Artificial Reality or AR (also known as Total Immersion Video Games when used with electrodes implanted directly into the brain) are an entertainment medium that allow the users to play different games and simulations through external sensations as if they were really there. Artificial reality equipment includes head sets, exit buttons in the gloves, and Groinal Attachments for sexual simulation. A number of programs were used, mainly by Dave Lister, mostly so he could have sex.

List of ARs

Here is a list of programs that have been used in the series:

• Better Than Life ("Better Than Life") - A game which detects all the desires and fantasies of the players and makes them come true, although in some cases (such as Rimmer) it also makes the negative fantasies come true.
• Gumshoe ("Gunmen of the Apocalypse") - A film noir role-playing game where two of the playable characters known are Philip (a private investigator whom Lister plays, mainly so he can have sex with Loretta, a "psychopathic schizophrenic serial killing femme fatale") and Sammy the Squib (a Mafia hitman whom Kryten plays in order to talk to Lister).
• Zero G Kickboxing ("Gunmen of the Apocalypse") - Briefly mentioned, when Lister refers to games he's played other than role playing games.
• Wimbledon ("Gunmen of the Apocalypse") - Briefly mentioned, presumably a tennis game, which Lister only plays because he is "having it off" with one of the ball girls, as Rimmer points out.
• Streets of Laredo ("Gunmen of the Apocalypse") - Used by Lister, Rimmer and Kryten to interface with Kryten's sub-conscious, so they could enter his mind and help him fight the Armageddon Virus, The Cat plays the Riviera Kid (a Mexican gunslinger), Rimmer plays Dangerous Dan McGrew (bare fist fighter) and Lister plays Brett Riverboat ("knife man"); appears to have been corrupted as the Armageddon virus spread to the AR Unit, which erased their special skills.

• Camelot Game ("Stoke Me a Clipper") - Lister played this game with a book of cheats to defeat the King of Camelot's best knight and win a "night and a day" in the bed of the Queen of Camelot. Lister was shocked by the cheers of the crowd when the King told his best knight to bring him Lister of Smeg's "manhood" on a silver platter and then disembowel him and feed his innards to the crows. He replied "it's worse than playing away at Leeds". The "Steedcheat" turns his opponent's horse into a Shetland Pony. The "Chastitycheat" unlocks the queen's chastity belt.

• Untitled Meditation Simulation ("Stoke Me a Clipper") - Ace Rimmer brought Rimmer into this to train Rimmer to become the next Ace. It involves each user on a magic carpet flying over the plateau.

• The Rimmer Experience ("Blue") - A program created by Kryten to cure Lister of feelings of nostalgia towards Rimmer.

• Jane Austen World ("Beyond a Joke") - This program allows the user or users to interact with the characters from Jane Austen novels. Lister, Kochanski and the Cat entered Pride and Prejudice Land in period dress.

• WW2 game ("Beyond a Joke") - Mentioned by Kryten as he was trying to get the others out of Pride and Prejudice Land as he borrowed a tank to blow up the Bennetts and make the others exit the game.

• Curryworld ("Beyond a Joke") - A program made by Kryten to allow the others and the Bennetts to have an Indian meal. Unfortunately there was a bug in the program which made the curries of Lister, Cat and Kochanski too hot to handle (it was too strong even for Lister and he eats Vindaloos on a regular basis).

• Trial Program ("Back in the Red II") - A program designed to allow those who are in it defend themselves in a court ruling, where they can be judged based on their actions, participants lick a psychotropic drug laced envelope with their consent forms to facilitate this.

Novel

• Cyberia (Last Human) - A prison colony where inmates were placed in a simulation of their own worst nightmare, as punishment for their crimes, Lister's scenario included sprout soup, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, ill-fitting clothes, encyclopedia salesmen, and getting his teeth filled by student dentists.