Earlier today, we reported on a new video from Did You Know Gaming that shines a light on the Virtual Boy F-Zero spin-off Zero Racers, which was once believed to be little more than a series of screenshots but appears to be have been totally finished.
The source is former Nintendo of America associate producer Jim Wornell, who, in the same interview, discusses the rather extreme testing process for the Virtual Boy console itself:
When they were testing people out for Virtual Boy, they had us go through this... did you ever see the movie Clockwork Orange? The scene where the person’s pinned down in the chair, and they’ve got their eyelids open? That was kind of like what Virtual Boy testing was like. They would dilate our pupils, they would have us sit with our heads in this vice type thing, and they would shine light in our pupils. They would have these plastic rods, they would have them just barely touching our eyes — and they would say ‘okay no matter what, don’t blink for a minute.’
They put us under just the most bizarre tests, just to make sure I guess to make sure the thing was safe to use. They would blow air into our eyes, they would have us play a Virtual Boy test kit for 10-15 minutes, then we’d have to rest. Then they’d dilate our eyes again. 2 or 3 rounds of these just bizarre, inhumane torture tests just to make sure this thing wouldn’t kill me, or blind me, or whatever.
But umm... yeah, it was interesting.
In case you're not aware, A Clockwork Orange is a 1962 book by Anthony Burgess, which was famously adapted into a film by the legendary Stanley Kubrick in 1971. Set in dystopian near-future Britain, the book and film focus on the unruly character Alex and the government's attempt to cure his wanton levels of violence with an experimental aversion therapy called "The Ludovico Technique". During one scene, Alex's eyelids are forced open and he is made to watch scenes of war and conflict, eventually becoming nauseated by the footage and "cured" of his aggressive nature.
While Nintendo's methods do sound rather extreme, it was perhaps right for being cautious about the Virtual Boy. The system is famous for causing headaches after prolonged use, and when Reflection Technology – the company that created the visual tech that makes the system possible – met with Sega before eventually selling it to Nintendo, there were issues.
Former Sega president Tom Kalinske explains:
A big issue was kids got sick, threw up, or fell over when using this. We couldn't take that chance.
Still, at least the Virtual Boy has one high-profile fan.
You can read more about the amazing history of the Virtual Boy here.
Comments 41
Ahh yes, the old Ludovico Technique. That definitely sounds humane.
I wish I had the chance to play the VB
Love the photo, do love that film
Viddy well, Yoshi, viddy well
Thats real sick, Nintendo. I hope they paid for the therapy..
That's... yikes. Not very family friendly stuff there.
Since this is Nintendo Life we’re talking about I’m sure we’ll see a ton of comments on how Nintendo was fully within their right to treat their employees this way because they wanted ensure their Virtual Boy assets retained value. 😂
I can actually list the names of the users here who would literally comment just that.
@Rambler Brilliant!
Nice header image.
Weird! So they do the light shining and air blowing during a normal eye test here in the UK. But the rods and pupil dilation is upsetting!
I had a go on a Virtual Boy a while ago when a friend brought theirs in to work. It was really cool and worked really well! The main issue was the table stand thing made it hurt to hunch over and play. Which I have heard was added as the original was a headset but people were worried players would blindly walk about wearing one and step into traffic and such. I do wonder how much of a difference it would have made if it had stayed a headset?
Now in Europe they just tie you down and shoot you with hastily approved drugs.
@ClamDown Actually this is why I prefer Nintendo websites. It's because they can publish these kind of cheeky stories about the company without any risk to be punished or censored. You wouldn't see this kind or article in a Sony themed website as Sony is a crazy control freak company who can't tolerate any criticism. This is why people will never consider Sony has any legacy in videogame history. There's nothing to tell because everyone is under non-disclosure agreement.
Wow... that's sure some... productive product testing...
@SwitchplayerJohn well that comment isn’t going to last long. Haha
Although it is kinda funny to think Nintendo’s Clockwork Orange-style trials were probably more robust (and in the long term, more humane) than some products that have been rushed out to the public.
