The Virtual Boy was only available in North America for seven months -- from August 14, 1995 until March 2, 1996 -- with only 770,000 units sold. Compare that with the Nintendo 64, which sold 32.93 million units over its lifespan.

Tech Specs:

• 20 MHz, 32-bit RISC Processor
• 128 KB dual-port VRAM
• 384 x 224 pixel resolution
• 2-bit monochrome display (black and three shades of red)
• 16-bit stereo sound

The Virtual Boy probably doesn't deserve to be ranked as one of the ugliest pieces of machinery of all time, but it does bear a striking resemblance to certain sci-fi characters.

The Neoprene eyepiece completely encompassed the player's field of vision. This not only isolated the player from the rest of the world, but prevented anyone else from seeing what the player was doing.

• If only the Virtual Boy could play "other" content...

Games such as Mario's Tennis support the use of the Extension port on the underside of the Virtual Boy. Regrettably, Nintendo never got around to releasing an appropriate cable.

There were only 22 games made for the Virtual Boy, and only 14 of those were released in North America. Top hits include: Mario's Tennis, Wario Land, 3D Tetris, and Teleroboxer.

In order to deliver a full range of motion in a virtual 3-D environment, a method of controlling motion in the z-axis was required. To overcome this hurdle, a second D-pad was added to the controller.

No, that is not an infared image of Wario. The Virtual Boy took full advantage of the three shades of red available to create on-screen images.

• It took a while to snap that screenshot because Wario kept fidgeting.

Unfortunately, taking the Virtual Boy apart is not a walk in the park.

When we found out that our 1/4" drive gamebit did not fit down into some of the recessed screw holes, we had to get creative.

• After donning safety glasses and throwing many sparks from our rotary cutoff wheel, we ended up with a nice little gamebit socket that is easy to turn with a flathead screwdriver.

With that out of the way, we can finally start taking this thing apart.

The neoprene eye shield and its frame pop right off the rear of the Virtual Boy.

After making short work of the screws securing the tripod base with our custom gamebit, it can be lifted off the lower case.

• Nintendo apparently had repair in mind when they designed the tripod base, as it is easily removable in the [likely] event that the tripod base would break during a fall.

After removing the rest of the hard-to-access screws, you can lift off the lower case from the Virtual Boy.

Several ribbon cables attach the main board to the main components across the Virtual Boy. After disconnecting them, the board easily comes out.

The main board is responsible for taking inputs from the controller, loading game cartridge data, sending audio data to the speaker amplifier, and driving the LED displays. The silk screened chips include:

• Nintendo '95 VUE-VPU, 9520KK023
• Nintendo NVC-VUE, (C) NEC '91 '93 9520KX003
• Nintendo VRM-VUE, 9508KU028
• Toshiba TC511664BJ-80 128 KB of DRAM
• Toshiba TC511632FL-70
• Nintendo '95 VSU-VUE ATT, 9507A3014
• Texas Instruments 57A5CXK, HCU04

A couple Phillips screws secure the controller port and sound boards to the upper case.

After removing the screws, both boards can be lifted out of the Virtual Boy.

• The modular construction of the Virtual Boy indicates it was designed with repair in mind. A damaged controller port or audio system could be individually replaced rather than replacing a single all-encompassing motherboard if one of its components failed.