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). "
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.
The goggles came bundled with a 3D version of Mine Storm, and two games were released - 3D Narrow Escape and 3D Crazy Coaster (a roller coaster simulation). 3 games were also fully completed but never released - 3D Pole Position, Tour de France and Hangman (which also used Touch Screen, a prototype accessory).
Original games for the 3D Imager developed and published by GCE
- 3D Mine Storm
- 3D Narrow Escape
- 3D Crazy Coaster
Unreleased prototype
Homebrew Games for the 3D Imager
Prices for the last 3D Imager sold at eBay
- April 2009: 3-D imager, boxed in superb condition = 620 UK£ / 907 US$ / 640 Euro (actual April rate)
- July 2009: 3-D imager, unboxed, sold worldwide from USA = 163 US$ / 115 Euro (actual July rate)
