Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Atari Jaguar-Related VR Units Show Off Virtuality

Posted by simoniker on from the very-max-headroom dept.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out videogame auction site Bidiots has a pair of Virtuality SU2000 Atari Jaguar-related VR pods for sale. These 1995-era 'virtual reality' arcade machines originally cost "$33,000 - $35,000 per seat", and the machines come bundled with compatible software titles, including Dactyl Nightmare 2, a multiplayer networked shooter in which, if you're not careful, the "awesome [eponymous] beast will pick you up in its claws, and fly hundreds of feet above the playing arena before dropping you to certain death!" A set of specifications for the SU2000 reveals more information, including exciting action shots of the device, and elsewhere, Atari Explorer has pictures of the unreleased Jaguar VR system, an "ambitious plan for a home VR headset at under $300" which used similar technology to this device.

4 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. Hackers by krymsin01 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Made famouse by the movie Hackers. (In which steven fisher uses one)

    --
    stuff
  2. Played it by SandSpider · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I played Dactyl Nightmare once when it was on tour and made it to my University. Usually people focused on the other player and did their best to avoid the Teradactyl. When I finally got my turn, I was unstoppable. The other opponent was easily dispatched time and again, but once the 'dactyl went for me. I said, "What the heck," and shot the thing out of the sky. It was reminiscent of that scene from the first Burton Batman film. Ah, good times.

    =Brian

    --
    There is nothing so good that someone, somewhere, will not hate it.
  3. Did anyone else play it? by quinkin · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I queued up and paid my $5 like all the other idiots...

    But the game was crap!

    I hope you can get the source and compiler, or at least get the specs. It really doesn't do the hardware justice.

    Q.

    --
    Insert Signature Here
  4. I had these by Jjeff1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I worked at a place that leased 4 of these things for like 5 years. They were pretty rough. They broke all the time. Eventually the company we leased them from went out of business. We were left trying to get custom made cables to get them working again.

    The company I worked for was in a mall, they went out of business, probably for spending thousands of dollars and stupid stuff like this.

    As I recall, the system was basically a 486 with 2 big video cards, they had something like 4 40mm fans on each card.

    Eventually we had 4 machines, with 2 sitting never used because we scavenged them for parts.

    Personally I could never use the thing. The way the headset fit on me I could never get the proper 3D view.