7 Beloved Video Game Consoles That Were Almost Completely Different
4. The Atari Jaguar Had A VR Headset 22 Years Before The Oculus Rift
After turning down the chance to release the Genesis, Atari tried to compete with it by releasing the Atari Jaguar, a console that was a lot like a real jaguar in that it was difficult to control and owning one seemed like a waste of money. But things were seemingly looking up for the beleaguered company in 1994.
That's when they partnered with a group called Virtuality to produce a virtual reality headset for the Jaguar, a full 22 years before the Oculus Rift.
Codenamed JaguarVR, the project saw the production of at least two working prototype models. There was even a JaguarVR-compatible game released called Missile Command 3D. By most accounts, the virtual reality headsets worked surprisingly well, but the future of the Jaguar and Atari itself were in question by the time Virutality delivered the final prototype in 1995, and the project was shelved.
Most of the prototype models were destroyed when Atari merged with JTS in 1996, but at least one low-res and one high-res model are currently owned by private collectors.