The Virtual Boy was a console produced by Nintendo from 1994-95, intended to both exploit the then-recent interest in Virtual Reality games (bought about by films like The Lawnmower Man and a number of VR games in arcades). Because of its limitions it was never intended to replace the Game Boy, only supplement it. The head of development for the console was Gunpei Yokoi, the inventor of the Game Boy.

The system features two displays for stereoscopic viewing, capable of displaying 4 shades of red at 32 different brightness levels with a resolution of 384 by 224 pixels. The system features a 32-bit RISC NEC V810 CPU clocked at 20 MHz. Games for the system were cartridge based, featuring a connector type similar to that of Compact Flash rather than the usual copper traces.

The unit employed a proprietory screen design which simulated 3D visuals by carefully placed shades of red and black. It was designed to be placed on a table, with a headset for the user to look through and a control pad which was featured two control pads, standard Start/Select/A/B buttons, and two trigger buttons. The pad, from an electrical standpoint, uses the exact same protocol as a NES or SNES pad, with the addition of 2 more buttons.

Many people were fearful of the warnings on the box, saying that children under 7 should not use the device. In reality, these warnings were mainly for legal liability. The main "threat" of Virtual Boy was no different than that of a computer screen or a television. The difference is that the user was immersed in the system, so they were encouraged to take brakes once every 15 minutes. In fact, ever game came with a built in automatic pause feature.

In all, the system featured 22 unique game between the US and Japanese versions.