Ride the Back to the Future hoverboard using Oculus Rift

The Oculus Rift could make your childhood dreams become a reality, as a developer has combined the VR headset with a Wii Balance Board in order to recreate the experience of riding Marty McFly’s hoverboard from Back to the Future II. Developer Kieran Lord said of the project: “The way I’m imagining the hoverboard physics is slightly different to the BTTF maglev skateboard. It’s more a snowboard with a ‘virtual slope’ of the front/back angle of the board.”

Fans of Back to the Future II have always dreamed of riding Marty McFly’s hoverboard and now, thanks to some clever coding, you can — in virtual reality. Developer Kieran Lord, aka Cratesmith on Twitter, used the Oculus Rift and a Wii Balance Board to create the closest thing you can get to experiencing a real hoverboard ride right now. “The way I’m imagining the hoverboard physics is slightly different to the BTTF maglev skateboard,'” said Lord in a comment about the project on Reddit. “It’s more a snowboard with a ‘virtual slope’ of the front/back angle of the board. If that works and feels good the player could just get up a ton of speed and then stomp their back foot to get the same effect as going over a jump ramp.”