Future Wars

Future Wars
By: Scott Hendison � Published: June 1999

Last week I spent two days at the E3 show in California. The Electronic Entertainment Exhibition is the single largest gathering of professionals in the world for my favorite type of computing - entertainment. With over 3000 computers and consoles going, the L.A.Convention Center sounded like a war zone.

There were company technical representatives to explain how "tri-linear filtering and anti aliasing" enhance the realism that users will experience with their brand of video card. There were game developers of popular games to discuss everything from story lines and scripts to new features of upcoming releases. But most of all, there were games. This is the industry's showplace for the latest and the greatest to hit the world for the turn of the century. Many games were exhibited in various stages of development, just to show off certain new features.

For example, the NHL 99 game, by Electronic Arts is already considered to be one of the most realistic programs available. For NHL 2000, the big feature that impressed me was the ability to put your OWN FACE on any player on the ice right in the game! We could field a team of all our 19 Cyber Exchange employees, and play as a team, from our own homes, against other people anywhere in the world over the Internet.

There were also some amazing inventions to play with. I got to try a new chair that looked like a pilot seat. It had all the usual features of an office chair, but it also had a 10 inch subwoofer speaker built into the back, and two 5 inch speakers that flanked my shoulder blades. Connected to an amplifier, I watched a couple of minutes of a DVD Star Trek movie. Talk about surround sound! Then I tried one that was hooked to a computer, with an added on mouse and keyboard tray, so I could lean back. Luckily for me, one of my favorite games was being used as the demo. I practically had to be removed by security! Why can't I convince my wife how advantageous that chair would be to our home computer system?

Another neat technology to play with was motion sensor stuff. I tried a joystick that had no base on it. All you do is hold it in your hand, and tilt it to move. Forward, back, left, right, up, down, etc. were all accomplished just as if I were connected to a normal joystick. The usual assortment of buttons was on it too, and I was so impressed that I bought some for the store to sell. They also had a steering wheel that worked the same way.

There was also a headset that was truly amazing. It incorporated earphones with a sensor on the front of the forehead. It allowed me to turn my head slightly, and get a changing view from the cockpit of an airplane. A small movement left gave me a real time movement of my view on the screen moving to the left. Movement a bit farther, and on the screen, my view kept on going until I was looking out the rear of the plane. I could look straight up, at 12 o' clock, or down at my instrument panel. It felt very natural, and after two or three minutes, became second nature.

After being there for two days, I came away feeling a bit overwhelmed. How will I ever be able to find the time to try them all? Post Note: We are now the first store in the country to carry the BattleChair.