Virtuality - Blast from the Past
21 04 2008It’s humbling to know that some of the games that I developed, many moons ago now, have entered VR folklore. In fact the word Virtuality, the name of the company that I worked for at the time, is now used as a noun!
I have been searching for screenshots and any footage of the games for some time now, just for posterity, without much luck. That is until I found this blog post from Arcade Heroes, where they pay homage to the old systems we developed. They include this video snippet from a TV show that aired in the US many years ago, which showcased our old systems, including footage of my old games!
Well, okay, by today’s standards they’re very basic looking, but you have to remember that these were developed prior to any mainstream 3D hardware becoming available, even predating the original 3DFX cards by some years (remember them!?).
Also note that back then the systems were well ahead of their time. For instance, we had developed our own graphics cards with onboard memory to store all the model data. The GPU would also run in parallel to the host system (PC or Amiga 3000). Later the cards were upgraded with on-board sound and hardware MPEG support. The graphics cards would run in parallel to the host computer, so the game code was actually a multi-threaded application (graphics and sound handling on the card, game code on the host). The boards were even capable of being run in an SLI-type configuration, with up to 8 cards in parallel!
If this all sounds familiar, then you’d be right… Most of these things have only just come to fruition within the last couple of years on the latest crop of graphics hardware, and yet we were developing these systems back in the early 90’s!
Anyway, it’s nice to see some footage of my old games finally. I’ll now have to dig around in my loft to see if I can find some more screenshots (or anything!) for the stuff we developed. Brings back fond memories… :)
View Tarique Naseem's profile
Posts
Dear Tarique,
Thanks for emailing over at Arcade Heroes - hopefully you know of me and the Stinger Report?
I worked as a consultant near the end of Virtuality, I was with Division, and then was head hunted by Disney to work on their VR projects. Before I left I ended up doing a quick bit of consultancy for Walden before he closed the operation (or had it closed on him!)
I have had the pleasure of involvement on a number of the VR projects of the last few years, from the VPL test system, W.Industries / Super-X concept, Virtuality’ SU/SD, Rediffusion’ Commander, LucasFilms’ Thore, Evans & Sutherland’ CyberView, Disney’ Aladdin and Virtual Adventure..
I am just compiling a book on Immersive Entertainment and need more Virtuality observations, especially now with the news on the past executive status.
If interested to chat email me on editor(at)thestingerreport.com
Sounds good. I’d be more than happy to give an ‘insiders’ view on Virtuality, and it’s untimely demise. :) I’ll drop you an e-mail.
I remember meeting a chap from Division actually. Although, you haven’t left your name in the above comment so not sure if it was you. The name Kevin Williams rings a bell though! :)
I also remember Disney’s Aladdin VR experience. It was demonstrated at Siggraph ‘94 I believe; a large duck shaped helmet that had to be tethered I recall. Nice experience though.
Yep - thats me. So often have to reply as Editor it becomes a habit
The HMD on Aladdin was a CRT HMD, the only one ever fielded
I think our news service was the first to run the collapse of Virtuality after the Edson money ran out!
I notice from your site that you were involved with the VR Parachute arcade machine (immersion) I think off the top of my head - they asked me to be their COO once!
The problem with writing a book on VR is that a number of individuals want me to re-write history!