Chain of fools
I was having a fabulous time laughing at this transcript of a magazine interview from the mid-'90s with Jack Tramiel, and it was with an acute sensation of schadenfreude that I read about Atari's plans for a VR add-on for the Jaguar, an add-on that was to be Atari's link in the long, long chain of failed attempts to bring 3D "realism" to video games.
My earliest recollection of a 3D console is that of the Sega Master System and its 3D Glasses. Together, this crime-fighting duo formed the most successful 3D gaming system the world has ever seen. The mechanics of the system were sound, enough so that the present-day IMAX 3D works in essentially the same fashion, but their relatively high price ($50) and incompatibiliy with the cost-reduced Sega Master System II relegated them to the curiosity file (and this entry, natch). Numerous bone-headed attempts at 3D were to follow, most notably in the form of Nintendo's Famicom 3D and the well-known Virtual Boy, a semi-anaglyphic, semi-portable, and semi-fun gaming system that attempted to capitalize on the fantastic popularity of Nintendo's own Game Boy and failed, miserably.
Is it greed that created this cottage industry of deception and hubris that will fabricate its demise? Or is it simply a Japanese love of gadgetry that has repeatedly failed to traverse the Atlantic's cerulean waves to these, our humble shores? The world may never know.
Posted by ned at June 14, 2003 11:14 AM