Virtual reality is no longer a dream. HTC Vive, Oculus Quest and other PlayStation VR have delivered on the promise made for years by many fiction writers and high-tech companies. In the 90s, several leading brands tried their hand at virtual reality on consoles without ever succeeding in making the test a reality. And an extremely rare vestige of one of these tests has just resurfaced.
The only working example of the Atari Jaguar’s virtual reality headset has just appeared in a video posted on Twitter. The latter was filmed and shared by a certain “Chronos_B. “And it has something to drool over collectors as well as Atari fans and historians alike.
As shown in the video as well as the photos below, this Atari Jaguar headset works with a special VR version of the game Missile Command 3D. An imposing sensor also serves as a relay between the virtual reality headset and the console.
A 90s virtual reality
According to the author of this video, only two Atari Jaguar virtual reality headsets are currently in the wild. The first is red, does not work, and belongs to a British museum. The second, visible in the video above, is therefore blue and works. It belongs to the Italian collector Marco Pasquali.
In the mid-1990s, Atari and a British company called Virtuality worked on a virtual reality headset for the Jaguar. A prototype of the latter was also presented during the first E3 in 1995. But as fans of the history of video games know, this product never came out on the market.
Too ambitious a project for the Atari Jaguar?
The financial difficulties encountered at the time by Atari did not provide an optimal framework for the creation of this project. Its exorbitant price as well as the limitations of the technology of the time have certainly finished getting the better of it. It is in any case surprising to see that an Atari Jaguar virtual reality headset is now in the hands of an individual.
Anyway, for anyone interested in preserving video game heritage, the existence of a working copy is excellent news. It remains to be hoped that more information about this headset and its game will be released soon.
Are you surprised to learn that a working Atari Jaguar virtual reality headset still exists? Do you remember the existence of such a project? How would you like to try it? Tell us all in the comments below.