Good job no one bought one then, all that testing was pointless.
Real horrorshow!
And people complain about their normal boring jobs! That picture though, good stuff.
Sounds like they were checking the subject IOP (intraocular pressure). Doctors do this with eye exams all the time to make sure glaucoma doesn’t develop.
Back in 1995 I had a friend whose uncle supposedly worked at Nintendo and told him this kind of experimentation was going on regarding the Virtual Boy.
Apparently my friend was telling the truth?
Taking this one with a pinch of salt. He literally sounds like he's describing a torture scenario for testing a videogame console... nah.
The KGB still use the VirtualBoy for interrogation and torture.
@Ogbert In order to be able to use it as a headset, they'd need people to grow an extra hand to hold the device, while operating the controller.
Though Nintendo Power did make a joke about three-handed people when revealing the N64 controller.
@Corum Right? This in humane torture sounds like a common eye exam.
Nintendo life serving up the nothing burgers.
The unsettling bi-product of this human experimentation at Nintendo is Tingle.
@ClamDown I would say that if Nintendo fully explained the details of the tests to the people who were going to participate and had them sign declarations stating they understood what they were going to be doing, then yeah, this is kind of standard for this type of product.
Do you think they don't do deep optical tests for sets like Oculus or VIVE? You're making a product that could conceivably blind people. You're going to need to make sure it's not going to do that or cause other harm. But it's silly to assume that anyone who submits to these tests is required to do them. There's no shortage of people willing to submit to weird stuff for money.
@Ogbert Have you never had your eyes dilated for an eye exam? It's kind of standard practice these days, here in the US. As for the "rods" thing, I don't know but maybe he's talking about an ERG test? They'll put an electrode on your eye and they use devices to hold your eyelids open.
I play my Virtual Boy with a bit of in and out, Beethoven and ultra-violence.
@Corum Definitely sounds like amongst other things they were measuring IOP. Which I have done to me every six months, and I do it to animal patients about once a week on average. It's an odd sensation but hardly torture - my patients would never sit still for it if it was!
Dilating the pupils is also a thing I have done at least once a year. It's a little weird, and definitely makes you light-sensitive for a few hours, but again, it's a very normal diagnostic.
"This must be a real horrorshow film if you're so keen on my viddying it."
"It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you watch them on a screen."
Kudos to whoever created that thumbnail image
@Bobb A Virtual Boy Collection on 3DS would have been great.
So….has no one here been to the eye doctor? This is all standard stuff they do there plus some video games. I’m sure they had licensed practitioners performing these procedures, it’s not like they get a guy who just got out of his computer engineering degree go poke around with your eyes.
„They would blow air into our eyes and let us 10 to 15 minutes”
10 to 15 minutes: what is this article about? Someone who needs press. Come on NL. This is ridiculous.
This article sucks an blows for 15 minutes
@KingMike Yeah but the original plan was to make it a headset with a strap, not unlike PSVR or Occulus, thus freeing up both hands. But people panicked thinking this would cause mass accidents and Nintendo swapped to the stand.
What does it mean when eyes are dilated?
@TommyTendo the pupils in our eyes contract and dilate according to ambience light to filter how much light should enter the eye. There are medicines that dilate the pupil, usually used by ophthalmologists to examine the eye. When a pupil is dilated this way, it loses (temporarily) the ability to filter light and the persons eyesight usually gets blurry and well illuminated places can become bothersome
@Bobb Okay, thanks!
I thought the devs used TV-output boxes (and oddly enough, PAL despite the VB not even being released in countries with PAL TVs) for the reason of avoiding eyestrain.
Certainly they could've done casual testing when they just need to check it runs on the actual hardware it was being sold for.
Sounds terrible! Hopefully it didn't destroy their eyes. I certainly wouldn't volunteer!
I’m certain this is done to this day to test VR, cuz this all seems like normal eye exams. I do them every year or so.
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