A promotional statement for the Virtual Boy stated that it would provide a “3-D game for a 3-D World.” Virtual reality became just a failed experiment, as many issues plagued the launch of the Virtual Boy. Nintendo originally intended the system to display multiple colors, but with ever-rising manufacturing costs, they were forced to make the system display its games in a single color: dark red. This led to eye-strain and headaches, and though Nintendo sought to cut down the price, the Virtual Boy initially launched at a price of $180. Even with the constant price cuts over the ensuing months, the Virtual Boy failed to pick up steam and was ultimately a commercial failure selling only 770,000 units worldwide.Now, 20 years later, virtual reality is attempting to get back into the homes of millions in a big way. With the advancements in graphics and overall technology, will these new headsets fare any better? In an interview with Tested.com, Nate Mitchell, co-founder of Oculus said, “Two screens give us a lot of different advantages. One of the biggest advantages is that we can move the two lenses independently. This will let us move the lenses to fit your natural interpupillary distance and provide the most visually comfortable experience.”
With the lenses adjusting to the eyes, the Oculus Rift is shaping up to be a visually appealing, comfortable headset. But how are the games? Many YouTubers, such as Markiplier and Jackssepticeye, have touched on the development kits for the Rift with games such as Dreadhalls, a horror game designed with the Oculus in mind. “This looks absolutely incredible and it is freaky, man… I can’t recommend this enough. You’re really gonna like this,” Markiplier said in his Dreadhalls video.While Oculus is mostly an independent developer, Sony and Microsoft have also stepped up to the plate to try to provide their own virtual reality experience. At E3 2015, the Electronic Entertainment Expo recently held over June 16-18 in Los Angeles, Microsoft did an on-stage demo of their headset, HoloLens. HoloLens will allow the user to see their games and apps displayed in front of them using an alternate reality display.
In the stage demo, a game of Minecraft was taken off the screen and moved to a nearby table. On the table an overview of the world was shown that the presenter then interacted with, using only his hands and voice commands. Sony also showed off their headset, currently titled Project Morpheus, which is a more standard VR headset that uses the Playstation 4 controller and Playstation Move accessory to immerse the player in the game.
Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb, gave his impressions of a demo he played at E3 saying, “You’re very naturally pointing the gun and smoking them. It felt powerful because the shooting felt more in line with how you’d shoot a real gun…”
Though impressions of these headsets have been positive, only time will tell how consumers will respond to the idea of virtual reality. The Oculus Rift, Microsoft HoloLens and Sony’s Project Morpheus all have an estimated release date of early 2016.
