3D Imager

3D Imager

3D Imager
Manufacturer	Smith Engineering
Distributors	Bandai GCE Milton Bradley
Release date	1984
Discontinued	1984

This was the first 3D game system to ever be released... Sega tried to claim that they were the first when they released some LCD goggles 4 years later, but were forced to pull all of their advertising due to the fact that the Vectrex 3D Imager was truly the first.

History

The 3D Imager was only sold in the USA in early 1984 and in a small amount - literally the first in the gaming industry to have 3D. Released a full 3 to 4 years before Sega's LCD version - who later had to pull a TV commerical claiming they were first. In Sega's TV ads they initially advertised their goggles as being the first. The ad was pulled shortly after for obvious reasons. It wasn't until about a dozen years later that 3D games and analog control really took off in home consoles. Today the Vectrex 3D Imager is presumably for collectors one of the most searched items in the genre of videogames.

Technical specifications

The Vectrex 3D imager plugs into the extra controller port on your Vectrex unit. You plop this beast onto your dome, and it sits, quite uncomfortably, onto the front of your grill. Then, when a "3D Cartridge" is played, you can enjoy luxurious 3D gaming - in color! This tricking of the vision requires extra steps in drawing of objects as well. From the Vectrex faq: "A single object that does not lie on the plane of the monitor (i.e. in front of or into the monitor) is drawn at least twice to provide information for each eye. The distance between the duplicate images and whether the right eye image or the left eye image is drawn first will determine where the object will appear to "be" in 3-D space. The 3-D illusion is also enhanced by adjusting the brightness of the object (dimming objects in the background)." The 3D Imager worked by spinning a translucent wheel in front of the eyes... 1/2 of the wheel was black, the other was colored, so that only one eye at a time would see the screen. The image was drawn twice onscreen with a slight shift... one for each eye to give "depth" to the image.

This design led to some unique problems with the glasses. Sometimes double images were seen due to natural human focus problems. Likwise, the wheel produced a gyroscopic effect that caused the disk to want to stay put when a person wanted to turn their head.

Only three games were ever released for this awesome Vectrex accessory. 3D Minestorm (which came bundled with the unit), 3D Narrow Escape and 3D Crazy Coaster. Some homebrew games have been released by vectrex fans.

Gallery

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  3D-Imager Brochure

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  3D-Imager Minestorm Wheel

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  3D-Imager Box Front

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  3D-Imager Box Back

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  3D-Imager Instructions (Page 2)

Games for the 3D-Imager

Original games for the 3D Imager by GCE

   3D Mine Storm
   3D Narrow Escape
   3D Crazy Coaster

Unreleased prototype

   3D Pole Position

Homebrew Games for the 3D Imager

   3D Sector-X (uses 3D Mine Storm color wheel) by FURY in 2010
   3D Lord of the Robots by FURY in 2006

Canceled homebrew games

   3D Hellhole by FURY 
   Star Fury by FURY

Notes/trivia

• Although print ads and the logo reads "3D Imager", in the instructions it was printed as "3-D Imager".
• Like with the infamous "Vectrex buzz", the instructions noted that the Imager also produced its own hum, which "does not indicate a malfunction".
• 3D Lord of the Robots also included a 2-D playing mode where the 3D Imager was not required.
• FURY canceled two planned 3D Imager games (although 3D Sector-X would be completed and released later) due to programmer George Pelonis's "imager broke and I really don't miss the 3D headaches" (via Vectrex database entry for 3D Hellhole). The unfinished demo for Star Fury was included with the release of Vector 21. However, the put "on hold" (as said by Pelonis in an e-mail) 3D Hellhole would later be slightly reworked, completed and released as Hellhole: Sector-X IV a few years later, running on a regular Vectrex, rather than needing the Imager to work, as the original 3D Hellhole ran too slow.
• There is a way to get 3D Imager games to run without a 3D Imager or modern day equivalent: plug a controller into the second port, start a new game (of a game that requires the Imager) and start repeatedly pressing down on button 4 on the second controller. Doing this long enough (for one to two minutes, although this could work in as little as half a minute) will cause the game to start running, although very slowly. "Every tap on the button will 'flash' one frame on the screen and the sound if playing will advance to the next step." (From the Vectrex FAQ 6.0)

References

• 3D-Imager at geekvintage.com
• 3D-Imager at heimcomputer.de
• Vectrex FAQ 6.0
• Vectrex database