#literally just wanted to go to a nearby Dave and busters

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Patron Saint of Missed Expectations

[8020lyfe]

Atlanta’s  Virtual Reality Arcade iSimu VR is the New Hangout Spot

Atlanta’s first virtual reality arcade is finally here! iSimu VR recently opened in Duluth (3064 Old Norcross Rd, Suite 100), so we had to be one of the first to try out this new spot! Yeah, we brag different… We’re always looking to upgrade our date night ideas – dinner and a movie get BORINGGGG. iSimu VR is the brainchild of Georgia Tech, Georgia Gwinnett College and University of Georgia students – past and present – turned Millennial business owners. YES, Millennial business owners. With all of these articles coming out about how to hire a millennial, the iSimu VR team just answered that question… You don’t. We create our own jobs.

First-blush reaction?

After two hours of VR gaming, we were geeking out, thanks to another unique Atlanta date night idea. Virtual reality feels like reality. VR gaming is not only fun, but a workout. So when you show up to iSimu VR, get ready to break a sweat, whether you’re dodging laser beams (literally) or dancing the night (or afternoon) away…

We gave it five stars for Atlanta date night originality. Afer all, this isn’t your dad’s arcade – Sorry PAC-MAN, Street Fighter II and Time Crisis!  We’ll never look at a trip to the movies with the same zeal.

“People have tried the movies,” said co-founder Vien Ha, 25, a 2014 graduate of Georgia Tech. “People have tried Dave and Busters. We wanted to give them something else to try.”

So what’s virtual reality feel like? We’ll give you a taste through our experiences.

Gary: Light blade VR

I’m breathing hard. Perspiration develops on my forehead as I stand my ground in the Dessert Temple, a world inside a virtual reality game for adults and teenagers. My head rotates side to side, up and down as I grip lightsabers in both hands. One is tilted at an angle, ready to slash, the other held vertically to protect myself.

My eyes track another one-eyed robot as it approaches, complete with a barrage of laser blasts. Here it Comes! I move to the right then quickly to the left, creating enough space to take a swing. SLASH!

I slice it in half… Suddenly, another opponent appears. He looks pretty bad azz in all-black. And he’s holding a lightsaber. Which normally would be pretty cool. Only. That… He’s. Coming. This. Way…  

I’ve never felt soooooo alive!

And just like that, I’m officially a VR gamer …

VR gamers to  millennial business owners

Vien Ha wants virtual reality to grip Atlanta residents the same way it mesmerized him after his first game experience, a little more than six months ago at the residence of co-founder Clayton Feustel - both are products of Georgia Tech.

“We were over at Clayton’s house; typical hangout,” Vien Ha said. “Then I found out he had an HTC vibe to share with everybody. We had a group of 10 people there. I got a chance to play it for 10 minutes.

“The moment I put the headset on, I knew this was game-changing technology. I knew this was going to be the future, and I wanted to be a part of it.”

Vien, Feustel and their friends decided to form a startup company. On April 21, iSimu VR opened for business. The millennial business ownership includes Shahriar Mahib, 19; Sifat Razi, 21; Peter Nguyen, 21; Tanvir Iqbal, 26; and Spencer Obsitnik, 21.

Together, the Millennial business owners created a new business in Atlanta, a city which embraces new technology.

Eat your heart out, Mario

Virtual reality video games may be new to the public, but the technology has been around since the 1990s. And of course, video game arcades date back to the late-1970s to early 1980s, from PAC-MAN to Donkey Kong.

Back then, teenagers, men, and some women gathered around these massive machines with quarters in hand, eager to punch and kick, jump and grab. We all wanted to know who amongst us could catch the ghosts in time, outpunch Mike Tyson, out-smart Bowser.

Then came the 1990s. Home video game consoles became the norm. Virtual reality games were around, but products like Nintendo’s Virtual Boy failed to take a stand around his video game competition.

Fast forward to 2017.

