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The Story of Virtuality | Nostalgia Nerd

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Ever since I laid eyes on these wondrous cyberpunk like machines in the 90s, I was captivated. Huge pod like booths, connected to massive, bright headsets seemed like the future; Virtual Reality seemed like the future. In a way it was, because W Industries and Virtuality created something pretty staggering for the 90s. Here was VR which worked, it was immersive and even better, it was affordable, meaning arcades, leisure centres and theme parks were quick to get their own pods installed. So join me on a personal quest of enthralment, as I look at the company and machines behind the original Virtual Reality boom of the 1990s.
Useful links;
Octav1us' RU-vid: nnerd.es/Octav1us
Retro Computer Museum Leicester: nnerd.es/RCM
Simon's Retro VR Page: nnerd.es/RetroVR
Virtuosity Systems: virtuositytech....
Virtuality: nnerd.es/Virtu...
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♜Resources♜
Many thanks to Simon Marston for providing a huge swathe of resources and archive information, as well as providing access to his incredible Virtuality systems.
Further information: www.retro-vr.co.uk
Zero Hour Footage: • Zero Hour (Virtuality ...
Sega's Collab: segaretro.org/...
Specs: www.arcadianvr...
VR Numbers: web.archive.or...
2000 specs: wiki.skullspace...
Jagcube: jagcube.atari.o...
News article: www.cbronline....
VR Timeline: www.pebblestud...
Elysium: www.cbronline....
Insights: kernelmag.dail...
Historical account of Virtuality: vrtifacts.com/w...
Kotaku account: kotaku.com/the...
Story outline: www.vrs.org.uk...
VR User Discussion: forums.oculusv...
If you believe I have forgotten to attribute anything in this video, please let me know, so I can add the source in. It takes time to make these videos and therefore it can be easy to forget things or make a mistake.

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21 авг 2024

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Комментарии : 2,1 тыс.

@armbusk 5 лет назад

man as a modern VR user i'm so happy for the work these people did back in the day

@newrockerofficial294 4 года назад

Straight up they deserve our respect, they've earned it.

@matthewlane518 3 года назад

They worked hard so we could play scary VR games, but when you piss yourself in VR you piss yourself FOR REAL!

@andrewigley3931 3 года назад

The sacrifices they have made for furries on VRChat

@gram. 3 года назад

@@andrewigley3931 first time I tried that out, very first 'room' I entered I saw two _characters_ in suspicious positions and performing _suspicious_ actions... I heard the girl say "i thought the people who done this stuff were weird, I don't know how I feel, I'm wondering who am I, I feel like I don't even know myself" I am paraphrasing, but I swear she said something similar meaning to this, and, she sounded YOUNG. I mean early teens young. The guy? He sounded older, like 20s to mid 20s older. I said to him "wtf is this, you degenerate, tf are you doing" and he replied "when was the last time you spoke to a girl" yeh fr, I said "well, prob a few months ago.... but this isn't real" I didn't get the chance to finish my reply before he thought he had one over me and says "yeah, exactly" and I assume he blocked or muted me... What that girl said though, that has stuck with me, I really believe that weirdo took advantage of her and she felt somewhat _used_

@High.on.Life_DnB 3 года назад

@@matthewlane518 lmfao!

@themekon 5 лет назад

This is a very high quality episode. It looks and feels less like a RU-vid video, and more like a produced documentary. I’ve been making Uk tv shows for the past 20 years, and I know how effort goes into crafting something like this. Good work, and looking forward to watching more, Nick

@Nostalgianerd 5 лет назад

Thanks very much Nick!

@DenkyManner 5 лет назад

@@danielfinley-pesti6661 stop being a weird dick

@TheGauges420 5 лет назад

@@danielfinley-pesti6661 what a little baby you are. You know there's a certain age you're supposed to be to create a RU-vid account right? You are well under that age clearly.

@rorschach5510 5 лет назад

@@danielfinley-pesti6661 what the hell is your problem asshole?

@rxchelb9436 5 лет назад

Hi Pete, itz me Rachel

@2.7petabytes 4 года назад

I worked on and with both the standup and sit down Virtuality VR systems from 91-93! I worked for Edison Brothers in their entertainment division called Exhilarama. I literally spent days and weeks playing, using and doing minor repairs of these machines. I had the high score on kills in 3 minutes on Dactyl Nightmare! What a blast from the past!! THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO!!! Edit: we had a fully functional version of Legend Quest that was installed but wasn’t available to the general public to play. I got to spend hours playing that one as well!

@CaymanIslandsCatWalks Год назад

I remember like a biplane or plane shooting one. Was cool

@JustTuningIn Год назад

I remember playing it at Great America 6 flags.

@RogueA.I. Год назад

Me and and bunch of college buddies headed down to the local mall to play Dactyl Nightmare the minute it showed up. Man what a rush. It was funny to watch people from the outside of the circle cage crouching and hiding behind nothing.

@ADreamingTraveler Год назад

Did you expect VR to get to the point it has today or did you think we'd be way further ahead than we currently are now?

@davidswanson5669 Год назад

@@ADreamingTraveler I don’t know if you’ll get a response from him. Last I heard, he got sucked into modern VR and hasn’t emerged since. Rest assured he’s bagging all the high scores wherever he is.

@neonvoid Год назад

This was my very first VR experience around 1992. It was life changing. Then nothing for decades until oculus came around.

@mistrdevine Год назад

Me too! Got to play Dactyl Nightmare at Epcot Center over 3 decades ago. Wild.

@benjamink7105 Год назад

I remember I tried it once at a mall. It was an airplane game. It took me a second to realize you could just look to the side. You could look all around and the image would change like you were there. It wasn't just a tv screen strapped to your face.

@neonvoid Год назад

@@benjamink7105 I was playing in that airplane game, as far as I remember the goal was to land on a carrier ship in the ocean. It was incredible. There was also a space game, but the airplane simulator was the most impressive by far.

@dingdongbells3314 5 лет назад

It's interesting how the Virtuality proves that even with the most primitive, low-resolution graphics, if you have accurate enough head tracking, and an at least okayish FPS, you can give a compelling VR experience.

