On virtual reality taking the first steps in the gaming industry
1980s: SegaScope 3-D Glasses and VPL projects
The “Granddad” of Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR is a project, jokingly baptized “Sword of Damocles”. This helmet was created at the end of the 1960s by Ivan Sutherland, a professor at Harvard, and a student named Bob Sproule. However, in those years the gaming industry almost did not exist, so we will be smoothly transferred 20 years ahead.
In 1987, the Japanese company Sega began selling the SegaScope 3-D, which served as a peripheral device to the Master System console. They were invented by Mark Serni, a famous engineer (who designedPlayStation 4) and a game developer (involved in creating the Sonic the Hedgehog and Crash Bandicoot series). SegaScope simulated 3-D in a number of two-dimensional games, for example — in OutRun 3D and Space Harrier 3D. In the late 80’s both were very recognizable and brought Sega considerable profit.
The banner of SegaScope 3-D was taken up by the American company VPL, founded by Jaron Lanier — the man who popularized the term “virtual reality”. VPL launched the mass sales of the VR headset EyePhone 1 and EyePhone HRX, as well as glove controllers for them. VPL did not achieve much success, but Lanier himself later took part in the creation of the Kinect motion controller for Xbox 360 and Xbox One. In this manner, VR crossed over the real and virtual worlds.
Early 1990’s: Virtuality
At the dawn of the 1990s the Virtuality arcades from Virtuality Group appeared in the same halls as slot machines. The arcades were equipped with low image output delay and advanced stereoscopic 3D VR-glasses. In addition multiplayer was implemented on some machines — there was some demand, but they were inferior to cheaper arcades with fighting games and shooting galleries using a light gun, which were more accessible to the wide audience.
1993 year: Sega VR, Jaguar VR and StuntMaster
At the CES 1993 exhibition, Sega showed the Sega VR helmet. It had some attractive features: LCD-displays, stereo sound and tracking movements of the head. Sega VR was supposed to cost $ 200 and work in tandem with the Genesis console, several games were being prepared for it, but Sega eventually folded the project due to the financial difficulties associated with supporting the multitude of consoles they filled the market up with.
In the first half of the 1990s, american company Atari barely competed against the Japanese Sega and Nintendo (a little later Sega joined them as well). The management had high hopes for the Jaguar console, which started selling in 1993, and the Jaguar VR glasses presented at CES 1995. Atari worked together with the Virtuality Group on the technology. Shortly before the release of Jaguar VR to the market, Atari terminated the contract with Virtuality Group, and as a result, the headset never found itself on the store shelves. The company destroyed almost all prototypes — only two survived. One reproduces the red-gray graphics, the second — blue-gray. By the way, as early as1996, Atari has left the sector of home gaming systems.
Unlike the Sega VR and Jaguar VR, which were spectacular only at exhibitions, in 1993, Victormaxx began to implement the StuntMaster headset in the US, adapted for Genesis and Super NES. Hefty helmet, in fact, replaced the TV, and exclusive games for it were not produced. StuntMaster did not find a loyal audience and quickly became a story.
1995: Virtual Boy, i-Glasses and VFX1
The most famous VR-helmet of the 1990’s is considered a Virtual Boy from Nintendo. The Japanese company was in a hurry to bring the device to the market — the engineers did not have time to really implement the declared functions. To call Virtual Boy imperfect is wrong — it turned out to be simply unfinished, “raw”. Judge for yourself — the graphics were broadcast in a mean black-and-red palette, the glasses could not keep track of the head turns (and in general they had to be placed on a bulky stand), plus the number of games was ridiculously small — only two dozen. Nintendo took only a year to admit mistakes and remove Virtual Boy from the sale.
Simultaneously with the glasses from Nintendo i-Glasses from Virtual IO and VFX1 from ForteVR were sold. i-Glasses were considered a good VR product for their time in terms of design / price ratio, they were able to track head turns, but they could not boast of mobility — the user literally got tangled in the wires (cable from VGA-box to computer, cable to glasses and power cable). VFX1 also turned out to be “good” — stereo audio and stereo 3D were supplemented by a microphone. In 1995, the helmet cost $ 695, that is $ 100 more expensive than 20 years after Oculus Rift released. Nevertheless, in the US VFX1 were willingly bought, which prompted ForteVR to release several improved versions of the helmet.
Second half of the 1990s: SEOS 120/40 HMD and VirtuSphere
Early VR-headsets look extremely cumbersome — to make sure of this just look at the example of SEOS 120/40 HMD. This “Monster”, equipped with two LCD-displays with a resolution of 1280x1024, weighed about a kilogram and looked like a UFO. In addition to the resolution, it had unusual viewing angles (120 ° horizontally and 67 ° vertically) and the requirement of having a computer with a tandem of video cards. And now, attention, the price was $ 70 thousand!
Another interesting experimental sample is VirtuSphere, a real sphere developed by Lockheed Martin for the military. The sphere was mounted on a platform that kept it in place with moving rollers whenever the person inside put it in motion, the helmet was also equipped with a gyroscope, so that you could move without any restrictions in the virtual space.
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Now the VR industry is on the rise. Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR became real hits because of the low price, Sony managed to sell 2 million copies of PS VR in a year, and Facebook bought Oculus VR in 2014 for $ 2.3 billion. Developers of VR devices and games no longer need a long time to persuade investors — the figures are more convincing than words.
