It’s a little surreal to think the Virtual Boy is over 30 years old now, but time trucks on whether we want it to or not. With the console soon to get its own dedicated app on the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 for NSO subscribers, now’s a better time than any to take a look back at when the console made its debut in the West. Thanks to some new footage uploaded by the Video Game History Foundation, we can see a glimpse of the show floor from the Winter CES 1995 show that not only includes game footage, but some of the floor plan of Nintendo’s booth.
The biggest thing here is cleaner footage of Virtual Boy Mario Land, the cancelled Mario platformer that would have released sometime in 1996. While an incredibly brief demo that technically wasn’t played on an actual Virtual Boy, it’s the cleanest I’ve ever seen the footage outside a recent fan recreation. The rest of Nintendo’s booth is similar to what the company used to have at ’90s trade shows: clean lines, not a lot of colors, and pedestals showcasing the hardware.
The footage came courtesy of Anthony Parisi, a prolific video journalist who has been attending trade shows for decades. You can find his YouTube channel here, and it includes other rare footage. Some of his footage is also available on the Internet Archive, though it seems he is now working with the VGHF to provide higher quality footage from these events. Thanks to his efforts, we might soon see the entirety of the Winter CES show from 1995.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
