92 replies to this topic

[IntellivisionDude]

[IntellivisionDude]

And if you didn't read the description for my video, you can also use the glasses that come with an old 90's comic book, Valiant Vision Starter Kit which you can easily find on Ebay and they are cheaper then the Sidewalk Chalk glasses. This morning i had revelation. I remember i owned those other glasses and remembered they made bright colors like Red and other colors that were more of a bright neon type of color pop out and look 3-D. I wasn't sure if that's what the Sidewalk Chalk ones did or not. but i tried them and they worked fantastic. Those colors popped off the screen. It's hard to tell in the video, but they did.

Edited by IntellivisionDude, Thu Jul 26, 2012 6:06 PM.

[RangerG]

There has been a run on Valiant Vision Starter Kits on Ebay :-). I know I bought one. Has anyone tried the glasses with the Hover-Force 3-D proto rom discussed earlier in the thread? Are there any differences.

[vprette]

so
who gonna write a simple game with correct color to become the second 3D intv game?

[revolutionika]

Some hoarder bought up all the cheap Valiant Vision 3D glasses.

[Bill Loguidice]

I received my Crayola 3D chalk package today. I hope to get to try the glasses with the game tomorrow...

[intvnut]

I picked up a pair... Interesting stuff!  Yeah, the 3-D effect isn't terribly dramatic, but it is noticeable.  

A word of warning to anyone picking up a pair -- don't bump the lens with a greasy finger.  These things seem impossible to clean.

I noticed there was a Spiderman 3-D Activity Book there that works on the same principle.  The glasses, though, were much cheaper construction -- flat cardboard rather than plastic.  Since the plastic frames are sized for a child's head, that might be a better choice for most of us here.  It was pricier, though:  $12.99.  (Although, they had them 2 for 1...)

[intvnut]

Hey guys, check THIS out:  http://www.chromatek.com/products.htm

These are the Georgia Tech 3-D glasses, available for cheap in bulk.

Anyone up for new 3-D games?

EDIT:  This looks to be a more modern website, and is actually the distributor for the ChromaTek products:  http://www.3dglasses...s/chromadepth®

EDIT 2:  Apparently I failed to reload the thread and see that others had also found the distributor.  :-)

Edited by intvnut, Sat Jul 28, 2012 9:17 PM.

[intvnut]

Well, I have an email in to American Paper Optics to see if they can sell me ~100 or so generic ChromaDepth glasses.  If they can do that and can get them to me soon enough, I'll bring them with me to CGE.

If someone does produce a new 3-D homebrew game, we'll even be able to include the glasses!  

[intvnut]

BTW, Eagle CAD is pretty wild with the glasses...

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[theloon]

Someone made a deck of cards with chromadepth colors:
http://creepahinthen...Cards-125449519

I find it to be a good reference.I bought chromadepth compatible glasses with a Crayola chalk kit too.  It's ironic that my $900 3D glasses are too big and my $15 dollar glasses are too small..

Edited by theloon, Sat Jul 28, 2012 10:33 PM.

[SoulBlazer]

Cool!  I always suspected that the 3-D effect was left in Hover Force, but INTV being the cheap bastards that they were didn't want to include the glasses like Mattel had planned.  (Sorry, maybe that's a bit harsh....but why not work something out?)

For those who would like more history, detail, and explanation about the 3-D effect, here's the write up of the game from the Blue Sky Rangers website:

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
Hover Force 3-D was developed under greater secrecy than any other Mattel game. Researcher Richard Steenblik working at the Georgia Institute of Technology had developed pseudo-3-D glasses. Small prisms in the glasses bent different colors of light entering the eye at different angles, fooling the eye into thinking that, for example, blue objects on a flat surface were actually farther away than red objects on the same surface. Georgia Tech approached several game manufacturers to see if they were interested in the technology. After a middle-of-the-night test session in which Keith Robinson (Solar Sailer) quickly threw together an Intellivision screen full of flying bugs of different colors, Mattel management decided to aggressively pursue an exclusive license for the glasses.
Game development was ordered to start immediately, before the license was secured. For fear that a competitor would find out and try to outbid Mattel, the project was kept top secret, even from the other programmers. It was code named "Peach" since the glasses originated in Georgia, the Peach State. Steve Ettinger and Joe King, who had worked well together on Magic Carousel, were given a locked, windowless office in which to work (the rest of the software staff worked in open cubicles); it was quickly dubbed "The Bat Cave."
Midway through the project, Mattel won the license and Peach emerged from the cave. The 3-D effect, while not eye-poppingly dramatic, was effective, especially given the visual cues Steve and Joe had designed. And Dave "Papa Intellivision" Chandler's group had developed an inexpensive method to manufacture the glasses, making it practical for the game and glasses to be sold together at the price of a normal cartridge. Marketing felt they could strongly promote the 3-D feature in ads and the press.
Hover Force 3-D debuted at the January 1984 Consumer Electronic Show to good response. While the 3-D effect got mixed reviews, everyone was talking about it. Management immediately started talking about putting two more 3-D games into development, including a flight simulator cartridge, but before anything could be started, Mattel Electronics closed.
For the INTV Corp. release of the game in 1986, Steve and producer Dave Warhol beefed up the "intelligence" of the enemy helicopters, adding more strategy to the play. Since the glasses were not included with the game, "3-D" was dropped from the title.