@Nordlicht05 5 лет назад

I have seen a medical video with patients who had fear of hights. They used car for that. The grafic was like dos aera and it totally worked in showing the fear.

@GELTONZ 5 лет назад

@@Nordlicht05 I can also confirm this still works. Played Batman Arkham VR and at the scene where Batman interrogates the Penguin on top of a skyscraper I was shouting "BATMAN YOU STUPID FUCKING IDIOT WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?! WHAT PART OF YOU THOUGHT PERCHING ON A ROOFTOP WAS A GOOD IDEA?!". But yeah, the 3D effect with adequate depth can make you feel very high up. I don't doubt that even with flat shaded simple shapes people would feel like they're standing on a building block hundreds or even thousands of feet off the ground.

@Battleneter 5 лет назад

VR today STILL has the same big issues, mainstream developers are largely ignoring it due to a small user base, the small user base is slow to expand due to a lack of high quality content from developers . In addition people still get sick, and the tether is hard to eliminate etc. The graphics have had very little to do with the the success or failure of VR, VR is the future and it always will be:P

@rorschach5510 5 лет назад

@@Battleneter only a select number of people get sick and even then it goes away after awhile.

@Battleneter 5 лет назад

@@rorschach5510 That's not true as per thousands of forum threads. Many people never get their VR legs.

@kramne 5 лет назад

I'm honored to be a part of this episode! Polygon nightmare is my love contribution to a near lifelong dream of VR. I put 4 years of dev work into it. I had no experience of developing before i started out, painstakingly to map out the only demo video i could find on youtube from that time (present in other part of this video). You made my day with this masterpiece of nostalgia and new footage of "the real deal" from the retro computer museum. Best regards / Fredrik Enmark, Dev. Polygon Nightmare.

@kramne 5 лет назад

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HsTF-OWezPw.html 😅

@mano123456 5 лет назад

Amazing work! I played Dactyl Nightmare back in 1992 at the Picadilly Circus arcade in London... The Virtuality rigs were in the middle of a huge room on the first floor if I'm not mistaken. I was so inspired! 12 years old! I traveled back to London several summers in a row, and this was a highlight of my stays there. I died instantly when I played, but that did not matter. Decades later, I have worked in VR and AR for several years, living the dream :)

@peterc3619 5 лет назад

Thank you for your contribution 👍🏽

@CloroxBleach0 4 года назад

will polygon nightmare be available on steam as well?

@ian_b 4 года назад

@@mano123456 Me and two colleagues spent a lot of money on the Virtuality machines at that arcade, it was the Trocadero. They had Total Destruction then Exorex on 4 networked cabinets in the basement, Flying Aces and Dactyl Nightmare on the 1st Floor.We played a hell of a lot of Exorex and Total Destruction.

@kidkanuck 5 лет назад

"When VR was 20 frames per a second" VRChat players: That sounds awesome

@spookattz4171 4 года назад

as a vr chat player i can confirm that 13 fps is impressive

@JanJanJanJanJanJanJanJanJan2 4 года назад

Tbh i never dropped below 90 fps in VRChat.

@HaplessOne 4 года назад

@@JanJanJanJanJanJanJanJanJan2 most people including me who have played or play vr chat last time I checked had entry level equipment, with most playing on desktop. Those that had vr a lot of the time had the bare minimum of what was needed which is what I basically had. There was of course the select few that had full body and pretty much ace gaming pcs. You need a good pc, even though vrchat in itself is a pretty low quality game when it comes to graphics, because no one ever optimizes their avatars when creating them in unity/blender. I learned this the hard way when I made an avatar, installed a bunch of hair physics and clothing physics, and realized that when looking into the mirror my fps tanked. I fixed it, but most people either dont have the know how or are to lazy to do so themselves. Edit: it's hilarious though because I play skyrimvr with 60+ mods, 4k textures, and a decent enb. And its runs 10x smoother than vrchat ever does.

@ThePaperKhan 4 года назад

My first time with vr was at an arcade. It was a blast! Will never forget it.

@JanJanJanJanJanJanJanJanJan2 4 года назад

@@HaplessOne even back when i had my 1070ti i had zero issues. The 2080ti doesn't even spin up the fans in VRChat.

@Wignut 4 года назад

12:50 This was technically the first VR let's play ever recorded.

@Jaw0lf 5 лет назад

Firstly it was great having you visit us at the Retro Computer Museum. Loving the detail in your videos, incredible how much information you managed to find. My First VR experience back in 1998 at Disney Quest in Walt Disney World. They had Aladdins Magic Carpet Ride and Ride the Comix that both used very large VR helmets suspended from the ceiling! Similar graphic detail to the Virtuality machines

@joeclarkey 5 лет назад

Jawolf can’t wait to visit and check them out myself.

@electronash 5 лет назад

There was an episode of Bad Influence where they visted Disney, and looked at the tech behind the magic carpet thing. I think it was Violet Berlin who did that bit, or it might have been Z Wright? I can't find the clip atm, but I'm sure it's out there.

@QuickBits 5 лет назад

I experienced VR at Disney Quest in 2002. The graphics where very very dated back then. The headsets were very heavy as well, I had to use my hands to turn my head side-to-side.

@seraphina985 4 года назад

Think I'll have to plan on making a visit at some point probably will plan to stop by for a visit on the way back from my Dad's some time can kill two birds with one stone and save on overpriced rail fares making a detour from Derby heh.

@Loundsify 3 года назад

Are you still running? I hope covid hasn't stop the museum from existing :(

@benbaselet2026 5 лет назад

"Do you remember when 3D hit the theaters" will get a definite yes from everyone. Since that particular event has happened at least once for every single generation after the war :-)

@muffy7268 5 лет назад

What

@KaiserMattTygore927 5 лет назад

Pretty much. 50's 70's 80's 00's the 2020's will do the same thing.

