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Need a good work-out? VirZoom is back, now on Oculus Go and Quest

CrashFu
Consultant
Disclaimer:  The following will probably sound like a paid advertisement, but I swear it isn't! I'm just a huge fan and long-time user of VirZoom, and I'd love to see more people getting into it! 

*ahem* 

Exercise is a challenge for me. I've never been able to do gym memberships because, well... most gyms are boring.  I never really feel that motivated to go in the first place, and if I do, I just can't stay focused enough to work-out to the fullest.   Back in the heyday of the Nintendo Wii  I got really into Wii Fit, and it was fun,  but in all honesty I never got that much exercise out of it;  I probably did Wii Fit for an hour every day, and still remained horribly out of shape.

And of course, now there are plenty of popular VR games that give a great workout, such as Beat Saber .. but those mostly focus on arm-movements, so what are you gonna do on Leg Day?



That's where VirZoom comes in.  You take an Oculus Go or Quest, (almost) any exercise bike of your choosing, and the VZ Fit Sensor Kit.. and suddenly, you're cruising across a battlefield atop a pedal-powered tank,  racing as a pegasus along (and high above) a dusty mountain trail, or biking your way through another part of the world on a Google Maps journey.

One of the accompanying apps, VZ Fit Play,  currently has 8 games (two technically just different tracks for the same race-car game, and two others sharing the same 'avatar' but having very different objectives)  with more planned for the near future.  All of them are simple and arcade-like, but excel at pushing the player to pedal hard and strive for a high score  (there are leaderboards, after all, and some of the games support live multiplayer).

The other app, VZ Fit Explorer, is the one where you can bike across the world, rendered via Google Maps street-views.  Just set a starting point and explore from there, or select pre-determined routes recommended by other users and the VirZoom staff.   For those exceedingly long trips, you can stop and resume where you left-off later, and for a more focused workout there's even a virtual 'trainer' available,  to encourage you to keep a certain pace.



The Sensor Kit itself costs just under $100, along with a Hardware License Fee of either $15 / Month or $120 / Year, which can be cancelled or changed at any time.  This fee allows the developers to continue making updates and creating new content and features for both apps, including whole new game modes for VZ Fit Play  (they have a bunch in development / prototype phase already, and I'm already hyped for some of them.. for example, "Rocket League, but with tanks"  and "A temple-run style zombie-chase game)

Presumably, the fee also goes towards funding the prize events that VirZoom hosts.  The format for these so far has been a cumulative-score leaderboard for a specific VZ Fit Play game, run over the course of either a month or two weeks. Rather than the highest scorer winning automatically,  the prizes were awarded via a weighted drawing; essentially your cumulative score is the number of draws you get, so someone with a score of 100,000 would be twice as likely to win as someone scoring 50,000.   And what were the prizes?  $100 Amazon Gift-certificates.  If that's not a motivation to work out, I don't know what is!


Edit:  I originally promised a Sensor Kit giveaway, but due to the lack of entries I've decided to host it elsewhere (likely the VirZoom Facebook page).   I'll provide another update when that has started, and links in case anyone wants to enter there.
It's hard being the voice of reason when you're surrounded by unreasonable people.
10 REPLIES 10

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
It does very much sound like an advert, but why not eh. Sounds like an interesting device which I recall you mentioned before. How is your fitness are you like this now?



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HPSgQKLCUs


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

CrashFu
Consultant
@Shadowmask72 - Haha, I don't think I'll ever be that ripped.  I like beer and carb-rich foods too much.   :wink:

I actually had fallen out of use of the original VirZoom program for a period of time, partially because I stopped using Steam  (where the old VirZoom Arcade app was hosted)  and got caught up in apartment moving and a bunch of other life stuff.

So I was really thrilled when they announced the Go / Quest apps.  Been pretty distracted with the Rift-S this past week, but the week before that I managed to get in 20,000 spins!
It's hard being the voice of reason when you're surrounded by unreasonable people.

CrashFu
Consultant
Okay, one week in and.. @Shadowmask72  is the only entrant in the giveaway   (You were interested, right?)

On one hand, I'd be more than happy to award him the prize.  On the other hand, I was hoping my giveaway would generate a little more interest.  Anyone have any questions about the device or apps or anything?

I'll wait one more week before choosing the winner (next monday)
It's hard being the voice of reason when you're surrounded by unreasonable people.

saami81
Rising Star
Sounds like a very good product, but i dont have an exercise bike.

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
Actually no Crash. I was merely commenting. I don't have a bike either.


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

Zahariel
Expert Protege
Sounds like a fun app but the $15 a month fee to continue to use it is off putting. One of the main reasons I got my HMD was the exercise options and I didn't fancy being tied down to a £20-60 per month contract... Is there not an option to buy the app and that's it?

Aside from that I think your giveaway is a generous thing and if I had the Quest / Go then I might sign up.

CrashFu
Consultant

Zahariel said:

Sounds like a fun app but the $15 a month fee to continue to use it is off putting. One of the main reasons I got my HMD was the exercise options and I didn't fancy being tied down to a £20-60 per month contract... Is there not an option to buy the app and that's it?


Well, there is the $120/year option, which is a good deal cheaper overall.  The monthly option is more for people who haven't decided to commit to a full year yet, or I guess those who only plan on using it for a limited portion of the year.

Originally, VirZoom sold whole bikes (with the sensors and game controls built in)  and there was no license fee...  but IIRC, the base price of those was $400, so it's more like the usage fee was just included up-front.   With the new sensor kits only costing $100, the monthly/yearly fee is necessary to fund further software development.

But I understand the reluctance towards any kind of monthly/yearly fee.   It's comparable to a gym membership or any other kind of fitness class, but a lot of people aren't really keen on paying for those, either.
It's hard being the voice of reason when you're surrounded by unreasonable people.

CrashFu
Consultant
Update:   Due to lack of entrants, I'm going to host the giveaway elsewhere.   I'll post relevant links once the new giveaway has started, in case anyone sees this thread late and still wants to apply.
It's hard being the voice of reason when you're surrounded by unreasonable people.

RedRizla
Honored Visionary





I wish I could have that experience while cycling to work. Most fun I get is someone calling me a tosser or sticking 2 fingers up at me for taking up to much of the road.