[intvnut]

SoulBlazer, on Sat Jul 28, 2012 10:33 PM, said:

Cool!  I always suspected that the 3-D effect was left in Hover Force, but INTV being the cheap bastards that they were didn't want to include the glasses like Mattel had planned.  (Sorry, maybe that's a bit harsh....but why not work something out?)

Remember, this is the same INTV Corp that started out selling cartridges in clear plastic bags at first, skipping such esoteric things as "boxes".

[the antithesis]

vprette, on Sat Jul 28, 2012 1:59 PM, said:

so
who gonna write a simple game with correct color to become the second 3D intv game?

You know, it might not be that difficult to pallate swap an existing game so that it would work with the 3D. I suspect Space Battle might work well.

Know what game works remarkably well with the glasses? Duck Hunt for the NES.

EDIT: Night Stalker works surprisingly well with the glasses. It would need to be tweaked a little, nut the man and robots stand out really well.

Edited by the antithesis, Sun Jul 29, 2012 8:34 PM.

[Bill Loguidice]

the antithesis, on Sun Jul 29, 2012 7:59 PM, said:

vprette, on Sat Jul 28, 2012 1:59 PM, said:

so
who gonna write a simple game with correct color to become the second 3D intv game?

You know, it might not be that difficult to pallate swap an existing game so that it would work with the 3D. I suspect Space Battle might work well.

Know what game works remarkably well with the glasses? Duck Hunt for the NES.

Yeah, based on the things that I've been looking at, from real-world objects to images, most anything with the right colors (mostly red and blue) seems to work. I think a better goal would be getting, say, 50 to 100 glasses together to pack in with a good new homebrew title (one that obviously favors the specific colors). The best part is that the 3D is always completely optional with this technique.

[intvnut]

Bill_Loguidice, on Sun Jul 29, 2012 8:17 PM, said:

Yeah, based on the things that I've been looking at, from real-world objects to images, most anything with the right colors (mostly red and blue) seems to work. I think a better goal would be getting, say, 50 to 100 glasses together to pack in with a good new homebrew title (one that obviously favors the specific colors). The best part is that the 3D is always completely optional with this technique.

Well, I send a quote request for 100 glasses to American Paper Optics.  If nothing else, I can sell them at low cost to folks who already have Hover Force / Hover Force 3-D, assuming they're noticeably cheaper than buying the Crayola glasses.

And, if we can get them at reasonable prices, that definitely opens a new avenue for homebrew creation.  :-)

[cmart604]

intvnut, on Sun Jul 29, 2012 8:31 PM, said:

Bill_Loguidice, on Sun Jul 29, 2012 8:17 PM, said:

Yeah, based on the things that I've been looking at, from real-world objects to images, most anything with the right colors (mostly red and blue) seems to work. I think a better goal would be getting, say, 50 to 100 glasses together to pack in with a good new homebrew title (one that obviously favors the specific colors). The best part is that the 3D is always completely optional with this technique.

Well, I send a quote request for 100 glasses to American Paper Optics.  If nothing else, I can sell them at low cost to folks who already have Hover Force / Hover Force 3-D, assuming they're noticeably cheaper than buying the Crayola glasses.

And, if we can get them at reasonable prices, that definitely opens a new avenue for homebrew creation.  :-)

Wow, that would be cool. Can you quickly rewrite Super Space Patrol to incorporate 3D! Speaking of which, it's killing me that I'm not going to be able to make it to CGE, what am I going to be missing?

[intvnut]

cmart604, on Sun Jul 29, 2012 8:38 PM, said:

Wow, that would be cool. Can you quickly rewrite Super Space Patrol to incorporate 3D! Speaking of which, it's killing me that I'm not going to be able to make it to CGE, what am I going to be missing?

Would certainly be interesting to add as a mode.  Actually, I tried it just now with no changes to Space Patrol, and the color schemes on the Moon and Mercury work pretty well.  The underground stage on Mercury worked surprisingly well.  Mars, OTOH, was a real horror show.

[cmart604]

intvnut, on Sun Jul 29, 2012 8:49 PM, said:

cmart604, on Sun Jul 29, 2012 8:38 PM, said:

Wow, that would be cool. Can you quickly rewrite Super Space Patrol to incorporate 3D! Speaking of which, it's killing me that I'm not going to be able to make it to CGE, what am I going to be missing?

Would certainly be interesting to add as a mode.  Actually, I tried it just now with no changes to Space Patrol, and the color schemes on the Moon and Mercury work pretty well.  The underground stage on Mercury worked surprisingly well.  Mars, OTOH, was a real horror show.

I was half kidding, but cool to hear it would be a possibility.

