I'd been interested in one of these things for a while, but unfortunately, the platform dying off even quicker than the ol' 32X had made it quite rare and expensive. Fortunately for me, Game Force had gotten one used, with five games bundled in with it. The only catch was that one of the eyepieces wasn't working; they said they'd try to get that repaired and get back to me.

Well I waited a couple weeks; they called me up and said the thing was working, with the exception of one of the bundled games (Galactic Pinball). No problem there; GP wasn't exactly on my list of games to grab for the thing anyway. So I drove down and picked up the whole bundle for $40.

Unfortunately, I must have jarred it loose again on the drive back or something, because one of the eyepieces wasn't working, and the one that did work was getting some graphical errors (think an old NES/Game Boy game with dust on the connectors). Worse, it wasn't just Galactic Pinball doing it; every game I tried had errors (though granted, GP's were the worst of the bunch). Doing some research and basically finding out that nobody repairs the things anymore (not even Nintendo), I reluctantly took it back so they could try to fix it again.

While I don't know if they're going to be able to fix the problem once and for all, judging from their first attempt at it, at least I snagged five games out of the deal: Mario's Tennis, Teleroboxer, Wario Land, Galactic Pinball and Red Alarm. Now I just need Mario Clash and Panic Bomber and I can call it good for games.

I'm going to call in tomorrow and see what's up with the thing. I get the unit regardless, but if it's dead they're giving me $20 credit. In that case, I'll probably put it toward The World Ends With You.

Update 4/21: Went and picked up the unit (which they've admitted doesn't work right) and TWEWY. Looks like the eyepiece is working now, although not exactly well - while the unit runs okay for 5-10 seconds of gameplay, after that it just goes completely nuts and then to a bunch of vertical red lines while the left piece returns to the same NES-ish glitches (albeit less severe).

Well, I wasn't expecting much, so no biggie there. Syd's also going to look into another used one for me, so maybe I'll have better luck with that one.

Further experimentation gets different results: The right eyepiece is 100% dead again while the left works, although still somewhat glitchy. So while I can't get the 3D effect, I can at least play the games.

Update 4/23: Well damn, the one Syd had a lock on got sold. Looks like I'll have to luck out on eBay or something.

Update 4/24: Found a loose headset on eBay, not including eye shade, controller or stand, for $30. However, it says that the unit's guaranteed to work on arrival. This actually works out quite well in my favor, since I can scrounge all of the missing parts off the half-dead unit anyway. I threw down the money earlier today; let's hope it works as advertised.

Update 5/9: Headset came in today. Gave it a go and it's working great. Yet another obscure machine nobody else wants is in my collection.

- Vinic <- 3:14:36 pm, sunday, april 20th, 2008 pdt
- Spoony Spoonicus <- 6:23:20 pm, sunday, april 20th, 2008 pdt
- Vinic <- 8:57:19 am, monday, april 21st, 2008 pdt
- Shyna El Mensajero <- 10:22:37 pm, tuesday, april 29th, 2008 pdt