The Strange (and Rare) Videogame Pics Page

SEGA

TECWAR aka ELECTRONICBRAIN

(VIRTUAL REALITY GAME)

This was the first (and only for now...) Sega's attempt to enter the Virtual Reality Coin-Op games production. The game called "TecWar" or "ElectronicBrain" was presented by Sega at the September 1994 AOU Show held in Japan. Developed jointly between Sega and Virtuality on a Model 1 CGI System, the game was programmed by UK-based Virtuality and used HMD and CGI technologies by Sega. It was the first arcade version of the technology developed by Virtuality (that I remember it was based on the popular Amiga computer series).
In the game you have to drive a strange two-feet robot destroying all you could find.
The game wasn't well received by the press (it was considered boring, very repetitive and with an awful graphics) and I still am not sure it was really released: I think it was distributed only on Sega's own arcades in Japan.

The Intro of the game: it seems the hardware had similar performances to Model 1 (obviously since IT WAS a Model 1 game...). At the time all the other Sega games were based on the more powerful Model 2 architecture.

In game pic... it seems it was designed by Picasso :-)

The full cabinet with a futuristic LCD-based head-mounted-display (HMD, with two LCD screens inside). The system needed a lot of room since it was based on a very large platform on which the player could have been placed. On the controller there were three buttons: one to fix a dimension, one to zoom on the environment and the last one is the action button... something very simple... maybe too much!
Only 13 machines were made (claims by AM3) but other sources hint that only 10 were built.

Additional informations by Kevin Williams. Thanks a lot!