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1994-08-03
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Newsgroups: alt.games.doom
Path: cdrom.com!barrnet.net!agate!library.ucla.edu!news.ucdavis.edu!chorizo!djwalton
From: djwalton@chorizo.engr.ucdavis.edu (David J Walton)
Subject: Re: The ULTIMATE DOOM Controller
Message-ID: <djwalton.775807819@chorizo>
Sender: usenet@ucdavis.edu (News Guru)
Organization: University of California, Davis
References: <genghis.775716166@ilces> <djwalton.775726722@chorizo> <genghis.775792156@ilces>
Date: Tue, 2 Aug 1994 06:10:19 GMT
Lines: 57
genghis@ilces.ag.uiuc.edu (Scott Coleman) writes:
>djwalton@chorizo.engr.ucdavis.edu (David J Walton) writes:
>>The most obvious idea that pops to mind is to port Doom to the Virtuality
>>arcade system, using the same interface as their Dactyl Nightmare (I think)
>>game. Of course, the average player couldn't possibly afford that system,
>>so I'll keep my comments to a smaller scale.
>Reasonable, but since you've gone and made us curious, could you
>describe the Virtuality arcade system briefly for those of us who have
>not seen it before?
I haven't seen one personally, but I've seen a few pictures and read
descriptions. Basically, it's an arcade machine for VR games. It has
a small circular arena you stand in, about 3 feet across, with a
waist-high rail around it to keep you in. You wear a head-mounted-display
and hold a pistol grip in your hand. The display and grip have position
sensors on them, so the computer knows the location and pointing direction
of both. There is also some mechanism to allow you to move in the virtual
world.
The system can load various different games. The default game is Dactyl
Nightmare. You are in the same world with another player (in an identical
rig), and can shoot each other. There are also Pterydactyls that will
attack you and carry you off somewhere. You can shoot them, too. Because
of the sensor in the grip, you can see your arm, hand, and a gun in your hand.
The games are generally a coupla dollars per game, and the machines run
somewhere in 6 figures.
>>There. I think I covered everything. Whaddaya think?
>I like it. And it even sounds potentially buildable, given that most of
>the items you mention are available off the shelf. The next question is,
>how much would it cost to make?
Well, around $1000 for the VXF-1, around $75 for the FCS, and about the
same for the ambidextrous FCS (if you can find it). In addition, you
can plug the two grips into a Thrustmaster WCS II which will convert
their inputs to keyboard commands. That's another $75-100. Modifying
the coolie hats to be 8-way can be done with a pocket knife, but I'm
not sure how the WCS II would react to the new signals. That just
leaves writing a "mouse" driver for the VXF-1. Someone who actually has
one will have to tell you how hard that would be.
The total: Less than $1500 for hardware, plus programming time.
(That's assuming the the WCS II won't need modification to handle the
8-way inputs. If it does, perhaps Thrustmaster would make custom ROMS
for it, for a fee.)
Dave
--
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David Walton walton@cs.ucdavis.edu djwalton@engr.ucdavis.edu
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