Few people remember that in the mid to late 90s, there was a #VR arcade game demo at the lower ground of Robinson's Galleria, #Philippines (food court area, near the fountain/elevators).
The VR game was like this:
There's an arm's length circular platform.
You wear a headgear. It was light, like wearing goggles.
You hold a, I think it was a 3-button joystick, that's strapped on your hands.
It was connected to a screen outside so other people can watch.
It was a multiplayer mecha game.
If you change your literal facing direction, your in-game character will detect it. You have to literally turn your body, including your feet. The platform detects your feet's orientation.
To move forward, you have to press a button. One for walking, the other for running.
The third-button is for firing or picking up items.
It was not a free demo, you have to pay ₱100.00 (I think U$2.00 exchange rate that time). Of course, teenager me: “This is the future of arcade gaming!”
20-25 years later… it was as-if VR gaming was only invented in mid to late 2010s. O_O
Hmm… if you've seen the VR set up in Tencent's “Three-Body” (2023) series, something similar to that.
There were already cool toys back then, however, for some weird reason, things were forgotten and sometime mid to late 2010s, it was as if those forgotten toys were “new”.
Another example is, Meta's “metaverse”. LOL, that's not new at all. Meta's metaverse is nothing compared to what we've achieved with #VRML in the late 90s to early 00s. VRML-based worlds were also the birthplace of the so-called #gamevertising which became a buzz word in, guess when? Mid to late 2010s!
Gamevertising worked well for VRML worlds. But the mid-late 2010s version, nothing came out of it. Just like how nothing came out of Meta's “metaverse”, but VRML worlds were a thing and better.
We already had cool toys in the 90s and early 00s, but they were forgotten. As if they never existed in the first place.
And mid-late 2010s, similar tech started to (re)-appear and were called “revolutionary” and “new” and “first” and “will change the world”. But nothing came out of those 2010 versions, subpar if compared to the 90s-00s versions.
I guess, when something is too early for its time, we are very quick in forgetting they ever existed, collective amnesia?
Or, was the world led to believe those cool toys “can't possibly exist that time”? Well… they did exist. And this is why, for some (or many) of us, we are not as excited whenever we see someone claim “new”, “first”, “revolutionary”, or “will change the world”, because we've seen it, we've played it, and we drooled, I mean, dreamed of a future.
So, yeah, kids, as our grandparents have told our generation, “there's nothing new under the sun”. Don't tell us we didn't have what you have today. :P
PS
Don't forget Google Glass, it was too early for its time, but it looks like it's going to experience what 90s VR arcade games, VRML worlds, and gamervertising, experienced… forgotten.