One year (minus two days) ago, we had a look at a teaser for Blade Runner 9732, a "virtual tour" of Rick Deckard's famously dim near-future Los Angeles apartment. It's set to go live on Steam on January 7, but if you'd like to zoom and enhance on it right now (and also get your hands on a version that'll be immune to potentially forthcoming legal smackdowns), a non-Steam "beta release" is now downloadable from Google Drive.
There are a few known issues, most worryingly a "large white glare" that shows up intermittently in the left eye. Object scales in the kitchen and bathroom are apparently off too, although I can't say I noticed anything untoward while rifling through Deckard's stuff. But it works, and while there's not a lot of interactivity, it's a pretty cool thing for Blade Runner fans. It's obviously built to take advantage of virtual reality hardware, but it doesn't require a headset (HTC Vive only—Oculus Rift is not supported) to function, as there's also a standard FPS-style mode for the VR-bereft.
Developer Quentin Lengele hopes to add a model of Rachael at some point in the future, as well as discoverable pictures, origami, a police card, noodles, whiskey bottles, and other such Deckard detritus. For now, it's a very cool trip into one of the most famous cyberpunk-noir abodes ever put to film. Find out more about what he's doing with it at br9732.com—and if you're wondering about the seemingly odd title, 9732 is Deckard's apartment number.
Thanks, RPS.
