By the time<\/span> Howard Rheingold\u2019s \u201cVirtual Reality\u201d was published in 1991, the Sensorama was already a \u201cslowly deteriorating\u201d relic stashed away in a cabana next the pool at its inventor\u2019s West Los Angeles home. Rheingold describes awe \u2014 even surprise \u2014 that the system was still operable almost 30 years after its introduction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was transported to the driver\u2019s seat of a motorcycle in Brooklyn in the 1950s,\u201d the author writes. \u201cI heard the engine start. I felt a growing vibration through the handlebar, and the 3D photo that filled much of my field of view came alive, animating into a yellow, scratchy, but still effective 3D motion picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

The experience is immediately identifiable to anyone who has spent time in a modern VR headset. In the early 90s, it no doubt felt \u201ca bit like looking up the Wright Brothers and taking their original prototype out for a spin,\u201d as the book describes. At the dawn of the decade that gave us both \u201cThe Real World\u201d and \u201cThe End of History,\u201d virtual reality seemed to hold the keys to the next great paradigm shift.<\/p>\n

The year the book was published, Sega announced a VR peripheral for the Genesis. That October also saw the release of Virtuality\u2019s 1000 Series, a headset that would make its way into arcades with titles like Dactyl Nightmare, a first-person platform shooter that finds the player pursued by an angry pterodactyl. Four years later, Nintendo followed up the wild and enduring success of the Game Boy with Virtual Boy, a headset\/console built around (very red) stereoscopic vision.<\/p>\n

VR also dominated the pop culture, featuring prominently in films like \u201cJohnny Mnemonic,\u201d \u201cLawnmower Man\u201d and \u201cVirtuosity.\u201d The technology served as a visually rich shorthand for dystopian cyberpunk fears in an age of rapidly accelerating technology.<\/p>\n

By the end of the decade, however, the veneer wore off. Sega VR\u2019s 1994 launch date came and went. The product was initially delayed before it was ultimately canceled. Virtual Boy, meanwhile, did make it to store shelves and has since been regarded as Nintendo\u2019s single greatest misstep.<\/p>\n

For decades, the technology has felt ahead of its time, beginning with Sensorama in 1962. Considered by many to the starting point for what we now know as VR, the system looks more arcade cabinet than VR headset. The user is seated in a stool in front of the machine, their head obscured by a hood.<\/p>\n