@awesomeferret 4 года назад

Thank you for pointing that out. It really annoys me that the top comment here isn't one complaining about his embarrassing error claiming that 3D Cinema started in the 80s. All he had to do was Google it... SMH

@penfold7800 4 года назад

I remember, back in the 1980s, when the BBC aired a specially adapted black and white movie that you could watch in virtual3d with the special glasses from inside the Radio Times. They had yellow and blue lenses. Not the standard red and blue.

@FIXTREME 4 года назад

@@KaiserMattTygore927 have people really forgotten Avatar and all those gimmick movies from the 10's? I mean, Avatar sucked... but it was so recent🤔

@Thanatos2996 4 года назад

The "Sword of Damocles" is an interesting name for a VR headset. It makes it sound like a wonderful experience that can go horribly, fatally awry at any moment if you know the story.

@Agencetourix Год назад

It was just named so because of the way it dangles over the user's head. Nothing particularly deep.

@singleproppilot Год назад

It’s also a great Trivium song.

@Thanatos2996 Год назад

@@singleproppilot I don’t think ITCOTD was even out when I left this comment, but agreed.

@chrislaws4785 Год назад

Back in the 90s i actually got to play one of those early MONSTER VR headsets and actually played that "Dactyl Nightmare" game. Just having to be put inside that circular ring thing and then having this massive headset with all it's wires and cables coming off it put on your head, really made you FEEL like it was the future.

@RichardServello 5 лет назад

I played Dactyl nightmare when I was a kid and was blown away. I'm so happy the VR future is finally here!

@damianvila 5 лет назад

Same! It blew me away as a kid... I was like looking at the future in the eye.

@HotRodHippie 5 лет назад

I played it at an amusement park when I was a kid. My best friend and I were gamers and played against each other. It was a blast even if the graphics we're worse than what we were playing at the time

@Mikey48ish 5 лет назад

Me too. My first experience with VR was playing Dactyl nightmare and I was hooked. Now I have a PSVR and an Oculus Rift and am so thankful that the technology has advanced to the point that I can now have my own VR system at home.

@RichardServello 5 лет назад

@@Mikey48ish I'm floored that I can carry my quest in my laptop bag and use it anywhere.

@MonochromeWench 5 лет назад

its a shame the company died just as the 3d accelerated revolution was beginning in the pc world.

@queenbiscuit311 5 лет назад

MonochromeWench if they had stuck around a *bit* longer VR arcades could be more of a commodity. And since they’re arcade cabinets and you’re not buying them yourself they could’ve created even more cutting edge stuff.

@djhenyo 5 лет назад

It's not really a shame. "If only we had better field of view... If only we had higher resolution... If only we had better frame rate... If only we had 3-D positional audio... If only we had faster refresh rates... If only we had detailed shaders... If only we had greater polygon counts..." Twenty years later, with all of those things fully realized, the consensus remains that this shit sucks! VR where you stick a thing on to cover your eyes/face has always been and will always be garbage. It's only fun for about 15 minutes before you want to rip the fucking thing off. Everybody wants the holodeck from TNG, and anything less than a convincing version of that will always be a failure.

@0Asterite0 5 лет назад

@@djhenyo how's it feel being so wrong guy?

@djhenyo 5 лет назад

@@0Asterite0 Sorry you bought the thousand-dollar Vive, Oculus, or other VR helmet.

@argos142 5 лет назад

@@djhenyo What makes you say that? There are loads of great VR titles to play and experiences out there. Google Earth in VR is an amazing way to explore the globe digitally.

@nocturne6320 4 года назад

They had haptic feedback gloves with individual finger tracking back in 90s and we had to wait till 2019 to get Valve Index

@smittyvanjagermanjenson182 3 года назад

Yeah I was pretty baffled by the haptic gloves as well. Like I know companies that are working on the same air bubble finger tracked gloves today, but why they aren't already available is ludicrous.. the 90s must have been the future lol

@xXYannuschXx Год назад

Pretty insane how advanced Virtuality's stuff was, considering the tech they had on their hands.

@bigstackD 3 года назад

Not sure how this one slipped through 🤔. Great upload matey 👊🏻😁

@kylergeorge137 3 года назад

Instablaster

@drakebell6784 2 года назад

Wasn't expecting my favorite Australian forge god here. Cheers

@jonnym4670 2 года назад

i remember as a kid going to electronic universe and trying on ahead seat and playing mech warrior for the first time it was horrible and weighted a ton i wanted some so bad but at a grand price tag it was too rich for me

@DPedroBoh 5 лет назад

"Yes, i believe we're in need of a wizard" Proceeds to make a thief character. Anyway, amazing tech for the time.

@justinspencer983 5 лет назад

Pedro Boh and a 6 foot dwarf character wizard as shown. Lol

@kaneo1 4 года назад

Thief is a mathomancer. He makes your stuff get subtracted and his multiplied.

@HistoricaHungarica 4 года назад

Because: she's a troll.

@TotallyBCK 4 года назад

@@justinspencer983 vyvhcdug

@TotallyBCK 4 года назад

Ooooooo yesss, keep going baby.

@AFnord 5 лет назад

This video makes it clear that the word "internaut" is long overdue for a comeback!

@icurnvs776 5 лет назад

Correct. I completely agree!

@MoonlightEmbrace 5 лет назад

Small bit of trivia: its always been used in Romania, it never died here.

@wolf3dv 5 лет назад

MoonlightEmbrace Same in Lithuania, it's still relatively popular

@nessotrin 5 лет назад

Same in France

@Lightblue2222 5 лет назад

And virtuality

@GregsGameRoom 4 года назад

Disney had some cool VR attractions at DisneyQuest in Orlando. A comics based one where you swung a lightsabre at enemies while in a fast moving vehicle and an Aladdin themed magic carpet ride. Another one I liked (that didn’t use the helmet) was a Pirates of the Caribbean attraction where you ride a boat shooting cannons and you are almost completely surrounded by screen. But my FAVORITE attraction was where you and three friends pilot a giant mechanical spider to rescue colonists on an alien world. So incredible!

@Kevin-jb2pv 3 года назад

The most interesting thing is how even back then they understood intimately that latency was _the_ thing that made VR bearable.

