From: mccoy@ils.nwu.edu (Jim Mccoy)
Subject: Re: VIRTUALITY at North Pier
Reply-To: mccoy@ils.nwu.edu
Organization: The Institute for the Learning Sciences
Distribution: chi
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 23:49:08 GMT

In article <1992Oct2.175522.12823@ils.nwu.edu>, tsui@ils.nwu.edu writes:
> Has anyone checked out CYBERIA at North Pier?  They have the new VIRTUALITY
> virtual reality games there.
> 
[positive review of VIRTUALITY and comment on surly employees...]
> 
> They also have something called CYBERIA which I have no idea what it is.

CYBERIA is a laser tag game.  You get a 15 minute run (or 20, can't
remember) in a room with a lser tag sort of game.  In CYBERIA you get a
headset and gun attached to a little pack that you strap around your waist.
You are then divided into two teams, red and green.  You enter into a
fairly dark room with lots of blacklightinga adn neon paint on fake brick
walls with smoke machines and lots of cheap "terminator-esque" decorations
with strobes, etc.  (you get the picture.)  You attempt to shoot the other
team with your light gun, and when you are hit you must go back to one of
two stations built into your sides "home" area and insert your gun for a
few seconds into a hole in the station.  The headsets give you the sound of
your firing and tell you when you have been hit.

I found that the directions for play were not done too well and were hard
to hear over the blaring music and sounds from the mall and waiting area.
The game is fast paced and can get to be very fun.  Be prepared to sweat.
A few tips for anyone who is planning on going down to try VIRTUALITY and
wanders over to this side to play (we had a 15 min wait for VIRTUALITY and
45 for CYBERIA on a saturday night at 9:00 two weeks ago.)  Wear black, or
at least try to avoid white clothing.  The blacklights make you a big
target saying "shoot me" (trust me...  :)  You can also just hold the
trigger instead of shooting individual shots; the light stays on.  Aim for
the head, the receptors to determine when you are hit are on the outside of
the headset and there are lights there that tell you when a target has been
shot (they turn red).  A good way a racking up a lot of points is to charge
the wall near their recharge station and just stick your gun over and kill
everyone who is in that area and keep getting them as soon as they
recharge.  Also go back and forth between stations to recharge so that you
can get anyone doing this to your other station.


VIRTUALITY is definitly a blast!  Some tips for this game are to get a good
feel for movement during the minute or so of warm up you get before your
game starts (games run 5 minutes.)  Moving around and remembering to duck
are the keys to this game.  You are in an open multi-level playing area
kinda like this:


       ---
       | |  <------Each of these platforms is slightly higher than the 
       ---         central area (you can look down on and shoot into the 
        "          arena.)  They are connected by a staircase.
     -------
 --- |     | ---
 | |=|     |=| |
 --- |     | ---
     -------
        "
       ---
       | |
       ---

To move you press the top key of your "gun" and you will move towards the
spot that is in the center of your vision.  Moving at what you are looking
at and keeping your hand holding your gun extended out enough to aim and
see well is what you need to get used to in the practice period.  Your
waist unit also figures out when you duck, which is essential to avoid
enemy bullets.  The bullets are slow moving (you can duck them) and have a
parabloic path (you must aim high for long-range targets) and they have a
little explosion on impact you you can detect where your opponents shots
are hitting (including near-misses behind you as fragments whiz by your
face... :)   There is also a pteryodactyl that circles the arena and every
now and then swoops down to grab someone.  If you are the target you see a
big green outline of the beast flash in front of you and you must shoot it
before it grabs you.  When you are grabbed you are flown high above the
arena and dropped to the floor to shatter into many pieces.  I never did
quite get the hang of killing this thing.

There is also a sit-down version that does a "battletech-like" mech battle.
I didn't try this, but watched a few and they looked interesting.  Of the
two I would recommend the stand-up game as the best.  There are monitors
that you can watch that show you what each person is seeing so that you can
see how other people are doing.  The games keep track of how many times you
have been killed and how many people/pterodactyls you have shot.

Up to four people can play VIRUTALITY at one time (stand-up or sit-down)
and CYBERIA uses up to 10 people per group.  VIRTUALITY costs $4 and
CYBERIA is $5.

Mucho fun.  Check it out.  They are right across from Battletech.


jim
-- 
------------------------------< Jim McCoy >------------------------------------
j-mccoy@nwu.edu                     |  "I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm
mccoy@ils.nwu.edu                   |   having an old friend for dinner..."
#include <disclaimer.h>             |              -Dr. Hannibal Lector
-----------------------<"To thine own self be true">--------------------------
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