I found a virtual reality arcade unlike anything I’ve seen in South Africa – you can shoot zombies, have snowball fights and even diffuse bombs.
A modern arcade totally dedicated to virtual reality gaming has opened its doors in an unlikely spot at the Canal Walk shopping centre, in Cape Town.
Virtual Realms is unlike any arcade South Africa has ever seen before.
Instead of playing Street Fighter on button-based machines built in the 1980s, you can shoot zombies, have snowball fights with your friends, and diffuse bombs with your work colleagues.
Its owner, Zak Simmons, came up with the idea after showing some friends his own virtual reality console setup at home.
“I enjoyed sharing its immersive experience so much, I thought ‘hey, why don’t I set up an arcade and do it full time’,” said Simmons.
Simmons studied programming in the UK before returning to South Africa to establish the arcade.
VR can be very expensive for the average South African gamer. One headset can cost R11,999.
That’s the cheaper end of your purchase. The heavy-duty computers required to run the games can cost tens of thousands of rands to run seamlessly.
At home, the VR experience is also limited to just one screen and your tiny lounge. In the arcade, you can experience VR at its best in a 3-metre square studio with cameras capturing a full 360-degree experience.
The arcade boasts 6 booths which allows you to play with your friends, or your sworn mortal enemies, depending on the game.
I found it on a Saturday morning and the experience was so real I didn’t want to leave.
Here’s what it was like:
They have 6 booths geared up with R12,000 HTC VIVE headsets.
Their computers are built to a high specification and can handle the intense graphic load required to generate the virtual world in a seamless and efficient manner.
The real performance power comes from their computer setup.
Which includes:
CPU: Ryzen 7
RAM: 16GB DDR4
Graphics card: Nvidia GTX 1080
Storage: NVMe SSD
Cooling: Water cooled
A party favourite is Beat Sabre
They also have two racing chairs that move
They’re fitted with Oculus Rift headsets (R17,000) that run on motion-simulated seats. The experience is so real, we got car sick.
They offer a 10-minute tryout if you’ve never played before. It’s just long enough to get you hooked.
Location: Century Mall SA
By Jay Caboz, businesss Insider