@adamrak7560 3 года назад

Latency is much harder to tackle than graphical quality. You cannot just throw computing resources at the problem, you have to design smart. Wireless communication makes it even worse. But you can cheat with it a little, for example the image is interpolated according to the head movements on the head set. So the latency of the reaction to head movements is _less_ than the wireless link. This means that a wireless VR headset should have some rendering capability. This actually helped the Oculus Quest to become a wireless PC VR headset, because originally it was designed as a standalone with lots of computing resources locally.

@nomaschalupas2453 Год назад

That’s not really hard to figure out….first person who got motion sickness would of figured it.

@BallyBoy95 Год назад

@@nomaschalupas2453 lmao

@evolicious Год назад

TBF, that's how presence works. You need extremely low latecny and high framerate in order to trick your brain into thinking the virtual world is real.

@philliphansen9096 5 лет назад

I miss the 80s and 90s, it was such an exciting time with new extraordinary innovations that blew our minds.

@fireaza 5 лет назад

Likewise, which is why I've really been enjoying being a part of early VR. In the 4 or so years that modern VR has been around, we've gone from a low-res headset that's intended to be used with a standard controller while sitting down, to a low-res headset designed to track the movements of your body and hands, to much higher res headset with a wider FOV and controllers that can track each of your fingers. It's pretty wild.

@Anipixelz 5 лет назад

As if new and exciting stuff isn't happening right now? It's hard to see while you are in the present but exciting shit is happening all the time, far more than ever before and it will keep getting faster and faster. Progression is a snowball affect.

@Nemoticon 5 лет назад

And it isn't now? Tell me, how many VR HMDs are on sale today?????? I love the 80s and 90s too, it's not like they were exclusive for the reasons you point out.

@adamrak7560 3 года назад

- VR is getting really good, high resolution displays combined with eye tracking is going to give us near realistic animation soon. - Hand tracking is getting actually usable without any extra hardware too. - speech recognition is actually usable now without extra training to adapt to the speaker. (it would be practically perfect with some speaker specific training, but that is too expensive to do in most cases) - Game NPCs are going to use GPT like neural networks to communicate as soon as it becomes computationally realistic. If you have played with A.I. Dungeon on Dragon model, you know that GPT-3 is _seriously_ smart, able to converse about practically any topic and roleplay as a character, its only practical weak point is that it cannot really make up coherent stories. But for NPCs in a game that is okay, the story is already written after all. The nice thing is about GPT like text generators is that they can be programmed with simple text input. Basically you write instructions (like context and backstory) in human language to customize the NPC, it takes relatively little effort to make a custom prompt for the neural net, and you have a NPC with a unique character.

@j0ellyfish 2 года назад

Exactly...I haven't seen anything new or special in 20 years.

@Christopher-N 5 лет назад

VR in the 90s: _The Lawnmower Man._ When Nintendo released _Star Fox_ ( _Starwing_ ), I thought for sure the two would be combined for the most exciting gaming experience.

@bt3743 3 года назад

Star fox vr in the 90s sounds like the most vomit inducing thing ever. Imagine the motion sickness

@cmelton6796 3 года назад

@@bt3743 Do a barrel roll! dies

@fandangobrandango7864 Год назад

Why starfox? It wasn't the first 3d game, there were many before it, there were even 3d polygonal games on consoles before it

@Christopher-N Год назад

@@fandangobrandango7864: Timing-because of WHEN the two products were available. Nintendo wowed audiences with Mode 7 on the SNES, and _Star Fox_ was meant to showcase it. I had played earlier polygon MS-DOS games, but they don't even come close to the same experience. An earlier dedicated machine might manage it, but it wouldn't be affordable for average consumer before the 1990s.

@ay-leck1369 5 лет назад

I still remember when VR was an insane fantasy of the future back when the Rift DK1 was made sometime 2013. I thought to myself "Wow, VR will really be something we genuinely could use in the future." Of course by 'future' I meant maybe within the next 20 to 50 years, not just 5 years time. Now with products like the Valve Index with it's advanced controllers or the Oculus Quest being a completely standalone headset, I really feel like I'm living in the future. Now, I have no clue what the next 20 to 50 years could really hold.

@peterc3619 5 лет назад

Ay-Leck Aguirre in 20 or 50 years, we’ll have something like ready player one where it’s a full body and mind immersion with suits that tap into our nerve system so we can feel what goes on in the vr

@justghostie4948 4 года назад

@@peterc3619 Only if we can annoy Elon enough to work on Neuralink faster

@peterc3619 4 года назад

Just Ghostie right?🤦🏻‍♂️

@smittyvanjagermanjenson182 3 года назад

More powerful stand alone HMDs, better haptics. Lol

@kronisrift3466 5 лет назад

The Legend Quest show for Tomorrow's World was filmed in Hickory in Nottingham. I helped film this, they got four of us to go around the dungeon, they asked for different parts to be filmed separately, it took about two hours. They then got the presenter to film later the same day and we stayed while he was there in case they needed more footage. I remember the presenter fell over the cables after he left the booth, he had a strope afterwards, their cameraman said he was a Pratt. When playing the game you had a USB type key which you paid for, this had your character on it so you could come back each week, I still have mine. I had forgotten about the shop this was at, funny looking back. Cheers for the footage.

@thedungeondelver 5 лет назад

"When internauts are online, what's their favorite activity?" Shitposting, Carl. It's shitposting.

@_Piers_ 5 лет назад

....and declaring that other internauts are literal Nazis.

@Mopantsu 5 лет назад

@@_Piers_ gotta stick it to those huwite supremazists right?

@TokyoXtreme 5 лет назад

Mopantsu As a white person, white supremacy is the biggest danger facing our modern world. My rabbi agrees.

@tHeWasTeDYouTh 5 лет назад

no lads, you have it wrong. PORN and anime girls

@bravocado04 5 лет назад

@@tHeWasTeDYouTh thats what I was about to say but you beat me by a week, fuck

@WrestlingWithGaming 5 лет назад

Great, great, great, job! I love when you make long form docs and this one didn't disappoint.

