LGR Oddware - Sony Glasstron HMD from the 90s 

May cause loss of vision. Then you know it will be good.

Glasstron: No, I am your father. PSVR: That's not true, that's impossible! Glasstron: Search your feelings, you know it be true. PSVR: Nooooo!!!!

"Let's play some Crash Mode" *crashes car right at the start of the race* Man, now _that's_ a perfectly named gameplay mode.

WAIT!!! Use them as a viewfinder? Holy macaroni, use them as a viewfinder put the camera on a pole from your back and BAM real life third person....... Its probably not a good idea though.

Glasstron, leader of the Optobots

More info on these. There were several models, some included VGA support and I think it was 800x600 if I remember correctly. Those were on the high end. I worked for a VR company in the late 90's and early 2000's. We had several prototypes/demos of these from Sony and a few other makers such as Olympus. I know we were one of the very first US companies to get a "final" of these and it was not until very late 1999, so I can confirm that the US release was in 1999. We also had many of the "final" versions eventually, both of the Olympus and the Glasstron. They were WAY ahead of their time. All the versions I used included a flip-up shutter so that the glasses were translucent, and the company I was working for used them for Augmented Reality before it had that catchy name. The goal was to help repair large equipment on-site such as large earth moving equipment, generators, robot arms in factories, etc. I remember the VGA input right in the battery box. As these were still thousands of dollars cheaper than VR headsets at the time, we augmented them with some 6DOF accelerometers and made them interactive. The prototypes and more expensive models had little side "cups" or blinders to further immerse you. I do remember as some commenters have said a strap on most models, which we attached the 6DOF device to. Even the earliest pairs I remember having the cool blue color. Eye strain was and continues to be a problem with these. The last thing I remember is selling these on eBay for the company after all the dev work was completed. I had several people in the US Navy purchase them as they were compact and portable for the time, allowing a game system to be played without a TV. Just a cool Oddware item that has roots in the VR world. Thank you for sharing Clint! A great blast from the past!

This is the prettiest torture device I've ever seen.

Wife: what movie are we watching? Me: I'm watching aliens. Wife: are we? Me: Yes, I am.

Late 90's? damn, looks like its from about 2008

My vision is augmented.

It's funny seeing those earbuds dangling.. it looks like you're wearing some kind of earrings!

You can add head tracking by using any 3rd party head tracker (eg. TrackIR). The headset actually does stereoscopic (3D) viewing too! There are two individual LCDs just like the more expensive models. Sony just disabled the feature on the cheaper models. You can still see the effect in the settings menu when you configure the alignment - each LCD will have a separate image. Enabling it requires a hardware hack to the controller box. Some of the better Glasstron models also have either an LCD or flippable shutter to enable see-through mode for augmented reality. Biggest downside compared to modern VR is the minimal field-of-view. Sony was WAAAAAY ahead of their time with these. Sony's HMD development continued in several variations throughout the 2000's and even included a PlayStation2 version - the PUD-J5A!

Some of these Oddware episodes make me feel nostalgia for something I'm seeing for the first time. How is that even possible,LGR?

I had some of those. they plugged into my handycam with night vision. I had full NV goggles in 2001!

“These aren’t that bad” later “Ahh my eyes”

Who would it thought that this was made before Apple Vision Pro…

Ready to join the X-Men!

Man, i just love Sony/tech stuff from the late 90's early 00's.. Something about the Sony switches, buttons etc makes me go crazy.

this was used in skateboard filming back in the day, specifically famously used in the filming of transworld's Modus operandi considered one of the best transworld parts. there was a large amount of night filming going on in this video and in order to see the shot in what would be considered a tv they could use the head display to see if they had the proper light to film the tricks. it saved them from filming a nights worth of skating to find out it was all unusable. it was packaged with some of sonys highest end vx cameras.

By the way, AVLS stands for Automatic Volume Limiter Setting, it limits the output to avoid "damage hearing" of users.

