Relive Nintendo's glory days with Duck Hunt in virtual reality
A fan project leads to a virtual reality version of the Nintendo classic, and the end result is glorious. In VR, the hunting dog laughs at you from every direction.
It's been over 30 years since Duck Hunt was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System console. A new fan project brings the light gun shooter game into the modern era.
Joseph Delgado, who is studying computer science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, attended last month's Global Game Jam 2016 and was inspired to build a virtual reality version of Duck Hunt. Delgado, who is 21, built the game in a day and released a gameplay video to his YouTube channel on Wednesday.
In the clip, we see Delgado exploring the Hub Level he created before setting off on his Duck Hunt adventure. The Razer Hydra controller kit is hooked up to Delgado's Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 to track his hand movements, which correspond to how the gun moves around in-game. He 3D-printed a plastic head-mount for the Hydra from a model he found on Thingiverse.
You can read more about the build in his blog post.
The main game takes place in a 360-degree virtual world, where Delgado's mission is to take down 10 ducks that fly around on-screen before they have a chance to fly away. Yes, the trusty hunting dog from the original game is back to celebrate when you successfully shoot down a duck -- and laugh at you when you miss.
Delgado built the game as a seven-day challenge for players, with the game getting progressively more difficult each day.
In addition to the main game, Delgado also included the "Game C" mini-game that lets players shoot at clay targets in the distance to practice their marksmanship. Both the main game and Game C seem to play pretty well, which is quite a feat considering it was built in a day.
Delgado hopes to port his creation to the HTC Vive VR platform once that device is released, which is expected in April. He plans to release Duck Hunt VR for free in hopes of avoiding Nintendo's banhammer.
Whether he will succeed remains to be seen, but it's definitely very cool to witness new life being breathed into awesome old games. As someone who spent countless hours playing Duck Hunt on the NES as a kid, I can't wait to try Delgado's VR version if (or when) it becomes available later this year.
(Via Gizmodo)