In this special series on the Pioneer LaserActive, guest author Taylor Pinson will be discussing some of the games released on the Sega PAC, an add-on for the LaserActive that could play Genesis, Sega CD, and Mega LD titles.
PLAYERS: 1
PUBLISHER: Pioneer
DEVELOPER: Multimedia Creators Network
GENRE: Screen Saver
RELEASE DATE: 02/25/94 – (JP), 1994 – (US)
3D Museum isn’t a game. It isn’t even an edutainment title like The Great Pyramid. It’s a random collection of nature recordings, still photographs, and odd animations generated with computer rendering software. Sometimes these pieces include classical music, other times there’s new-age fluff, but regardless of its subject, 3D Museum is always dull. It’s a glorified tech demo disc sold to unsuspecting customers for a staggering $170 (!) at release.
To add to that theory, 3D Museum is the LaserActive’s first 3D title. Besides offering boring video footage, it offers two different kinds of boring three-dimensional video footage. One kind is based on the old red-and-blue cardboard 3D glasses that used to come with comic books, while the other uses the super-rare LaserActive 3D Goggles that were sold separately for a staggeringly large sum.
The LaserActive Goggles work in the same fashion as the 3D glasses used with the Sega Master System. The two products are in fact interchangeable, as long as you have the LaserActive’s 3D module to plug them in to.
There isn’t a lot to write about the ‘game,’ so here are a couple interesting facts:
1) It’s a double-sided disc (and I believe the first one released on the LaserActive), which makes it much more prone to Laser Rot.
2) It was released on the Mega LD format in the US and Japan, and on the NEC LD-ROM2 format in Japan. The NEC version seems to be rarer.
3D Museum is another relic of a bygone-era, and outside of occasionally looking pretty, it provides little entertainment or educational value to the player.
Rating: 3D Museum isn’t a game, so I don’t feel a grade is justified. If I had to give one, it would be an F, simply because there’s not enough content to warrant its price tag.
8 replies on “3D Museum (LaserActive, 1994)”
Always enjoy the Mega LD reviews, although I’ve yet to see a title that I really need to experience.
Yeah, they’re interesting historical curios and deserve to be preserved, but they seem rough to play these days.
Glad you’re enjoying the reviews. I must admit, as I continue to play through the LaserActive’s library I was not expecting it to be so underwhelming.
Here’s hoping things pick up as we get into the back half of the system’s catalog.
I enjoy these LD reviews, but the games themselves just depress me. Fortunately I just bypassed the FMV “game” era – I think I largely spent it replaying old Ultimas. The closest I came was PSX Road Rash, which at least played really well.
3D Museum seems like a particularly grievous offender.
It really saddens me that I won’t be able to play these games.
Just save up a few grand and you too can own your very own 3D Museum!
There’s always the chance that someone will finally get around to emulating the darn thing, even if things don’t look too good at the moment.