Virtual Reality

Back in Crossgates Mall in Albany there was a store. A store like no other. A store that reaches into the depth of reality... virtual reality.

I don't quite remember the name of the store, but it was fucking cool. It was way beyond anything I had ever imagined. You walk in and it was Tron. People with goofy-ass looking headgear and these wired handles with a thumb button on them standing on a little platform. There were warnings about getting dizzy and all that stuff but I could only understand the term "you are next in line".

I paid my $15 dollars for 5 minutes. I stepped into the sanctuary of technical circuitry and got suited up. Put the 42.5 lb headgear(see fig. 1.1) on and grabbed the wired joystick.

3 minutes (of loading) later it started. What happened next was quite amazing. I was wooshed to a world of '3D' polygons representing some acid-trip like figures and buildings. It was pretty neat, the fact that you could look anywhere and there the world was, waiting for you with all it's polygoodness. You were almost completely immersed in a gaming experience. You could shoot things. That was it. It did the walking for you, in a straight line no less. You just looked around and shot shit. Kinda cool, kinda boring. Worth the $15? Sure!

Dan's take:
"in hindsight... It's silly. Virtual reality was supposed to be the next big thing. Everybody was going to be wearing helmets and something that looked like Nintendo's power glove. Never happened. prolly never will."

figure 1.1: The headset.


This is a much cooler, more good looking version of me in 10th grade.

Holy Shit, I can't beleive I actually did that in Paint. Looks pretty good. Maybe i'll start a web-comic.