PLAYTHINGS : War Games

Lasers fly across the computer screen as a biker on a red cybercycle deflects and dodges attacks from futuristic snipers. The scene from “Lawnmower Man 2” looks as close to combat as a CD-ROM can get and no wonder: One of the game’s producers, Rob Henderson, used to develop programs that real military vehicles used to dodge real missiles.

Henderson, creative director for the Marina del Rey-based computer-game company Sales Curve Interactive, is one of an increasing number of Southern California programmers who are turning skills they developed to defeat armies into fantasy games for CD-ROMs.

“The Department of Defense has been working in simulation and VR for more than 20 years. It only makes sense that it would become a VR spawning ground for the commercial sector,” says Joe Dysart, editor of Virtual Reality Monthly, a Newbury Park-based industry newsletter.

Luckily for computer gamers hungry for more realistic games, the economy is obliging them. “The defense industry doesn’t need more people, so games companies are actively pursuing out-of-work defense programmers,” says Henderson.

In Westlake Village, the virtual reality company Illusion Inc. employs behavioral scientists, computer programmers and engineers to create brigade-size VR battlefield simulations for the U.S. Army. These military simulations in turn give them the technology to create VR racing games for home computer systems.

Some aerospace companies, too, are using their military expertise to make a buck or two in the gaming world. Aura Systems Inc. in El Segundo adapted its technology for steadying shaky helicopter floors to produce the Interactor, a video-game accessory that acts as sort of a Sensurround system for the body. The player wears a plastic vest that turns the video game sounds into sensations; when his game character gets punched, the player feels the blow.

Though a handful of programmers admit that they miss the bad old days of the Cold War--and its promise of job security--Henderson and others say they’re relieved that they can use their skills for entertainment.

“When I was working on tests for the Tornado jet,” says Henderson, “I was dealing with real people that get shot down. People died, and it plays on the mind.”