As the City and the State debate ways to 're-imagine' Alamo Plaza, a new company which is setting up shop on the Plaza will allow you to imagine it any way you like.
NewsRadio 1200 WOAI reports Alamo Reality will use technology and history to enable visitors to examine the place in the Plaza where they are stading through the eyes of people who would have been standing at that spot across hundreds of years of history, from the Native Americans living along the San Antonio River in the pre-Columbian days, to when Davy Crockett manned a barricade at the height of the battle.
"Its like a time machine in your hand," Alamo Reality CEO Michael McGar said. "You'll be able to choose what century you want to see, and what happened at that same spot."
McGar says Alamo Reality will use virtual reality and the 'augmented reality' that broke through with the wildly successful Pokemon Go craze two years ago.
He says participants will download a free app onto their phone or tablet, and then, using the video camera in the device, you will be able to look at, for example, the door of the Alamo Mission, and choose the date you want to explore, and see that sight through the eyes of the people who were standing right where you are standing at that time.
"You'll be able to go to different spots in the Alamo and you'll be able to find the people, for example, who defended the Alamo on those particular spots. They will pop up and you will be able to hear their story.
Alamo Reality is teaming with Imagine Virtua, a Texas based VR design experience studio, to create the images and tell the stories.Historians are also being called in to make sure viewers get an accurate look at the walls, grounds, and landscape, as well as the dress and appearance of people at the particular time the user has chosen to explore.
He says the designers have gone out of their way to display the Alamo and Alamo Plaza in more than the 1836 battle, although McGar expects that will be the most popular date that visitors will travel to.
"You'll be able to see how the Indians lived there, how the missionaries established the mission there, how it functioned as a fort, how it looked after the Alamo battle."
He says this is more and more the way younger people can best absorb history, by using a technology-driven approach to place them in the event.
While the download will be free, Alamo Reality will make its money by selling Virtual Reality cards, which will display various stories about the Alamo and its history.
"Lets say, for example, you get a soldado," he said. "When you look at the card through your phone, the soldado will pop up from the card, load his musket, shoot it, and then charge off of the card."
Alamo Reality plans to be open on Alamo Plaza by March 1, in time for the city's Tricentennial this coming spring.