Over at New World Notes Hamlet Au recently posted : James Cameron: Virtual Reality a “Yawn” Until it Gets Mass Market Growth, Non-Gaming Experiences. The inspiration from the post comes from the following quote from movie director James Cameron regarding virtual reality :
The question that always occurred to me is, when is it going to be mature, when is it going to be accepted by the public at large, when are people going to start authoring in VR and what will that be?” Cameron said. “What will the level of interactivity with the user be other than just ‘I can stand and look around,'” he elaborated, adding: “If you want to move through a virtual reality it’s called a video game, it’s been around forever.
He has a point, but things are happening with devices such as Oculus Rift and whereas the example I’m going to highlight is game related, it’s game related in a different manner than you may expect. The example I’m highlighting has been talked about on The Road To VR and Gizmodo.
Digital Cybercherries are taking us back to our youth, well some of us, it may be going to a time before you were born for others. They have developed a retro arcade complete with playable arcade machines from the 80’s and early 90’s, playable gameboys, basketball nets, darts, a two lane bowling alley. In short you’re immersed in an 80’s style arcade which you walk through.
Then there’s the icing on the cake, that little bit of extra polish that makes this look so bloody awesome. The retro arcade has cassette tapes with 80’s music which you put into a cassette player and then listen away to those old favourites (or not so favourites). The wonder of this is exemplified in the Gizmodo blog post :
You can even find cassette tapes with ’80s music and stick them into a boombox, then carry it around the arcade with you. Because what’s cooler than playing Missile Command while jamming to The Final Countdown?
Come on, you’ve got to admit that sounds cool!
The arcade has been built as a tech demo built with Oculus in mind and has been built using Unreal Engine 4. Whereas the retro arcade has been built with VR in mind, the Digital Cybercherries website does state that non-vr fans can download and play the demo, with the example there being what can be achieved with Unreal Engine 4.
Whereas this on its own won’t take VR mainstream, the concept itself does show the power of VR because instead of an arcade it could be a movie theatre, a bar, a stadium or even an office building. The user here is doing a lot more than looking around, they are interacting with objects inworld. How well something like this would scale is of course a different matter.
The retro arcade looks a lot of fun, especially for those of us who remember such arcades in the first place.
You know what this kind of VR reminds me of?
That last scene in “Once Upon a Time in America” when Noodles, facing the ruin of his life decides to inhale opium and be taken back to his youth or whatever he thought was a better place.
That is what this wrong headed nostalgia is all about. And the people behind this are pushing this concept because they have to copy “Ready Player One”. There is not one original thought in their head. And its sad because we will only be able to see what they show us.
I don’t want to share in Noodle’s delusional smile time. I won’t do it.