The Sega VR is a unreleased

virtual reality headset A virtual reality headset (or VR headset) is a head-mounted device that provides virtual reality for the wearer. VR headsets are widely used with VR video games but they are also used in other applications, including simulators and trainers. VR ...

developed by

Sega is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, respectively. Its division ...

in the early 1990s. Planned as a add-on peripheral for the

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

and only publicly showcased at a number of trade shows and expositions, its release was postponed and later cancelled outright after Sega ran into development issues. At least four in-progress games for the hardware were in development before its cancellation. The project was largely driven by Sega of America; a more successful, separate, and officially released attempt at a virtual reality headset, the Mega Visor Display, was overseen by Sega's Japanese amusement divisions and United Kingdom-based collaborators

Virtuality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), edu ...

, and would be used in the VR-1 theme park ride and the ''Dennou Senki Net Merc'' arcade game. The similarly titled VR-1 is not to be confused with the Sega VR.

Features

The Sega VR's design was based on an

IDEO IDEO () is a design and consulting firm with offices in the U.S., England, Germany, Japan, and China. It was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1991. The company's 700 staff uses a design thinking approach to design products, services, enviro ...

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), edu ...

head-mounted display A head-mounted display (HMD) is a display device, worn on the head or as part of a helmet (see Helmet-mounted display for aviation applications), that has a small display optic in front of one ( monocular HMD) or each eye ( binocular HMD). An ...

containing LCD screens in the visor and stereo headphones.

Inertial sensor An inertial measurement unit (IMU) is an electronic device that measures and reports a body's specific force, angular rate, and sometimes the orientation of the body, using a combination of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and sometimes magnetomete ...

s in the headset allow the system to

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

and react to the movements of the user's head.

Development

Sega of America, flush with funds from the success of its

Mega Drive/Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

, announced the peripheral in 1991. It was later seen in early

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

, at the Winter

Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event t ...

(CES). The magazine stated that the headset was planned to use the Genesis hardware and would be released in late 1993 at with four

launch game This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players. 0–9 A ...

s, including a port of

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade vi ...

Virtua Racing ''Virtua Racing'', or ''V.R.'' for short, is a Formula One racing video game developed by Sega AM2 and released for arcades in 1992. ''Virtua Racing'' was initially a proof-of-concept application for exercising a new 3D graphics platform u ...

''.''

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The ...

''
Video Game Preview Guide
1993 Sega later announced its release schedule for early 1994, according to ''

Electronic Games An electronic game is a game that uses electronics to create an interactive system with which a player can play. Video games are the most common form today, and for this reason the two terms are often used interchangeably. There are other common ...

''. Because of development difficulties, the Sega VR headset remained only a prototype and was never released to the general public. Then-CEO

Tom Kalinske Thomas Kalinske (born July 17, 1944) is an American businessman, best known as having worked for Mattel from 1972 to 1987, where he was credited with reviving the Barbie and Hot Wheels brands, launching Masters of the Universe, then being promoted ...

stated that the system would not be released due to it inducing motion sickness and severe headaches in users. It was last seen at the 1993 Summer CES, where it was demonstrated by Alan Hunter. It vanished from release schedules in 1994. Four games were apparently developed for the system, each using 16 MB cartridges that were to be bundled with the headset. The company claimed to have terminated the project because the virtual reality effect was too realistic, so users might move while wearing the headset and injure themselves. The limited processing power of the system and apparent difficulties faced in converting it for use in

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

territories make this claim unlikely, although there were reports of testers developing

headache Headache is the symptom of pain in the face, head, or neck. It can occur as a migraine, tension-type headache, or cluster headache. There is an increased risk of depression in those with severe headaches. Headaches can occur as a result ...

s and

motion sickness Motion sickness occurs due to a difference between actual and expected motion. Symptoms commonly include nausea, vomiting, cold sweat, headache, dizziness, tiredness, loss of appetite, and increased salivation. Complications may rarely include de ...

. Mark Pesce, who worked on the Sega VR project, says

SRI International SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic ...

, a research institute, warned Sega of the "hazards of prolonged use".

Games

Only four original games were known to be in development. * ''Nuclear Rush'': A simulation in which users pilot a hovercraft in a futuristic war. * ''Iron Hammer'': In this helicopter simulation, gamers pilot a flying gunship as in EA's popular ''Strike'' series. * ''Matrix Runner'': Reported to be a

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and ...

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based ...

inspired by

Hideo Kojima is a Japanese video game designer, director, producer and writer. He is regarded as an auteur of video games. He developed a strong passion for action/adventure cinema and literature during his childhood and adolescence. In 1986, he was hi ...

's '' Snatcher''. * ''Outlaw Racing'': A vehicle racing and combat game. Sega also announced a

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

Sega AM2 previously known as is a video game development team within the Japanese multinational video game developer Sega. Yu Suzuki, who had previously developed arcade games for Sega including '' Hang-On'' and ''Out Run'', was the first manager of t ...

's hit

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

'' as a launch game for the device, though it is not known how far this reached in development.

Legacy

Since the cancellation of the Sega VR, few attempts have been made by the company to develop virtual reality technology. A similar peripheral was reportedly made, but never seen, for the

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

. While Sega of America undertook development on the Sega VR, Sega of Japan endeavoured to create their own separate virtual reality project. After creating an initial agreement to collaborate with the pioneering Virtuality Group on a then-unspecified arcade project in August 1993, the two companies entered higher negotiations to make a new, highly advanced headset by combining their previous development assets in the field of VR. The result of the agreement was the Mega Visor Display, publicly released for the first time in July 1994 as part of the VR-1 attraction installed at Sega's flagship

Joypolis is a chain of indoor amusement parks created by Sega and run by CA Sega Joypolis. Beginning on July 20, 1994 with the original location sited in Yokohama, Japan, Joypolis centers have since opened in several cities in Japan and later China. T ...

indoor theme parks in Japan, as well as

SegaWorld London SegaWorld London was an indoor theme park opened by Sega in the London Trocadero, London, in September 1996. At 110,000 square feet, it was claimed to be the largest indoor theme park in the world. It was Sega's flagship venue in Europe and the ...

and

Sega World Sydney Sega World Sydney was an indoor high-tech amusement park that operated for almost four years, in Sydney. The theme park was built as the flagship tenant of the Darling Walk complex in Darling Harbour, and was designed and themed by gaming compa ...

. Alongside the attraction, the MVD was praised in reviews at the time for its advancements in ergonomic design and graphical output, and was supposedly not fully matched in performance until the 2010s. A second project to utilize the Mega Visor Display, the ''Dennou Senki Net Merc'' arcade game, was later demonstrated at Japan's 1995 AOU (Amusement Operators Union) show, using the

Sega Model 1 Sega is a video game developer, publisher, and hardware development company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with multiple offices around the world. The company's involvement in the arcade game industry began as a Japan-based distributor of c ...

arcade system board An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are coin-operated, housed in an arc ...

to produce its 3D graphics. ''Net Merc'' subsequently received much more muted reception, with the game's flat-shaded graphics compared unfavourably to the

Sega Model 2 Sega is a video game developer, publisher, and hardware development company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with multiple offices around the world. The company's involvement in the arcade game industry began as a Japan-based distributor of c ...

's textured-filtered graphics when showcased.

References

External links

Source code
at Video Game History Foundation {{DEFAULTSORT:Sega Vr VR VR Vaporware game consoles Virtual reality headsets Fourth-generation video game consoles