A-Rage VR is an independent site for people who play in virtual, augmented and mixed reality. We cover headsets, smart glasses and the games worth putting them on for, with buying guides, comparisons, setup help, game lists and news labelled so you always know what’s confirmed and what isn’t.
The story of this domain
A small Adelaide company with a big idea
Before A-Rage VR, a-rage.com was the website of A-Rage Pty Ltd, a small Australian company in the Mawson Lakes area of Adelaide. It was registered in 2004, with its business number active from May 2004 to March 2008. The company built augmented reality games and a wearable platform to play them on.
That platform was a head-worn display for AR games indoors and outdoors. It was designed around affordable off-the-shelf parts rather than costly lab equipment. In a 2005 interview, the company said wireless multiplayer was in development. Joe Velikovsky was the creative director, and A-Rage presented its games at the Australian Game Developers Conference alongside colleagues from the University of South Australia (UniSA).
Its best-known demo was Sky Invaders. Martians invade Earth, a nod to H.G. Wells, and you defend it from a gun turret that you aim by turning your head. In-game TV news clips set the scene, and it could be played indoors or outdoors.
The ARQuake lineage
The people around A-Rage were linked to UniSA’s Wearable Computer Lab, the team behind ARQuake. ARQuake (2000) was an augmented reality version of the 1996 shooter Quake, built by the lab on its Tinmith backpack computer. Players wore a see-through head-mounted display, a backpack computer, GPS and head tracking, and fought monsters while walking around a real outdoor space.
The work was published as “ARQuake: An Outdoor/Indoor Augmented Reality First Person Application” by Thomas, Close, Donoghue, Squires, De Bondi, Morris and Piekarski at the International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC) 2000 in Atlanta. Bruce Thomas co-developed ARQuake with Wayne Piekarski, a credit given by the AWE XR Hall of Fame when it inducted Thomas.
Guinness World Records lists ARQuake (University of South Australia, 2000) as the first portable augmented reality game. It was never sold to consumers, because the hardware cost more than US$10,000. A-Rage’s emphasis on affordable off-the-shelf parts stands out when set beside that figure.
What happened next
A-Rage’s business registration was cancelled in March 2008, and the original website went offline by the end of the 2000s. The research that surrounded it has carried on, and UniSA’s Wearable Computer Lab continues its work in Adelaide.
This work still matters to players today. Twenty years before Meta Quest passthrough, Apple Vision Pro and mixed reality games, this Adelaide work was already putting virtual monsters into real streets. The hardware was the barrier, not the idea.
Where A-Rage VR fits
This domain now belongs to A-Rage VR, an independent site for VR, AR and mixed reality players, run by a new team. We have no connection to A-Rage Pty Ltd, to UniSA or to any of its researchers. None of them run or endorse this site. The connection is the subject: the domain’s history lies in early augmented reality gaming, and we cover the headsets and AR/MR games that came after it. We think that history deserves to be told accurately, as a record of the people who were walking real streets after virtual monsters long before passthrough cameras made it an everyday experience.
What We Cover
Our focus is the hardware and software that players actually use.
- VR headsets: standalone, PC-tethered and console headsets, from the Meta Quest line to PlayStation VR2 and SteamVR hardware.
- Mixed reality and AR: passthrough features, spatial computing devices like Apple Vision Pro, and headsets that blend the real room with the virtual one.
- Smart glasses: camera and audio glasses, display glasses you plug into a phone or console, and the AR glasses that are still finding their feet.
- VR games: what’s out, what’s coming, and what’s actually fun to play.
We write for players. Enterprise training rigs and industrial AR only show up when they affect what ends up on your face at home.
What You’ll Find Here
Buying guides
Recommendations built around real questions: what to buy on a budget, which headset suits a gaming PC, what works best for fitness or for players with glasses. We explain the trade-offs instead of just naming a winner.
Comparisons
Head-to-head breakdowns of headsets and glasses covering display, comfort, tracking, battery life, game library and total cost, including the accessories you’ll probably end up needing.
Setup help
Step-by-step guides for the parts that trip people up: PC streaming, guardian and boundary setup, lens fit and IPD, controller pairing, performance settings and common error fixes.
Game lists
Curated lists by platform, genre and play style. We keep an eye on comfort ratings and motion sickness, because a great game is no use if half the room can’t play it.
News, labelled CONFIRMED or RUMOR
Every news story carries a clear label.
- CONFIRMED means the information comes from an official announcement, a company statement, a listing or something we can verify directly.
- RUMOR means it hasn’t been confirmed. In the story itself, we say where the claim comes from and how reliable that source has been. A report from an established journalist is treated differently from a supply chain whisper, and both are treated differently from an anonymous post with a mixed track record.
Labels get updated when the facts change. A rumor that turns out to be true gets marked as confirmed, and one that falls apart gets noted as such.
The VR Headset Tracker
Our VR headset tracker is a running overview of the headset market in one place. It covers what’s available now, what has been announced, what’s rumored, and what has been discontinued. Each entry follows the same CONFIRMED and RUMOR approach as our news, so a rumored spec never sits next to a confirmed one without a label. We update it as announcements, releases and price changes happen.
Our Monthly Look at Steam Hardware Survey VR Data
Each month, Valve publishes results from its Steam Hardware & Software Survey, which includes a breakdown of the VR headsets connected by Steam users who take part. We look at the VR section every month and explain what moved and why it might matter.
We’re also upfront about what the survey can’t tell you. It covers only Steam users, participation is opt-in, and headsets used without a PC never appear in it. That means it’s a useful signal for PC VR trends. It is not a count of total headset sales, and we don’t present it as one.
Independence
A-Rage VR is not affiliated with Meta, Valve, Sony, Apple, Samsung or any other headset or glasses maker. No manufacturer reviews, approves or pays for our coverage. If a page ever earns us money through a link or arrangement, we’ll say so clearly on that page.
How We Handle Leaks and Rumors
Leaks are part of hardware and gaming news, and we report on them when they’re newsworthy. We describe what reputable outlets say was shown and we name those outlets. We don’t host, embed or point to leaked files, footage or builds, and we never speculate about who an anonymous leaker might be.
Corrections
We’re a new site, and we’ll get things wrong sometimes. When we do, we fix the error and note the correction on the page rather than quietly editing it away. If you spot a mistake, outdated price or broken setup step, tell us through the site and we’ll check it.
Who We Are
A-Rage VR is a new, independent site run by people who spend too much time in headsets and want the information around them to be clearer. Our goal is simple: help you pick the right hardware, get it working, find great games and understand the news without the hype.
Who writes here
A-Rage VR is written by a small team, each with their own corner of VR and XR, and every article is fact-checked before it goes live.
Jonah Pell
Jonah writes A-Rage VR’s Meta Quest and PS VR2 coverage: buying advice, setup and comfort fixes, and the games worth your time. He is most interested in what a headset is like to live with after the first week, from fit and battery life to which games hold up. Read Jonah’s articles
Imani Okafor
Imani covers XR news and the business behind it: smart glasses, AR hardware, spatial computing platforms and the companies betting on them. She sticks to what has been announced or reported on the record and says so when a launch is still only a rumor. Read Imani’s articles
Bastian Varga
Bastian writes about PC VR and the numbers behind the market, including Steam Hardware Survey headset shares and what they say about where players are. He likes tracking trends month over month more than chasing single headlines. Read Bastian’s articles
Margit Holm, Standards Editor
Margit is A-Rage VR’s standards editor. Every article goes through her fact-check pass before it is published: prices, specs, release dates and quotes are checked against the sources we cite, and anything that cannot be confirmed is corrected, labeled as unconfirmed or taken out.