Palmer Luckey's virtual reality headset turns heads

• Palmer Luckey%27s virtual reality headset was the hit of CES 2014
• When is it coming out%3F Oculus won%27t say
• Luckey came up with the idea when he was 19

IRVINE, Calif. — Samsung, LG, Sony and other big tech firms spend millions of dollars to wow and impress folks attending the CES tech bazaar in Las Vegas with massive booths.

Palmer Luckey's Oculus Rift gaming device made it happen with a tiny meeting room in a faraway section of CES 2014, creaming the competition with multiple Best of Show awards for his futuristic virtual reality headset.

Tech site Gizmodo called Oculus "by far the most exciting thing at CES," while Engadget called it "the best of the best." "The future can't get here soon enough," noted our own Reviewed.com.

The 21-year-old founder of the Oculus VR company (yes, that's no typo) couldn't be more thrilled with the response.

The awards and acclaim "get you taken more seriously," he says. People say, "Gee, if they won this award, maybe they're worth talking to."

That so many want to meet up with Oculus is even more impressive when you consider that right now, there is no real consumer product. The Oculus Rift is a prototype for a device that will one day hit stores — maybe this year, maybe next — Luckey's not talking timing. He wants to get it right first.

Either way, consider the young man considerably well-named. He's perhaps your luckiest 21-year-old nerd. An obsessive computer enthusiast, he grew up near here, the son of a car salesman and homemaker, dreaming of becoming a tech journalist. He wanted to hip the world to virtual reality, that mingling of real world and simulation portrayed in movies like The Matrix and Tron, which he felt wasn't getting the attention it deserved.

Instead, while attending a local college, he got the idea for his own virtual reality headset. Legendary game developer John Carmack (Quake, Doom) contacted Luckey to see a prototype. Luckey sent one to Carmack, who showed it at an expo. Interest started to build and Luckey pitched it to game developers on the Kickstarter crowd-funding site, where he quickly raised $2.5 million for a headset that would go to developers first. The Rift needed playable games to be a hit, of course.

Oculus raised its Series A for $16 million on June 19. Since Carmack joined Oculus on Aug. 7 as chief technology officer, the company has raised an additional $75 million.

So what exactly is the Oculus Rift?

"With a normal pair of ski goggles, you put them on and look around and you can see the real world through the lens," Luckey says. "With the Rift, you plug these goggles into the computer, and when you put them on, it's like you're actually in the game. You get a full stereo 360 view of the entire game environment. It makes it more immersive."

To anyone who asked at CES, Luckey and his team refused to divulge when his baby would be released. Surely in 2014, right?

He's not saying when.

Does he have any idea?

"I have a pretty good idea," he says. "I'm just not going to tell you."

Surely by 2015?

"If it doesn't come out by the end of next year, then something's gone wrong. We do want to get this thing out quickly, but it takes time."

He agrees with many who suggest that the Rift would be amazing for sports, movies and TV shows, but for now, he has his sights set on gaming.

While Luckey spends days working with engineers on his dream, usually until 11 p.m. most nights — in jeans, t-shirt and flip-flops — the company has "adult supervision" from CEO Brandon Iribe. He deals with investors and potential partners.

Iribe calls Luckey "an incredibly dynamic guy."

Says Iribe: "He's fun to work with, opinionated when he believes in something and pushes forward forcefully."

Luckey was home-schooled growing up, spending most afternoons parked in front of the six-monitor (again, no typo) computer set-up in his bedroom, talking with fellow nerds about video games. Many of the staffers at Oculus are friends Luckey met on the forums, including Julian Hammerstein, an engineer.

Back then, Luckey "was always full of really strange ideas," Hammerstein recalls. "He was also fond of always putting his fingers into lots of projects at once and not finishing them. I'm glad he's changed."

Nicole Edelmann, 20, Luckey's live-in girlfriend, met him in 2009 at a summer debate camp in Virginia, where they bonded over their mutual love of video games.

Today, she says she's "amazed" at how well he's handling the pressure of getting Rift to market. Because he comes home so late, they spend weekends together playing games (Fallout 3) and enjoying Netflix movie marathons (they recently binged on the series Dexter and Supernatural.)

The success today is "awesome. I remember him talking about virtual reality back then. 'It's going to happen,' he said. 'Somebody's got to do it.' I'm glad it's him."

Meanwhile, we ended the interview by asking Luckey to imagine a virtual world he'd want to live in.

"A better version of the world we're in today," he said.

And how would that happen?

"By allowing people to be whoever they want to be. VR does a great job of that."

Follow @jeffersongraham on Twitter.