I remember when the VirtualBoy was the hot thing. A fascinating idea, but unfortunately was a commercial failure.

Amazingly, a lost shipment of about 100 of the systems has been found in Dubai:

Video game retailers emptying a warehouse in the Rashidia area of Dubai last month discovered a long-lost shipment of 100 units, which collectors believe to be the last of their kind still sealed in original factory boxes.

“This product was just left years ago and nobody knew it was in stock,” said Vijay Chandrabota, the purchasing manager for Geekay Games in Dubai. “For me, it was dead stock. I didn’t even know that this Virtual Boy existed until we found it.”

Electronic games enthusiasts such as Mohammed Omran snatched up two consoles. Like others, he had believed brand new models were impossible to locate because the system was discontinued in the 1990s; unexpectedly available, he calculated, they could be worth many times their face value.

“I was chasing it in all the shops and all the markets in Dubai Khour, but everything was always vanished,” said Mr Omran, a 38-year-old electrical engineer from Sharjah. “It’s not an easy system to find.”