Have a Fami-Fami Christmas! 2011 Edition!
Well hello there, good friends! It is that time of year again; where a young man’s thoughts turn to trimming the Christmas tree and import video games!
Ever since this blog started 4 years ago I have been getting a lot of Famicom related stuff in the month of December, culminating in last year’s epic 12 Days of Famicom feature. I have gotten so much Famicom love around X-Mas time, such as my Gold cart Punch Out cart, my first Twin Famicom, my Super Famicom Box that I automatically associate the yule season with Nintendo’s 8-bit Japanese wonder.
As is custom, I am showcasing a cool piece of Famicom shwag in the name of eggnog, stockings, candy canes and Die Hard.
This year will however be somewhat less epic compared with years past, mostly due to time constraints and such. In my mind, however, it will be no less rad, because- I finally found a boxed Family Computer 3D System!
I found it at such a crazy good price, too. Get this- I only paid $45.00 bucks plus $10 shipping for my set, winning a frantic last-second bidding war. $45 is far lower than the $90 – $120 BIN this set normally goes for on Ebay. The lesson? Buy-It-Now is evil 90% of the time.
The Family Computer 3D System was released in 1987 by Nintendo for use with the Famicom console. The 3D System consists of a liquid crystal shutter visor and the special adaptor which can connect up to two visor units into the Famicom’s front-facing 15-pin expansion port through a 3.5mm (headphone style) jack.
In total, only 7 games were released for the 3D System, including Nintendo’s sequel to Famicom Grand Prix, 3D Hot Rally, Konami’s shooter Falsion, and Highway Star. Curiously, when Highway Star made it over to North America it’s name was changed to Rad Racer, but it came with 3D glasses and the 3D mode could activated by pushing the NES’s select button.
All but one of the Famicom released 3D games had 3D toggle feature. With the exception of Falsion, all games could be played in normal 2D and switched to 3D at anytime.
The 3D effect itself was created by rapidly alternating the opaqueness of the left and right lenses in tandem with corresponding flashing images from the TV screen to create a stereoscopic 3D effect and therefore the illusion of depth. The glassed worked in the same manner as the more well known (and internationally released) Sega Master System 3d Glasses.
Unfortunately Nintendo never released the Famicom 3D System and the hardware was pretty much abandoned shortly after it was released. Another unfortunate note; I actually do not own any of the 3D games. They tend to go for a pretty penny and I am just waiting to snap a couple up at the right price.
I am pretty excited to check this thing out, but alas I must wait. I have a ton of stuff to show you guys, starting with an update in my quest to collect all of the Zelda games complete in box. Check back for that as well as the Christmas round-up, and year end retrospective.