X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Pulfrich effect


Orb-3D

The game is noteworthy for employing the Pulfrich effect, an optical trick created with the use of "3-D" glasses (of which one lens is clear and the other tinted) that come with the game.

Pulfrich effect

So did Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3-D for the Super Nintendo, using constantly scrolling backgrounds to cause the effect.

The effect was also used well throughout the whole 1993 Doctor Who charity special Dimensions in Time and in dream sequences of the 1997 3rd Rock from the Sun two-part season 2 finale Nightmare on Dick Street.

The videogame Orb-3D for the Nintendo Entertainment System used the effect (by having the player's ship always moving) and came packed with a pair of glasses.


Carl Pulfrich

Carl Pulfrich (September 24, 1858, Burscheid, Rhine Province – August 12, 1927) was a German physicist, noted for advancements in optics made as a researcher for the Carl Zeiss company in Jena around 1880, and for documenting the Pulfrich effect, a psycho-optical phenomenon that can be used to create a type of 3-D visual effect.


see also