1990s Homebrew Virtual Reality
Sun, 09 Mar 2014
The Oculus Rift Head Mounted Display is making the news a lot these days, and rightfully so - we have one in the office and it's an impressive bit of kit. The device allows you to enter a computer generated 'world' by putting on a headset and viewing it in 3D.
However, 'Virtual Reality' of this quality (and it's still not perfect) has been a long time coming. It first entered the public consciousness in the early 1990s and I - like many other people - dreamt of having my own Virtual Reality system to play with. A professional system cost many tens of thousands of pounds to buy, so I went down the 'homebrew' VR route. This typically involved using off-the-shelf PCs and home-made input devices and displays, or adapted video game hardware.
The system I built featured the classic combination of a PC running the REND386 3D software, a Nintendo Power Glove as an input device and a pair of Sega 3D 'shutter' glasses as a way of viewing the computer screen in 3D.
In a recent conversation someone expressed interest in how this system worked and it got me thinking that maybe I should dig out the old hardware and try to rebuild the system. As something of a hoarder, I mean archiver, I still had much of the old kit filed away and after finding a suitable PC of the era on eBay I'm now in the position to start putting the system back together.
I'm probably a few months away having something to show, but when it's complete I'll install it at Interact Labs at Phoenix for people to have a play with. Watch this space for details, and get ready to enter the blocky world that was 1990s homebrew Virtual Reality.