@rockie8254 5 лет назад

Isn't this the WWG himself

@Nostalgianerd 5 лет назад

Many thanks dude.

@peterc3619 5 лет назад

I can’t believe I didn’t realize this was a 45 minute video. I thought it was like 15 minutes. I wanted more. It would be nice to continue with a part 2 and show the time line all the way up to present day with the valve index, oculus rift s and quest and the psvr

@SamChaneyProductions 4 года назад

This is some great content. I admit I was unaware that VR was so functional in the 90's. It's really impressive what Virtuality pulled off with the technology at hand, and that they were able to stay afloat and even flourish, if only for a time, with a cutting-edge tech offering.

@QunMang 5 лет назад

As an Amiga nerd back in the day I was quite pleased with the fact the local Virtuality systems were powered by the Amiga 3000. I don't remember playing anything other than (Terror) Dactyl Nightmare though, and only ever saw the stand-up unit.

@GeografiaDasCoisas 5 лет назад

Congratulations! Another masterpiece of the history of technology that, even in the age of overinformation, is being lost.

@Potandthekettle Год назад

I couldn't watch after he said that 3D was introduced in the 80's 🙄

@IbisFernandez 3 года назад

I remember when VR was roughly 1 frame per second or less. It was called a viewmaster. You had to pull the lever to move to the next frame.

@raven4k998 Год назад

oh you poor poor man you must have wished you could die from such low frame rate

@kooky2 Год назад

Lol!

@derezzed5588 3 года назад

I gotta say I am beyond impressed with what they were able to accomplish in this realm of technology back then.

@ericbazinga 5 лет назад

I'd love to find an old non-working stand-up Virtuality machine and put modern components inside it. Valve Index, VR treadmill, etc. Although room scale seems to be king nowadays, compared to treadmills.

@voidofspaceandtime4684 4 года назад

treadmill seems to be the much better option, it's just it's more expensive and would have to be repaired every so often.

@TheGunmanChannel 5 лет назад

Cool trip down memory lane. Really well presented mate, thanks for the awesome vid.

@richardwicks4190 3 года назад

Read and green glasses for 3d was done in the 1950's, if not before. The Creature from the Black Lagoon was done this way. That was 1954.

@RomBurns 4 года назад

I was about to make a comment asking where Cyberzone with Craig Charles was. And there it is. A wonderful strange example of mad 90s game show that I remember vividly.

@scottishwildcat 4 года назад

I was a UI designer for a VR company in the 90's that made software to allow complex CAD models to be viewed and edited collaboratively using these kind of VR headsets, as well as CAVEs and desktop workstations. It ran on SGI, HP and Sun kit, and was bought and used by the likes of Ford, Airbus and Harley-Davidson. They were acquired by one of the big CAD companies a few years later (which is when I was laid off, unfortunately) and are still working out of the same office in Bristol.

@duppy404 6 месяцев назад

That's incredible!

@TheFrenchy82 5 лет назад

I still remember the pain in the neck... due to the HEAVY weight of those VR headsets...! At least they improved the weight and the resolution. Now .. I keep thinking VR is more a "gadget"... right now !

@LetsTakeWalk 5 лет назад

TheFrenchy82 My poor little 11 year old head could not handle the weight and it constantly tilted on the side. How far we’ve come.

@rorschach5510 4 года назад

@@LetsTakeWalk lol

@ctrlaltdude 5 лет назад

I played Zone Hunter in an arcade back then. Really amazing stuff. Years later I was able buy a VFX1 headset but never got it to work properly. Still have all the hardware though. I really hope someone releases Zone Hunter for the Oculus Rift. Then I can finally play the game a bit longer than 5 minutes...

@vaxick 5 лет назад

Those VR machines are forever imprinted into my memories. I remember seeing the standup ones at a local theatre and being amazed. Saw a huge room full of the sit down and standup ones later when visiting Chicago as a kid where I also saw the infamous Battletech battle pods. I was was fortunate as a child to take a behind the scenes look at Aladdin VR at Disney when we were invited by employees to a demonstration. That era was fascinating and made me forever hope for a VR future.

@masaharumorimoto4761 5 лет назад

That Atari Research logo is the primordial skadaddle skadoodle...

@tmacmc2984 5 лет назад

I was the gatekeeper of the boxing version of a Virtuality machine when I lived and worked over in Jersey in 94. It was housed in Forte Regent. I was nowhere near as big a gamer as I am today but I still liked games and was awaiting the release of the PS1 with anticipation. It's quite telling then that even though I could have as many goes as I wished during quiet times I only played it twice. They were pretty underwhelming if you ask me.

@TikiShootah 5 лет назад

I just Love how any commerical in the 80s regarding the future, is just immidately dystopian.

@_Piers_ 5 лет назад

Yeah...and it's looking increasingly accurate :(

@BuddhaPhi 4 года назад

Such an informative episode! I still own an Amiga 3000 and 4000 that I picked up free in 2001 from a local science museum that previously used them to run some of these early VR systems in the 90s. They had lots of weird capture boards installed with jumper wires going directly to solder points on the motherboards.

@Nemoticon 5 лет назад

Anyone remember the 32-bit Nintendo Virtual Boy in '95? When I had a go on my mate's one, it absolutely did my head in, an aweful experience... still legandary though, lol. I've had a couple of headsets myself since, VR has come on a long way and is only going to get better. I can't wait until they're basically contact lenses.

@Sarahm2261 4 года назад

Dude would we even be alive for contact lenses vr o.o

@Nemoticon 4 года назад

@@Sarahm2261 Dude, there are people alive today who remember a world without computers and digital devices............ wake up, lol

@Sarahm2261 4 года назад

@@Nemoticon so the tech will advance that fast in 100 years? That was just the question sorry if I offend you

@Nemoticon 4 года назад

@@Sarahm2261 Less than... easy.

