Unfortunately, then it all went a bit wrong; Sega's VR dream turned into a nightmare, arcade VR specialists Virtuality fell apart, and Nintendo's Virtual Boy proved to be an actual dog's toilet.
With hindsight, the VR boom was premature; the technology back then simply wasn't advanced enough to provide experiences that seemed remotely real, unless your idea of "real" is a world made of dull, untextured polygons. "Barely Reality" would've been more accurate.
Now, though, we seem to be in a second VR boom.
With Oculus Rift constantly threatening to one day be finished potentially, and Microsoft announcing its weird Hololens thing, now Valve has gotten in on the act - unveiling the RE Vive VR headset, in partnership with HTC.