I recently got a chance to try out the Australian a_rage, the "augmented reality" game system that consists of a visor, controller, and backpack. It uses GPS technology to actually stick you in the game, meaning you have to move to move on the playing feild, and you have to look around to aim.

No, it’s not a virtual world. 3D images are around you, as well as your normal surroundings. This is what they mean by augmented: your normal surroundings are integrated with the game. Very interesting indeed.

The game I played was called "Sky Invaders", a space invaders type of game. It consisted of running from a bunker to a turret to shoot planes, and running to the bunker to get health and ammo. Aiming consisted of moving your head and/or body to physically get the ships in vision. There were powerups, and the normal sort of things you’d expect from a game.

My final thoughts are that it’s a bit hard to get used to it, but, it really is a fun and interesting way to play games. I’m looking forward to see what else they release on the a_rage. It’s got a while to go, but this may become a new popular game format depending on the direction they take with it.

It’s estimated that it’ll be released with a 300 dollar price tag.

Kudos to Joe Velikovsky to creating this unique game system and letting me try the prototype, which, looks a lot more klunky than the projected market product they wish to release:

For more information on the a_rage, please visit a-rage.com