Virtual reality graphics are better. Computers are faster. For now, the cost of setting up a virtual reality video game station at home is still pricey – Ha estimated that the low-end cost of a home unit would be about $3,000. (And who wants to rearrange the living room furniture every time you turn on the system? (Nobody)

Here in Atlanta, we don’t have to. We can drive to iSimu VR’s 2,700-square-feet facility on Old Norcross Road in Duluth and purchase a plan starting at $30 an hour. iSimu VR also hosts private events.

 “Arcades went away because largely, consoles brought the arcade experience to the home,” Feustel said.

“And I’d like to think that VR has kind of shifted it back to the arcade for a unique experience you can’t get at home.”

iSimu VR has 12 stations, with each about 80 square feet, more than enough room to teleport, shoot arrows (QuiVr and holopoint ) and dance, dance, dance! And of course, swing a lifesaber.

Each station is equipped with a HTC Vive headset and controllers. A perimeter in the virtual reality video game alerts you if you’re walking too far in a certain direction in real life. And in case you insist on walking, yes, the walls and floor are padded.

Nina: Fruit Ninja

First of all… who knew you would sweat at a virtual reality arcade? I know I didn’t.  I expected to stand in a little box, shoot at some goblins then post about the experience on Facebook.  Then I saw Fruit Ninja.  

OMG Fruit Ninja in virtual reality?

It’s on!  

Fruit Ninja was one of the easiest games for me because… well, I’m a Fruit Ninja in real life so there’s that. Lol.

I swear I thought I was a real ninja; I got in the stance. You know, really low with one of my swords in front of me and the other in the air… Those fruits never had a chance… I was twisting and turning, but I made sure to keep the proper ninja stance. Of course. That was the perfect game to start with.

I jumped into some space shooting game Space Pirate that was freaking awesome, but it was nothing compared to Audio Shield. You can select any song from YouTube and dance your ass off!. You get to perform at a concert in the stadium of your choice. I tried all three locations. (You know it was fun if I’m still dancing as I write this!)

My only regret: I didn’t wear yogo pants for my VR workout…

  Click here for coupon for your first virtual reality game

Friends can watch your virtual reality arcade antics from a nearby monitor.

Mega Overload is a great multi-player game. It has a retro feel, as you join the front lines on the Crystal Asteroid to defend the Milky Way from the Mega Bots.

 “We want this VR experience to be not just you,” Vien Ha said. “Part of it is watching your friend play. It’s pretty funny. It’s enjoyable. We want this to be a social thing.”

In QuiVr, you can hear and feel the arrow as you stretch the bow and hold the arrow in place before shooting.

Zombie Training Simulator gets us ready for the zombie apocalypse… Hope your aim is straight.

Then there’s Job Simulator: in the maybe-not-too-distant-future, robots have replaced all human jobs. You get the chance to experience a “job simulator.”

Isimu VR plans to rotate VR games, and has already secured several games in demo stage for its new clientele.

Climbey is a climbing game, it’s goal simple: Climb to the finish, while avoiding the obstacles!

iSiuma VR is positioning itself as an Atlanta VR leader. Its millennial business owners want to be more than a virtual reality arcade, but an industry leader. It wants to create virtual reality fans like the tens o

Friends can watch your virtual reality arcade antics from a nearby monitor.

Atlanta VR has a long way to go to match other VR communities, but the region, complete with more than 32 colleges, has plenty of potential patrons to draw from.

Their future goals include simplifying first-time user experiences, franchising and creating stations that can be utilized at other businesses or in homes.

Right now, one of the challenges operating a virtual reality video game arcade is labor. The setup takes a lot of labor from staff members monitoring each patron.

Why?

In some games, pressing a side button will allow a character to walk, while in another game, the same button will control another movement. And in a third game, the character may not walk. If developers get on the same page with simple movements, it will make it easier for gamers and non-gamers to jump in and play with less of a learning curve.

iSimu VR is also working on a station for synchronous games which allows a person to participate in a different part of a virtual reality game than another person.

