The Atari 2600 VR Set That Never Was
Ha ha, you look stupid wearing that.
Hey remember when Atari released that awesome VR system for their VCS 2600 and shit got real cause it was way ahead of its time? No? Well that's because it never saw a release beyond development, or at least it would had if it wasn't for that nasty incident in '83 which made the company bankrupt and ended an era of video games. Atari had wild ambitions on creating a VR system that would let you play in a virtual reality world with its games back then, back when VR was something that no one even would had think much of being the time frame and the fact you probably were more focused on topping that Pac-Man score to even fantasize on being in that maze running from ghost monsters.
According to this article Atari was messing around on implementing their VR ideas first on Arcade cabinets with the point of having such translated to their Atari 2600 system with a lot of promise on being the next big thing. All happening in 1982 a year before their dreams would come crashing down like a meteor on the dinosaurs. It even mentions that you could actually smell anything in the VR Arcade experience if it came to fruition.
You could smell your own farts inside that thing.
So what could've been like to play the VR experience on a 2600? Hard to say. So far the only thing that ever had announced what you could experience was a flyer written to make anyone jump from their seats at the idea of it. It would boast about it by showing two games to state how great it would been but sure enough there was nothing more to it than that, a boastful hope to ever play such thing.
However there have been recent stuff playing with the idea of how an Atari 2600 VR game would be like and this site shows the ambition of a digital game developer who shows you a VR version of Adventure, which I admit made me salivate like a wolf who hasn't eaten in months and staring a plump, fat quarters of a grazing deer.
Rawr
Yet another person would have the Atari 2600 VR experience and upload a video on YouTube so you could see for yourself what could had been.
Even if the crash of '83 hasn't ever happened, I personally doubt the Atari 2600 could ever had the capabilities to use such a thing at all. I might be exaggerating on my statement, but I am sure Atari would have to scrap the idea eventually at least for their home console version while keeping the Arcade idea alive long enough to ever do anything with it. If anything, Atari might had to create a different console for their VR project to use with really. Can you imagine though, playing Pac-Man in VR while escaping ghosts trying to devour you in a virtual plane? I sure do, but I doubt Atari will be the one presenting it nowadays.
Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies
On the other hand we had Sega being ambitions about it as well. The only thing that came out of it was the blatant product placement on a Spike Lee movie however. Nice try.
It only uses up to 4 D batteries. What a concept!
Oh yeah, of course there was the Virtual Boy from Nintendo and to be honest, it wasn't that bad and it actually saw the light of day in shelves before it was axed and Nintendo moved to better things. I will just leave an old AVGN video to have you being informed because I just don't care to talk about VR anymore.
Enjoy the flashback