Space Harrier 3-D Part 0: Setting Up

(Sorry about the poor video quality, but I had to sacrifice image quality to get the right framerate here. Subsequent videos will look much better.)

There's a reason the graphics flicker like that.

Space Harrier 3-D is a game for the Sega Master System, and it's one of several to use the Master System's 3D glasses (the SegaScope 3-D Glasses). The darn glasses plugged into the console's card port. Honestly, what a cockamamie console.

Anyway, as a result, unless you have the glasses, you get to watch the game like this. There is a way to turn the flickering off, fortunately. Unfortunately, this involves getting to enter your name on the high score screen. As a rule of thumb I beat the first stage and then kill poor Harrier, the first boss is usually enough points to get onto the high score table.

Once there, you need to use the controller in port 2 to enter a code. You can enter SOUND to access the sound test or LEVEL to set the difficulty (I think the difficulty setting only changes how many lives you get). However, what we're interested in is the code THREE. Plug that in and you can turn off the flickering. At 4:22, your eyes will feel so much better.

Also note that I enter a secret code on the sound test screen. Once you enter the code, you'll see a hidden message. You can't read the message with this video quality, but it says:
"HELLO! THIS IS ZHG 97591. GOOD FORTUNE DOES NOT ALWAYS REPEAT ITSELF."
Your guess is as good as mine.

Imagine doing this every time you start the game up. It's really annoying and one of the reasons I don't play this game, despite loving it so. GameFAQs wasn't around in 1988, but thankfully, this information is all in the manual. (Well, I didn't own this game until 2004... but that's beside the point.)

So yeah, I do love this game. If the game didn't run so poorly, it would probably be my favorite Space Harrier title; I really love the enemies and attack formations. Unfortunately, the game is way too choppy--maybe because the game has to display two sprites at once for each object. I would love to see this game remade.

I haven't imported the Space Harrier Complete Collection for PS2, so I don't know how Space Harrier 3-D runs on that. However, I do believe you can turn off 3D mode without accessing the high score table, so there's at least that.

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Gaming

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