[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Dungeons and Demons — The Infraceptor Watch
August 17th, 2009 by Benj Edwards
The time? Half-past dagger.
Does anybody know more about this interesting looking watch? I don’t recall seeing or hearing anything about it beyond this tiny profile in Popular Science’s “What’s New” section back in 1995.
Casio’s Infraceptor watch functions as a game machine, a phone book, an infrared message sender, and a stopwatch. Its IR beam lets you play a “dungeons and demons” adventure against other Infraceptor users. You prepare the phone book information — for as many as ten people — or canned questions and replies for the message-sending function on a JD-6000 Digital Diary before storing it in the watch. Price: $100.
I wonder how the so-called “dungeons and demons” game worked. I’m completely guessing here, but I suspect it wasn’t very fun. It’s still a neat concept that I would have killed for as a kid (I can imagine surreptitiously playing it at school).
Check out this neat Japanese page with pictures of other super-nerdy watches on it.
Discussion topic of the week: Tell us about the geekiest watch you’ve ever owned. (i.e. Calculator? Digital address book? Built-in camera? Dick Tracy-style radio?)
August 17th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
I have a cheap watch with my company’s logo in it… 😀
Actually, I did have one of the Zelda game watches. I seem to remember it being difficult to control and see.
August 17th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I’m betting the d&d game worked like a scaled-down version of Laser Tag.
August 17th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I am the owner of three calculator watches, as well as a nice watch I inherited from my late grandfather.. Actually, one of them is on the link you sent out, the last one on the list. It’s a pretty good watch, and I frequently wear it, or one of my other watches.
August 17th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I had a GCE game watch (sport edition) when I was in grade school. I had it taken away almost everyday for playing with it in class.
August 17th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
I had an LCD watch that played the tune “Scotland the Brave”.
August 18th, 2009 at 1:13 am
I never owned one, but boy did I ever want one of those LCD Pac-Man watches. They were rad.
August 18th, 2009 at 8:59 am
I had a calculator watch for a while…..I also had a Pac-Man watch. The one I always wanted was the one that had the dockable keyboard and would sync to your computer (most likely via the flashy bar-codey screen, but I never had one, so I don’t know).
August 18th, 2009 at 9:04 am
I was trying to find the one with the keyboard that I was referring to and I did find this link – http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/nerdwatch/
August 18th, 2009 at 9:09 am
Oh, and here’s the one I lusted after….
http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/nerdwatch/fun2.html
(See the Data 2000 watch)
August 18th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I remember this Casio, and remember wanting it.
I had 2 ultra-nerdy watches: an early Casio calculator watch (won in a spelling bee, providing 2x the nerd cred), and a generic watch with an FM radio circa 1982 that actually had a Sony headphone plug! Wish I had that now, it was a pretty cool gadget.
Last year I bought a kids’ toy spy watch to see if anyone was entering a room I rented when i wasn’t home, it had a motion sensor and logged times it was shaken. i used it on my doorknob and it worked great! (Nobody had ever gone in when I wasn’t there, turned out).
Great site! I spent several days reading all 95 pages of content and anxiously await more.
August 20th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
I had a Casio calculator watch in the mid 1980’s that had a “alien invaders” game which consisted of numbers tracking across the screen and you had to match the leading number in the lap field to kill it. Each level increase involved faster moving numbers
October 7th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
There was a recent auction on EBay for this watch:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120469396812
One of auction pictures shows part of the ‘quick reference’ booklet for the game (Tower Master Adventure Game).
October 7th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
You can download the JG-100 quick reference (PDF format) here:
http://www.casiodigitalwatches.com/manuals/1268.pdf
December 9th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
The watch allowed you to play a game of rock, paper, scissors with other people who had the same watch… it was clunky to play because it was line of sight like a television remote, so your two watches had to be pointer toward each other.
They claimed that up to 10 people could interact… but if you are all standing around facing each other being obvious… what was the point. It is very easy to see why this watch was a dismal failure.
Other watches however, like the GCE ArcadeTime watch were phenomenal achievements for their era.
March 10th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Nice vintage game watch from Casio, this is little different from other Casio 2 button front game watches. i also like to collect rare classic Casio digital LCD melody alarm chronographs and calculator watches.
February 3rd, 2011 at 6:05 pm
Anyone remember the IR7000 from sega?
January 21st, 2014 at 4:24 pm
Just found this watch in with a bunch of my sons stuff from the ’90s. I put in the extra battery & it still works! The watch is in great shape, I have the box & instruction book. Is anyone interested?