The 3DS has now been on the market for over four years, in that time making use of auto-stereoscopic 3D in a lot of games. After the original models suffered from a narrow viewing angle the New 3DS has delivered more stable 3D, so in this time of Nintendo's improved and solidified the technology it can be interesting to look back at its earlier efforts.
Most are familiar with the Virtual Boy, but not everyone will necessarily know about the Famicom 3D System. It was only released in Japan in 1987 with a limited number of compatible games, utilising active shutter glasses and compatible with old CRT TVs built to the Japanese and North American standard. There was a similar bit of technology on the market from SEGA in that era, too, and is proof that the idea of bringing 3D into gaming has been around for nearly 30 years.
The My Life in Gaming channel has done a great job of showing this off, so check it out below if you want to learn more.
Comments 23
They should re-release 3D Hot Rally on the 3DS..
I have one of those, looks like it has never been used. I still need to get games for it.
That does look surprisingly stylish given when it released!
I never knew about this!
This might be a dumb question on the 3D topic. Didn't the Gamecube also have 3D enabled hardware that was never used?
3D in gaming has been around for ages but now is the first time it's been genuinely viable as an effect, imo.
And while the 3DS was cool, VR is where it's really going to be at.
Also, that Famicom 3D System* headset doesn't look too far off the Sony PlayStation VR design.
*The first instance of "3DS".
These will make great 3D classic but Nintendo can not make any of them I hope m2 will.The 3ds needs more retro games.
@Kirk eh. Having tried VR a few times I don't think it'll truly take off. I think it'll be viable as a niche product but I can't see it becoming a huge 'must have'. It's too much a single person experience. Even current single player games can be enjoyed by spectators or passing the controller around and taking turns. You can pass the headset around I guess but once it's on you cut off everyone and everything. No good for people with families, partners or who enjoy having friends around for games. Maybe in the future there'll be some genius spark that makes it come together but for now it's a way off.
That said it is a novelty and Sony's games division are very good at marketing. PS4 sold a ton on a light sprinkle of new games, some remakes and a share button.
Just when I thought I knew everything about Nintendo.... I have Never heard of this, or anyone talk about it on forums. Weird.
Looks just like sonys never very head set just different colour. Crazy, lol.
,If you play Retro City Rampage theres a mini game where you put regular red blue 3d glasses that costs 2 cents and its beautiful 3D. Here's the thing 3D always existed and it always kind of sucks because you have to wear glasses or worse stupid VR headsets . 3DS is the only device that finally nailed 3D and made it comfortable.
I learned something today.
@ajcismo Yes, that is correct: there is a chip on the GameCube's motherboard offering that functionality, so apparently there were plans to use it, but maybe they thought better of it at the time because of the failure of the Virtual Boy.
Oh man, I'm sorry to say this, but I can never get used to that guy's face. To put it mildly he is just not "in front of the camera material". His voice might do, but I'd rather just see the games and/or products since the channel does have multiple interesting videos, but his face is in the frame WAY too often.
I think they should make some games on
Wii-u in 3d include a couple 3d glasses like oldschool 3d. I bet they could do some neat things with that old simplistic 3d style. I dont know if its that simplistic but I bet its easier than creating a system.
@Ogbert It will take off. It's not even debatable at this point. Now, it may not be this first generation tech that truly captures the public's imagination--I really couldn't say, although I don't see why not (not that I'm claiming it will sill billions or even hundreds of millions of units first time out either)--but VR is going to be a huge part of future entertainment down the line (and not too far down the line). Only people who don't have a clue about what VR really is would think otherwise. It would be like someone in the '80s claiming the videogames are a fad and will never take off.
Also, Sony has already integrated a spectator mode into its current VR solution, such that anyone who isn't playing can just watch the game on TV as they would with any traditional game--one person playing and their mates watching next to them, just like modern gaming for the most part--so the issue of it being isolating and singular doesn't actually exist per say. I mean it does, but not in a way that's really going to stop people buying this tech once it hits its stride. Yes, certain headset will very much just be solitary experiences but a single tech solution does not equal what VR is and what it is set to become. Going to the cinema ends up being a very isolation experience when you are just sitting there and watching the movie, hopefully not talking to anyone, but people still love the experience and continue to do so.
People dismissing VR now simply have very short sight and/or really do not fully understand the tech, it's potential, and the experiences that VR is going to bring to us in the pretty near future. It's like how some people still think that VR equals first person gaming/experiences only--because they simply don't get VR.
@Kirk When I think of Virtual Reality, I think of something along the lines of The Matrix or Sword Art Online. Once gaming reaches that level of immersion, I'll consider VR has truly arrived. What Project Morpheus is can hardly be called VR. I've said this countless times before, but it's basically like wearing the Wii U gamepad over your face. The first-person immersion didn't take off for the Wii U, and it won't for the PS4, or any other platform at this point in time. Like (@Ogbert) said, spectating someone playing with a VR headset is a passive - and potentially cumbersome - experience, and at this point in time will most likely be a very expensive niche. Nothing against the potential of VR, but you'd think that Sony and Microsoft would learn from Nintendo's mistakes and try to get new gimmicks right the first time around. It makes me wonder just how they do the focus testing for new tech like this...
@TheRealThanos
Thank you, that's what I thought, much appreciated.