@monstrogoth 5 лет назад

Great video ! About the idea of mixing a real character in a 3D environment, I've done something similar for an industrial client that wanted their employees to train on physical model, but immersed in a 3D reconstruction of their real-life working environment. This was needed because their employees had very short time to do their work and they had to train just in time before doing it for real. I used a HTC Vive VR headset and mounted on it a webcam and use a green background to manage the superimposition of the model and the real hands of the employee inside the 3D virtual world. I also added some sounds recorded in their real workplace and added the possibility for an external person to talk directly in the audio helmet to the employee. That was a very interesting project. We called this concept Augmented Virtuality.

@luska5522 4 года назад

Amazing

@B33FY2011 5 лет назад

This was an amazing episode. This took me back to the early 90's when VR was seen a lot on TV. Programs that you featured in this video used either used VR or promoted it in some. Shows like Gamesmaster, Knightmare, Bad Influence and such. I remember I was only about 6 maybe 7 when I first seen VR and I had no clue what the term VR or even Virtual Reality stood for or meant. All I could remember was seeing those Virtuality headsets on Gamesmaster and thinking about how cool they looked. But as fast as they seemed to be gaining attention they were dead and seemed to fade into obscurity. This was a great trip down memory lane for me thanks for this amazing look at history.

@jimjones994 5 лет назад

The movie theater that I worked at in the 90's had this, was amazing to me when I first tried it.

@CoolTI-Daniel 3 года назад

I am blown away at what they accomplished with such old hardware. Very impressive. People don't realize that a modern phone runs at 4 or 8 cpu cores of 2000Mhz with 3000 to 8000MB of ram While those old VR machines were with CPU's between 10 to 33mhz, 8mb of ram and of course utilized the early days of graphics cards... also with very little videoram.

@AnonymousCaveman 5 лет назад

That red dwarf episode is amazing 😅 love your video btw. The quality is fantastic ❤️

@th3d3wd3r 5 лет назад

i watched this episode on my rift as a mark of vr respect. I also typed this comment on a vr keyboard 8)

@08pipster 5 лет назад

Epic.

@second2050 5 лет назад

>typing on a vr keyboard..... that must have been a pain in the ass to do...

@th3d3wd3r 5 лет назад

@@second2050 Actually it was a piece of cake. Oculus have done good work on the virtual keyboard. It's basically like typing with two fingers. Although I do wonder what typing with the knuckles controller from the index is like 8)

@stonedsavage7814 5 лет назад

@@th3d3wd3r oculus keyboard is pretty good i found it natural tge first time i used it even beatsabres keyboard is nice to use.

@markd8799 5 лет назад

And i’m having a virtual shit... isn’t technology great?

@martinsawkins461 4 года назад

I worked there in 92, worked on Flying Aces and Legend Quest :)

@dave1the1deer1hunter 4 года назад

Brings back memories of Lister earing out the groinal attachment on Red Dwarf

@whollymindless 5 лет назад

I can't wait for Octavius' take on all this. Thanks for the capture of history and to the museum for the preservation.

@DevinGates 5 лет назад

I was following along with the story until I heard her cackling in the set. Now all I wanna hear is her take :D

@marcinagy6468 5 лет назад

at 01:13 I immediately i recognised the official "messiest hairdo on youtube" TM, I knew there's gonna be an Octavius video as well :)

@mikedrop4421 4 года назад

@Gareth Fairclough You forgot "Gubbins, gubbins, gubbins. Gubbins gubbins. Gubbins, gubbins and gubbins. Gub-gub-guuubins gubbins gubbins gubbins gubbins gubbins GUBBINS!" At which point she will switch to talking about the glorious INNER gubbins.

@willproctor7301 5 лет назад

So much nostalgia. So much graphics. "Build us a borg thesp" you had me at that. Then Octav1us popped up looking So beautiful. Epic ...

@saraaskeloph283 5 лет назад

Hey, I work at the leicster retro gaming museum, im glad to hear you enjoyed the virtuality, great job on the video

@hithere1435 4 года назад

Wow I wish I could see it but I live in Estonia

@WillmobilePlus 3 года назад

The one made for NASA was the one I saw as a teenager. It fired my imagination like little else. I even tried making my own device from bits and parts! Actually got a crude thing working before I reached the limits of what a 14 year old could make on their own. Today I have an Oculus Rift, Gear VR, and have made my own contraptions still trying to have the best VR experience.

@DamienTTube 5 лет назад

Whoa this episode from the Nostalgia Nerd was virtually amazing

3 года назад

But how close is it to *virtuality?* 😜

@AcornElectron 5 лет назад

They had two of these at Tower Park in Bournemouth in 91/92. They were in the bowling alley though not the underfloor arcade. I remember it being about £2 and bloody jerky. A biplane game I think... Keep up the good work fella!

@robertsharp1511 4 года назад

This was really cool. I remember actually using these in a fair back in the day. It was my first experience with VR and it blew my young mind.

@GirlyGamer-BoardGameGran 4 года назад

Amazing video. I was more taken aback by the use of compressed air haptics in this than anything else, I can't believe they had that then and we are still working with it now. Crazy. Imagine all the Quest whiners if that was the headset weight hahaha.

@lemonscampi 5 лет назад

After trying one of these in the early 90's i looked forward to what it would become, didn't realize i would have to wait over quarter of a century to try it again.

@thomaspleacher2735 5 лет назад

This was a very informative and well researched video. I enjoyed watching it.

@MagicalGirlUsagi 5 лет назад

I remember my first ‘virtual reality’ experience as a kid, it was this strangle rollercoaster machine. You’d get inside, be strapped in safely, and then they’d close the doors. It was essentially a cart that was bolted to the floor, but would shake you about. It didn’t use VR headsets though, but rather a small television which displayed to the viewer a rollercoaster cart moving through space as the cart shook. And since you had literal rollercoaster bars and were cut off from the outside world, I remember being astounded as a kid- it felt so real to me. This was at some massive science museum in my state, and I loved going to this museum just for this ‘ride’.

@andrewgoss1682 5 лет назад

I had a very similar experience; however, it was a flight simulator. The whole thing would lift up, tilt, yaw, pitch, all that. Pretty cool stuff. You could go completely upside down

@Privrf 4 года назад

Loved the Better than Life clip from Red Dwarf!

