SegaScope 3-D

Show Notes

So is it coincidence or corporate espionage that Nintendo and Sega released 3D peripherals at around the same time?

Even though many of Nintendo's games (made by third parties) resembled popular Sega arcade games of the time, at least they were developed specifically for the Famicom 3D System.

In some cases, rather than make new games, Sega just ported or sequelized those same games. Either way, Sega was in a remarkably strong position. It's just too bad that 3D didn't take off for either company.

The other big difference is that the SegaScope 3-D actually came out in the US, so chances are you might have some foggy (or fairly specific) memories of the games themselves, or at least had seen the commercial a few times. But in case you haven't:



Zaxxon 3-D was one of the games that wasn't a port, but was certainly a sequel to a popular arcade game. But they still seemed to pull "a Nintendo" and styled this very different-looking sequel after the Intellivision game Star Strike:



It makes one wonder why Nintendo decided to try to bust into the industry seven years later with the Virtual Boy... and again with the 3DS.