- Other Adelaide VR ventures this year:
- Experience Adelaide Symphony Orchestra from home
- Cure your fear of flying
- Shoot your friends with lasers
BUCKS nights, once the drinking starts, can delve into the surreal but a trip to Melbourne last year has resulted in a particularly expensive outcome for a group of Adelaide mates.
Ten months on from Tom Berzins’ big night out, the groom and pals Tom Baxter and Philip Wu, will this month open Adelaide’s first virtual reality (VR) arcade.
And in keeping with its name — Untethered — the Gouger St experience will be a wholly wireless affair, with players free to roam new worlds and galaxies abetted by nothing other than a high-tech headset and backpack.
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
READ NOW
“We went to a virtual reality arcade in Victoria for Tom’s night,” said Mr Baxter, “we were blown away.”
“They were charging $88 an hour, there’s nothing like this in Adelaide. We only had the idea in March last year but set about it straight away.”
With a honeymoon already lined up in USA, medical sciences graduate Tom Berzins and his new wife Caitlin checked out several big city arcades and the seed was sewn.
“We pooled our money and did our research. The location was the hardest part, we’ve spent about $100,000 so far,” said Mr Baxter.
A giant and colourful mural by the Clare-based Blackman Gallery, greets visitors with large flat screens adorning each otherwise empty bay.
Mrs Berzins offers an insight into the purchasing strategy and focused mindset.
“I don’t think they go shopping, they bought TVs online.”
With five bays to play in, Untherered will cater to games enthusiasts as well as corporate sectors, said Tom Baxter.
“The VR is completely wireless, so customers can move about freely within the 4m by 4m play-spaces. Every experience is fully interactive, and customers will be immersed in their virtual worlds,” he said.
“We see this as only the beginning. VR has so much potential, not only for gaming, but for corporate or emergency service training, team building and other possibilities. We want to make VR available for everyone and to change the landscape in SA with VR.
Not everyone outside the target market — generally males in the 18 to 35 age bracket — has taken to the new venture.
“I set my mum with a zombie survival game,” said Tom Baxter.
“She didn’t speak to me for a few days...”
Alternatives are many.
“Richie’s Plank Experience” game takes the spirited high above city skyscrapers with a mere flimsy wooden support, the invigorating quickly ceding to the panicky with a loss of balance.
For the less adventurous, Fruit Ninja, Paint Lab and Mineshaft will be on show, with games alternating every three months.
While everyone is welcome, playing the games will be age restricted in line with ratings, Mr Baxter said.
Despite the shared ambition, the three friends are an eclectic bunch.
Tom Baxter works in coding at Rising Sun Pictures, Tom Berzins has a MBA in entrepreneurship at Newcastle University 2016 while Philip Wu works in IT for software outfit Avinet.
It is the more fundamental business skills they have found lacking while starting out with Untethered.
Pulling apart, painting and reconfiguring the 350sq m Gouger St site has proved a monumental task over the past few weeks.
“We’ve done it all ourselves, we had to do a YouTube on how to paint as well. We’re almost there. We lost all power at the weekend but it gave us all a break,” Mr Baxter said.
Long term, the plan is simple.
“We want to get people in to experience it, that’s the driving force, to have fun, to give it a go. Our dream would be to work full time here.”
The arcade will open from Thursday to Sunday and bookings can be made online at $50 per hour at https://untetheredvr.com.au/
It will be promoted via social media, university and friendship groups.
While it is unknown how many customers will rock up, Untethered has already proved it can pull a crowd.
Recently Zoos SA set up a camera in the lions’ enclosure at Monarto following a new birth. Untethered were called to set up VR footage as a small pop-up booth in Rundle Mall.
“We had all sorts of people wanting to go inside the lion’s den. It was a huge success,” Mr Baxter said.