The Nintendo Virtual Boy is what happens when the future arrives early, forgets its glasses, and insists everything be red. Released in the mid-90s, it promised mind-blowing virtual reality and instead delivered a table-mounted periscope that asked you to hunch over like a curious shrimp. Nintendo said “step into the game,” but your chiropractor heard “job security.”

Its graphics were a bold artistic choice: red wireframes on a black void, as if every game took place inside a haunted oscilloscope. After a few minutes, you weren’t sure if Mario Tennis was intense or if your retinas were filing a formal complaint. Nintendo even warned players to take frequent breaks, which is never a great sign for a system meant to be fun.

And yet, the Virtual Boy is weirdly lovable. It’s the console equivalent of a brilliant but awkward science fair project: ambitious, misunderstood, and absolutely committed to doing things its own way. Today it lives on as a cult classic, remembered fondly by collectors and historians as proof that even Nintendo sometimes trips over the power cord while running toward the future.