According to today’s New York Times, Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One is officially the number one movie in the world. (I have yet to go see it, but I did listen to the audiobook version of Ernest Cline’s science fiction novel last year, so I know the story line.) Anecdotal reports are coming in on Reddit of people going out and buying virtual reality hardware after seeing the movie, which is what some people were hoping.
Linden Lab announced on Friday that they had set up a second Ready Player One experience in Sansar, in addition to Aech’s Garage, which was announced during the Consumer Electronics Show in January. This new experience is called Ready Player One: Aech’s Basement, and it recreates the 1980s-era suburban basement rec room simulation which Aech built in the OASIS, and which served as a meeting room for the main characters in the book.
I was a teenager in the 1980s, and I can tell you that visiting Aech’s Basement was like taking a step into a time machine! The same wood paneling on the walls, the same old-fashioned red telephone with an actual dial sitting on the bar…it’s uncanny! I almost tripped over the Hot Wheels tracks laid out on the floor!
The experience is full of many nods to 1980s pop culture, and there are several spots where you can click a play button to hear Aech talk about some of them. It’s almost like Aech is giving you a personal tour!
The basement is rather dimly lit, so these pictures are not the greatest. You really do owe it to youself to come visit Aech’s Basement and experience it for yourself! It’s so well done!
Visiting Aech’s Basement was like taking a trip back in time to my own teenage rec room, and I enjoyed this experience tremendously. Job well done, Sansar Studios!
NOTE: You can install the Sansar software client, if you don’t already have it, at https://www.sansar.com/download. And then you can visit Aech’s Basement by selecting it from the Sansar Atlas (it’s one of the four Sansar experiences profiled in rotation along the top of the Atlas page), or just by searching for “Aech” in the Sansar Atlas, or simply by clicking this link: Ready Player One: Aech’s Basement.
