The so-called Two Bit Circus, a brand-new funhouse just a stone’s throw from Hollywood, is getting ready to open its doors to a new generation of tech-savvy visitors, according to Tech Crunch.
The saga of Two Bit, started by Brent Bushnell and co-founder Eric Gradman, started back in 2008 in an array of lofts and artsy spaces nearby downtown Los Angeles.
In the best tradition, the founders were searching for ways to bring together VR-based sensing, projection and visualization technologies to pamper their visitors with a wealth of new emotions and experiences.
Experiments essentially took shape when Bushnell and Gradman began incorporating narrative elements into their games. One of the last experiences that the creative pair did for fund was “The Versic Institute of Counter Espionage.” The latter appears to be an early escape room including aspects of immersive theater set in a brewery complex where the staffers lived and worked. “This whole thing was basically a high-tech scavenger hunt,” said Gradman. Eventually, the popularity of the games and events that the two created increased, prompting corporations to get involved.
What Is It Like?
At the entrance to the circus, the audience sees a circular bar right in the center of the transformed warehouse, which is essentially a testing ground for Bushnell and Gradman’s high-tech experiments. To the left is a midway arch filled with Coney Island-style classics like “Demolition Zone” – the spot where two players throw a ball at a towering skyscraper to determine who wrecks most of it.
Behind the midway is a robotic bartender that amuses those who sidle up to watch the automatic cocktail shaker work its magic.
Guillermo del Pouro, the robot, is there behind the bar to mix up any drinks clients choose.
Along with an immersive theatre, which one can enter from whatever direction, Two Bit Circus also offers more traditional virtual reality and arcade gaming options for more conservative audience, like a four-meter modular virtual reality maze, which players enter wearing an HTC Vive VR headset and a backpack PC.
Visitors are invited to explore the stunning amusement park free of charge starting from September 7.