@kensredemption Yeah, that's some fantasy verion of "VR"*, which may or may not be possible long after you're dead, but until them, I'm talking about real/actual VR. You know, like we saw in The Lawnmower Man and were promised back in the '90s, or even the level of VR that was in Ready Player One (which was pretty stunning), where it's about a VR headset of some sort, with some kind of hand/arm input (possibly haptic gloves of some sort) and maybe some body tracking stuff if you're lucky, that transports you into amazing fantasy worlds and "virtual realities". We're almost there now, and at the very least, what we do have right now is a brilliant first step.
Also, there is a difference between "strapping a Wii U GamePad on your face" and modern VR. "strapping a Wii U GamePad on your face" is more like the old Sony "VR" headsets, which just showed a "big" screen floating in front of you. The important aspect of correct VR is that the image looks like it is taking up your full field of view, so the 3D world looks to be fully wrapping all around you rather than just being a flat image sitting in front of you, and we've really only got that largely nailed with modern VR headsets (and even then the field of view could still be improved further). The headset being able to track your movement and position is also important/essential for what is considered proper VR, and the Wii U GamePad can do a bit of that but it's not even close to what a proper VR headset feels like. Also, most good VR headsets will provide proper 3D audio too, which is another important aspect in achieving the full sense of presence and immersion. Lastly, even when "strapping a Wii U GamePad on your face" it's still not going to give you that sense of real-world 1:1 scale that you get with a proper VR headset. Lastly you'd have to be "strapping a Wii U GamePad on your face" PLUS use two Wiimotes (one in each hand) to get close to a proper/modern VR type experience (which is why Playstation VR will use the Move controllers, the Vive comes with two hand controllers, and the Rift will come with the Oculus Touch controllers eventually).
*What you are on about is more like a holodeck or jacking your brain and consciousness into a total artificial/simulated reality--like the Matrix or Dark City--and the odds of getting something like that, to that level of immersion, in the next hundred years (and possibly ever) are near zero. That's not really what most people think of when we're just talking about VR however, as most people consider a headset of some sort as a defining feature of the VR experience for the most part.
For the record: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality
@Kirk it's not just about watching someone play though, it's about being there with them interacting with them as well as the game. VR closes you off to that. You can't do something cool and turn to the person sat next to you and both be like "wow that was awesome!" or share an in joke, because one of you is immersed and the other sat to the side onlooking.
As I said I've tried it several times on several versions of the Occlus from the early 'made 90% of people want to hurl' version to the last 'ironed everything out but the price' version. It's something and nothing, the novelty wore off very quickly. I haven't tried Sony's but the experience is the same. I played it with a group of friends and it was basically like we were taking turns to leave the social activities.
I didn't get a chance to try the virtual cinema though, that did sound cool. I disagree that the cinema is a solitary experience though. You don't need to talk to others (and shouldn't!) to be able to appreciate their presence, enjoy laughing along together or the collective sigh of relief after a tense moment or the shock of a good fright or plot twist from your friend. Seriously having a jump scare that really gets one of your friends is brilliant! You share those moments with the people you're there with. And if it's a bad film you need those people there to make it bearable! Not to mention going with a partner and cosying up a little, resting your head on their shoulder or vice versa. Kinda harder with a thing strapped to both your heads. And watching a film at home (as you would be with VR) is a different experience again. I can't see a family all sitting down to watch the latest Pixar film by strapping on an individual headset each.
I think it'll be a niche product,I don't think it'll be the next big thing. Not for a long time and who knows what else may pop up in between.
Of course the Vectrex beat both Sega and Nintend to 3D gaming
@Ogbert Well, just think about how many people play World of Warcraft, Minecraft, DOTA, League of Legends, and other games like that, sitting on their own in front of their computers basically in isolation, but they still end up playing with other people online and forming strong friendships with groups of like-minded players. Think of VR, in terms of gaming, as being something similar to that, and then you might start to understand its potential. It doesn't have to be for families and groups of friends sitting around together for it to be huge--but that also doesn't exclude it from having huge social impact in its own way. Look at how many people "socialise" through Facebook, and remember who recently acquired Oculus...
And I'm just touching on some broad strokes here.
Again, I will say that anyone who thinks VR is a fad or niche, or just small time, really doesn't get what VR is about, where is it heading, and what it is capable of.
Just imagine offices of workers, who rather than having huge desks that take up a lot of space but only have two monitors in front of them at most, sitting with a VR headset that can show a screen display the size of a wall for them to work on. Although, to be fair, it's more likely AR will be used for this.
Think of it as an alternative to having to stuff 30 Masters degree students into a single class for lessons as another (just like in Ready Player One). In fact, if you've not read Ready Player One then I'd highly recommend it, because it paints a great picture of VR and one that's not that far ahead of our current VR reality, and it's a great story to boot.
Imagine school children using VR to go on class trips to popular destinations in the world or even to places outside the world that people could never normally travel to (like the moon or Mars), rather than spending thousands taking kids abroad, and all the hassles and dangers that involves. I mean, check out how cool something like this is, and imagine a high school class putting on their headsets and going through it for a lesson: Cool VR Demo
No other form of entertainment, or even real world excursions and adventures, can give you the same experiences that VR is capable of.
Edit: Also, check out this cool proof of concept VR demo I just found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KirQtdsG5yE I can imagine someone creating a modern version of Knightmare with this kind of tech set up in a large room: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBQL4zsyKLk And again, early days.
@ajcismo No trouble at all. You're most welcome.
Cool! You learn something new every day! I never heard of this before.
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