From: deloura@cs.unc.edu (Mark A. DeLoura)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: TECH: Sega promises 'virtual-reality' game in 1993 (Virtua Racing)
Date: 10 Jan 93 14:05:16 GMT
Article-I.D.: shelley.1iqdreINNblm
Organization: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
NNTP-Posting-Host: stein.u.washington.edu
Originator: hlab@stein.u.washington.edu


In article <1iq94jINN642@shelley.u.washington.edu> clarinews@clarinet.com (UPI) 
writes:
>
>Clarinet, the online news service available from many USENET hosts,
>reports that Sega said on Wednesday, January 6th, that it will start
>shipping a ``virtual-reality'' attachment to its Genesis video-game
>machine in time for the 1993 holiday selling season.  The company said
>the Virtua Sega system would include technology that has been only
>available for research strategy and training by NASA and the military.

Several months back, this rumor leaked, and it was stopped when someone
reported that the actual product was an arcade game board.

Now it looks like there are both-- on a recent trip back to my homeland
(Seattle), I encountered an arcade game called "Virtua Racing".  That's right--
the initials are "V.R.", and they abuse the term endlessly.  The game
cabinet describes "VR buttons", and the term "V.R." flashes up on the
screen of the game during attract mode.

But as for the game itself, I was amazed.  Those of you who are video-game
aficionados, like myself, probably remember "Hard Drivin'" and "Race Drivin'",
two racing simulations by Atari Games.  Well, "Virtua Racing" takes the
technology another step further.  Game play is similar to "Race Drivin'", 
in that you are racing around a track, dodging occasional cars.  Except, 
in this game, there are many cars racing in the same direction as your own,
similar to "Pole Position", and you can also race against other players.

Game play starts after you drop in the requisite coins (75 cents/$1.00,
where I was.)  The machine gives you a choice of three different tracks
to race on, with varying difficulty levels.  After you choose the track
you want to race on, as well as automatic or manual shifting, up pops a
scantily-clad young woman with "VR" tattooed above her left breast.
(Gee, was this designed with the young teenage male in mind?)  Next to
her is a timer which indicates the amount of time that the game will
wait until the race starts-- this gives other players a chance to join
in.  When the timer reaches '0', the view switches to a bird's-eye shot
of the starting line, centered on your car, with about 10 other
vehicles also waiting for the starting signal.  Computer-controlled
cars are purple, live players are other colors.

The machine has 4 buttons on the console, the so-called "VR Buttons".  By
pushing these at any time during the game, your viewpoint will smoothly
shift.  Button 1 is immersive-- you are inside the car, you see your hands
turn the steering wheel, and your wheels spin on either side of the vehicle.
Button 2 is the default, directly up and behind your car.  Buttons 3 and 4
are views from further up and further back-- button 4 is practically useless
when you go into a tunnel, as the view of your car will be occluded by the
landscape (it's not a bug, it's a feeeeeature!)

The physical dynamics of this game are incredible.  The steering wheel is
force-feedback, similar to Atari's previous racing games, and you can feel
when your car is about to spin out of control as you whiz around the curves 
at high speeds.  If you spin out or for some reason roll the vehicle, you can
watch your car roll realistically-- or at least, it sure *looks* accurate. :)

Sega has some serious graphics power in this machine-- I don't where they got
it from, but it has a smooth frame rate (no detectable chunk-chunk-chunk) and
lots of polygons (they had so many extra that there are birds that fly around,
an amusement park with moving rides, ...)  The only use that I found for 
VR Button 4 was to let me see where the new polygons came on the screen as
they passed through the rear clipping plane. :)

In the two arcades I found in the Seattle-area that had this game, there were
two separate models of the machine.  The standard model (75 cents/play) is
a two-person game cabinet, with a bench seat and two screens.  (Unfortunately,
when both sets of speakers are going, the sounds aren't synchronized :-/ )
An alternate version of the game was a one-player cockpit, which ran $1/play.
Added benefits included a wider screen (which gave a wider field-of-view,
not a horizontally-stretched version of the smaller screen) and pneumatic/
hydraulic seat action-- if you slam on the brakes, that seat pushes you forward
to simulate G-forces.  Likewise if you zip around a corner too quickly-- the
seat pushes you to the left or right.  It's... *almost* got quick enough 
action to feel realistic.  But I found that when I was using the immersive
setting (VR Button 1), coupled with this wider screen, the game was nearly
*too* realistic.  I'd get caught up in game action and forget to look ahead of
my car so I could make the next corner, etc, and I would find myself spinning
into the ditch more often than on the two-player cockpit version.

*Very* immersive, very impressive graphics speed, and an incredible quarter-
eater.  When you can play with 4 other live players... that's *fun*.

Oh, a warning, though-- the machine seems to have "Nintendo physics", to 
make game play more exciting.  The cars further back tend to be able to go
just a bit faster than the ones in the front, so that they will have a chance
to catch up and make the game more exciting.  Exciting is right-- with 
multiple players, the game is *shorter*, because you spend so much time
wacking into one another.

Anyway.  Is it a "VR"?  Well, choose your definition of VR, and then you be
the judge.  Highly recommended, though.  Be sure and bring a limited
quarter-supply with you when you go to check this game out. :)

        ---Mark
===============================================================================
 Mark A. DeLoura       deloura@cs.unc.edu      U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill