W Industries Ltd, the Leicester-based consumer virtual reality company, which hit the headlines last March (CI No 1,639) with the launch of its Virtuality virtual reality machines for video arcades, based on the Commodore International Ltd Amiga 3000 system for data management and sound control plus a multitude of Motorola Inc and Texas Instruments Inc processors for three-dimensional image generation, has now made a splash in the US: the manufacturer has signed up a division of St Louis, Missouri-based Edison Brothers Stores as a distributor; game software is being supplied by Spectrum Holobyte Inc of Alameda, California; the W Industries machines cost $65,000 each; Dr Lawrence Winkie, owner of a San Francisco nightclub, who plans to install four of the Virtuality machines, told the New York Times he considered the toys a means of being able to experience unreality without alcohol and without drugs.
