Holoverse is the world’s first holographic entertainment centre and is based in Southport, on the Gold Coast. If you haven’t been, read our review to find out exactly what it’s all about.
Spoiler Alert: it’s amazing and unlike any other place you’ve probably ever been.
As you walk through the doors you’ll feel like you’re entering another world, a place of the future. The furniture, the reception and even the glowing water bottles give you a little hint of what’s to come, which is something you’ve probably never experienced before.
Families Tip
Grab your discounted offer here:
Groupon – click here
Holoverse – What is it?
Have you ever been to a 3D movie? When you were growing up, did you run out and buy TV week just to get the special cellophane glasses so you could watch the one special movie or TV episode that they were going to feature … on TV… in 3D?!?!
Well… it’s nothing like that at all.
There are a few major differences. Firstly, what you’ll experience is essentially “all around you” versus “just in front of you”. Once you choose your experience/s, which we’ll talk about below, you are suited up with not just special glasses, but equipment with sensors, this allows the experience to show things from YOUR perspective – you control a lot of the experiences, based on where you look and point your body and what you do with the handheld sensor.
What happens once you’ve chosen your experience?
Once you’re wearing the correct equipment, you’ll go through a brief training session where an instructor will tell you how to use your hand held sensor or “your wand” in each particular experience.
After training you’ll head into your own person room (which I’m guessing was around 4 x 4 metres), a spectator may join you. Just be aware, the spectator will have headphones and glasses (just like you), but they WON’T have the sensors on their body, therefore they will get an idea of what your experiencing, however, they aren’t surrounded by the images like you are, read the section below to understand why.
Before reading on, READ THIS
Take a look at the images below. My child is “walking on the moon”, to him, the images are all around him (because the sensors are on his body, not mine), as he turns his head to the sides, up and down, the spectator will see black patches (like you see around the edge of this image), instead of feeling like you’re actually surrounded by the experience. So when looking at my images, be aware that the camera can’t really capture the experience properly.
Secondly, you’ll notice that my images of the experience look a little blurry, that’s because to see the experience in 3D, it needs to be viewed by both the left and right lens of the glasses.
Is there a single person in the world who hasn’t taken off their glasses in a 3D film in order to see what it looks like without them? If you haven’t, it’s a little blurry!
The Experiences
There are a total of 5 experiences currently in operation, and they are working on new experiences all the time. The experiences on offer suit a range of ages, I’d say a couple of the experiences are suitable for kids as young as 3 or 4.
Experiences Volume One
I’d absolutely recommend if you can only do one experience, this is the one you should do. It gives you a great introduction to the types of things that this amazing system is capable of, by giving you a preview of 10 difference scenarios.
I don’t want to spoil all of the surprises, so I’ll tell you a few….you’ll be in the middle of an African jungle, up close and personal with wild animals.
You’ll be surrounded by ice flakes and bubbles, I bet you can’t help holding out your hand to try to touch them (and will hesitate when you’re told to walk through a brick wall).
You’ll even use your wand (which will look like a pickaxe to you) to break out of a stone room before daring to jump through a big hole in the ground (after holding your breath).
Veggie Patch Valley
Veggie Patch Valley is mainly suitable for younger children. You have the chance to dig with your shovel, plant seeds, water then and watch the veges grow.
Kids can harvest vegetables with their donkey, pulling them out of the ground and will have a great time in an experience that is sweet, interactive and age appropriate for the little ones.
To put the age group into perspective, whilst it was enjoyable for my 8 year old boy, he said he liked the others better, in his opinion, “I would have loved this when I was 5 Mummy, now I like Volume One and the Planets!”.
Holographic Planetarium
This experience is broken into two parts (as it’s quite long). If you want your children to learn about the planets whilst having fun, LOOK NO FURTHER! It’s educational AND amazingly fun!
Look at the images below…
He sees the Earth…
He jumps in the Earth….
He’s inside the Earth’s core.
The Holographic Planetarium experience has question and answer quiz component, it would be the perfect place for a school excursion! If your kids like the planetarium, the’ll adore this!
Fly Over the Gold Coast
In the experience you fly over the Gold Coast, using your wand to navigate. As you fly between the buildings, deciding where you want to go, you’ll hear about the local sites in the area.
False Eden
Now… one for the gamers. Your wand becomes a weapon and your job is to fight off holographic monsters on an alien planet.
Discount tickets to Holoverse
At the time of writing this article there were good discount coupons available for Holoverse:
Groupon – click here
Holoverse in summary
In summary, the pictures don’t do this place justice, it truly has to be seen to be understood. It is ABSOLUTELY worth a visit!
