The Virtual Boy Flopped. So Nintendo Made the 3DS Glasses-Free

If you owned a 3DS, you've seen 3D that comes out of the screen with no glasses, and this video can't show it to you. Nintendo spent more than 30 years trying to get that picture in front of you, with goggles for the Famicom, the Virtual Boy, a secret 3D screen for the GameCube and finally the 3DS. Every time, the 3D worked for the person looking into it, and every time Nintendo hit the same catch, because you couldn't show it to anyone else. Chapters 0:00 The 3D this video can't show 0:38 Goggles for the Famicom 1:10 The Virtual Boy 2:55 The GameCube's secret 3:33 Konno and the 3DS 5:23 Iwata's price cut 6:37 Face-tracking 3D 7:28 After the 3DS Sources Iwata Asks: Nintendo 3DS (2011), incl. "The Luigi's Mansion 3D That Never Was": https://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interv... Iwata Asks: Majora's Mask 3D (2015). Nintendo IR: results 2011–12, 3DS markdown notice and Iwata's briefings (2010–13), hardware sales data. Nintendo of America: 2DS (2013), Labo VR (2019) and Virtual Boy for Switch (2026) announcements. NERD, "Super-Stable 3D" (2014). Gunpei Yokoi in Bungeishunju and Game Hihyou (1996). Edge interview with Hideki Konno (2010). TIME interviews with Satoru Iwata (2015) and Reggie Fils-Aimé (2017). Famitsu (1996). The New York Times (1995). Frank Cifaldi, Gamasutra (2011). Benj Edwards, Fast Company (2015). Reporting by TechCrunch, Gamasutra, Nintendo Life, Shacknews, Kotaku, PocketGamer.biz and Wccftech. Credits Music, all © Nintendo: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (Koji Kondo); Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally (Soyo Oka, Hiroaki Suga, Hideki Kanazashi); Teleroboxer (Katsuya Yamano); Mario's Tennis (Hitoshi Fukushima, Morihiro Iwamoto); Virtual Boy Wario Land (Kazumi Totaka); Luigi's Mansion (Shinobu Tanaka, Kazumi Totaka); Mario Kart 7 (Kenta Nagata, Satomi Terui); Super Mario 3D Land (Asuka Hayazaki, Takeshi Hama, Mahito Yokota); Star Fox 64 3D (Koji Kondo, Hajime Wakai, arranged by Satomi Terui); Virtual Boy – Nintendo Classics overview trailer (Nintendo of America, 2026). Game audio and gameplay from longplays.org, via the Internet Archive: MadMatty (3D Hot Rally, Highway Star, Red Alarm), JagOfTroy (Teleroboxer), SCHLAUCHI (Mario's Tennis), T-0815 (Virtual Boy Wario Land), Tsunao (Super Mario 3D Land, Ocarina of Time 3D, Star Fox 64 3D), Spazbo4 (Mario Kart 7, Ocarina of Time Master Quest). Also the Luigi's Mansion GameCube longplay by DiggerandIndy (Internet Archive) and the Mario Kart Wii longplay by World of Longplays. News and TV footage: AP Archive (Tokyo, November 1994); ORF (Austrian TV, 1996), via The Video Game Vault: An Archivist's Journey; Flights of Fantasy (US TV), via PlanetVB; Japanese TV segments on CES 1995 and the 1995 Virtual Boy launch, via the Internet Archive. Event and fan footage: World of Nintendo (Famicom 3D System unboxing); Gunpei Yokoi at E3 1995, filmed by Grooveraider, via PlanetVB; E3 1995 Virtual Boy footage, PlanetVB; E3 2002 footage of the GameCube LCD monitor, Adam Doree / Kikizo; Nintendo World Report (E3 2010 3DS reveal, New York 3DS launch); IGN (Nintendo 3DS E3 2010 promo); G4, via the Internet Archive (E3 2010 press conference and 3DS trailer). Archive footage via the Internet Archive and YouTube: Nintendo Space World 2001 GameCube B-roll (Game Tapes Raw); Hobby Consolas 2002 GameCube DVD; Iwata Asks E3 2010 videos (Hyrule Interviews, NintenDaanNC); Japanese Famicom and Virtual Boy TV adverts (archived posts by @goegoezzz); Nintendo's Japanese Virtual Boy store demo tape (itanori); Nintendo of America's 1995 preview tape (Weird And Forgotten); US Virtual Boy adverts (PlanetVB, MasterKOfficial, kevinvermeersch75). Nintendo videos uploaded by others: Nintendo Conference 2010 (摩訶陀ソルト / M.S.); Satoru Iwata's January 2011 video message (EscuadronPikmin); 3DS Japanese TV advert (Nintendo3DS); Nintendo Direct Japan, October 2011 (Nintendo World Report); Nintendo 3DS Direct, August 2014 (Nintendo Direct系統Archives); New Nintendo 2DS XL Japanese video (line neo); Nintendo Switch reveal trailer (GameSpot); Nintendo Labo VR overview trailer (Game Clips And Tips). Nintendo, Nintendo of America and Nintendo UK trailers, adverts, Nintendo Directs and event videos, and all Nintendo game footage, box art and logos © Nintendo, shown for commentary and criticism. 3-D WorldRunner advert and Highway Star © Square Enix, shown for commentary and criticism. "Rotation des New Nintendo 3DS (weiß)" by PantheraLeo1359531, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, trimmed and scaled. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Famicom, GameCube and Wii Remote photography: Evan-Amos (public domain). Pages shown on screen: Nintendo IR (2011) and TIME (2015), via the Wayback Machine. Fonts: Nimbus Sans and Nimbus Sans Narrow (URW++), AGPL-3.0 with font exception.