3D effect in Rad Racer not working

[lazybraingames]

Hi! I'm Johnny B

I recently picked up Rad Racer for the NES, and noticed that it had a 3D mode when I pressed select. I went out and got some of the typical red and blue 3D glasses, but the image still looks seperated. I found out that there was the Famicom 3D system, but from what I can tell it was only in Japan. So, do I need to adjust my TV screen? Get a modern pair of 3D glasses? Or is 3D in Rad Racer just a not-so-good working gimmick? Not sure where to turn to for something so obscure.

Thanks to all who reply! 

-JB

[Xious]

What kind of television are you using? It's easily possible that it is the cause, and I suggest using a smallish CRT is you want a better effect. These games were designed to be played on a 14" to 20" CRT, not gigantic flat-screen displays, and they will ever look correct on the latter.  The Famicom 3-D System is not going to work with the USA 'Rad Racer', but it will work with the FC release of 'Highway Star'. 

[lazybraingames]

  Thanks for the reply Xious!

I tried it out on a good ol' TV, it's better to some degree, but no real 3D going on either. I'll try to get my hands on some of those new grey 3D glasses and see if the result is any better.

Thanks again!

-Johnny B.

[jpx72]

You won't see anything with any other than the red-blue (red-cyan) glasses...

[Xious]

The 'grey' glasses are polarized, and only work with displays that are intentionally designed to use them. There are six categorical 3-D types in common use:

Red/Blue stereoptical, which reply on images with sepaated red and blue video.
Grey, polarized film glasses, which rely on special projectors and displays that can project an image which is compatible with them.
Liuid crystal shutter systems, that move at rapid speeds that work with the horizontal refresh rate of any display (such as the Nintendo and Sega 3-D systems
The Vectrex-syle, oscillating colour wheel glasses, that use a black spot on a rotating disk to oscillate the image.
Film-layer displays, such as the Nintendo 3DS.
Dual-display glasses, which have two video displays (often LCD) that generate a different image. This is also the same as a 'Viewmaster'.

The NES 3-D games use the red/blue gasses, whereas Famicom and Mastersystem games use LC shutters. The Vectrex glasses are somewhat of a hybrid design, which is rarely used, and adds colour as well as providing a 3-D effect (which is superb, in both cases).

If you use polarized glasses with any system other than intended, they will do nothing. if you use any form other than the intended, it will do little to nothing, save add bizarre colour or darken the image. None of these 3-D technologies are intermixed.

There is also glass-plate stereoptics, which is similar to the film-layer display on the 3DS. That was used allt he way back tot he 1920s or 1930s, and the 'Viewmaster' concept is from the Victorian era, with stereo-photographs being en vogue. This is still used today, using lenses that take a dual-image, like this.

The 3-D effect of many games is not very spectacular. I think that of all, 'JJ: Tobidase Daisakusen II' is the best NES/FC 3D release, with superb imagery, colour contrast (moody), and effects; '3-D Hot Rally' would be my second choice, and the FC 'Highway Star' about the same.

Sadly, I find that Konami's attempt wit 'Falsion 3-D' was a bit bad,as images often double, and distance fro the display as well as display size are very crucial. I wish it was better, as it was one of the few (if not the only) good space-themed 3-D games of the era. If only 'Zaxxon 3-D' used the original isometric game and added 3-D effects to it, rather than usurping the name of the original and badly trying to live up to it. 'Space Harrier 3-D' may have been a superb title, but it has been far too long since I played it to recall clearly.

All-in-all, the Nintendo 3-D System was underused. I think games like (a possible) 'Donkey Kong 3-D', with the girders made to float in and outward, or other platformers that used the 3-D for effects (but not necessarily for gameplay) could have been amazing, but no-one ever bothered to attempt it. It may not be too terribly difficult to modify DK to do this though, if only someone would want to try. 

