3DO 3DO Defense Club

[non-xerox-possibility]

this thread's for all the madmen who really like the 3DO, despite the fact that it only had about over 250 games and only about nine of them were any good, XD

 

[It's Thinking 2]

Never had 3DO but I did play Alone in The Dark on Macintosh.

 

[Don Patch]

this thread's for all the madmen who really like the 3DO, despite the fact that it only had about over 250 games and only about nine of them were any good, XD

Not much on there really catches me but I found the business model (licensing the hardware to whomever) really interesting. Doomed to fail, but interesting, none-the-less.

 

[Gorse]

I can't claim to have ever played on a 3DO myself, but my favourite horror game ever, D, was originally one of its killer apps. (From what I understand, it's still considered the best version.) Kenji Eno was very much behind the console (and its cancelled successor, the M2), and had a bunch of interesting plans for D's sequels that never came to fruition when the final versions released on other consoles.

I think the 3DO's hardware model was neat in theory, but I don't think I could ever trust a console that didn't have a very specific set of specifications and build quality. I wouldn't want to be the person stuck with a "worse" version of the console than my friends had, especially for the $700 asking price!

THAT ALL BEING SAID, I still think to this day that the console had some really awesome branding. Just look at this startup animation and tell me you're not ready for some Gex:

Welcome to the R•E•A•L world, suckers!

 

[PhrawzT]

I've always wanted one. Road Rash was so good on that system.

 

[Gorse]

THIS THREAD JUST REMINDED ME!!! Many years ago, I saw a very informative, entertaining video from one of the engineers behind the 3DO on YouTube, and it really gave me some insight into how the console lived and died. After some heavy googling, I was finally able to unearth it, with only 5,500 views to its name! If you have 15 free minutes, this retrospective by Leo Schwab is extremely interesting, and there's plenty of dirt dished on the development team throughout. Check it out!

 

[signorello]

the only game i ever played on that was the wolfenstein port, wich is still to this day one of my favorite ways to play this old gem.

it just looks so gorgeous and plays so well

 

[BinaryMessiah]

I'll eventually pick one up and install an ODE into it. The FZ-1 are the best models for this. They're fairly cheap compared to other more obscure consoles of the time. My local game store has had one for a while.

 

[Blamhammer]

I remember seeing a huge bunch of them for sale in a pawn shop for £20 20 odd years ago. Stuff was so cheap because nobody knew how to get rid of it. My cousin bought one on release and I got to play NFS, SF2, and Return Fire. Wish the entry costs were cheaper back then because this console would have really given the PS1 a good fight.

 

[Sayo]

Gex chads rise up.

 

[ALLGASNOBRAKE]

THIS THREAD JUST REMINDED ME!!! Many years ago, I saw a very informative, entertaining video from one of the engineers behind the 3DO on YouTube

what a great video. i've always been obsessed with hardware and how all the various ideas behind a platform's inception, from dev-centric philosophies to hardware architecture, eventually determined its fate. i'm not an engineer and my fondest memory was that it, along with the PC-FX heavily featured video decoders to seamlessly introduce cutscenes in games which is ubiquitous now. that unified memory architecture feature i didn't know about and found super cool, especially since the sega saturn looks so terrifically over-engineered as a system of the same gen

 

[Smiley Cat]

Gex chads rise up.

I had it on the 3DO. It was definitely one of the stand-out titles for the platform in it's day.

Gotta be honest though, nowadays I'd rather play the Playstation version, just because it has actual game saves, unlike the 3DO original which only had passwords.

 

[Note]

Awesome to see the 3DO getting some love. My cousins got a 3DO at some point in 1994. I remember playing Alone in the Dark, Syndicate, SF2 Turbo, and Star Control 2 on it.

Really enjoyed all the games I tried on it, and eventually got one as a gift about a year later. I had Space Ace, Need for Speed, and Return Fire. I put a ton of time into Need for Speed and Return Fire, but could never get into Space Ace.

About six months after I got the console, it got finicky with reading discs. I still have the console, but haven't fired it up much over the years.

Would really enjoy revisiting Alone in the Dark.

 

[SuperSampleStar]

Gex chads rise up.

My first experience with Gex was on the Sega Saturn, and I honestly never got the hate for it. It's a platformer that's challenging (like every other platformer back then) but still fun. Gex's quips weren't really that annoying either, but you could always turn the voice off in the options screen.

Speaking of, I always found it interesting how the voice actor was different between the US and EU versions.

Gotta be honest though, nowadays I'd rather play the Playstation version, just because it has actual game saves, unlike the 3DO original which only had passwords.

You have it the other way arond. It's the 3DO version that had saves. All the other ports uses passwords

 

[Sayo]

My first experience with Gex was on the Sega Saturn, and I honestly never got the hate for it. It's a platformer that's challenging (like every other platformer back then) but still fun. Gex's quips weren't really that annoying either, but you could always turn the voice off in the options screen.

Speaking of, I always found it interesting how the voice actor was different between the US and EU versions.

You have it the other way arond. It's the 3DO version that had saves. All the other ports uses passwords
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I always found the different voice actors to be such an odd design choice, i assume it has to do with localizing the humor/cultural references but I am not sure about that.
If anything it makes it fun to replay the game to hear the new voice lines and harder for collectors, lol.

