From: jdugger@envy.Reed.Edu (Jay Dugger)
Subject: W Industries and the Amiga (LONG)
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 1991 19:29:20 GMT
Organization: Reed College, Portland, OR


	I recently saw this post in a comp.sys.amiga group.  Since it is  
pertinent to the current thread and I've a few questions on it, I'm repro-
ducing it here.


After hearing rave reviews at a party of what was being called the first
commercial virtual reality games, I left my wife early Sunday morning (but
still had to keep custody of the kid) to be at the head of the line at a
mall in San Francisco to try these things out.

The machines consist of a person-sized platform with a ring at about
waist level, a headset with speakers and stereo monitors, and a gun with
two triggers - one for moving forward and one for shooting.  Inside
there is a 35 MHz Amiga 3000 with a 100 MB hard drive and 535 MB CD.  Up  
to
15 of these machines can be networked together.  The setup at the mall
(Stonestown) had 3 working and one broken machines.  Next to each machine
was a large TV monitor showing that players view.

The game, which was described as "at Pong level" (compared to what
they're planning, I guess), was a shoot-em-up where all the action takes
place on three platforms in space.  The platforms are connected to one
another in a line by stairways.  Each platform has some obstacles on it,
such as pillars and cones (the graphics are all polygons).  Occasionally
a pteradactyl will swoop down and, if you don't shoot him just as he
opens his mouth to get you, whisk you away to great heights and drop you
to yet another death.

The metal ring puts out a magnetic field so movement of the headset, gun
and your body height can be detected.  As you turn your head to one
side, the scenery moves by quickly and smoothly.  The resolution and
colors are standard Amiga (shoot, I didn't ask them if they were going
to beef up the 3000s with '040s or graphics cards), but there's no time
to complain :-) because you may get shot in the time it takes to form the
words.  You raise your gun until it comes into view on the headset (else
you can't aim it), and go huntin'.  The experience is very satisfying.
You use your whole body as you turn to see who's behind you, raise your
gun to aim, shoot, watch them splinter into many component pieces,
then move on quickly in case there's someone at your back.  Yes!

Apparently they're going to be installing these things not at video
arcades, but at other locations such as night clubs.  There are already
some installed at the Trocodero in London, and I
understand they'll be installing them at DV8 here in SF.  The price to
play is one dollar per minute (but the person who told me about DV8 said
they'd be free there - it already costs $20 to get in).  A bargain.
Spectrum Holobyte will be developing software (more virtual worlds),
and it won't all be violence and gore.

I wonder what kind of a load these things put on the net?  You can
only fire one shot every three seconds, and the bullets travel like
thrown rocks, so presumably each computer can keep its own track of all
the bullets and players, which would reduce the traffic.  So, could ISDN
handle it?  Can I have one at my house?

I apologize for not bringing home a brochure to post from.  The ones
I've seen don't say Amiga anywhere on them.  (But when they reboot a
machine, there's WB 2.0, loud and clear.)

Check it out if you get the opportunity.  It's worth the wait!


	Do these systems in fact run off Amiga 3000s?  I know that the  
Battletech centers use Amigas to drive their secondary displays.  If W  
Industries is using Amigas, then is there any connection between this game  
and the Battletech Center?

	Thanks.
		Jay Dugger
		jdugger@reed.edu