🚀 go-pugleaf

In the _Green_Guide_ of 7/1/93 (the TV/computer supplement to 
_The_Age_ [Melbourne]), p. 18, citing _The_Independent_ as source
[do you get the feeling that you are getting fourth-hand news? ;]

VR's first game show
====================

"'AWOOGA AWOOGA!!', the irritating battle cry of the latest in
gameshow hosts, somehow sums up the world's first virtual reality
television program.

"A made-up word for a made-up game played in a made-up world with
presenter Craig Charles, better known as Lister in 'Red Dwarf'.

"The studio audience appears to be largely teenage, male and vaguely
heavy-metal in style. The game involves two teams, sports superstars
pitched against ordinary people.

"One team member stands on a platform which is wired into a network
of five personal computers. These create and control the virtual
scenes in which the contestant's borg can walk, run and manipulate
objects; the borg has to solve puzzles and perform tasks, and
exactly mimics movements made by the player. The second player guides
his team-mate using a computer map.

"The second team sits in a buggy and 'drives' its virtual image around
the same map in pursuit of their opponents' borg, hoping to chase and
harass it.

"Broadsword, the production company behind the series, teamed up with
British VR specialists Dimension International to create the program."


-------------------

Interesting that the report refers to `the borg' doing all these things,
not the people themselves. Perhaps that's due to the fact that it's
a TV programme... maybe the viewer mainly sees some stick-figure running
around in VirtualLand.

John

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John P. Costella              School of Physics, The University of Melbourne
jpc@tauon.ph.unimelb.edu.au         Tel: +61 3 543-7795, Fax: +61 3 347-4783
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