The laptop which you are placing in the middle should have an environment mapping set to it (I think that's what it is called). Some kind of sphere map. That's still a cheat too for reflection as although it isn't a real reflection, you still get the effect of one. The texture for the sphere map can be anything you choose.
Also the background cylinders (if you use two layers of them at least) can spin at different speeds showing some kind of cheat blending effect. You could use the FOV to stretch the view too but that would also affect the objects in the middle of the screen.
Creating any object with a negative size will reverse the faces so the cylinders will have it's faces showing on the inside of it. And depending on the objects settings, whether using a blend mode or alpha transparency will depend on the kind of effect you get. The smokey effects will work better using an alpha blend. The cylinders spinning at different speeds will also add to the effect. Also the motion of the cylinders moving towards the camera will have that effect.
If I get a chance later today I'll have a go at something quick to show you what I mean. At the moment I'm having problems with getting a Winapi dialog to move around the screen and it won't close when I click the X but it will when I click a button instead. :-(
The smokey effect could be replaced with stripes, zig-zags, etc for all kinds of effects on the tunnel. The fog will just obscure the distance.
Mental arithmetic? Me? (That's for computers) I can't subtract a fart from a plate of beans!
Warning! May contain Nuts!