Wait... they made one that you could toggle to see through it? That is so 80's/90's cyberpunk!

Once again. An excellent thumbnail art.

So, I guess this was Sony's answer to the Virtual Boy lol

I love your reviews. They always show... the bigger picture.

This is the most cyberpunk thing I've ever seen

Remember trying one of these at the Sony store. Can't believe you just found one!

Your channel continues to deliver on awesome retro reviews of stuff! KEEP IT UP!

I get so serious about LGR videos that I even bought some gourmet coffe blend to drink with it.

That sure was painful....."surprisingly decent"

That seriously looks like something straight out of Cyberpunk 2020 chromebooks.

I think you nailed it when you mentioned the eye strain feeling like crossed eyes. I would bet the A35's screens are too close together rather than being properly aligned with your pupils. Makes me wonder if the higher end models could have put the screens on rails to resolve that.

I can't tell you how much I love these odd ware reviews keep up the good work

Sony should remake them as a VR headset with same exact appearence :v

AVLS - "Auto Volume Levelling Something" - Classic LGR :)

I was just rewatching the thrift episode where you got this! im so glad you finally did an oddware on it.

Oh! I remember this! I was playing with one of these in 1999 or 2000 in a Sony Store in Chicago. It was a really neat experience, plus, it looks awesome.

I tried one in Japan at an electronics store in 2001. Was pretty damn cool for the time.

I wonder how much more sick you would have gotten if you played an FPS like Halo.

connect it to a webcam or a small camera of some sorts, and BOOM! you have your own complicated cyberpunk glasses.

Didn't you get this at Goodwill on a Thrifts episode

They look like the X-Ray Scanner from Perfect Dark! How fitting.

I got an old pair of Vuzix's VR glasses for the PC, pain in the ass to set up, could only get DOOM 3 to play sort of correctly. and all the games that came with it were old 80s arcade game knock offs.

Ive been wanting one of these for time! would work a treat for reading digital books and comics and also horizontal movie time too!

5:37 That "something on the screen" is the visual adjustment distance from your eyes to set it so you don't experience that cross-eyes/eye strain at 8:12

>"Your eyes will literally explode if you use this" How did this ever get sent out onto store shelves?!

It kind of looks like Geordi La Forge's VISOR from "Star Trek". It's really neat.

My elementary school friend had a pair of these... and I remember how much they hurt my eyes still 20 years later.

The earbuds look like the Sony Fontopia series that used to come with Discmans and stuff. They are very comfortable with foamy bits on them. I have a pair that sound amazing.

This video made me wanna play Burnout Revenge. Thumbs up for that.

I remember I wanted one back in the early 2000's really bad. Too expensive at the time though. good thing I didn't get one, my vision would probably be jacked up from using these

I sit patiently waiting like you at the start of the video... to just hear the word "greetings" and make my day.

when I saw you get those in a LRG thrifts epp I was hoping to see a review. I would LOVE to find one of these cheap like you did. I find tech like this fascinating. Thanks for reviewing them

3 hours auto shut off..... O.o I can't imagine using that for more than 3 minutes...

I love how it starts positive then gradually gets more and more negative

I remember reading about this one in a PSM magazine or something like that. Man, you got way lucky finding it in the wild!

Wow I used to want a pair of these so bad in the early 2000s. Even tried to find some that needed repair and still were too expensive. Thanks for the video!

the cross eyed eye strain feeling might be a result of it not having interocular distance adjustment... as in... setting the distance between the screens to match the distance of your eyes. Or does it have that adjustment?

slogan be like "Hey, kid! Wanna go blind? That rocks!"

