I had trouble getting my face up to the viewport for that game, but I loved the look and feel of it. When I later got a Vectrex in about 1982, I thought I had my own Battlezone right in my house. Minestorm was a great little Asteroids clone, too.
It wasn't until many years later (decades) when it occurred to me how nasty that Battlezone viewport was. You had to literally stick your eyes and nose into the think and press your face onto the plastic. Some of us worry about those Dyson hand dryers in bathrooms sometimes. They can't hold a candle next to Battlezone!
I saw a panel a week ago in Portland with a bunch of ex-Atari engineers at the PRGE 2018. One of them, Ed Rotberg now retired, was the creator of Battlezone. Atari actually got recruited by the military to do a similar simulator afterwards. (He hated the project and nearly quit but shipped their product.)
It wasn't until many years later (decades) when it occurred to me how nasty that Battlezone viewport was. You had to literally stick your eyes and nose into the think and press your face onto the plastic. Some of us worry about those Dyson hand dryers in bathrooms sometimes. They can't hold a candle next to Battlezone!
I saw a panel a week ago in Portland with a bunch of ex-Atari engineers at the PRGE 2018. One of them, Ed Rotberg now retired, was the creator of Battlezone. Atari actually got recruited by the military to do a similar simulator afterwards. (He hated the project and nearly quit but shipped their product.)