If you ventured into an arcade in 1991 and were really lucky, you might have stumbled across an unusual white arcade cabinet released by Sega that year. The game was Time Traveler, which was unlike anything else people were feeding quarters into, which was partly its appeal. The game, and the only one that followed, Holosseum, was a LaserDisc interactive movie, similar to Dragon’s Lair, that players could dive into, giving commands to the player character, Marshal Gram, as he travels throughout time to save Princess Kyi-La by defeating the villainous Lord Vulcor. The game itself was alright, but the technology behind the cabinet was the real draw.
That’s because Sega did something innovative, and while it looked like something new and inventive, it was actually one of the oldest forms of optical illusion. Sega presented its game as “holographic,” when in reality it used projection and curved glass to make it appear as if the game’s imagery was projected atop a flat, black glass, which served as the game’s “board,” for lack of a better term. This was impressive technology at the time, and it hadn’t been seen in games before. The closest comparable technology was rear-projecting games onto a backglass, but it looked like any old game — Sega had something unique on its hands.
Sega’s Holo Games Were Part Gimmick, Part Game
Sega billed Time Traveler as “The World’s First 3D Holographic Video Game,” and while that’s not technically true, the visual trickery made it appear as such. The company invested heavily in designing and building a cabinet to display the projection properly. It used an optical illusion via a large black spherical mirror that reflected video from a CRT television. This resulted in the characters and items appearing to float atop the glass, causing many players to reach their hands in and pass through the image as if it were truly there — yes, I did this many times.
Because the cabinets were so expensive, the game typically cost four quarters to play, which was unusual for 1991, when most games were still one or two quarters. Regardless, players flocked to arcades to check out the cabinet, not so much to play it, but to see it in action. Time Traveler isn’t a bad game, and it made enough money for Sega to continue developing Holosseum. Still, like other LaserDisc games of the era, it could be frustrating. Players would make moves in response to prompts, and if they executed them correctly, everything worked out, but doing so was difficult.
Holosseum arrived in arcades in 1992, and it differed significantly, as it’s a fighting game, though it’s still a LaserDisc title. The game isn’t noteworthy beyond its hologram gimmick, as it’s similar to other fighting games of the era. That said, it’s incomparable to the likes of Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter II, which dominated arcades for years after Sega retired its holographic arcade cabinets. It’s unclear how successful Holosseum was in arcades. Still, seeing as Sega abandoned its expensive cabinets soon after its release, it probably didn’t make much cash, ending the short-lived era of ’90s “holographic” gaming.
Sega’s Holographic Games Live on in Memory and a Possible Reproduction
Sega eventually released its two holo games on DVD, allowing players to enjoy them with a stereoscopic effect that emulated holograms on televisions. They’re remembered with nostalgic fondness these days, and we might see Time Traveler again, though in a significantly smaller design. New Wave Toys, a company that produces 1:6 scale arcade cabinet reproductions, announced in 2025 that it was working on a reproduction of Time Traveler. The designers have to miniaturize everything while ensuring the holographic effect remains identical to the original. So long as they do so, a mini arcade cabinet could find its way back into the hands of collectors.
Did you have a chance to play these games when they were in arcades? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!