Any updates on this? Curious about the final price because when I scored mine a couple years ago, going by what I ended up paying (less than €50 shipped iirc), there seemed to be surprisingly little demand.

As for the desirability - imho you can always come up with a way to emulate something that only interfaces with other machines (like bus -> GPU -> monitor), but not something that interfaces with you directly (helmet -> your face), so if in doubt go for the "feelies".

Well, I got it for free! When I arrived, he said the foam is deteriorating and it wasn't functional, and he also didn't have the parts anymore like the VIP card or the cyberpuck. He said it was intended to be a show piece for my bookshelf. I got apprehensive and said that I wanted the other parts to get it working again even if that meant repairing it, so he said he'll have a look around. In the meantime I can keep the helmet and pay him $20 if/when he finds the other parts. Well I'm back on the road, the helmet is beside me and I'm almost back at my house when he texts me a picture of the parts. So I pull a u-turn and light up the tires, once again DOS virtual reality might become actual reality! I made my way back to his house and when I got there he said that I can have everything for free but I have to let him know if it still works, I have to give him half of the money if I sell it and I have to help him find a cheap video card for his 'retro' machine, a Win 8.1 box with a bunch of customized flight simulators. Easy terms for a complete VFX1 minus the original floppy disk.

The VFX1 is working but there's a major problem. One LCD is littered with stuck pixels starting about halfway going to the bottom, approximately 50-100 random RGB's are stuck on, it looks like a clown puked. The other LCD is fine, the cyberpuck and head tracking work, and that's pretty much all I know, I haven't tested a game with head tracking support yet. This is all preliminary since finding a video card that had a 100% VESA compatible feature connector wasn't easy, a PCI Cirrus Logic GD5446 is the only working card so far, and my test motherboard suddenly quit powering up so I need to choose another sacrificial board. No smoke or strange odors, so it might come back to life, we'll see.

elszgensa wrote on 2023-08-14, 12:00:

As for the desirability - imho you can always come up with a way to emulate something that only interfaces with other machines (like bus -> GPU -> monitor), but not something that interfaces with you directly (helmet -> your face), so if in doubt go for the "feelies".

You're right. Insightful. Well done.

Well, I'm in the middle of reverse-engineering the tech. It's on the back-burner at the moment.

bartonxp wrote on 2023-08-15, 00:54:

The VFX1 is working but there's a major problem. One LCD is littered with stuck pixels starting about halfway going to the bottom, approximately 50-100 random RGB's are stuck on, it looks like a clown puked.

tbf the displays are utter crap with a tiny resolution (although to be expected from 1995). They are completely unusable in Windows itself with the icon text being compltely unreadable (although using the cyber puck as a mouse was quite a novel experience back then). And yes, finding a card with working VESA feature connector can be a challenge. Many cards have the headers, but I found not all function as expected when using the VESA. Last time I used one it was with a Matrox Millenium (I have faith in Matrox fully supporting VESA if it has a VESA feature connector given their history and other endevours).

It's probably better being retrofitted with better display panels anyway and building a 'linkbox' (https://mellottsvrpage.com/index.php/finally- … nkbox-solution/) for it... as the HMD looks so on point! but is let down by the limitation of the tech.

T-Squared wrote on 2023-08-15, 07:52:

Well, I'm in the middle of reverse-engineering the tech. It's on the back-burner at the moment.

I'll Just leave this here... https://mellottsvrpage.com/VFX1TheoryOfOps.htm

That's partly what got me interested. I have the VFX board out of my retro rig system at the moment.

Glad it worked out and the little guy found a new home! And for free, even... Seems there really is almost no more demand for these things.

I wasn't aware people have managed to upgraded the displays - I'd like to look into that, are there any links to get started?

elszgensa wrote on 2023-08-15, 10:56:

Glad it worked out and the little guy found a new home! And for free, even... Seems there really is almost no more demand for these things.

I wasn't aware people have managed to upgraded the displays - I'd like to look into that, are there any links to get started?

http://www.stereo3d.com/discus/messages/21/61 … html?1221359957

This thread is probably what you're looking for. It's also a good backgrounder into what the modding community did after the VFX1 had shifted from the lime light. The linkbox is pretty cool, it provides an upgraded VGA signal, higher res but blurry on the same LCDs, and stereo 3D but good luck finding one, I doubt any functional unnits will ever emerge. Fixing mine will mean an upgrade since finding a replacement LCD will be impossible so I'm looking too I'm just not sure if anyone has ever successfully transplanted the LCDs on the helmet.