllers growing up. Those things always broke on me!

vgjunk:

“We can give you the specs, and the Virtual Boy will supply the blinding headaches.”

By the year’s end, I will have one of these. It will be mine.

Oh yes…it will be mine.

Advert for Nintendo’s Virtual Boy - 1995

This is one of those things that I’ve always been meaning to pick up. The only time I’ve ever had with a Virtual Boy was playing the kiosk set up at K-Mart, I’ve never really had a full sit-down experience with the doomed console. I kicked myself for not picking one up when they were retailing super cheap at K·B Toys, I regretting not pulling the trigger on seeing one for $20 at a garage sale — I think I should look at eBay and finally get around to owning one of these suckers.

Good idea or best idea?