It’s hard to believe it’s already been five years since the first Oculus Rift dev kits shipped to Kickstarter backers, many of them developers looking to create for the future of VR consumer hardware. As the medium inevitably marches on though, many of the earliest VR demos have fallen to the wayside. In a bid to revive some of these fan favorites, WEARVR, an independent virtual reality app store, started its $10,000 ‘Remastered Competition’ back in January—a challenge to see if the earliest VR developers could update their demos for today’s generation of hardware. Now the winners are in.

To qualify, original content must have been made available for the Oculus DK1 and/or DK2, and entries must work at very least on the consumer version Oculus Rift. Support for other headsets was optional, although entries required “some manner of enhancement over the original (visuals, audio, controls, content, etc) that makes it contemporary with new releases on the Oculus platform,” WEARVR says in the initial announcement.

In a three-way tie, WEARVR is awarding $3,000 to the following remastered experiences, and distributing the rest ($1,000) equally to six runner-ups. The grand prize winners are:

Titans of Space – DrashVR

Developer DrashVR says the original public prototype has been “lightly refurbished” to work with today’s PC VR headsets and their hand controllers. It also includes audio commentary by the developer, and works with Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and flatscreen monitors. Download here ($2).

Welcome to Oculus – Trey Davis

Welcome to Oculus Remastered was created by Trey Davis – the remastered version of the classic virtual reality introductory app, Welcome to Oculus. Download here ($1.50)

Breath Tech Demo – Brett Jackson, Head Start Design

Use your HMD’s microphone to project your breath into VR. See your breath and use it to solve puzzles in this mini-game designed to demonstrate various uses for breath detection. Blow cloth, dust, particles, bubbles and more and see if having your breath in the virtual world helps to increase your level of immersion. Download here ($1.50)

The runner-ups are:

WEARVR is offering a few discounted bundles, which contain three games per bundle, one a grand prize winner with two second place winners. Check out the three bundles here.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • impurekind

    Very nice.

  • Riley Prescott

    Be cool if future developers incorporate the breath mechanic for immersion.
    Maybe in like a cold environment you can see your breath as you breathe or talk?

    • JJ

      I believe Onward has it, and has for a while on the subway level. but i could be wrong

  • Congrats Drash, Trey, and Brett! Well-deserved.

  • Mateusz Pawluczuk

    Suprised to learn that Titans of Space wasn’t available on Gen1 until now. Such a great app.

  • Lucidfeuer

    Great to see some of these apps updated. But damn, where is Sightline the Chair?