[intvnut]

cmart604, on Sun Jul 29, 2012 8:59 PM, said:

intvnut, on Sun Jul 29, 2012 8:49 PM, said:

cmart604, on Sun Jul 29, 2012 8:38 PM, said:

Wow, that would be cool. Can you quickly rewrite Super Space Patrol to incorporate 3D! Speaking of which, it's killing me that I'm not going to be able to make it to CGE, what am I going to be missing?

Would certainly be interesting to add as a mode.  Actually, I tried it just now with no changes to Space Patrol, and the color schemes on the Moon and Mercury work pretty well.  The underground stage on Mercury worked surprisingly well.  Mars, OTOH, was a real horror show.

I was half kidding, but cool to hear it would be a possibility.

Well, if it was something simple like tweaking the colors slightly and maybe a couple of the graphics, that's fairly easy.  I could have separate color tables for the two modes.  It'd be like Rad Racer or Worldrunner on the NES where you could turn the 3-D mode on/off.  It helps that Space Patrol already uses parallax for some notion of depth, so the combination of color and movement cues actually works pretty well.

Actually, there's a different 3-D technology that would work for certain side-scrollers:  It uses a shaded lens over one eye and a clear lens over the other.  If you put a shaded lens over your left eye, then anything moving to the left will tend to "pop out" of the screen, and anything moving to the right will tend to "pop in."  This wouldn't work for Space Patrol so much (unless you just looked at the mountains), but it might work for other game styles.  Imagine a game like Parsec (from the TI-99/4A) during the asteroid-belt phase.

[revolutionika]

I ordered some of the Valiant Vision glasses on Ebay, and I will order some of the 3d chalk glasses for comparison. does anyone else have them both yet?

[cmart604]

This conversation has made me want to go play Space Patrol right now, 3D glasses or not.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

intvnut, on Sun Jul 29, 2012 9:11 PM, said:

Actually, there's a different 3-D technology that would work for certain side-scrollers:  It uses a shaded lens over one eye and a clear lens over the other.  If you put a shaded lens over your left eye, then anything moving to the left will tend to "pop out" of the screen, and anything moving to the right will tend to "pop in."  This wouldn't work for Space Patrol so much (unless you just looked at the mountains), but it might work for other game styles.  Imagine a game like Parsec (from the TI-99/4A) during the asteroid-belt phase.

Indeed I noticed that years ago, I got those type of Polarized Glasses (one clear lens and one shaded)  at various times over the years, once for a televised Rolling Stones concert that had a particular segment that did indeed display primitive(by today's standards) overlaying graphics over the video that spun and revolved around the singers and indeed it did create an interesting effect! Not so much a pop out inn your face as much as creating depth, like watching through a window. Of course the cheesy graphics were to enhance this effect but I did catch on and notice how things moving in one direction pushed them back while the other direction pulled them forward and was impressed to see watching something like a Hockey game or any scene that had a lot of movement in opposite directions simultaneously created the most dramatic effects, it was fun to experiment on everything from action movies to various video games.



IF ANYONE HAS THESE TYPE OF GLASSES AROUND (not these specific ones but with one clear lens and one darker)
be sure to try it with your television and video games, definitely some interesting effects to enjoy.

Edited by OldSchoolRetroGamer, Sun Jul 29, 2012 10:05 PM.

[revolutionika]

Crap!  I just remembered that i already may have some of the Valiant glasses!!!! I still have a box of valiant comic books in the closet. ima go check.

[IntellivisionDude]

OldSchoolRetroGamer, on Sun Jul 29, 2012 9:25 PM, said:

intvnut, on Sun Jul 29, 2012 9:11 PM, said:

Actually, there's a different 3-D technology that would work for certain side-scrollers:  It uses a shaded lens over one eye and a clear lens over the other.  If you put a shaded lens over your left eye, then anything moving to the left will tend to "pop out" of the screen, and anything moving to the right will tend to "pop in."  This wouldn't work for Space Patrol so much (unless you just looked at the mountains), but it might work for other game styles.  Imagine a game like Parsec (from the TI-99/4A) during the asteroid-belt phase.

Indeed I noticed that years ago, I got those type of Polarized Glasses (one clear lens and one shaded)  at various times over the years, once for a televised Rolling Stones concert that had a particular segment that did indeed display primitive(by today's standards) overlaying graphics over the video that spun and revolved around the singers and indeed it did create an interesting effect! Not so much a pop out inn your face as much as creating depth, like watching through a window. Of course the cheesy graphics were to enhance this effect but I did catch on and notice how things moving in one direction pushed them back while the other direction pulled them forward and was impressed to see watching something like a Hockey game or any scene that had a lot of movement in opposite directions simultaneously created the most dramatic effects, it was fun to experiment on everything from action movies to various video games.



IF ANYONE HAS THESE TYPE OF GLASSES LYING ABOUT (not these specific ones but with one clear lens and one darker)
be sure to try it with your television and video games, definitely some interesting effects to enjoy.

I have a set of those same glasses. And on an old vhs tape i have the stones concert recorded. But i haven't watched it in over 20 years. I wonder if my tape is still good and works. lol