@itwsntme 5 лет назад

Fantastic work, thorough, well researched and entertaining. More like this please!

@mikemayberry7121 5 лет назад

Very well done! That was a PBS quality documentary. This is definitely one of the best retro-gaming channels on RU-vid. It was also nice to see Octav1ous make a cameo! You guys are such perfect couple. Was that your little'n watching you play the old VR game? That's really sweet. I wish you folks all the best. And keep up the great work, both of you!👍👍

@noisecrime 4 года назад

Thank you so much for this great documentary. I remember playing Exorex in the mid 90's in a local games arcade in the UK. It was the seated Virtuality experience, which emulated the classic physical Mech controller scheme of a joystick/HOTAS one for each hand. It was great fun but often all to brief an experience and a bit expensive for me to play much at the time. Don't remember the frame rate being much of a problem, though it did amuse me to watch other people playing who never moved their head at all - I don't think they really understood the concept of VR ;)

@psmithrpm Год назад

An oh-so-excellent documentary, thank you! Here's another bit of interesting and perhaps forgotten history: I attended what I believe was the first "open to the public" VR/AR Conference in San Jose, California, in 1990 or '91. Back then "AR" often meant "Artificial Reality," but also "Augmented Reality," although depending on who you talked to, both definitions were in play. At the conference I also had the extreme pleasure and honor of meeting Dr. Jaron Lanier, who as your excellent documentary pointed out, coined the term "VR," along with many other concepts, words and terms that are now part of our lexicon. He gave me a private showing in his hotel suite of a wireframe VR system with haptic feedback running on an economic (for back then) network of Macs that was nothing short of incredible. The actual point of this note is that Dr. Lanier called his headset a "Data Phone" and the tactile feedback glove he'd invented and was experimenting with a "Data Glove." It's too bad these terms didn't stick, because I still find them quite imaginative and kind of fun.

@leebumble 5 лет назад

24:30 How she managed to resist typing, YES PLEASE in the Sex box, I'll never know!!

@HAWXLEADER 5 лет назад

@Pusalieth or because she is not American.

@MrCorrectify 4 года назад

@@HAWXLEADER Lemme just google the guy who wrote that joke..."Myers was born in Scarborough, Ontario, on May 25, 1963, the son of an English couple from the Old Swan area of Liverpool." Oof. Maybe don't be so insecure about whatever country you come from, it's not a good look.

@HAWXLEADER 4 года назад

@@MrCorrectify Who wrote what joke? The form field answering one? well it seems fit, because the US residents use the word gender instead so they wouldn't be able to make it. I'm from Israel being insecure is a second nature haha not really though, I just like to personally laugh at american culture.

@jong2359 4 года назад

@@MrCorrectify Flawless victory.

@ELPMCFlashFrame 5 лет назад

I played that first VR shooter on a San Francisco pier back in 1994/5... man good times.

@btr3k 5 лет назад

That could only have been the Pier 39 mega arcade... sadly no more.

@alexskull76 Год назад

wow thank you! when I'm telling friends I've tried VR in '95 nobody seems to trust me. I was a teenager and Virtuality opened a club in Florence at that time. What a dive back in time!

@Game_Hero 3 года назад

The one who did the subtitles in the music sections should get an award

@eternalise 5 лет назад

25:22 that kid in the background takes lounging to a whole other level.

@JamieCrookes 5 лет назад

Quality video, as always mate. I love the longer docos you produce. They are incredibly easy to watch.

@jamesgrimwood1285 5 лет назад

Yeah, I like the way the videos aren't just pieces of stock video with talking over the top, in that rambling "must keep talking or the viewers turn off" style that RU-vid is a bit full of. It's like watching an actual TV program. Very nice :)

@moseyburns1614 2 года назад

23:26 'Internauts.' Boy am I glad that didn't catch on. Great doc! It's fun to see how far tech has progressed. I feel like we're finally experiencing what the Nintendo Virtual Boy promised me as a child and spectacularly failed to deliver.

@ryan3730 Год назад

I saw the yellow one in London as a kid. Can’t wait for PSVR2 next week!!!

@Larry 5 лет назад

They had the jet fighter one in my local Future Zone in Ruislip. and Thorpe Park had two.

@peterobinson3678 5 лет назад

Hello, you!

@Jamie-yp7qz 5 лет назад

Oh hey, it's Guru Larry! I've been subscribed to your channel for years, keep up the good work!

@Larry 5 лет назад

@@Jamie-yp7qz aw, thanks bud!!!

@WorldCupWillie 3 года назад

I remember the spooky ride called Phantom Fantasia at Thorpe Park. Haven't been back in years.

@seanwarren9357 3 года назад

I believe this is the most chill comment I've found of yours. :P

@themekon 5 лет назад

Looking forward to watching this... I remember this company seemed so exciting at the time.. I also remember trying it at the Trocadero in London... and it was a bit of a let down... But is was the only real consumer vr at the time.. Gonna watch now, Nick

@eustacequinlank7418 5 лет назад

I felt like a bit of a numpti trying to play Dactyl Nightmare in front of hundreds. Nearly got to meet Julian Rignall though! He looked awkward and had a gathering of children around him. Was it about 1994? Edit: I didn't live in London at the time, Tocadero was the arcade? The time I tried it was at a trade convention, (like a CES) me and a friend went with our dads as they got invites, there were loads of kids and teenagers there though... and Rignall.

@Nostalgianerd 5 лет назад

Ahhh, Trocadero. What a place, what a time. I agree, I was more disappointed in the 90s than I am today.

@eustacequinlank7418 5 лет назад

@@Nostalgianerd My disappointment trying Virtuality was partially based on the fact someone had expelled their rectal miasma into the space prior.

@TheBrokenLife 5 лет назад

@@eustacequinlank7418 Someone farted so hard, in an open air environment, that it didn't clear out in time for your turn? That's hardcore...

@eustacequinlank7418 5 лет назад

@@TheBrokenLife Some people just part a cheek slightly and the room suffers.

@mailong.botega3040 4 года назад

This video deserves 10x more views than it currently has.