[UglyJoe]

The NES 3-D games use the red/blue gasses, whereas Famicom and Mastersystem games use LC shutters.

The Famicom title Tobidase Daisakusen (aka 3D World Runner) is an exception to this, as it uses red/blue like the NES does. (Although I suspect you already knew this... )

[Xious]

Aye. It's a common misconception though, and the game appears incorrectly on many FC 3-D System game lists. There are also special 'Tobidase Daisakusen' glasses, which were as I recall, a by-post promotional giveaway item. I think they were yellow plastic, unless I'm thinking of he NES glasses.

Nevertheless, they are no different to the standard 1950s theatre glasses used for films, in terms of functionality.  I still love 'JJ', and the first stage of it, with the ominous background reminds me of something between the effect from 'Asteroids Deluxe', and something from the Cthulhu Mythos.


I should also mention another two 3-D methods: Mirror-based 3-D effects, including that of 'Asteroids Deluxe', along with general mirror/laser holographics and one; and Ion projection is another very new method, but it is not actually in general use of any kind. The former gives an illusion of depth--well, it actually gives physical depth--by using a polarized mirror that reflects the image from a CRT against a backdrop set behind the directional mirror. It was stellar, during its day. 

@Johnny: As another suggestion, adjust the colour and contrast settings on your display until you get the best image, as the colour calibration needs to best match the colour of the plastic film on the glasses that you own. That will go a very long way to improving the overall experience.

[Jamtex]

I have Highway Star and Rad Racer next to each other in a dsiplay showing the brief history of 3D gaming. The problems with Rad Racer is gettig the shade of lense just right, although the Red is fairly standard, Green, Cyan and Blue can be used

You get a better effect if the red lens does filter out the blue parts and if the blue lense does filter out the red part, I physically made a pair of glasses which worked quite well by getting a Roscolux colour filter swatch and looking through the blues and reds until I found a pair that worke and made a set in cardboard before getting a set made up using proper frames and plastic. If you can find a Roscolux dealer then you can get the swatches for free, i found #26 Light Red and #85 Deep Blue worked well, although you do need to make a reason why you need them and then you can make a set of glasses from thickish cardboard quite easily.

[Xious]

That's a great deal of extra work, so I presume you have a PAL display. If you have an NTSC display, it is far simpler to adjust the colour (hue / tint) knob. If you are on PAL, then you are stuck with your colours and the actual glasses by Square may be better than theatre pairs, as they have a deeper blue lens than is standard.

At one time, I had a prescription set of 3-D glasses made, but I lost one of the lenses after scratching it years back, and since I have updated my script many times, so they wouldn't be correct if they were intact. 

[Jamtex]

Playing with the colour should not do anything as you want to filter out the red and blue, so unless it's looking grey then the glasses should work. Tint just adjusts green so not really going to do much as the red and blue lense shuld filter out green anyway.

What I found is that most 3D glasses you find tend to be cyan and red, cyan allows green to not be filtered but tend nott to filter red that well. Even some of the red/blue ones tended not to filter out red well.

Although a lot of work, it basically cost me nothing to find out what colour filters work best with the game, ince the colours are filtered you just need to look at the car and the 3d effect works quite well, not as well as the Famicom 3D glasses but hey ho.

[Xious]

Assuming that the 3-D effect uses cyan as its base, then adjusting the phase closer to cyan or further into blue (which is further into green) will change the depth of the effect. 

[Jamtex]

It would but all the NES 3D games use Red and Blue glasses.

[Xious]

Sorry; I normally watch old 3-D films, which use the former, and I am used to adjusting the image. Some brightness and contrast adjustments may help though, despite not being able to use the burst control.

In the end, I don't think that the effect for this game is very dramatic; if anyone wants to run it, you should seek out the correct glasses, or make your own, or have them made. The typical card glasses are usually the cyan variety, which is very likely the problem.

It does make me consider making a few set of the correct tinted glasses, just to keep on hand for people.