{"id":1022,"date":"2014-01-07T10:12:56","date_gmt":"2014-01-07T15:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/?p=1022"},"modified":"2014-01-07T13:17:20","modified_gmt":"2014-01-07T18:17:20","slug":"retro-scan-of-the-week-pcvr-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/archives\/1022\/retro-scan-of-the-week-pcvr-magazine","title":{"rendered":"[ Retro Scan of the Week ]<\/span> Low-End Virtual Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PCVR<\/a>Every new idea is an old idea with more transistors.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

A few years ago, a relative gave me a couple issues of PCVR Magazine<\/a>, a low-circulation 1990s periodical dedicated to virtual reality. Here’s the cover of the Jan\/Feb 1994 issue, which features an illustration of the magazine’s build-it-yourself head tracker project.<\/p>\n

In the early 1990s, the “virtual reality” concept hit a peak in the popular media that coincided with dozens of companies<\/a> pursuing motion-tracking head-mounted displays — both with honest attempts<\/a> and blatant gimmicks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If I had to guess why VR exploded in the popular tech consciousness at that particular time, I would trace it it to the emergence of small, relatively low-cost color LCDs — the kind that made portable consoles like the Atari Lynx<\/a> and Sega Game Gear possible. Compared to bulky, power-hungry CRT displays, the (relatively) thin, low-power LCDs could be worn on the head with mobility and without too much discomfort. That prompted a minor Cambrian explosion of VR headset hardware.<\/p>\n

But the display technology just wasn’t there yet. Affordable LCDs were very low resolution (think 320×200 or less), and higher-resolution LCDs cost thousands of dollars a piece.<\/p>\n

In addition, the hardware and software required to generate convincing virtual reality experiences were neither affordable nor generally available. So genuinely immersive VR found itself stuck in corporate and university research labs; meanwhile, the public got trickle-down fad headsets like the Stuntmaster<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today, we find ourselves in the middle of a VR renaissance thanks to Oculus Rift<\/a>. But this time, we may actually be at the edge of mainstream virtual reality headsets because the technology has come quite a long way since 1994. I look forward to meeting your 3D virtual avatar in cyberspace soon.<\/p>\n

[ From PCVR Magazine, Jan\/Feb 1994, cover]<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

Discussion Topic of the Week:<\/strong> Have you ever used a virtual reality headset of any kind? Tell us about it.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

See Also:<\/strong> Retro Scan of the Week Special Edition: “At Last! Reality For the Masses!”<\/a> (VC&G<\/em>, 2007)
\nSee Also:<\/strong> The History of Stereoscopic 3D Gaming<\/a> (PC World, 2011)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every new idea is an old idea with more transistors. A few years ago, a relative gave me a couple issues of PCVR Magazine, a low-circulation 1990s periodical dedicated to virtual reality. Here’s the cover of the Jan\/Feb 1994 issue, which features an illustration of the magazine’s build-it-yourself head tracker project. In the early 1990s, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,27,26,10],"tags":[166,170,732,730,731,662,733,728,60,198,729],"class_list":["post-1022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer-info-and-history","category-regular_features","category-retro-scan-of-the-week","category-computers","tag-166","tag-atari","tag-game-gear","tag-hmd","tag-lcd","tag-lynx","tag-oculus-rift","tag-pcvr-magazine","tag-retro-scan","tag-sega","tag-virtual-reality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}