Missile Defense 3-D

The game, glasses, and phaser were later packaged with special versions of the console. Upon release, Missile Defense 3-D received positive reviews, with critics highlighting the appeal of the 3-D effect and its visual presentation.

• Title — Missile Defense 3-D • Designer — Mark Cerny • Developer — Sega • Publisher — Sega • Platforms — Master System • Genre — Action • Modes — Single-player

• Illustration — Gameplay screenshot Assuming the role of an engineer of the Eliminator, a nuclear missile defense system, the objective of Missile Defense 3-D is to prevent nuclear war between two cities of East and West by shooting ICBMs with the Light Phaser before they hit. Gameplay consists of targeting and shooting down missiles from East to West and vice-versa in rounds of three, with each round featuring progressively faster missiles. Missiles can also travel towards the player, causing a life to be lost if hit. If players successfully detonate all missiles in a round, the player restores a life, further rounds are skipped, and they progress to the next level. If a city is hit in the third round of a level, or players run out of lives, the game ends. Levels begin in the cities of East and West, then travel to the arctic pole and outer space.

Missile Defense 3-D was the first of several titles developed for the SegaScope 3-D, a pair of 3-D glasses compatible with the Master System. Six other titles were released, including Space Harrier 3-D, OutRun 3-D, and Zaxxon 3-D. The design of the game and glasses was led by Mark Cerny, a former Atari developer who moved to Japan to contribute to games development with Sega. Cerny was inspired to merge software with the peripherals after viewing the 1986 3D film Captain EO. He stated he was able to lobby Sega to produce the SegaScope as their arcade division "was used to creating many pieces of hardware", and developed a tech demo inspired by Pong to demonstrate the concept to the company. Sega previewed the game at the Summer 1987 and Winter 1988 Consumer Electronics Show to showcase for the glasses. The game was packaged with the SegaScope 3-D and Light Phaser as part of the Sega Super System edition of the console. Cerny considered the 3-D product line for the Master System was a success given Sega's limited market share, stating that the company sold 300,000 pairs of SegaScope 3-D glasses.

Computer Entertainer and Computer Gaming World considered the effect of the 3-D and use of the Light Phaser created a spectacular effect, with the former praising it as "graphically outstanding" and "state of the art", and the latter praising its "eye-popping" visual presentation. VideoGames & Computer Entertainment listed the game as a honorable mention for the "Best Video Games Sound and Graphics" of 1988.

AllGame retrospectively considered that Missile Defense 3-D featured "fast and challenging" action and made good use of its 3D capabilities, but critiqued its background design as "too similar" and "basic", and that there was limited variety across levels. Writing in Playing in the Past, historian William Knoblauch wrote that the game was an example of media influenced by the Strategic Defense Initiative and Cold War era public perceptions of futuristic, space-based responses to missile defense.