Old Virtual Reality Game with a helmet?

viewsonix

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I was trying to remember this old game I used to play at Time Out at Springfield mall (the upstairs one by Penneys). You would stand in a little platform and put a VR helmet on your head, and hold a small 'button on a stick' within the circular platform. The helmet had a interior display that put you in a super amazing futuristic 'virtual world' (in other words, it was blocky and floating in space). You would move around and shoot things.

Anyone have any idea what game I am talking about?
 
Kinda like this?

12498.jpg


http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=grid-busters&page=detail&id=12498

12498_1.png
 
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Kinda like this?

12498.jpg



It looked like that but the game play was floating in space on a red lego brick castle kind of playing field.

Anyone ever seen any of these that have survived into private collections?
 
12498.jpg



It looked like that but the game play was floating in space on a red lego brick castle kind of playing field.

Anyone ever seen any of these that have survived into private collections?


There were multiple games on this platform. Retrogamer magazine recently did a pretty thorough review of these machines and the games. It included later generations and modifications all the way up to the company finally going under.
 
Oh my god, I played one of these in an Incredible Universe that later got turned into a Fry's. Was really awesome at the time, but the "game" was kind of dumb, you were basically the size of a mouse walking around in a house. Never figured out what the point was but the experience was cool. :)
 
There used to have a Dactyl Nightmare at Quarters in Kirkland, WA. I was too cheap to every pony up the $5 or whatever it was to play it, and spent most of my time there playing MK or the 720 machine that has a monitor overly washed out with blue.
 
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there was another huge game they had, it was some sort of star fighter that you flew thru tunnels in an asteroids or in space. The reason I rmember it was because it was about 10 feet square, and you sat in a reclined chair that had chrome bars around it in a circle. The entire chair would rotate with you in it, and pitch up and down as you flew and fought.
 
there was another huge game they had, it was some sort of star fighter that you flew thru tunnels in an asteroids or in space. The reason I rmember it was because it was about 10 feet square, and you sat in a reclined chair that had chrome bars around it in a circle. The entire chair would rotate with you in it, and pitch up and down as you flew and fought.


Yeah, in the article I mentioned above the "cockpit" version was the second generation. Evidently there were complaints from customers about getting sick, and operators felt that they would get more customers if people weren't flailing around in front of their friends getting teased...
 
Dactyl Nightmare omg! As soon as I started reading the thread that was the first game that came to mind but I couldn't remember the name either.. I also remember this being 2 player where you could run up and down the steps and try to shoot each other. It was like a virtual reality first person shooter 1v1. Also every now and then a pterodactyl would swoop out of the sky and pick you up. You could aim up and shoot him off of you as you were being lifted away only to plummit to your death.. lol.. What I wouldn't give to play that game one more time..
 
Yeah I totally forgot about the pterrodactyl. I remember running around and shooting someone else, and I remember you couldnt hold out your hand straight because the controller had to be within the circle you stood in.
 
Only 325 sold worldwide, wow! Someone was selling two of these machines in the boonies in Colorado for $500 a couple years ago. I didn't have the space though so I had to pass. So I'm guessing someone in the state has them now, only one of them worked apparently, but he had all the games for the one that did work.

I was also one of the people who didn't pony up the $5 to ever try one, my dad guilted me out of it, I definitely regret it. I guess there were enough of us that the operators' $60,000 investment was never recouped and why virtual reality died for the most part in the 90's.
 
I'd have to say I've seen these things in a movie, I can not recall which movie though. Dactyl Nightmare is the game in which I recall them showing footage of. Maybe it was that crazy movie "Blank Check".............................?
 
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