For years, gamers have been dreaming of the day when they can step into a video game and be a part of its digital world and interact with their beloved characters.

Although the machine from Willy Wonka that teleports people into TVs doesn’t exist yet, we are now even closer to achieving that goal with creations like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Morpheus.

Actually, virtual reality has been around since the 1950s and 60s. Although the technology back then was extremely inferior to that of today, the idea of sitting down and virtually being transported instantly to somewhere else was in the hearts and minds of many early developers.

The armed forces were the first to actually tap into virtual reality with flying simulators and other war strategy simulators, designed to test the ability of trainees without the possibility of death. NASA would also use this simulation technology to test astronauts and observe their reactions to certain critical situations that could lead to the failure of the mission.

A few decades later, Nintendo came out with the Virtual Boy in 1995, a portable headset paired with a controller that would allow for full immersion of the player in a virtual world. Despite the hype set around it, the Virtual Boy is considered to be the gaming industry’s biggest failure in history, with only 770,000 units sold worldwide. It wasn’t as portable as developers believed and games didn’t take full advantage of the 3D capabilities.

Several virtual reality headsets and consoles have been developed and used in arcades and in university labs, but the takeover of the virtual reality “headset” didn’t occur until the company Oculus VR came out with their Oculus Rift Development Kit 1, or DK1, in late 2012. The headset was unlike anyone had ever seen and gained the attention of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook when they later bought the company in March of 2014.

Other head mounted displays like the Oculus Rift include Sony’s Morpheus and the HTC Vive, the product of Valve and HTC’s partnership to create a virtual reality headset.

Despite the fact that virtual reality is mainly a computer dominated industry, many other developers have created HMDs for mobile phones. Freefly VR has developed a headset that allows the user to place their phone in the display and play games that are being released in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Wearality has created Wearality SKY, a type of HMD that has specially designed lens on a rig that you can mount your mobile device to. Nothing fancy. It’s pretty much just glasses on a rig that your phone is mounted to that you hold to your face and the screen looks like the world around you.

For the release of the movie “Insurgent” in IMAX theaters, the producers gave out similar HMDs to that of Wearlity’s. Senior Allison Ho was one of the few that received the limited edition promotional. “You download this app that has certain clips from the movie,” she said. “Then you slip your phone into the headset and it feels like you’re in the movie.”

Although it doesn’t react to moving around a room, it does react to turning your head, she said. Ho isn’t a big game enthusiast but said, “I was very intrigued by the idea. I just wish it was more interactive.” She explains that even though the app shows clips from the movie, she felt like she was a part of it. “I think it’s interesting how virtual reality can do that and I wonder what its other capabilities might be.”

The only thing really holding the industry back right now from releasal to the general public is working out all the bugs and and finalizing their products, a point that could be closer to the end of this year or early next year.

Until then, gamers will have to save up and continue to dream of the day when they adorn the Oculus Rift headset and be transported into the world of virtual reality.