virtual reality arcade game??? anyone ever seen this thing before?

[northerngames]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Virtual-Reality-Arcade-NO-RESERVE_W0QQitemZ290203341021QQihZ019QQcategoryZ13716QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

not sure what it even does 

I remember the Virtua Racing deluxe sit down was around 60k but they claim this thing cost 120k

[Hurray Banana]

They tried to push 'em in arcades in the early 90's over here in UK. Remember seeing them at the Trocadero.

They had a few problems.

1) Graphics were very poor, technology of the day struggled to generate the sterographic projections (two separate images for each eye with slightly different point of view).

2) People got motion sickness from using them

3) Helmets were huge

4) games were frankly crap (not helped by poor graphics)

5) People felt like pratts wearing the huge helmets

Pity good/novel idea let down by technology that was at it's infancy.

They did have a sit down version as well

[ChadTower]

I've played it.  It was at Jillian's in Boston in the mid 90s.  Cost $5 a play, IIRC.  You would put the headset on and play a very Dire Straits looking FPS in a world full of random polygonal objects.  You would compete for the most kills against however many other players were in there at the time.  I think it was like 5 minutes or so and it was timed without any other real objective.  I only played it once or twice and by the time I figured out the controls it was over.  I wouldn't be surprised if it DID cost $120k back then... it was pretty immersive, even if the software kind of stunk, and was really big.

That would be sort of cool to have in your gameroom if you could get it for the cost of a pinball machine or less.  I think you'd have to have two of them, though, at least or you'd just be walking around looking at cones and spheres.

[shardian]

I remember playing that along with a few other VR games at a place near the base of CN Tower in Toronto Canada. That was in 1996 IIRC.

[Hurray Banana]

Here's a nice link to some info on it

http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/virtuality.html

[RayB]

Played it exactly once. That's all it was worth.

Graphics were too primitive,  frame rate too low, motion not fluid enough. The effect was "neat" though.  They should attempt something like this again but with today's graphics horsepower.

[Level42]

Hah, very nice ! I actualy mentioned this game one or two times on this forum, but never knew it's name.

I played it in London one time (as well as R360 and Galaxian 3 )
I was completely desoriented and I had no clue what the goal of the "game" was. I finaly managed to move around a bit, but it was all too clumsy and then it was time's up.

I remember it was expensive, to play. One of those things you have to try once and only once.

Everything Chad and Banana say about it is true.

[SavannahLion]

Back in the day there was this old technology show that used to showcase "cool" new technologies. It was a little bit like TechTV, but had a host that sounded like he was right out of the Disney movies. Anyways, I remember they showcased this particular game and I remember how badly I wanted to play it. Not a single arcade I could find ever had anything resembling this.

The show pretty much made it out to be the wave of the future. VR was ---smurfing--- huge in the 90's. Anyone remember the SEGA VR project/console/thingie? How about that 3rd party VR Helmet thingie that promised VR 3D experience  for nearly any game* on the Genesis or Super Nintendo? Electronic Gaming Monthly (as I think it was called back then) and GamePro used to have full page ads for those VR helmets.

*As long as the game was written with VR 3D in mind, otherwise you were really buying an extremely expensive pair of portable TV screens. To bad no game was ever written with that helmet it mind.

[shardian]

No doubt the 90's was VR central. Remember this gem? (seriously, I liked that show!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VR.5

[ChadTower]

Anyone remember the SEGA VR project/console/thingie?

I don't recall Sega making anything of the sort.  Name?

[Matthew Fisher]

Well, they apparently made prototypes...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_VR

Something like this used with the Activator might have made that suck a little less.   

[ChadTower]

Now I remember chatter about that.  The technology just wasn't out there yet.  I bet it would be easy to produce now if a market existed for it.

[Mario]

I played the Virtuality games many times when it was at a nearly mall. It was actually quite fun once you got the hang of the controls. I liked Dactyl Nightmare the best (playing against friends was more fun than solo games), but the quest game was fun, too.

The controls were very similar to what the Wii has today: a motion-sensing handheld device (similar to the Wiimote) and a second unit to control your movement (similar to the Wii nunchuk, tho I can't recall if the movement was controlled via a second handheld device or if the controls were on the single motion-sensing device). The Wii would actually make a great platform for resurrecting VR games (if anyone cares anymore).

Mario

[Franco B]

I remember seeing them on Gamesmaster (UK 90's Channel 4 gaming program).

I seem to remember that they looked like they sucked even back then.

[RayB]

I still have a couple pins of that Sega VR helmet/goggle thing. Sells nicely on Ebay.
 

[Neverending Project]

I remember a couple of these "pods" in San Francisco, maybe at the Embarcadero? I also remember them the same as everyone else here has recounted. In fact, I had forgotten about the Dactyl Nightmare until Mario just reminded me. Nice pull.

I also remember you needed to keep a hand on the rail at all times, otherwise you would get disoriented really fast. And weren't the "bullets" that you fire at your opponents something like a virtual Nerf dart, with a rather large trajectory?

[ChadTower]

It's at $230 with less than an hour left... that would so be worth $230 if you had the room to burn. 

[Level42]

Or get this one, just a little over 4000 euro's.

http://cgi.ebay.de/1000CS-original-W-Industries-Virtuality_W0QQitemZ140205256453QQihZ004QQcategoryZ3945QQcmdZViewItem

Fully working though.......

[ChadTower]

There is no way those things are all that high bandwidth communicating with each other... someone should get them talking over high speed net connections so people all over the world can walk amongst the rods and cones.

[SavannahLion]

It's at $230 with less than an hour left... that would so be worth $230 if you had the room to burn. 

Sure, yeah. I'll bet the winner is going to MAME it though.

[ChadTower]

Hey!  I just thought of something... ever watch Red Dwarf?  There was an episode called Gunmen of the Apocalypse... season 5 or 6 I think... where they spent much of the episode in what they called an AR unit... I would swear from  memory it looked exactly like one of these things.

[SavannahLion]

Hey!  I just thought of something... ever watch Red Dwarf?

I've read the books, but I've never seen the show. I still laugh every time I think about the spoiled milk and the genetically altered chairs.

[Neverending Project]

The auction closed at $1275. It was "sniped" up to $1250 with 9 seconds left, and then to the final amount 2 seconds later.

Not that I was even remotely considering bidding on this, but this is why I hate e-bay... everyone's gotta find a way to work the system.

[RayB]

Welcome to reality.  Nobody gets rewarded for just standing around being nice. (Not unless it's a "stand around and be nice" contest  )