Beyond the Black Hole
Description
Use your paddles to pilot your orb in the search for the disappearance of Vern Grenington and his "entire vehicle service station" on Vicinity NAW-911 which "has long been known to contain a Black Hole."
According to the game manual, because most of their pilots grew up in the era of video games in the late 20th century, they have designed the orb control panel to resemble a video game! So just target your orb to eliminate the objects you see in the center of your screen in every level (however, in some levels you may have a more "subtle" approach) in your path to The Black Hole...
Orb-3D is often considered the follow up to this game due to the gameplay similarities.
Screenshots
Credits (DOS version)
| Project Leader | |
| Project Manager |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 100% (based on 1 ratings)
Players
Average score: 2.6 out of 5 (based on 3 ratings with 1 reviews)
3D ahead of its time! Kinda...
The Good
The game came with some stereoscopic glasses for a better 3D effect. It wasn't the traditional red/blue glasses, this was like one eye clear and the other eye with a dark grey tint. Apparently it made one eye process the image a tad bit slower and gave a ghetto-style 3D effect. It wasn't perfect but honestly, it did work. With the way the thingie circled around (it's been a while since I've played) the 3D effect was pronounced enough that the gimmick worked.
I never got very far in the game probably due to my young age and the time and desire to not read the manual, but I do recall it as being one of the first (only?) working 3D games without any expensive dual-shutter glasses or special drivers or whatnot.
The Bad
Didn't hold the interest of an early teen, unfortunately.
The Bottom Line
Somewhat unique if you have the glasses!
DOS · by Andrew Proz (1) · 2005
Trivia
3D effect
The original package of Beyond The Black Hole came with a pair of cardboard glasses that players could use to simulate a 3D experience using a technique that, unlike traditional shutter or red/blue glasses, fooled the player's depth perception into "perceiving" the orb as moving in and out of the screen. This was done by using the brain's predictive ability and the left-to-right motion of the orb. If the premise and gameplay of the game seems odd, it's because the entire game was fashioned around being a pseudo-3D game.
And the glasses? One eyehole was completely covered, and the other was open. So in order to to simulate the 3D experience, one can simply cover one eye while playing the game.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Accatone.
Commodore 64 added by Eli Tomlinson.
Additional contributors: Trixter, Zeppin, Patrick Bregger.
Game added January 4, 2000. Last modified January 22, 2024.