I still have this. I bought it to go with my Dreamcast custom carrying case for Dreamcast play-on-the-go some 15 years ago. I haven't used it in years, because I remember it was somewhat grainy in resolution compared to today's standards, though I remember when it first came out that it was pretty incredible- feeling like it projected a 60 inch 4:3 screen about 5 feet away. I felt at the time the Glasstron was the best way for Dreamcast personal play. And it looked better than some of the other glasses-displays at the time, with its futuristic Tron like appearance. Definitely drew a lot of questions, and friends wanting to try it out.

Automatic Volume Limiter System. You'd find it on Sony portable music players (discman, minidisc walkman etc) as well. Actually even on the PSP.

Your channel is simply great! So sincere you speak about all this, so interesting and authenthic information. Good luck with the channel! Pure pleasure to watch!

I had a pair of these when I was in the air force in the late 90s. I went on a lot deployments where we couldn't bring tvs, or even had room for tvs in our quarters. Video games and movies are nice when deployed in remote areas.

Benchwhatching your videos dude. Amazing catalog.

Looks like it came from ready player one.

The health warnings apply to most smartphone screen's: Eye damage!!! xD

Pretty cool man, I'd like to try a pair.

Sounds like something I'd go ahead and grab even if just for a conversation piece.

Neat!

Sony is great for making beautiful obsolete electronics. I keep my old mini disc player around for just that reason.😎

They do look freaking cool! The video thumbnail was super cool looking, haha. :D I figure the more mainstream the VR headsets get, the flashier they'll get.

yesss ive been waiting since you uploaded the pic on fb!

"AVLS=Automatic Volume Limiter System"...like described in my Sony MD-manual^^

What kind of tv is that Clint? It looks great!

I just watched the Thrifts video where you found this, and now you're doing a review of it!

I was hoping you would make a video about this piece of hardware after seeing it in LGR Thrifts. Great video! Definitely a cool... Thing. Lol

LGR where did you get that shirt i love Jeff Goldblum

Did you try them without your glasses to see if the eye-strain was still a thing?

i remember when you found this on thrifts ive been waiting for this video .... thanks for the upload

I remember seeing these as a kid and wanting them so badly. Never managed to get a pair, but going from this video I dotn think I missed much.

Hello LGR! I was watching some of your videos where you build really old PC's, and going through some of my own computer "junk" I have found a single core Athlon 64 3200+. I have its motherboard, memories, a xfx 8800 gt, basically just missing a hard drive a power supply and a case. Before I go through with buying all of these and maybe a better video card as well, I want to know something from you. What can I do with it? I thought of maybe making a dedicated XP machine to play old games, but it can run games up to what year exactly?

You could make a VR headset of it if you add trackir to it..

Always wanted to try one of these

“Everything starts with a Ooh & Aah then later there’s the running & dying” Props to the Malcolm tee! 😍

Quite unusual that this was built as a portable media solution, yet it requires either an A/V or S-Video, I can't imagine there was anything other than a video camera that could actually drive these and still remain "portable" in the 1990's.

This is probably the wrong place to make suggestions, but there really isn't another place to do it, so here goes. I want an episode on eGames. Anyone remember eGames from the 90s-Early 2000s? I'm currently having a nostalgia binge on their software.

Just before im even watching the video, they look amazing!

I remember using something similar to this from Olympus. It was called the Eye-Trek FMD-200. When they sent me a loaner unit I used it to test out movies on my PS2.

How the hell did you get a Playstation VR early?

Who’s watching this after the release of the vision pro? 👇

lol when he uses those glasses the reverb man! If you have good headphones it is crazy!.

awe yeah! i was waitin for this one!

The earpieces go into your ears.....for sound.

Using a Sony object with the original Xbox seems very VERY weird.

Haha awesome I'm not surprised you made a vid on this thing. Thanks mate!

You look super awesome with those on man.

For when you want to be cooler than JC Denton.

Love the Jeff Goldblum shirt :D

um, Hi LGR. I enjoy the wonderful adventures of the 90's, look at the old footage of old PC DOS games, and test out amazing 90's products.

Wow I'm early! Nice video, always love watching them.

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