@rlanesports Год назад

Watching this while I wait for PSVR 2 to drop in one week. How far we've come.

@bitcoincryptofreedom3652 5 лет назад

This episode has excellent production quality, also very informative. Good work guys.

@meh78336 5 лет назад

After watching this, for some reason, I feel the need to watch the old Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy TV series :)

@EJRichardsonFubara 3 года назад

@DED DOA You got that feeling as well? Glad I wasn't the only one... :)

@depletable Год назад

I remember playing this at Virginia Beach in 92. I was 10, and was naturally impressed. I was convinced VR was right around the corner. Then the Virtual Boy came out and I felt like, "yeaaaah, we're getting there". Took an additional 20 years or so.

@davidjames579 2 года назад

As a 14 yr old I was lucky enough to play Virtuality's Boxing Game. 28 years on, I even remember the music! Anyway, what struck me most was how wherever you moved your head you could see different things. I was blown away that if you looked up you could see lights on the ceiling of the Boxing Arena!

@jakewisher4623 5 лет назад

I’m going to be super petty here but wasn’t the Power Glove from Mattel, not Nintendo :p

@GELTONZ 5 лет назад

Technically not even Mattel. Someone else did a video on the history of the Power Glove and it was infact from an early VR data glove company. VR hadn't really started yet so they needed a way to sell their product so they made a cheaper and simplified VR glove for the NES. The PROBLEM was more that you're trying to shoehorn VR glove compatibility onto games that were never built for it. I'd love to know how well Glove Ball worked as I think it was the only game truly MADE for the Power Glove. Regardless, I do remember a lot of people hacking Power Gloves and using them as cheap VR input devices back in the early 90s. That was a thing. I remember I had a book called "Virtual Reality Madness and More" which came with two CD ROMs full of VR crap and many of the programs on there supported the Power Glove.

@lillyanneserrelio2187 4 года назад

Pew pew. I digitized you both with my Nintendo zapper I stole from my brother's duck hunt game. Shiny metal armor on handsome guys forever. Go Captain Power!

3 года назад

In fairness this was only released as a Nintendo only compatible device... and it looked comically bad even back then!

@williamharris7795 5 лет назад

I was just gonna say how I tried out one of those VR headsets at a local computer history museum, but it turns out that's where you went XD. Great place, plenty of classic machines, I've got to go there again

@TheGadgetGod 5 лет назад

I really appreciate all of the effort you put into this video. Thank you for making it! 😍

@alkestos 3 года назад

I have unlimited respect for men like Simon. Preserving history for generations to come. We don't currently understand the value these machines will have in future. For some reason people don't seem to realise that before things become antique, they are old and boring for quite some time.

@tecteam 5 лет назад

Tried it at CES London in early 90’s, was a memorable experience shooting an enemy on a bridge above me. Looking up 🤪

@kuro68000 5 лет назад

Great video, thanks. The CRT filter is a bit annoying though.

@johneygd 5 лет назад

It’s indeed annoying such crt filters should be banned as you wouldn’t take benefit from the finer detail capable lcd screens.

@leebumble 5 лет назад

Your not wrong there, it makes my eye's go all googly (that's the precise medical term, GOOGLY)!!!

@himbeerme 5 лет назад

So much this. The clips shown are already grainy, no need to make them unwatchable.

@askjacob 5 лет назад

I imagine it is of a lot of help to prevent copyright strikes from the automagic youtube bots

@justanotheryoutubechannel 4 года назад

kuro68000 I love them and they help a lot with masking the awful quality of the VHS rips most of this old footage only exists as, but I wish the scanlines lines up properly as they simply just don’t for a lot of this episode. Some of them line up perfectly and it’s so annoying because that proves it could be done right, but for most of the video it just isn’t.

@skipatrolslayer 4 года назад

Oh man, this takes me back. I remember playing Dactyl Nightmare 2 way back when in a mall or something. I had a blast with it and couldn't believe something like it was possible at the time. Thanks for the nostalgia trip. :)

@BenMatthews1984 4 года назад

I remember having a go on the Virtuality unit at Alton Towers in 1994, I remember being totally amazed. I never understood why nothing seemed to publicly happen with it for 20+ years!

@cpt_nordbart 5 лет назад

My first thought exactly. Early VR from the 90’s is what I imagine from VR.

@RichardServello 5 лет назад

Watching the attendant lock people into a MASSIVE headset is hilarious when I think about the fact that I have a quest in my laptop bag.

@DemonSnacks 5 лет назад

In another 10 years we'll find the bulk of our current headsets hilarious once again.

@IraQNid 4 года назад

I still think back fondly onto the time I spent using a demonstration VR headset at COMDEX Atlanta, Georgia. I stood in line for hours to play on it. Then stuck around for hours more to enjoy other people trying to top my best time and score. Nobody had for at least that day. I had wanted to try the VR consoles at places like Dave & Busters but their cost for so little game time was always too steep for me. And so it remains to this day. A richer man's hobby.

@CrazyDiamnd76 Год назад

I'll never forget playing some of the very first VR . I was in London with my father, and the machines were all over Piccadilly. Incredible at the time. I wouldve never imagined what it has turned into..

@matthewr3986 5 лет назад

I sincerely hope your lady friend in the video is in a better place. Can't help but notice the scars on her arm which I can only guess are from self harm. Hope she is happy now.

@osholio 5 лет назад

I saw one of these in an arcade when I was on holiday once, but they wanted a fiver for it as I recall, and I only had a bag full of 10p coins to play the machines, not a fiver's worth. Never saw one in the flesh again.

@FutureLaugh 2 года назад

im so glad people like Simon exist, running the computer retro museum. thank you sir for harboring out history

@KRAFTWERK2K6 3 года назад

I remember the whole VR craze in the early 90s. It was everywhere and we even had a Virtual Reality cafe here in Germany by the mid 90s. Sadly i could never experience it myself and only had to enjoy what was shown on TV and you could only IMAGINE and dream about actually experiencing it yourself. To be honest.. i'd still love to experience this early 90s Virtual Reality.