Lets go back to 1982, my first taste of VRish gaming was with the Vectrex 3D Imager. A vector based gaming system that only had three games for the imager. 3D Narrow Escape, 3D Crazy Coaster and 3D Minestorm. I still own this today, it played a large role in my young video game days. This is the initial video game system that lead me here today.

Fast forward about 15 years and PS1 is going strong Wipeout is one of the hottest new racers out there. My second VRish experience came during this era. A racing cockpit I made from my dad’s scrap plywood and 2×4’s, a mad catz steering wheel, a pair of virtual I.O. Glasses and a fan.

I put on the glasses, basically a 90 inch tv, covered my head with a towel to block light, then started a race. A friend would start the fan as you took off. Was nothing like it at the time, I played so much I could beat every track flawlessly on phantom class.

Fast forward 20 years to 2016 and most of us got our hands on fairly decent functioning VR for the first time. The options for deep pockets, Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. For the budget gamer you had the PSVR 1, which is the path I took. I already had a PS4 and my computer wasn’t good enough for PCVR. I did buy a pro, huge difference over o.g.

Then along comes a game called Farpoint with a new gunstock controller. That is when I had the Experience.

This is an experience you will never have with flat gaming, it’s one of those moments that defines just how cool VR and VR shooters can be. I just unlocked the shotgun, now that I had that, the game introduced a new enemy. The crab thing in the picture to the left or above. If you haven’t played it, in VR they seem like their 10-12 feet tall. They charge at you like a giant bull.

Well one was charging at me, I aimed the shotgun at it to shoot it and the stars aligned. I took one shot and as soon as I hit the mob, he stopped, then I watched him as he proceeded to fly over me and land behind me dead. It was something I could never recreate again no matter how many times I tried. But one of the coolest things I have ever experienced in gaming. Thus my love for gunstocks when playing shooters in VR was born.

In anticipation of Firewall being released, I was expecting a gunstock like the aim to be released as well. Especially when they announced no manual reloading(fail). Ultimately because that never happened is why I began the journey to make a gunstock. I needed something because floating hands just doesn’t feel right.

I did look around at what was out there but wasn’t sold on anything. Due to complaints people had with tracking or the blind reload mechanic not being super intuitive/difficult, janky buttstocks or the price for what you get. I felt with my shop and skills, I could make just as good of one, based on what I saw on the market at the time. With that I decided to design my own gunstock.

In 2001 I graduated with an AA in design, with the hopes of getting a job at a game developer. The dot com bust Ianded me a job working in the sign industry, working with cut vinyl graphics. I returned to college and received my BA in design in 2009, while working in the sign industry. I started my own sign company in 2012 and continue to run it to this day.

Over the years in the sign industry, on top of doing design and vinyl work. I taught myself how to weld, paint, run a CNC, pretty much all aspects of sign fabrication, design and installation. I can do a entire project from start to finish, which gives me unique insight, that most job positions when compartmentalized generally lack.

What got the fab ball rolling, I started with welding aluminum because I wanted to make a new racing cockpit out of scrap pieces from work. I had just bought the new GT Logitech steering wheel. I was itching for a new rig to mount it on to play Gran Turismo 2. That was my 2nd racing cockpit. Today I use a DOF Reality motion platform for racing and flight games, that I have customized with some cool features.

The skills I have acquired by designing, fabricating and installing signs for 24 years, has translated over well to the 3D fabrication process, especially the Design/CNC skills. Allowing me to accelerate the development process when I started designing what is now the GS-1 gunstock series. My background knowledge in signs has influenced material choice and design aspects to make the GS-1 series as streamlined, modular and repairable as possible.

Because this was never intended to be a commercial gunstock, I designed with no cost considerations, I just made it do what I wanted it to do and look good doing it. Because this was not created to make me a living, I was in no rush to design, make it and get it to market. Thus there was no need to cut corners or cheapen the materials. The main or original focus, was to develop a working gunstock that works as good as possible with all VR shooters, with the easiest blind reloading system I could think of for me and a friend.