Ideas Caught In Time #001 – Zero Hour

This post will mark the beginning of a new feature that we will run on the site in conjunction with The Stinger Report called Ideas Caught In Time. Over the many years arcades have been around there has been no shortage of ideas that never made it to market, which we have covered before with talk of prototypes. This will just be a brief glimpse at something where you can feel free to comment or add thoughts below.

For a first time romp through these ideas is a hardware concept done in 2000 for a Virtuality game called Zero Hour.

Perhaps they artist was just trying to show off everything that would have been involved since looking back over your shoulder in a concept like this would have been an awkward thing to do in a seat. Judging by the game footage below, I don’t think that would have been necessary though as you control your foot movement via the joystick as seen above. This sit-down style play is an idea that was likely seeking to offer a slightly safer way of VR play, with a little more comfort and style than the other VR pods could offer at the time. The software for Zero Hour already existed,  made for the upright Virtuality SU3000 unit which was the last in the line-up of Virtuality’s game cabinets, here is some low-quality video of the game in action.

So what are your thoughts? Would it have made for a better way to play first-person light-gun games or is it best left in the dust bin?