From: johnnyl@microsoft.com
Subject: Re: W Industries Introduction to North America, a personal report.
Date: Fri Dec 20 22:36:44 1991
Organization: Microsoft Corp.



The VR game (Dactyl Terror, I believe) has been installed at the
arcade "Quarters" in Kirkland, WA.

There are two units there, but at the time I went there, only
one unit was working.

It costs $5 for four minutes.

As one of the guys first described it, "It's like that Dire Straits
'Money for Nothing' video."

We talked to the guy who was operating the machine.

There's an Amiga in the machine. The machines are hooked together via
Ethernet. Each machine costs $90,000.

The headset is about 1-2 pounds. They also have a belt which goes
around your waist which is tied via some cable to the main appartus.
The "gun" is more like the handsets you use to control those
old electric speed cars on tracks. There are two buttons. One for
firing the gun and one for walking.

The game pits you against a foe in a playground with one larger lower
level and four raised levels. There are obstacles on all the levels
you have to negotiate around. The gun shoots bullets which have
a parabolic trajectory, so you usually have to aim up to hit
the computer opponent. To go up or down the stairs, you just
walk into the base or the top of the stairs and you'll
be whisked up or down them (I think you might have look in the
direction you want to go (up/down)).

One can also crouch down and the computer will respond accordingly.

The display is rather small and if you look around quickly, it's
really hard to spot the computer opponent. The people looking
on usually yell out "To yer left, yer left!" etc. since they've
got a nice nineteen inch monitor to look at.

It's easy to get caught up in the wiring (one rather thick black cable
going to the waist belt).

After a certain while, if the game thinks you're doing well, a
Pteradactyl will come around and try to pick you up. If you
can shoot it in the head, then you're safe. I never saw anyone
kill the Dactyl.

I'll be away from the office for a little while, so email response
will definitely be slow.

J