About: A virtual reality headset compatible with the console, tentatively titled the Jaguar VR, was unveiled by Atari at the 1995 Winter Consumer Electronics Show. The development of the peripheral was a response to Nintendo’s virtual reality console, the Virtual Boy, which had been announced the previous year. The headset was developed in cooperation with Virtuality, which had previously created many virtual reality arcade systems, and was already developing a similar headset for practical purposes, named Project Elysium, for IBM.
Atari Jaguar VR Specs and Info…
Headset: Jaguar VR
Manufacturer: Atari Corporation
Announced Date: November 1994
Release Date: Never Released
Launch Price: $249 (£184)
Device Type: VR Headset (Console Powered)
Display: 180,000 Active TFT Pixel Resolution
Diagonal Field of View(FOV): 70°
Refresh Rate: 30 Hz
Weight: 550 g (1.21 lb)
CPU: N/A
GPU: N/A
Battery: N/A
Tracking:
Controllers: 3 DoF Non-positional (Gyroscope Based)
Our Thoughts: When Atari said they were making a virtual reality headset for the Atari Jaguar people thought back to the Virtualaity gaming system and face planted themselves. But Atari’s system was much better, with a lighter headset, better price point and better, big name games. There were two models, a blue and grey high-resolution unit, and a red and grey low-resolution unit.
So what happened? Well, after Atari merged with JTS in 1996, most of the headsets were sadly destroyed. But in true gaming legends there was said to be only two working units known to be left in existence. Released with Missile Command 3D Atari was close to bringing virtual reality gaming to the living room. If only they had, things might have been very different now. But sadly they didn’t as it was deemed too much of a high-risk investment.
Sources used…
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Jaguar#Jaguar_VR
- http://jagcube.atari.org/jaguarvr.html