Our only regret is that there isn’t a way (yet) to learn how to play the games before the time period starts. Some games are easier to jump in and play than others.

Again, not to worry. Your favorite Atlanta VR gaming location is working on it.

For now, the Duluth location is developing an energized fan base. On this Sunday afternoon, patrons ranged in age from under 10 to over 50.

That’s just what Vien Ha loves to see.

“That’s the best part of my job; seeing people try it for the first time. Being able to share that experience with them.”

[junker-town]

The NFL opened up a football theme park in the middle of Times Square

And it’s one more way the league wants to hook you.

MANHATTAN — The brand new NFL Experience in Times Square is not a football museum. I make the mistake of calling it that while talking to Danny Boockvar, the president of the whole endeavor, who’s walking me through the fourth floor of the 40,000 square-foot space.

“It’s purposely not meant to be a deep exhibit and museum,” he says, shaking his head. “I like to think of it as Disney meets-the Hall of Fame-meets Dave and Buster’s, with a liquor license in Times Square.”

Broockvar is an enthusiastic guy wearing a quilted vest, a wool blazer, and reminds me of a prep school headmaster who’s just closed a particularly lucrative capital campaign. He’s on the board of New York City’s tourism department, and when he heard about this project in June of 2016, he left his job as the CEO of New York Cruise Lines to head it up. The NFL and Cirque du Soleil had been planning the project for about a year and a half at that point.

As we walk through the room, Broockvar tells me that while I have entered as a fan, I will soon become a player, and then I will leave as a champion. I will do all of this by watching a movie in a next-level IMAX-ish theater, participating in a mock combine/practice hybrid, and looking at the Lombardi trophy in a room where the carpet is designed to resemble a football field littered with confetti.

Broockvar and I pass a case containing a cheerleading uniform, one of a few displays of actual memorabilia. Most of the action on this floor takes place on screens inlaid on tables set up throughout the space. I hit a button on one to tell it I’m a Patriots fan. Highlights from recent years pop up, and I hit play on the video of Malcolm Butler’s game-winning interception from the 2015 Super Bowl. I feel a degree of the same excitement and incredulity that I did when I saw it live in 2015.

“This is for both the avid fan, casual fan, domestic fan, and international visitors,” Broockvar says, gesturing at a family speaking what I think is Dutch nearby. The place is pretty empty because it’s not officially open yet — there’s been a soft opening, but the big kick-off event is two days away.

This non-museum is like the NFL itself: Brightly colored, loud, stimulating, and a surprising mix of gaudy and beautiful. The project has been in the works for three years, but as the storm of PR crises rage on — pick your poison: CTE, Jerry Jones v. Roger Goodell, backlash against players protesting social justice — the timing of the opening seems like a shiny new toy the league is hoping will serve as a distraction. That, and a way to keep consumers engaged and spending money in the off-season at locations away from stadiums. They want to hook anyone they can get.

Charlotte Wilder

“I mean, look,” Broockvar continues, “Whether they’ve ever watched a football game before or not, this is like the thriller version of the hall of fame. It’s entertaining, fun, engaging, and digestible.”

The 4D movie that Broockvar promises will “knock my socks off” is about to start, so he leads me into the theater. I ask what 4D is. It’s … well, Broockvar doesn’t want to ruin it for me, so he won’t go into details. But he does say that it’s more like a ride than a movie: There are screens on three out of the four walls, the seats in the theater move, and there will be wind. He tells me to turn my seat up to the “max” setting. I sit down and oblige.

The movie begins with a series of warnings that could also, I suppose, be applied to an actual NFL game — you might experience motion sickness, you could have a seizure, it will be very loud, and pregnant women should probably sit this one out.

My seat starts to shake and my body tenses up as the Packers run out of the tunnel to take the field. NFL Films is a partner in this whole thing, so there’s lots of “never-before-seen” footage from the point of view of players. My chair buzzes, slowly at first, as Aaron Rodgers looks for an open receiver. The vibrations ramp up as he pulls his arm back to throw, then suddenly the whole seat shifts, tilting me forward. Rodgers releases the ball and my seat whips me to the side, slamming me into the armrest as the quarterback get tackled by a defender who’s charged at him out-of-the-blue on the front screen. Video of the stands on the side screens show fans screaming and cheering.

