1984 cult classic The Last Starfighter, beloved by 80’s video-gamers the world over, is coming back in a new TV spin-off that will apparently feature scenes created for virtual reality.
The Last Starfighter (1984) is one of those cult classics that children of the 80s, and generally gamers, look upon with fond memories. The story of Alex Rogan, a disenfranchised kid obsessed with video games, who’s recruited to fight an interstellar war on behalf of an alien race. So, basically appealing to every teenage gamer’s fantasies.
Now it’s been revealed that the world from the original film is to be revisited in a new TV spon-off series Starfighter Chronicles, which appears to adopt it’s predecessor’s universe but not necessarily it’s original premise. According to Variety it’s “…a serialized story about alien law enforcement” – not that this tells us much of anything at all.
The new show is primarily designed and filmed for standard flat-screen viewing, with specific scenes designed to “break the frame”, allowing users to look about the scene in question using (as yet undefined) VR technology. As it’s early days however, not much more is being revealed.
We spoke briefly to Rick Rey, one of the co-founders of Surreal.tv – the force behind Starfighter Chronicles, to try and find out how this virtual reality integration would work in practice. “We aren’t going into a lot of detail at the moment around the mechanics of the VR integration.” Rey told us. “I will say that it’s designed to be a completely additive experience. We see this type of multiplatform extension as an important stepping stone between “framed” video and immersive video.” he concludes.
As one of those gamer kids of the 80’s, I confess to grinning widely on hearing this news – rest assured Rick Rey feels just as giddy “I’m a child of the 80s myself, so I completely get the grin reaction.” he says.
So, we’ll have to wait and see how Starfighter Chronicles takes shape and we’ll keep our eye on the project’s development.