Palmer Luckey was only a teenager in 2001 when he caught the attention of John Carmack, creator of Doom and Quake and founder of id Software. Luckey had been working on a virtual reality prototype by tinkering and modifying existing parts from a collection of head-mounted displays. Seeing an opportunity, he sent one of his PR6, or Prototype 6, prototype to Carmack. Luckey would eventually call this prototype "the Rift".
In June 2012, Carmack demoed the model at E3, arguably the most popular and massive premier event for computer, video games, and related products. His event would quickly stir interest from the public and from industry leaders. Building off this interest, Luckey and his Oculus executive team created a Kickstarter campaign, which offered people a chance to get their hands on the newest innovation of virtual reality first and invited the earliest adopters to help shape the platform's future by building their own applications for it. The Kickstarter goal was set at $250,000, but at the end of the campaign, 9,522 backers had pledged $2,437,429 with 72% paying $300 or more!
After being deemed as "the most revolutionary gaming experience seen in years" by The Verge, getting a late-night close-up from Jimmy Fallon, and having the first grandmother test it out, Oculus would go on to be purchased by Facebook for $2 billion dollars. Since then, Oculus has been going strong to this day, with its only concern being that it can cause motion sickness to some people.
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