I just found this video on YouTube:

A 3D game from Sega. Looks interesting.

Nice find.I remember seeing that Sega arcade when I was in Disney World in the mid 90’s.It was truly in 3d,very similar to the holograms you can see in science museums.I don’t remember too clearly,but I think the machine showed pre-recorded video in which you could do several things with the characters.What I do remember is I didn’t play because it was too expensive :-p

Yeah, it’s cool for what it is… but the game is pretty lame. I almost bought one a couple years ago, but it’s pretty big and decided it’s not worth the space.

DogP

Another bit of info: in Spain, a magazine called Hobby Consolas held a sort of Videogames Trivial in which you had to answer about 50 or 100 extremely difficult questions. With all the people who replied correctly, they held a draw, and the winner got one of those machines. And about the size, I do remember -as DogP says- that it was very big.In fact, it was fairly bigger than the average size of arcade machines those days.

This is a way bit late, but…

I actually played one of these. The game’s not too fun, as you watch pre-recorded video and press buttons at certain places to keep the video rolling. All you do is test your reaction times. the 3-D is OK, the Virtual Boy’s is much better. The game is terribly short, I got to like the second to last level on my first try for 1 credit after about 5-10 minuets or so. There’s a playable one on display at the Strong National Museum of Play in New York, for those of you who live around there.

I first learned of this game when I saw a magazine ad about a DVD version bundled with red/blue anaglyph glasses for an optional 3D effect. The fact that it was a game ported to DVD told me right then and there that it was probably of the same vein as Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace…only its arcade machine supposedly had this cool holographic 3D effect.

For that reason, I’d probably want to play it on one of those arcade machines-to get the proper 3D effect.

(How the heck DO they get 3D out of those things, anyway? Even on that YouTube video, it looks fairly convincing. The guy recording the video mentions a Sony Trinitron CRT display of some sort inside, but that can’t be all…OTOH, it could mean that I could get similar effects out of my Dell P1110 with the right equipment, which is a late-generation 21″ Trinitron display.)

I haven’t studied it much, but I think it uses the same principle as those parabolic mirror desk toys that make an image of what’s inside float above it.

I haven’t seen the Sega game in person, so I don’t know if it’s actual volumetric 3-D or just a 2-D image projected in space. If it’s actually a 3-D projected volume, I would assume that they move the above-mentioned mirrors in sync with the display somehow.

I’d love to see a schematic/exploded diagram of the display unit…

It’s just like the desk toys w/ a 2D image in space… it’s a pretty cool effect, but not really 3D. It’s just a large concave mirror with a TV inside. It would look really lame if the scenes didn’t have black backgrounds.

DogP

They also released the fighting game “HOLLOSEUM” with this arcade cabinet, and it’s look a little bit more interesting 🙂

I played it when it came out in the arcades. I remember it was extremely expensive to play compared to the other games. Also, the reaction time was off when you needed to do something. So, until you got your timing down..you lost money quickly. It was very cool at the time thou…I’d enjoy just looking at it and getting different angles to see the real image before it was reflected.

-Eric