Battlezone is the 1980 Atari arcade game often cited as an early example of virtual-reality gameplay.
The game placed players inside a simulated 3D battlefield viewed through a cabinet-mounted eyepiece. Players controlled a tank, moved around a wireframe landscape, and fought enemy tanks and super tanks. Its first-person perspective and immersive viewing arrangement were unusual for arcade games of the period.
Battlezone did not use a modern head-mounted display or stereoscopic consumer headset. Instead, the player looked through a binocular-style viewer built into the cabinet. This distinction matters because the game is better described as an early precursor to VR rather than a contemporary VR system.
Atari later adapted Battlezone technology for military training under the Bradley Trainer project. The arcade game itself remains historically important because it demonstrated how a player could be placed inside a navigable 3D world decades before consumer VR became practical.