 

[Seinekar]

I own one, (Panasoniz FZ-1) its still working (im still afraid as sometimes it doesn´t turn on at first try...)

And im very happy i can get isos from CDRomance, burn them on a CD and play it straight on the 3DO (it doesn´t have any kind of anti-piracy measure)

Too bad most games are on japanese and not translated. I enjoyed a lot being able to download and play Lucienne´s Quest, possibly the only RPG for 3DO, at least not on japanese?

Still, its quite great to find such a forgotten machine, there is a special charm on those failed consoles no one remembers -or no one knew it existed, even back on its time-

Also quite surprised with some real hidden gems, as Star Fighter, quite amazing tech for its time.

 

[stealthRUSH]

I've been playing R·E·A·L 3DO Interactive Multiplayer for the past 2 years, it was one of the home consoles I missed out owning in the 90s. Initially I wrote it off as a failure in the past but now changed my opinion. I think back then it was ahead of the curve hardware wise with a mixed bag when it come to it's game library.

You have a handful of good games that either debuted or were ported from PC on the system like Need for Speed, The Horde, Total Eclipse along others. Too bad some of these 'exclusives' were brought over to its rivals Sega and Sony in sometimes less than 1 year.

I think 3DO has untapped potential, when you look at what Blade Force was able to pull off seamlessly, Tomb Raider prototype, and the list of cancelled from original games Cyber Clash to various ports Mega Man X3.

My favorites being the strategy-RPG exclusive Guardian War that has a distinct graphical look to it. Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels that won strategy game of the year. The twisted FMV horror game D. The once exclusive Johnny Bazookatone (later ported to PC/Saturn/Playstation) that has an Earthworm Jim style to it. 3DO also had some of the better ports at the time Theme Park, Wolfenstein 3D, Star Fighter and arguably Out Of This World.

I completed Shock Wave 2 a few months ago, I need to give Phoenix 3 and Captain Quasar a second chance. Completed Tokio Autobahn that had abysmal frame rate resembling a picture slide-show. Doctor Hauzer is another one I finished, good game. I used Game Guru on Lucienne's Quest for infinite money. Demolition Man and Jurassic Park are two games I really wanted to enjoy but ended up disliking. Pataank was something...I'm still playing through POed, Icebreaker, Mazer, all interesting games but I gave them a break for now. Moon Cradle presentation looks good too bad its entirely in Japanese, same for Blue Forest Story, Policenauts, Okoku no Grand Chef.

It's wonderful to see the homebrew community thriving with the releases of BioFury, Tetris, Tempest, in process of Mortal Kombat II and optimization hacks of Doom.

 

[Waffles]

I think it had a solid line-up as a console, with many games which were able to make their way to other systems and succeed.

I wish it had been either cheaper or more focused on the actual gaming part.

 

[Sayo]

There's some absolute oddball generally Japanese titles on the 3DO, they aren't a lot because it really didn't last long but these are the kind of games that really interest me, check this one out for example:

https://cdromance.org/3do-iso/makaroni-hourensou-interactive-japan-3do/

 

[Don Patch]

I'm watching the CDR front page last few days; all the 3DO games goin' up and I gotta say, I'm impressed.
I always kinda figured it was essentially a Sega CD clone and that it had even less games. There's some really neat puzzle and adventure games I'd never heard of.
Color me surprised!

 

[Don Patch]

So, which version of the beast do y'all find "sexiest"?

Personally, the FZ-10 R*E*A*L one from Panasonic is the most "video-game-lookin" to me
Though, I dig the GoldStar controller

 

[PhrawzT]

I've always wanted the Panasonic model on top.

 

[Seinekar]

So, which version of the beast do y'all find "sexiest"?

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View attachment 1447

Personally, the FZ-10 R*E*A*L one from Panasonic is the most "video-game-lookin" to me
Though, I dig the GoldStar controller

I own top one (Panasonic FZ-1) -I think is the one i like the most because it more "adult" or "elegant" design, like it was meant to be some kind of elitist console more akin to a "classy exclusive multimedia thing" than a toy, and also being the first model makes it special compared to the FZ-10 revision.

But the aesthetic of the second (Panasonic FZ-10) is quite cool, wouldn´t mind getting one if found it at affordable price (wich is beyond hard i think)

The Goldstar probably the one i like less, but being that ugly with that strange choice of 2-colors gives it some charm lol.

The Sanyo idk, its probably the weirdest.

On any case they are cool machines as they are so rare, and also the only videogame machines developed by those manufacturers ever (well maybe they also developed some handheld or minor stuff, but nothing as big as the 3DO. Don´t quote me on this anyway...)

 

[Seinekar]

-BTW!

Ill try to publish at least 1 games on CDRom web everyday, and may start with 3DO (already 3 3DO games published today, I specially recommend Star Fighter, the others 2 are rare misc software, not proper games but still crazy stuff) so keep tuned if interested.

Also recommended: Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, today added on the usa version REV1 and REV2, so if you have it, you may want to download the latest Rev (Rev2) -Not sure what the changes are, but as revs are done to fix bugs and stuff, probably its always the best to get the latest one.

 

[SpectreOverflow]

The Japanese 3DO library is something I feel doesn't get enough love. There is a language barrier, yes, but there's tons of bizarre and fascinating games on the system over there.