For those that don't know, ThunderSeat was a company from Southern California that I worked for from 95-98 on and off as the owner and I had many ups and downs. At the time ThunderSeat came out, your gaming options were joysticks, and a few random little non-functional "pretty" things to enhance your gaming experience.

The line consisted of 4 chairs, pads, a few flight controllers, some "side pods" with keyboard tray, a fresnel lens, an F-16 Cockpit, a P-51 cockpit/sim and a huge enclosed "Pod" with a gullwing door. We (me) also equipped the AT&T Pavillion at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. To say that was a big hit was an understatement. For about a year, a converted Indy car toured the country equipped with a large screen monitor and a variety of mechanisms to make it feel like you were in an actual race. Pretty kick-ass for 1997!

The whole business was a fly by night operation, but we did amazing things. I learned so much by having nothing (including a few paydays that were missed) and as much trouble as we caused each other, the owner of the company taught me how to survive on nothing and turn our tiny operation in to a HUGE global hit garnering accolades from Activision, E3, Intel, and everyone that ever heard of us!

There was a definate pattern to ownership. You lusted for one, saw it and thought it was crap. Then you plugged it in and bragged because it was better than your dreams.

"I want a ThunderSeat! This looks like crap. HOLY SHIT IT IS AMAZING!"

Product line:

ThunderSeat - The basic chair made up of a hollow baja style offroad chair (from RCI) with a hole cut in the bottom to accomodate an 8" woofer bolted to it. The whole thing was set on a laminated particleboard base that made an almost airtight seal on carpet that hit you hard in the seat of your pants.

RollingThunder - Same upper portion but attached to a fucking cool molded fiberglass base on casters. Acoustically this one sounded great too. Pads were optional but it made Star Trek sets look dated!

F-16 Ejector Seat - Molded in fiberglass to resemble an ejection seat from an F-16, this incorporated two 8" subs, one in the back, one under your butt. They fired through the pads and could pretty much induce "intestinal distress" after prolonged use. Just kidding about that part. Pads were optional. An image below shows part of the chair in the F-16 cockpit. *Actually it would loosen your bowels a bit.

Alien aka Quake aka Area 51 Chair - An H.R. Geiger-inspired chair out of molded fiberglass. It had what resembeled a human spine and ribcage down the back. It had an airtight base when on carpet and transmitted the vibrations right up your spine. It was the most anatomically correct and comfy chair I sat in and even a little wattage would be so intense it was perfect for Quake. On a hardwood floor, your whole place would resonate. We tried some pads but they never worked and the damned things broke easily so I think we sent one out to go sit in a lobby at Intel with the stipulation it would never be used, because you sit on it, it cracks and slices you to shreds. Death by anal lacerations caused by fiberglass.

DCU-17 and DCU-19 - Desktop control unit with a cluster of programmable light-up buttons all around. Set your monitor in the middle, and play your favorite flight sims. They ranged from $750-995 depending on what the boss felt like selling them for. The PC boards were from Genovation in Irvine based on a credit card reader. 17 designated accomodations for a 17" CRT, 19 for a 19".

YM-17 - Yoke module 17 that had a throttle and yoke attached for flight sims. It only worked with DOS-based games and was discontinued right around the time Windows 95 came out. The 17 designated that the best moitor size was a 17" unit, but mainly because 21" CRT monitors were around $2000 at the time.

Side Pods - Basically two heavy book ends wide enough to hold a joystick and a throttle on either side. There was an optional keyboard tray made out of lead pipe and plumber's hardware.

Fresnel Lens - A plexi box with an Oregon Scientific lens held in with velcro. It could mess with your eyes bigtime, but with a good 3D card, it was pretty damned good. I hate them, but people bought them up. Then one day I played the game du jour (Caddyhack, haunted mini-golf) and was amazed.

F-16 Cockpit/sim - Thrustmaster manufactured these large "cockpit" things almost akin to the ride-ons outside a supermarket. We equipped them with our DCU panels and the F-16 seat.

POD - A gullwing door fitted to an egg built for LBE. That sums it up, but inside over 40 backlit buttons you could program, a 700watt surround system, a 32" CRT monitor and a shitload of fun. There were times I'd get in to play Jane's or F22 Raptor and open the door to find out that I was in there for a good 6 hours. For the Hammacher Schlemmer Christmas catalog in 97 or 98, it graced the cover after me hammering them to sell it for a long time. With Sean G driving, we U-hauled that SOB from Irvine to Chicago just after Halloween in one of the worst blizzards to hit Texas in nearly 100 years. Tom Cruise, a Saudi Prince, many Hollywood celebs all wanted one. We famously turned them down.

P-51D Cockpit - Originally molded off of Old Crow, one of the Mustang's in Chuck Yeager's squad, we pumped out about 30 of them, including gauge clusters that were actually just a monitor with a bezel on the screen. Originally used for Location Based Entertainment, better known as LBE, it was to sit on a pivoting platform for dogfight games like Fightertown and Virtualworld. It was also to be used in conjunction with the game our sister company Victory Interactive was making based on the Reno Air Races called "Reno Racer".

Indy Car - Basically Smith Kline Beecham showed up on our doorstep and I convinced them to make it a gaming platform. We mounted the front half of a Pod on the nose, painted it and inserted a 32" monitor attached to a computer playing some game I can't remember. The steering wheels was a ripped apart CH Joysticks prototype, the pedals were CH as well and the seat used an Aura Bass Shaker, basically a large electromagnet attached like a speaker. The damn thing vibrated so fast it felt like the Ford Cosworth Motor in the back, and believe me I know, that was my baby for a while. This project toured the US at many FedCo stores and lasted as long as that chain did. I had a few good years with that car after ThunderSeat.