Introduction

If you remember View-Masters, it's probably as the cheap plastic viewers you'd insert photo discs into to see faux-3D scenes of cities, and some of your favorite cartoon characters. Manufacturer Ideal wanted to license that brand name for something in the modern era, so they decided to jump feet-first into the game console world.

The resulting hardware is a deeply weird piece of technology, with one of the most bizarre and non-ergonomic joysticks ever produced. Looking more like a fishing controller, it boasts a quintet of colorful buttons.

Games play with video footage that allows you to make choices along with simple arcade gameplay in between segments. The illusion of interactivity came with the soundtracks - each video had a pair of audio tracks, different ones of which would play depending on the buttons you hit.