PCE-FX's RetroTronix Vectrex 3D Imager Glasses repro review

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I recall that Retro Tronix released it's first batch production run of the reproduction Vectrex 3D Imager Glasses back in January of 2014 earlier this year. It features a fully adjustable headgear strap (a plus in my book) + with a simple plastic welder's mask constructed setup, it's great for longer 3D gaming sessions. With the manufacturing done in India and shipped back to Retro Tronix, then they're shipped worldwide. It's been said that it's better built than the original 3D Imager Glasses is a compliment in itself. By plugging it into the 2P joystick port, it's a simple affair to get it to operate/spin. When the color wheel spins, it gives the user a nice facial cooling effect as an added bonus.

Managed to snag one as trying to get ahold of an original Vectrex 3D Glasses that were made by Milton Bradley back in 1983 are mucho dinero/mucho expensive these days (especially, if in super mint or new boxed & complete condition nowadays). The Retro Tronix version is more affordable and cheaper on the wallet/purse, of course.

Gave it a spin with the original three Vectrex 3D gaming titles of 3D Mine Storm, 3D Crazy Coaster and lastly, 3D Narrow Escape running on a VecMulti flash cart setup. Works like a charm.

I tried out an Vectrex LCD 3D glasses mod hack at the August 2004 Classic Gaming Expo (hosted at the San Jose Convention Hall in San Jose, California) with a Vectrex running 3D Mine Storm. The Retro Tronix repro does a much better job, color-wise, while using a dedicated active-shutter LCD based 3D glasses setup, you'd get a black & white vector presentation at best (but with convincing depth perception easily). I was told that 3D Mine Storm was the best title to play with using such an LCD 3D glasses setup (for the 2003-2004 timeline).

With the two provided 3D color wheels, one is exclusively used for 3D Mine Storm and the other is used for the latter two gaming titles. It's possible to swap either color wheel with any of the three official Vectrex 3D game titles and still get the proper color presentation/3D depth perception is another cool bonus.

There is a homebrew 3D Imager demo that shows a convincing color bar hovering in front of your eyes with some amazing depth (it's possible to make the color bar freeze in place without that tiny color scrolling issue at hand with some simple button presses on the Vectrex Control Panel itself).

Plus, there're two more homebrew Vectrex game titles that utilize the 3D Glasses as well: 3D War of the Robots and 3D Sector XIII.

Tried the non 3D version of Narrow Escape (with it's faster overall framerate) with the 3D glasses repro and lo behold, the color wheel does spin at a faster rate & gives it a super flashy multi-colored visual aestethics presentation overall (something different this time around for a change of pace). This is a cool bonus/unexpected discovery, indeed. So it's possible/doable to have the 3D Imager repro running in super fast mode (or the normal slower spin mode) on one Vectrex console and using it with a second Vectrex console running a non-3D game for a complete different visual gaming experience bar none (with or without a color screen overlay in place for that matter).

Should be interesting if any new homebrew 3D Vectrex titles are released down the road/nearby future.

Interesting and novel way of using only three colors to give the impression of colored vectors. GCE was planning to release a 3D Pole Position game but that never materialized/happened.

Makes me wonder if Smith Engineering had gone ahead and released the Color Vectrex stand-alone console through GCE for the North American gaming market (with it's estimated whopping asking MSRP $500.00 USD pricepoint just to break even on the manufacturing side of things, not to mention trying to recoup money to sell at a price that the gaming public would be willing to buy it at -- the original MSRP of the black & white vector based Vectrex console was at $199.99 USD), what new game titles would've been released at retail (and if support for the 3D Imager would've been done/implemented as well)? Perhaps release a new 3D Imager wheel with a portion colored solid black and still be able to use it with the new 3D Color Vectrex game titles? Hmmm...the possibility of releasing a dedicated Color Vectrex console hardware/software nowadays would be interesting (especially with deeper monetary pockets to be able to afford one and still be backwards compatible with existing Vectrex software would be a major selling point/plus in my book).

The potential of the Vectrex during the early '80s remains untapped/unfulfilled and yet, it's full potential was never fully realized (like with the GCE computer add-on components to turn the Vectrex into a fully-fledged computer as shown in one Vectrex demo product brochure -- this was never released at retail although some video game console manufacturers were exploring the possibility of turning their gaming consoles into computers with the necessary add-on components in 1983-1984 like with Coleco's Adam dedicated setup in 1984 & Atari's prototype based Graduate add-on keyboard accessory for the Atari 2600/VCS console).

In retrospect, with the Smith Engineering/GCE/Milton Bradley affair, it was just a scant two years from initial retail release back in November of 1982 with the Vectrex in the USA to the eventual clearance bargin bins in the summer of (September) 1984 for a mere $49.99 USD during the "Great Video Game Crash of '83-'84" fiasco era -- making the Vectrex such an extreme short lifespan/production run at best. With prices of a suggested MSRP of $29.99 USD during it's lifespan and eventually marked down to a mere $5.00 in 1984, the Vectrex games were easy to get as they were on a first come, first served deal/basis at many stores during that point in time. With the widest retail distribution of any American gaming console, it was easy to see/demo/buy the Vectrex in many stores such as: Sears, Musicland, The Wherehouse, King Norman's Toys (with stores in California, Oregon & Washington), Toy & Hobby Co., and even at the nationwide based Toys-R-Us retailer as well. Even Bandai of Japan sold the Vectrex for the Japanese market, albeit with slightly re-branded factory boxes making for a cool collector's conversationalist piece/history of gaming.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Vectrex Factoid: Back in 1987, it was possible to buy brand new boxed copies of the Vectrex game of Star Trek: The Motion Picture game for a mere $2.50 USD on clearance at the local American based Toys-R-Us stores.