Oculus Rift Mario, Star Fox 64, Pokemon, Sonic Gameplay Made Real
When you think of Oculus Rift, the virtual reality simulator headset, next-generation games immediately come to mind. Now for developer Chadtronic. Instead, he's gone back into the archives, making clear that he'll not rest until his favorite games from the past 30 years are fully prepared for out full VR enjoyment.
First you'll see Pokemon Snap. This is the newest of Chadtronic's creations, consisting of a bit of a code hack to enable the Nintendo 64 game to be controlled via the Oculus Rift.
This demonstration is fairly simple, pushing the game to the system in a relatively traditional way, retro-fitting the joystick control of the game to the head-tracking in the headset.
One unfortunate bit about these demonstrations, you'll see quickly, is our inability to witness exactly what the developer is seeing as he demos the game. The good thing is – you can get a taste for it anyway.
Next you'll witness Star Fox 64. Chadtronic mentions this demonstration in the Pokemon Snap demo above – here the controls are slightly less precise, but you still get a similar effect. This is you inside the pilot's seat in one of the most entertaining space shooters of all time.
Both of the games above were originally released to the N64. below you'll find two more demos, this time from games rendered in completely different environments.
Sonic the Hedgehog is demonstrated here by Chadtronic using a collection of means. With XPadder, TriDef3D, and none other than Unreal Engine 3, this is all made possible for a real working ring-filled demonstration.
This Sonic game and the following demonstration aren't titles you're going to see hitting the shelf again (or for the first time) any time soon. You can follow through to their YouTube listings to find download links if you do so dare to download – though we do warn you: we've not tested the links ourselves, and we'd not recommend doing so if you're fearful of copyright infringements and the like.
The final video we're having a peek at in this round-up is Mario. This demonstration shows Super Mario Bros in a way you've likely dreamed of, but have never seen it played before – from a first-person perspective.
Again remember that this is all demonstration fodder – to make it all work, you'll need to do some real odd jobs and tinkering like Chadtronic has done. Let this collection serve to show you the possibilities, and to get you amped up about the next generation as it shows you the last.