Nintendo · 1987 · Famicom
Active-shutter LCD glasses for the Famicom, released in Japan in 1987 for ¥6,000. Seven games supported them. It was Nintendo's first attempt at stereoscopic 3D, eight years before the Virtual Boy.
Nintendo released the Famicom 3D System exclusively in Japan on 21 October 1987 for ¥6,000. It consisted of a pair of active-shutter glasses and an adapter that plugged into the Famicom's expansion port, with the glasses connected through 3.5 mm jacks. The lenses darkened alternately in time with the picture, so that each eye saw a slightly different image and the scene appeared to have depth. Seven games supported it: Falsion on the Famicom Disk System, Highway Star (released in the West as Rad Racer), Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally, JJ: Tobidase Daisakusen Part II, Attack Animal Gakuen, Fuuun Shourin Ken: Ankoku no Maou and Cosmic Epsilon. Rad Racer kept a version of the feature in the West, using red-and-blue paper glasses instead. The system was not a success. Critics pointed to the clumsy glasses and the small number of compatible games, and it was never released outside Japan. Nintendo kept returning to the idea: the Virtual Boy brought stereoscopic 3D in 1995, 3D features were tested for the GameCube and Game Boy Advance SP but dropped over cost, and the glasses-free Nintendo 3DS finally made the concept a commercial success in 2011.