Jedi Challenge

December 26, 2018: Dylan is suited up and ready to defend the galaxy!

The only way to see what he's seeing is to look in his visor like this.

On the day after Christmas, our family (except Jacob in Mesa) all met up for dinner at China Wok Buffet, and then we drove to Dylan and Jake's place. I wanted to get closeup photos of some gifts for my blog, which I'd missed on the day we opened them, so the guys suggested that we also play Jake's new Jedi Challenge AR experience while we were there. They knew I was excited to give it a try. 

I hadn't been to their apartment in ages. Oh, I'd pulled into their parking area many times for various reasons, but they always met me at the bottom of the stairs. I wasn't too keen to climb the flight to their second-floor apartment because of the strain it put on my knee. We were shocked when we realized that I hadn't set foot in their home in all of 2018! In fact, I'm pretty sure my last time to climb those stairs was in June of 2017, the night of David Archuleta's concert in Snowflake. Sarah and I had driven there after the concert to show Dylan his personal message from David, filmed on my camera.

We were even more stunned when Mark looked around and announced that he'd never been inside Dylan and Jake's place, not even once, in all the time since he moved back here three and a half years ago! (Has it really been that long?)

Dylan went first, to demonstrate. Then he went up against Darth Maul.

Jake set up the game in their spare bedroom, where there'd be enough room to avoid destroying furniture and whacking people with the lightsaber. Dylan began by demonstrating how it worked. His style was almost elegant, evoking the memory of Obi-Wan Kenobi saying, "An elegant weapon for a more civilized age."

It's fun to watch others play, as they swing at unseen enemies. When you're the one wearing the helmet, you can see the real people and the actual room around you, but you can also see the characters you're battling, superimposed over your surroundings. As an observer, you can only see what the players see if you look into the visor of their helmet, as in the top photo.

Chris took a turn after I had my first try.

I think I went next, hacking my way against a slew of stormtroopers. I held on for quite awhile, but my style was far from elegant. I think "enthusiastic" would be more accurate, as I shouted taunts at my enemies and swung that lightsaber wildly to thwart their attacks. The lightsaber itself was awesome,  a perfect fit in my hands and amazingly realistic, even as the blade extends from the grip in your visor's view.

Jake took a turn, almost as elegant as Dylan, and then Chris gave it a shot. His enthusiasm might even have outdone mine by a small degree. We practically had to twist Sarah's arm to get her to try it out, but she finally did. Then we finished up with one final skirmish, my battle against Darth Maul. It ended in a bloodbath. My blood.

On my second try, I was up against Darth Maul.

It didn't end well.

I really enjoyed the Jedi Challenge. It was reminiscent of the Star Wars VR experience we'd had such fun doing while we were in Las Vegas two months ago. I'm starting to hope it won't be long before we have holodecks in our homes, an idea I've embraced since the old Star Wars: Voyager series! (I live for fantasy, obviously...)

Surprisingly, Jedi Challenge is a pretty good workout. By the time I was finished, my arms ached and I was a little out of breath. I'd like to get one for myself sometime. The only downside Dylan could report was the wear and tear on your cell phone, which powers the game and is plugged into the helmet. The phone is hot to the touch by the time you're done, and it takes a lot out of the battery. I also felt the helmet needed an extra strap, lower on the back of the head, to keep it from sliding up in back and feeling like it's going to fall off. You can see what it did to my hair in the picture above. Other than that, it was comfortable and effective.

Jake and Dylan and their new couch, which I hadn't seen since they bought it.

Eventually, we said our good-nights and made our way back down the stairs to our cars. Mark and I followed Sarah and Chris over to their house next, less than a mile from the guys' place. I needed to get some closeups of a few of Sarah's gifts, too. We enjoyed a short visit before we called it a night. Such a great way to spend an evening, having fun with two of my greatest treasures and their spouses!

Sarah and her baby girl, Rosie Cotton.