My story(optional read) I remember a friend of mine showing me Wolfenstein 3D for the first time, he loaded up the boss level against Hitler and let me play. I was so scared I almost peed my pants, I was 9 years old. Later when my parents bought our first PC, I learned to appreciate it (taking turns, playing with my brothers).
Later Doom was released and it was even more awesome than Wolfenstein 3D. We would play against each other, connecting our dad's laptop to the PC with a NULL modem (still taking turns, since I had 3 brothers). A long list of 3D games followed, every one better than the one previous. In which the greatest turning point was the introduction of the 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics; I remember playing with Quake II as my first 3Dfx experience 😮
What this topic is about In short, I had an awesome childhood 😄 but there was always one thing missing: Ever since playing Sam & Max hit the road, I became aware of Virtual Reality. I never stopped thinking of how awesome it would be to play first person games in VR. This idea never really left me (so to everyone complaining about waiting, I have waited over 20 years for the Occulus Rift).
Now that my Rift will (hopefully) arrive in august, I would really like to play those old classics with the Oculus Rift. Are there more people interested in playing those old-time classics with the rift? Imagine riding the black mesa train in half-life, playing facing worlds in UT99 or entering UNITY's headquarters in NOLF.
The stalker series would be prettty great. I know they're not that old of games but the atmosphere would get pretty intense in a VR setup. I gotta wait until August for my Rift
This is a list of games I would love to play with the rift:
Wolfenstein 3D
Doom 1/2
Duke Nukem 3D
Redneck Rampage
Quake II
Unreal
Half-Life
Unreal Tournament (UT99)
Nobody Lives Forever 1/2
Soldier of fortune
Battlefield 1942, Vietnam
Maybe it would be possible to create a Vireio-like direct X proxy for Direct3D 5,6,7&8. But I am afraid the pincushion effect is a DirectX 9+ feature. I am also not sure how to "inject" the stereo pincushion and motion compensation into OpenGL. I do have programming experience, although not with OpenGL/Direct3D.
I never thought about playing many old school FPS' on the rift because I assumed that they would be way too fast paced, but now that you bring it up it would be quite cool to play them again in VR just for the nostalgia. I would definitely want to try Duke3D.