Famicom 3D System
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| Famicom 3D System | |
|---|---|
| Basic Info | |
| Type | Accessory |
| Subtype | Stereoscopic 3D |
| Platform | Family Computer (Famicom) |
| Manufacturer | Nintendo |
| Release Date | 21 October 1987 (Japan) |
| Price | ¥6,000 for the glasses and adapter (Japan, announced price, 1987) |
| Requires | Family Computer and compatible software |
| Display | |
| Refresh Rate | Shutters alternate every 1/60 second (30 Hz per eye on the 60 Hz Famicom) |
| Optics | |
| Optics | Liquid crystal shutter glasses |
| Connectivity | |
| Connectivity | Adapter plugs into the Famicom expansion connector; glasses connect to the adapter by a 2.5 m cord |
| Ports | Two glasses jacks on the adapter; separate connector on the adapter for other peripherals |
The Famicom 3D System is a stereoscopic 3D accessory that Nintendo released in Japan on 21 October 1987 for its Family Computer (Famicom) console. It consists of a pair of liquid crystal shutter glasses, which Nintendo called the "3D scope", and an adapter that connects to the console's expansion port. Compatible games show alternating images for the left and right eye, and the glasses darken each eye in turn so that the player sees depth on a television.[1][2]
The accessory was Nintendo's first 3D hardware, predating the Virtual Boy and the Nintendo 3DS.[3] It was sold only in Japan and supported a small library of games, among them Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally, the first game on which Shigeru Miyamoto and future Nintendo president Satoru Iwata worked closely together.[4]
Announcement and release
The trade newspaper Game Machine reported in its 15 August 1987 issue that Nintendo had developed the "3D System" for the Famicom and planned to release it in mid-October 1987. The paper gave the price of the glasses and adapter together as ¥6,000.[1] Nintendo's official Famicom chronology lists the release date as 21 October 1987.[2]
The same report said that the first dedicated software would be Square's racing game Highway Star, due in early August, before the hardware itself. The game included a mode that switched between 3D and normal display with the Select button. Pony and Konami were also preparing compatible games for mid-October.[1] Highway Star went on sale on 7 August 1987.[5]
The 3D System was not released outside Japan.[3][6] When Square's game reached North America as Rad Racer, its 3D mode was recoded to use a red and blue color scheme viewed through paper anaglyph glasses packed with the game, while the Japanese version supported the shutter glasses.[7]
Design and hardware
How it works
The system produces stereoscopic images with active shutter glasses. A compatible game draws separate images for the right and left eye on alternate frames. The glasses contain liquid crystal shutters that open and close for the left and right eye in turn every 1/60 of a second, so each eye sees only the images meant for it and the picture appears three-dimensional. An integrated circuit inside the adapter sends the signal that drives the shutters.[1] Nintendo's own description says that the goggle-type "3D scope" showed the image to the left and right eyes alternately.[2]
Because the Famicom outputs 60 images per second, each eye sees 30 images per second. NESdev Wiki, a hardware documentation site for the console, notes that the result flickers at 30 Hz.[8] Games control the shutters by writing to the console register $4016; the value tells the glasses whether the next video field is for the left or the right eye.[8]
Glasses with low-voltage, low-power liquid crystal shutters had been devised in 1980 by Lenny Lipton of StereoGraphics, according to Takayuki Oguchi's history of 3D for Eiga.com.[9] PCWorld noted that LCD shutters were silent and less prone to failure than the mechanical shutters used in earlier stereoscopic systems.[6]
Components and connection
The set has two parts: the shutter glasses and an adapter. The adapter plugs into the expansion connector on the front of the Famicom. It has two jacks, so two pairs of glasses can be used for two players. Each pair of glasses has a 2.5 m cord ending in a pin jack.[1] According to Nintendo, the adapter also has a separate connector, so a joystick or another peripheral can be plugged in and used at the same time.[2]
According to NESdev Wiki, the adapter carries the model number HVC-032 and accepts the glasses through 3.5 mm jacks with the same mapping as headphones: tip to sleeve drives the left eye and ring to sleeve the right eye. The lenses are made opaque by a signal of about 10 V peak (20 V peak-to-peak) and are clear at 0 V; a DC component must be avoided because it would damage the liquid crystal. The same page lists a JRC4558 dual operational amplifier and a Sharp logic chip, IX0043AE, inside the adapter.[8]
Compatibility with Sega glasses
The glasses take the same signal as the 3D glasses for Sega's Master System and several other active shutter systems of the time, and the two are cross-compatible.[8][10] Hardcore Gaming 101 described the Famicom glasses as "almost exactly like Sega's 3D glasses for the Master System".[11] Sega released its own liquid crystal shutter glasses for the Mark III and Master System in the same year, according to Oguchi;[9] Kotaku dates their launch to almost exactly a month after the Famicom 3D System.[12]
Software
Compatible games play in normal 2D until the player turns on the 3D mode. In most of them the Select button toggles it; in Fuuun Shourin Ken: Ankoku no Maou the mode is enabled by holding A while pressing Start on the title screen.[8] Oguchi lists Nintendo, Konami, Pony Canyon, Square, Jaleco and Asmik as publishers of software for the system.[9]
Sources disagree on the size of the library. Kotaku counted six compatible games,[12] while NESdev Wiki lists eight, including Tobidase Daisakusen.[8] The table lists the titles that the sources below tie to the 3D System.
