Atari Jaguar VR headset (No.6)

[L.T.Earle]

On Saturday I was lucky enough to be in the same room as the Atari Jaguar VR headset. This one belong to the Retro Computer Museum in Leicester, UK. Simon is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to Virtuality and was gifted this by one of the designers. He was told that there where 10 units made and this one is number 6. Sadly this unit does not have the required IR transmitter.

 

I posted this on the FB page but it was mentioned that there are 4 working transmitters out there. Does anyone know where they are now? Would be amazing to have a working unit in the UK! 

 

 

[Rick Dangerous]

Wild.  Very cool; thanks for sharing!

 

Would it be possible to get this unit working with off-the-shelf parts?

[NeoGeoNinja]

A nortthern lass (oo er!) from (...from?) YouTube going by the name 'Octavius' reviewed this very unit. Well, more like a physical hands on. General gist I got is that reconstructive neck surgery is required if you spent some serious time with this on ye head!

 

That's all I have to add. Here's a link to her video:

 

 

 

[+Stephen Moss]

18 hours ago, L.T.Earle said:

Does anyone know where they are now? Would be amazing to have a working unit in the UK!

I don't know about there being 4 working transmitters out there, as far as I know there is only one complete & working VR unit which keeps changing hands.

 

I was in the UK for a couple of years and made an appearance at a couple of JagFest UK events which was probably 8-10 years ago now, I may be wrong but I think some Italian guys who's visited JagFest UK and were inspired to do run their own Atari events may have brought it around that time but it may well have changed hands again since then.

[Rick Dangerous]

I thought there were two working units still, a red one and the blue one, which had some extra features. 

[Clint Thompson]

19 minutes ago, Rick Dangerous said:

I thought there were two working units still, a red one and the blue one, which had some extra features. 

Correct, both blue (the units I originally acquired) and red units (that Ted originally acquired) are complete with working base transmitters.

On 2/11/2020 at 2:57 AM, Stephen Moss said:

I don't know about there being 4 working transmitters out there, as far as I know there is only one complete & working VR unit which keeps changing hands.

When I received the blue VR headsets, I had a spare transmitter that was almost fully populated (I think it was only missing the EPROM chipset and a 16-bit Zilog processor) and was clearly used as a testing unit. I sold this along with an empty blue headset shell to Curt of Atari Museum. He has long since sold that lot off, probably sometime around the early 2000s but no idea to who. Whoever owns it now certainly hasn't posted here about it over the years and chances are they may not even have it anymore, as in, possibly sold it along the way to someone else.

 

Ted's @4getdat Red headset also had two tracker units and I believe 2 spare empty transmitter shells. From what I know, both of those went to Tim (BuddyBuddies) who has long since removed himself from the community for several years now and has not responded to personal emails, at least not to me. His partner in crime who was co-running Beta Phase games did respond to me last year but emphasized that Tim has left the scene with no further details and no way to get into direct contact with him. He did not respond to my follow-up and last I heard their website was down.

 

I was trying to get in touch with him regarding the JagDuo casing. He had a kid and went on a selling spree so who owns it all now remains a mystery, strangely.

[Gaztee]

Marco still owns the Blue Headset. He's not posted on here in years (litoskin) is/was his handle. I had the working blue headset for 4 years and took it to a RCM meet before i sold it to Marco in 2010.

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[L.T.Earle]

18 hours ago, Gaztee said:

Marco still owns the Blue Headset. He's not posted on here in years (litoskin) is/was his handle. I had the working blue headset for 4 years and took it to a RCM meet before i sold it to Marco in 2010.

 

Would be great if they had a fully working set! It's a shame how these things can be in the public eye and suddenly disappear. ?

[L.T.Earle]

On 2/12/2020 at 7:29 PM, Clint Thompson said:

Correct, both blue (the units I originally acquired) and red units (that Ted originally acquired) are complete with working base transmitters.

When I received the blue VR headsets, I had a spare transmitter that was almost fully populated (I think it was only missing the EPROM chipset and a 16-bit Zilog processor) and was clearly used as a testing unit. I sold this along with an empty blue headset shell to Curt of Atari Museum. He has long since sold that lot off, probably sometime around the early 2000s but no idea to who. Whoever owns it now certainly hasn't posted here about it over the years and chances are they may not even have it anymore, as in, possibly sold it along the way to someone else.

 

Ted's @4getdat Red headset also had two tracker units and I believe 2 spare empty transmitter shells. From what I know, both of those went to Tim (BuddyBuddies) who has long since removed himself from the community for several years now and has not responded to personal emails, at least not to me. His partner in crime who was co-running Beta Phase games did respond to me last year but emphasized that Tim has left the scene with no further details and no way to get into direct contact with him. He did not respond to my follow-up and last I heard their website was down.

 

I was trying to get in touch with him regarding the JagDuo casing. He had a kid and went on a selling spree so who owns it all now remains a mystery, strangely.

Thanks for the information, Clint. I guess the plus to this is that they are still out there! No doubt they'll show up again.

[Isgoed]

On 2/12/2020 at 8:29 PM, Clint Thompson said:

I was trying to get in touch with him regarding the JagDuo casing. He had a kid and went on a selling spree so who owns it all now remains a mystery, strangely.

He might have his reasons for whatever he does/has done, but for someone who was so over-over-enthusiastic about the Atari Jaguar system I find it strange indeed.

[L.T.Earle]

It's a shame that at this stage we don't have access to a working unit. It's great to see that this is still so much passion for the VR though  ?

[MegaManFan]

On 2/10/2020 at 2:03 PM, NeoGeoNinja said:

A nortthern lass (oo er!) from (...from?) YouTube going by the name 'Octavius' reviewed this very unit. Well, more like a physical hands on. General gist I got is that reconstructive neck surgery is required if you spent some serious time with this on ye head!

 

That's all I have to add. Here's a link to her video:

 

 

 

That lass is a lad. They go by Louis now. Just a heads up (no pun intended).

[Shawn]

I talked to Buddies roughly 1.5 to 2 years ago, He has sold all his Jag stuff.

[+Smallywood]

[Jagosaurus]

Dang. Hate to see the inner plastic degrading.

 

Worth noting the YouTuber above was at some point involved with Nostalgia Nerd ( https://youtube.com/@Nostalgianerd ), who seems plugged into the UK retro scene. He reviews a lot of obscure hardware & may know who owns that working VR unit reviewed.

 

... also, what company went on to make another VR headset that looked a lot like the Jag VR or maybe shared some heritage? Recall someone attempting to sell one recently described incorrectly.

[+orpheuswaking]

On 8/8/2023 at 10:43 PM, Shawn said:

I talked to Buddies roughly 1.5 to 2 years ago, He has sold all his Jag stuff.

say it aint so :0 Buddies was a die hard Jag fan