Taken from GamePlayers Magazine Issue 74 (August 1995) -- From the InfoTrak Section.
With so much hype and mystery still surrounding many of the new systems, is's always refreshing when one of them finally manages to make it to market -- especially when the company involved is "it's coming soon" Nintendo. Virtual Boy, the self-described first 32-bit 3-D videogame system, will be released nationwide on August 14 at a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $179.95, and will come with Mario's Dream Course.
Nintendo's in-house lineup of software at launch will be TeleRoboxer, a first person, futuristic boxing title; Galactic Pinball, a space-age pinball game featuring five three-dimensional, arcade style tables; Mario Clash, an action/adventure game inspired by the original Mario Bros. series; Mario's Dream Tennis, a tennis match with a unique 3-D perspective; and Red Alarm, a polygon-based space shooter. Other titles, like Wario Cruise, will follow soon after. Virtual Boy software will retail at $39.95 to $49.95. An AC adapter will be sold seperately.
More than 100 developers and third-party publishers are also working on games for Virtual Boy. Titles include Hudson Soft's Vertical Force, a space-shooter; T&E's Golf; Atlus' Devil Busters; Kemco's Virtual League Baseball; and Ocean's Waterworld, based on this summer's big-budget Kevin Costner moview. Other Virtual boy developers include Acclaim, Bullet-Proof Software, Rare Ltd., and Software Creations.
Despite a renewed interest in Virtual Boy sparked by a strong showing at last May's E3 show, many still criticize it as an overpriced, underpowered machine. Peter Main, Nintendo's Vice President, has a different take -- "We're bringing a totally unique, 3-D gaming experience to market at an affordable price and in time to get a jump on the holiday season. We expect to sell more than 1.5 million hardware units and 2.5 million pieces of software by the end of 1995." -- That would mean that in just a few months, Virtual Boy would have out-sold 3DO and Jaguar. While this may sound extremely optimistic, Nintendo has pulled bigger rabbits out of its hat before.