| Title | Japanese release | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Highway Star | 7 August 1987[5] | Square racing game, released before the hardware; released in North America as Rad Racer with anaglyph 3D instead[1][7] |
| Falsion | 21 October 1987[13] | Konami 3D shooter for the Famicom Disk System[11] |
| JJ (Tobidase Daisakusen Part II) | 7 December 1987[14] | Listed as 3D System compatible by NESdev Wiki[8] |
| Attack Animal Gakuen | 26 December 1987[14] | Pony Canyon game; named as a compatible title by Nintendo[2][10] |
| Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally | 14 April 1988[15] | Nintendo racing game for the Famicom Disk System, developed by HAL Laboratory[4] |
| Fuuun Shourin Ken: Ankoku no Maou | 22 April 1988[15] | 3D mode enabled by holding A and pressing Start on the title screen[8] |
| Cosmic Epsilon | 24 November 1989[16] | Developed by Home Data and published by Asmik[17] |
Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally
In an Iwata Asks interview about the making of the Nintendo 3DS, Miyamoto and Iwata recalled Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally, released for the Family Computer Disk System in April 1988 and developed by HAL Laboratory, where Iwata worked at the time. Miyamoto said HAL had built a racing game with steep ups and downs that "just wasn't fun", so he reworked the structure of the rallies and made Mario the driver. He then decided to make the game "pop out" with separate images for each eye, viewed through goggles with a liquid crystal shutter. Iwata called it the first game the two had worked on closely together.[4] Kotaku described it as the first Mario racing game.[12]
Reception
The accessory did not catch on. Kotaku's Luke Plunkett wrote in 2010 that "the glasses were clunky and the accessory never really took off".[3] In a 2017 retrospective, Kotaku's Ben Bertoli wrote that with only six compatible games and players complaining about the uncomfortable headset, the 3D System "soon fell into obscurity, even in Japan".[12]
Reviewers of individual games were more positive about the effect. Hardcore Gaming 101 called Falsion "Konami's killer app for the Famicom 3D System" and probably the best-looking of the few supporting games,[11] and later wrote that Cosmic Epsilon was "a far better use of the accessory" than Falsion.[17]
Legacy
Nintendo returned to stereoscopic 3D several times. Famitsu, marking the 30th anniversary of the Virtual Boy, noted that Nintendo had already released the Famicom 3D System, an LCD shutter 3D glasses peripheral, in 1987.[18] In the Iwata Asks interview on the Nintendo 3DS, Iwata described 3D experiments that never became products: a Nintendo GameCube with built-in 3D-capable circuitry that would have needed an expensive special LCD, and a glasses-free 3D screen tested in a Game Boy Advance SP. When interviewer Shigesato Itoi suggested that Miyamoto had been the most persistent in pursuing 3D, Miyamoto went back to the Famicom racing game played with goggles.[4] Kotaku noted that 24 years passed between 3D Hot Rally and the next 3D Mario racing game, Mario Kart 7 on the Nintendo 3DS.[12]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "任天堂が家庭用立体TVゲーム 3Dファミコン スクウェア、コナミなどが対応ソフト". Game Machine, no. 314, p. 4. Amusement Press. 1987-08-15. https://onitama.tv/gamemachine/pdf/19870815p.pdf. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "ファミコン年表". Famicom 40th Anniversary. Nintendo. https://www.nintendo.com/jp/famicom/history/index.html. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Luke Plunkett (2010-04-30). "Nintendo's First 3D Technology Shot A Spaceship At Mario's Face". Kotaku. https://kotaku.com/nintendos-first-3d-technology-shot-a-spaceship-at-mario-5527760. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Iwata Asks - Volume 1 And That's How the Nintendo 3DS Was Made - Page 3". Iwata Asks. Nintendo. https://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/3ds/how-nintendo-3ds-made/0/2/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "【1987年8月発売】ファミコンのゲーム発売日スケジュール". Famitsu. https://www.famitsu.com/schedule/fc/198708. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Benj Edwards (2011-03-03). "The History of Stereoscopic 3D Gaming". PCWorld. https://www.pcworld.com/article/495252/the_history_of_steroscopic_3d_gaming.html. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Neil Foster (2017-11-19). "Rad Racer". Hardcore Gaming 101. http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/rad-racer/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 "Famicom 3D System". NESdev Wiki. https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/Famicom_3D_glasses. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Takayuki Oguchi (2010-11-22). "3Dテレビの長い歴史（3）". Eiga.com. https://eiga.com/extra/oguchi/11/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Sega 3-D Glasses: How did they work?". Nicole Express. https://nicole.express/2023/the-third-dimension-and-the-eight-bits.html. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Kurt Kalata (2017-09-12). "Falsion". Hardcore Gaming 101. https://www.hardcoregaming101.net/falsion/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Ben Bertoli (2017-06-04). "That Time Nintendo and Sega Introduced 3D Gaming, In 1987". Kotaku. https://kotaku.com/that-time-nintendo-and-sega-introduced-3d-gaming-in-19-1795623602. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ "【1987年10月発売】ファミコンのゲーム発売日スケジュール". Famitsu. https://www.famitsu.com/schedule/fc/198710. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 "【1987年12月発売】ファミコンのゲーム発売日スケジュール". Famitsu. https://www.famitsu.com/schedule/fc/198712. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 "【1988年4月発売】ファミコンのゲーム発売日スケジュール". Famitsu. https://www.famitsu.com/schedule/fc/198804. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ "【1989年11月発売】ファミコンのゲーム発売日スケジュール". Famitsu. https://www.famitsu.com/schedule/fc/198911. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Kurt Kalata (2020-01-31). "Cosmic Epsilon". Hardcore Gaming 101. https://www.hardcoregaming101.net/cosmic-epsilon/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ ウワーマン (2025-07-21). "バーチャルボーイ30周年。VRゴーグルのような形状の3D立体視対応の任天堂ハード。ゲームファンの誰もが「早すぎた」と語る先進的な伝説のマシン【今日は何の日？】". Famitsu. https://www.famitsu.com/article/202507/47474. Retrieved 2026-10-04.