Montage after montage of hits and sacks and throws and touchdowns take us through the regular season as I’m yanked around in time to the action. When I told a friend a few days ago that I was coming here, he’d said, “The NFL Experience? What, do they just slam your head against a wall for a few hours?” He was joking, clearly, but it kind of feels like that’s what’s happening right now.

“This is probably the first thing [off the field] I’ve been a part of that gave me goosebumps,” the Giants wide receiver Brandon Marshall will say when I talk to him at the end of the visit. The NFL Experience wanted a player to do some interviews, and since Marshall is injured and has some free time, he’s the guy they got.

“The anticipation, that anxiety that you feel in the theater, like ‘What’s happening next?’ That’s real. Once in my career I was in a scramble and literally it felt like all 22 guys on the field were on top of me. I freaked out. It can be the longest 30 seconds of your life.”

The film takes us onto the playoffs. The Star Spangled Banner plays through the speakers and my seat quakes as fighter jets fly overhead. Music that sounds like a mashup of the Games of Thrones opening credits and the NFL on FOX gets louder. The patriotic display is overt and overwhelming — I feel like I’m watching the football equivalent of a propaganda film from World War II, or an ad for the Marines that runs during games.

The film ends before anyone makes it to the Super Bowl, but it’s done its job: According to Boockvar, I have officially become a player, and it’s time to move on to the mock equipment room and practice facility a floor below.

There’s a vertical jump in here, as well as dummy blocking, an interactive play-calling situation with Jon Gruden (that was filmed especially for this!), a build-your-own-trading-card station, and a place where you can throw a football at a screen to a virtual wide receiver. Despite the fact that I think I’ve blown out my knee as I jump in boots, and that I’ve only made the practice squad with my weak showing against the dummy, I’m having a blast. Playing football is fun. I delight in throwing spirals to a pixilated Gronk, who catches two and misses one, and isn’t to blame for the latter.

Cohn & Wolfe

I have not performed exceptionally well, but as I walk down the stairs and to the final floor, I have won the Super Bowl nonetheless. The confetti hanging from the ceiling is the Patriots’ colors, but it will change each year according to which team is the current champion. There’s a display of Super Bowl rings from year to year, which have gotten increasingly ostentatious, as well as copies of tickets. A few decades ago, a seat went for $12. Last year, the one displayed on the wall cost $1500.

I am officially a champion. I walk through “the media tunnel” and enter the bar and restaurant area that overlooks Times Square. It will serve rotating offerings of specific dishes from stadiums, and will be — the league hopes — a place you can watch the game on Thursday nights.

While the informational aspect felt a bit too thin for actual fans, the drills were enjoyable no matter how much or how little you know about the game. I can see where if you’re a football-obsessed kid, or a family that won’t be going to a game anytime soon, this would be a cool, behind-the-scenes look. Or if you’re on vacation with time to kill in midtown. Here, the NFL is saying to foreign tourists, is America.

I just can’t shake the fact that the theme-park portion isn’t a simulation of a ride, it’s a simulation of the hits player’s bodies endure (and evidence of the 100% injury rate). Dawn Hudson, the NFL’s chief marketing officer, will tell me on the phone a day later that it’s more than that— it’s about running, juking, throwing. She says that as someone who didn’t play football, getting to experience a big person coming at you in real time was eye-opening.

It was. On television and even in the stands, watching football isn’t so visceral. Here, however, getting thrown around in the seats, it was impossible to ignore and honestly a little alarming. The NFL and Cirque du Soleil know what buttons to push to elicit reaction and emotion. They knew to show me the Butler interception, to kick up the music there, release some fake snow here. I’m just not sure they intended it all to worry me more than pump me up.