Patent Pending: Sega VR – Virtual Reality Gaming Headset

Herman Melvin once said “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”

With that in mind we once again delve in to the technological limbo, searching through the gadget archives to bring you the best and the worst of the gadgets that never quite made it to the main event.

If you ask a person what is the best games console ever the likelihood is that you will get a list that contains almost every console ever made. However if you has a 25 – 35 year old, they will invariably give you list that contains only two names… the Super Nintendo and the Sega Mega Drive.

After a gaming boom in the late 80’s, both Nintendo and Sega were awash with cash and pondering their next move. Nintendo started work on their next games console, one that again created another gaming boom, the Nintendo 64. Sega however decided to focus on new technologies that were supposed to push gaming further than it had ever gone before. To that end they began developing the Sega VR.

The Sega VR, announced in 1991, was heralded as an add-on for the Sega Mega Drive. The design was based on an IDEO virtual reality helmet with LCD screens in the visor and stereo headphones. Sensors in the helmet allowed the system to follow and react to movements made by the player. Unfortunately Sega, after missing various release dates, announced that the console add-on had been scrapped citing “testers developing headaches and motion sickness” as the reason the project was not developed further.

An immersive experience where you could see through the eyes of Sonic the Hedgehog himself, listen to the cries of help from the inhabitants of Emerald hill zone and wonder how on earth you’ll be able to stop Dr Robotnik this time (or Dr Eggman if you are that way inclined).

Here at the Gadget Helpline we like to think that we have our finger on the pulse of technology and we don’t think it will too long until the current range of motion based gaming brings VR back into the mainstream. Particularly in light of Sony’s recent unveiling of the HMZ-T1, aka the HD 3D Personal Viewer, which will be hooking up with Playstation 3 in 2012!

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The Gadget Helpline’s Gaming Weekly is your 7-day run-down of some of the most talked about topics within the gaming community online. We aim to deliver the week’s top gaming gossip, discuss future release news and the share the latest trailers – spanning the whole console market from Xbox 360 to Wii, as well as mobile devices packing Android and iOS – and more!

The Gadget Helpline: Retro Replay feature will bring you a weekly throwback to the days of old school gaming and will present a little history on the new wave of classic titles currently getting a revival on our modern gaming gadgets

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