Czech carmaker Škoda Auto celebrates 125 years with a virtual ride in their very first car

As part of celebrations surrounding the company’s 125th anniversary, Czech carmaker Škoda Auto is releasing a little something special for fans at its showrooms and even at home.

In cooperation with creative studio Brainz Immersive, the company has developed a virtual reality experience that puts players behind the wheel of a Laurin & Klement Voiturette A, the very first car that the company produced.

Called Škoda Time Machine, the game can already be played at the Škoda Museum in Mladá Boleslav and at Škoda showrooms across the Czech Republic. During a ten-minute experience, players will race through a virtual environment that references Škoda’s 125-year history.

“In a playful way, people will revisit the rich history of one of the oldest cars in the world,” Škoda’s Head of Communications Tobias Talmon l’Armé states in a press release.

“Originally, we wanted to present Škoda Time Machine to international audiences at this year’s Geneva Motor Show,” says Brainz Immersive CEO Robin Pultera.

“In regard to the current situation, we finally changed the whole concept with the client, where the game will not be exclusively for trade fairs, but we will offer it together with the steering wheel to all fans of virtual reality.”

While the original concept intended to allow users to take the Laurin & Klement Voiturette A across the streets of Prague, circa 1936, the current game instead takes place in a virtual realm as drivers tasked to hit a series of accelerators and decelerators on a racing circuit that more subtly references the history of the company.

In addition to the Laurin & Klement Voiturette A, future updates to the game will allow drivers to get behind the wheel of a Škoda 1000 MB, Favorit, Octavia, and even the company’s first fully-electric automobile, the Vision iV, which is slated to hit the streets later this year.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, a 15-member team at Brainz Immersive was able to develop the game over the past five months.

This case study, showcasing some of the VR techniques used in this finished game but on the streets of Prague, was produced three years earlier: