30 Years Later, The 3DO's Launch and How it Crashed and Burned 

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I first saw Secret of Mana while visiting my grand parents at the same time as my cousin who lived several states away. I felt like the game was casting a magic spell on me. It was the most beautiful game I'd ever seen, and redefined what fantasy could look and sound like. I still associate the game with my cousin to this day. I still think Dyluck is a funny name, and the game taught me the Japanese word for cat thanks to Neko the shopkeeper!

This comment will live on longer than the 3DO

Hi, old person here. Ads for Secret of Mana were everywhere. Magazines, TV, comic books... everywhere. Not sure where you got the idea that it wasn't promoted, but I assure you, it was *heavily* promoted.

Fitting since their first game was quite literally Crash'n'burn.

Secret of Mana wasn't just a game to my family. It was an institution. My two brothers and I played it religiously. Its so impactful to our lives that it actually played a role in how we game even to this day. Each of us played as one character, and that character's playstyle ended up molding how each of us has played our games ever since. I played as Primm the healer. Nowadays, in every game I play, I tend to lean toward the medic or support roles. White Mage, Bard, and Dancer in FFXI and FFXIV, Support Station/Heal Hive in The Division/Div2, Well Warlock with healing grenades in Destiny 2, etc. My younger brother played the Sprite and always ends up as the attack type mage. Our baby brother played as Randi and tends to choose tank classes. On top of that, ended up loving the entire series. So much so, that I'm still pissed that Adventures of Mana, the remake of the first game in the franchise, still hasn't been released physically or outside of PS Vita and mobile. Lots of folk poop all over the PS4/Steam remake of Secret, but I actually liked it. Though, I still prefer the original.

The 3D0 was a trailblazer in a lot of ways. It provided a platform for a lot of smaller developers of the time that would go on to become big company's. Naughty Dog got its start there for instance. It had a lot of good ideas, that price tag tho...adjusted for inflation that thing cost almost 2 grand in today's money...so yeah.

Actually: Sega Genesis controllers DO NOT work on the 3DO and can actually damage your system. DO NOT plug in a sega genesis controllers or any controller with the same inputs as the 3DO. The 3DO was specifically built to only run 3DO controllers.

Never did I feel like more of a cool dude as a kid than having a MultiTap and Secret of Mana. More than a few times, I got to have two friends/cousins/neighbors over for a full day of gaming, or even a weekend, just to play this classic.

It's wonderful watching this series develop and grow, both writing and production-wise. I think you two (and of course your writers as well) have found your voices. I really think this series deserves to 'pop off', as those hip youngsters are saying these days.

Secret of Mana is still my favourite of that series. Leveling up the different weapons and spells while playing with someone just scratches an itch that the other games just don't.

Damn. I was hoping the RPG he mentioned last week was Paladin's Quest. I didn't know that Secret of Mana came out the same week. No wonder it got overshadowed. Paladin's Quest is a vastly underrated RPG. It's about a magic user with no magic points. Check it out if you haven't already.

That commercial of Secret of Mana is burned into my memory. It is still my favorite game of all time. It was my intro into rpg and brought the whole idea of a story guided game to my attention. I loved grinding in this game; always put everything at max level before beating the game. It's the first gaming soundtrack that I own and I listen to it often. It helped my creative process for my writing and art. Secret of Mana, in a way, made me who I am today: a dragon loving, video game playing, fantasy author.

Oh man, the 3DO. There was even that "video card" you could throw into your PC that essentially made your PC into a 3DO.

My sister introduced me to Secret of Mana and we used to rent it all the time to play together. One of the few games we played together, along with Kirby Super Star. Secret of Mana was my favorite game for quite awhile before I realized Chrono Trigger had more of an impact on me and I played it a lot more. But Secret of Mana always has a place in my heart and my list

5th october 1993 I headed 200 miles from home and left behind my weekly job at an indie games shop I'd worked at Saturdays and school holidays since 87 to go to university and study electronics. I love this channel so much just for bringing so many of those memories back, remember a lot of these titles coming into the shop for the first time and firing them up to 'test' Thanks guys.

Secret of Mana was and still is my favortie game of all time. It was my first rpg. The german translation was full of, at the time, reference to german tv but I still find these things charming. The world, music and character are just amazing. Don't know how I ever beat the game in my first playthrough without buying new gear. The charming sprites of the different enemies and elemental helpers will live on in my heart together with the amazing music. A wish will always be my calm song forever. I love Secret of Mana that much :3

I had no idea Secret Of Mana launched just before 3do! One of my favorite games of all time!

completely forgot it was Friday, so I'm happy to see a new Now in the 90s.

Oh yeah, the Secret of Mana episode! One of the reasons this show is so fun is that it gives us a glimpse of a whole bunch of stuff we either forgot or never experienced in the first place, but Secret of Mana, of course, doesn't fall into either category. I still return to it from time to time, and it gives me the same amount of joy it did back when I first opened it up on Christmas morning in 1993. The soundtrack is burned into my memory, and I still get chills thinking about how fun it was to explore the game's humongous world. One of the big moments of my childhood was leaving the intro area for the first time (no easy task, after struggling through the dungeon with the evil wall boss), landing in that area where the monsters got a lot harder and the seasons changed as you wandered around in a circle. That was the point where it became clearer just how big the scope of the adventure was going to be. I might have played through Secret of Mana more than any other SNES game not named Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Zelda, or Mario. The game definitely got easier when I figured out how to abuse the sprite's magic to cheese basically all of the boss fights, but that was less fun than charging the spear up as high as it would go and stabbing wildly in hopes of taking boss health down one chunk at a time. I even remember my first victory over the final boss, where I still just used the spear instead of the sword, and it worked fine because I had the Gnome's defensive magic leveled up all the way. As long as I timed that correctly, nothing the boss did would hurt very badly. It's a shame I didn't really like any of the sequels, including Seiken Densetsu 3, which was definitely ambitious but which lacked both the charm and the scope. Secret of Mana, however, will have a special place in my heart until the day I die.

All these years later, I still get triggered by the 3DO. I bought one of those abominations, and ended up giving it away a few years later, as I couldn't stand to look at such a failure.

Thank you for giving Secret of Mana the love it deserves! This show really never disapoints, one of the highlight of my fridays :)

Be careful how you speak to Tommy, Dylan. Remember: he worked on the Wii with Miyamoto. Great episode this week, y'all. Love this series

The episode I’ve waited on ever since this show started on Jared’s main channel! Secret of Mana is my favorite game of all time! I still play it from time to time. It was the first RPG I ever played, I beat it over spring break with my cousin and was so impressed with the whole experience, right then and there as the credits rolled I told him that I wanted to be a game designer and bring the same kind of joy to others making games like Secret of Mana. He laughed at me back then, but we were kids and kids are like that.

No sleep for the editor... no apologies for getting weird with it.

I had secret of mana on launch, the winter level was the best thing ever!! The whole game was, really…of course!

Great episode 😂love how Jared almost cracked for next week’s episode “My boy!” Can’t wait 😊

I'm legit amazed at how Dylan has become such a good complement for this series. Keep up the good work, guys.

Secret of Mana is such a special game. Getting that as a gift for Christmas that year was one of the happiest times of my childhood that I'll always remember, playing it all day long with my best friend.

Clearly Dylan is my spirit animal. Between the subtle MK movie reference music and picking SimCity for the advert... He just gets me. 😊

I felt the same way about the Secret of Mana remake too. It wasn't woefully bad but it was very mediocre compared to the original game. The Trials of Mana remake however was pretty good and a good example that Square-Enix can still pump out gems when they put actual effort into their games. Then again of course, just like Disney, Square was at it's best during the 90s.

Right in time baby

HOO BOY DO I REMEMBER THE REMAKE! First game I returned disatisfied. It was already drawing me away, but when one of the characters glitched out of existence, that's when I drew the line. Second game was Dissidia NT.

I only wanted one once SSF2T was released....I drooled at the screens for it in gaming mags. But beyond that didn't care for it, or the CDi. But I did really want a neo geo....

When I first played 3DO back then I always thought it was just a little more powerful and more expensive Sega CD. Road Rash was absolutely great on it though. On another note, Dylan's segments and personality never fail to entertain me and make me laugh. Keep being you, Dylan.

I have 2 friends that I used to play Secret of Mana with back in the day. One of them had the SNES and a Multitap so the three of us could play together. There was a local video rental store that we'd rented it from at least 4, 5 times, and miraculously, our save file remained intact between rentals.

What amazes me the most, beyond the great quality and fun way they work... is that the date they talk about ACTUALLY matches the current date... EVERY.WEEK.

Secret of Mana just has a certain magic to it. Something about the bright, vibrant art style, the simple but satisfying action combat, and that zoggin' MUSIC. The mana palace theme still gives me goosebumps.

Back when I used to collect retro games and consoles, the 3DO was like the one system I couldn't find in my neck of the planet.

"Time to put away your *baby toys* and pick up a BIG BOY console for ADULTS." showcases Putt-Putt in every single ad

Secret of Mana is the game that cemented my love for gaming. My friend would bring it over every other weekend when he stayed the night and we'd stay up for hours playing it. I was too young to know about game limitations at the time so I honestly thought the forests were endless. Seeing that massive world map and fly around on it was like nothing I had ever seen before. It truly felt like I was on an adventure. Also Troddlers is a hidden gem.

I knew it was the 3DO when you mentioned a console being released. I thought it was the PlayStation at first but then realized that didn't come out in 1993.

My Boi....Piccolo with a monacle is what we all strive for!

Jared!! Thank you so much for recognizing and acknowledge that the 3DO had the best version of Road Rash!! Nobody talks about that. It's always about the Sega version. The 3DO did the game justice!! It felt violent and fun. Bike "physics, " and attacking with weapons felt really good!! My cousin had it and that's the only time I played it. I love this show, Jared!! Thank you!!

I remember reading somewhere that Kojima was interested in making Metal Gear 3 for the 3DO, he did release Policenauts on it

The 3DO's price point was just unrealistic. The big problem was that it only cost a bit less than a mid-range PC, which would outpower it along with doing all the other things a PC can do. So if families already had $700 to spend on a multimedia console, they might as well spend $1000 to get an actual computer instead. (And yes, the NeoGeo was similar priced, but it had more focused marketing and its blockbuster arcade library.)

I actually still own the official strategy guide for 7th Guest! And I'll never stop giggling at the fact that the optional microscope puzzle was so hard, the writers of the guidebook didn't have a solid answer to beat the AI and admitted to using the in-game hint system to bypass the puzzle, even during the "storytelling" portion of the guide. (For context, there's a book in the library that gives you hints about the puzzle you're attempting, then sends you back to said puzzle. If you use the book over and over after each attempt, the game eventually takes pity and solves the puzzle for you.)

Secret of Mana is one of those games that my whole family played, and my sister and I wrote a walkthrough for. When the remake dropped, my sister, my nephews, my youngest nephew's girlfriend and I all drove around Dallas for a solid 10 hours looking for it, and now my sister and I play it regularly ALL over again.

Jared cracking up at "Mah Boi!!" got me!

16:23 “I don’t have time for friends; I’ve got deadlines.” As a graduate student, that line spoke to me on spiritual level.

A video store that used to be in a mall that used to be on my walk home from high school rented 3DO games. They had Super Wing Commander on the shelf. I never had a 3DO as the price was a huge factor (hello USD-CAD exchange) but I still think passing on it was the right decision.

This thing came out 30 years ago!?! Thanks for making me feel old.

As a tiny tot I played 7th Guest at my uncle’s place at every family gathering there. So many damn nightmares. But these days the biggest nightmare I have is that tedious piano puzzle. That and the optional microscope puzzle.

Not gonna lie, part of me kind of misses the days when there weren't thousands of games every _month_ XDD Oddly enough, I never heard of Secret of Mana until I was much older.

Secret of Mana in Co-op with my best friend at the time are some of my favorite childhood memories. So many hours spend in this game. I still remember the one time where we were severly underleveled at the end and second Blob Boss became so big that he filled out the entire screen.

who else comes here for Jared but stays for Dylan?

A VR version of The 7th Guest?! *SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!* And Dylan, you're killing me dude. 🤣

It's so very nice to see such staggering talent and creativity. It's also nice to see Jared.

A buddy of mine in middle school owned Secret of Mana, so I went out and bought the multi-tap so we could do the three player multiplayer on it. We spent sooo many hours arguing while playing that game. Good times.

What I remember of this era was that although Sega came out with a new 3-bit console, Nintendo stated that they were not as the SNES was still crushing it. This caused a bunch of companies to "smell blood in the water" and rush to fill this perceived market gap. Pioneer, Amiga, 3DO, Atari, and NEC all released in this window but they were all just that; rushed. In the mean time, the reason that Nintendo was skipping 32-bit was because they were secretly working with Sony on a 64-bit system. However Nintendo didn't like the terms of the deal and approached Phillips behind their back. Nintendo recanted the part of the deal that would have allowed Sony to license games for the system (where the money was) and announced the "Ultra" Nintendo with Philips tech. Sony was so pissed at Nintendo that they gave Ken Kutaragi the go ahead to finish the system they had and brought the PlaySation to market just in time to kneecap the Sega Saturn on price. For a long time after Sony went out of their way to bully Nintendo out of spite whenever possible as they saw the dagger in the back as unforgivable.

Have been awaiting the episode that covers Secret of Mana. Does anybody remember the three part series called Days of Mana that Nintendo Power did in some later issues? Thought that was great and it helped foster my now 30 year fascination with this game. It's more than nostalgia. This one really is special.

Show needs to be 40 minutes long, 20 minutes for Jared and 20 for Dylan 😜

Fun fact: The reason why folks are often angry in the dialogue or Secret of Mana is that Woolsey was projecting his anger towards SquareSoft on how they gave him strict deadlines unto the NPCs. ...okay i made that up.

I concur, Dylan, I love this show too 👍🏼 thank you for such entertaining episode. I haven't learnt so much of those defunct consoles in less than half hour until now... in the '20s 😅

In the 90s I met Chris Rock at an Electronic Boutique in lower Manhattan buying my 3DO. He wasn't sure if he should get the Jaguar or the 3DO. I told Chris get the 3DO. I hope he liked it.

I need the 3DO, I have quite a few games, but no console. I remember seeing it in GamePro magazines when I was a kid, and I wanted it so badly!

Secret of Mana is still, to this day, my favorite RPG ever. I remember that I got it as a gift from my grand mom when I finished my National Diploma in France, that was in June 1994 and I spent ALL my summer holidays playing this game. It was my first ever RPG and I couldn't get passed the final dungeon because I didn't know how to play RPG and I was just avoiding combats. I kept calling the Nintendo helpline (got scowled by my parents for that) and when I finished it, in the last few days in August, I was genuinely crying. I still regularly replay it and I bought the Collection of Mana so I could replay it, again.

Jared just casually drops why Final Fantasy 4 and Chrono Trigger were bundled together for Final Fantasy Chronicles on PS1.

Someone please put this theory to bed for me because it has had me mortified to even try: At 7:06 puts a Genesis controller into a 3DO controller. I've looked on various forums and came to the conclusion that they are wired differently and it will bork the controller/system/or both.

algorithm comment

Wow, three games for the SNES I use to play a lot! I mean who hasn’t played Secret of Mana? I remember being in a rental store and I couldn’t decide between that or Lester the Unlikely. Obviously I went with Mana and instantly fell in love! Rented it a few times after that. Kendo Rage was some random game my dad actually found me. I still not sure why or how he got a hold of it. He just new I was really into anime and he was told it had some of that in it. As for Paladin’s Quest … ya I was a dumb kid who found out there was a game trade in place. So I took a bunch of my games to go find something new! Turned out I didn’t get much for what I had (this was before the eBay boom) so I was able to get one game. Took a chance and … okay I don’t think it’s horrible but if you’re looking for Final Fantasy 6 or Chrono Trigger, that wasn’t it! Sure it looks a bit unique but it relies on a magic system. Usually that isn’t bad but … you didn’t have a mana pool! When you cast spells it took away from your HP! Needless to say I never got to the end 😢 not that I didn’t try. It was the only game I had for a while 😅

FIFA soccer, Need for Speed, Samurai Showdown, and Return Fire made 3DO worth buying. Neo-Geo games were 300 bucks each.

This is becoming one of my favorite channels to watch every week after work. My favorite thing being what Dylan comes up in his section of the video. Also can't wait for next week when I heard "My boy!" at the end. 😂

People hate the Secret of Mana remake, but like, it plays the exact same, other than shortcut buttons to minimize the time spent pausing the game to cast spells. I submit that Secret of Mana wasn't that great, people just didn't have any exposure to that kind of game yet, and these days, they refuse to reexamine the game critically.

A Tommy Tallarico sighting, that was unexpected

Oh wow, I can't believe Tommy Tallarico made this whole video

2:00 that sound effect in isolation is the best way to describe a 3DO

7:13 Don't do that! The connector is the same but they are not electrically compatible!! You could damage your 3DO gear :( The Atari joystick port was used by a lot of different home computers and game consoles, but rarely were they actually compatible with each other. The only reason the connector was reused is that it is very well-suited to game controllers and it was really cheap to buy back then. The fact that a Genesis controller will work on an Atari VCS is actually just a coincidence and not intended at all.

I follow several retro gaming channels, and this is the only one that mentioned the 3DO turning 30. It wasn't a great console, it didn't really leave much of a legacy, and hardly anyone has nostalgia for it today, but it was still a major part of gaming history and deserves to be remembered. Great work!

3 cheers for Editor Dylan! It's rare as heck to see someone actually praising Paladins Quest's positive aspects it has a wonderfully unique artstyle, ambitious world design, loads of companions, and really should be considered at least a cult classic its sequel, Lennus 2, has been translated and the jank of the original has been cleaned up. Both are well worth playing at least once for any fan of the genre

I was one of the few kids in school who owned a 3DO. I have very sweet memories of playing Alone in the Dark again and again, but it is true that there weren’t many games available.

You're the RPG of the Month Dylan.

The 7th Guest fucked me up as a kid. The hands coming through the painting at the top of the stairs, having to navigate the dark tunnels coming off the kitchen and thinking something was going to jump out and spook me at any moment.

I didn't know about the 3DO back then but would learn about it was later thanks to AVGN, but I have to admit those 3DO ads you showed here are actually pretty damn funny. Anyways with Ma Boi at the end, yeah I think we all know that's "Zelda: Wand of Ghamelon" and "Link: The Faces of Evil" coming to CD-i next week. The cutscenes have been memed to death😂

Still got my grey import Mana (£65 at the time, miss those exchange rates🙁) and even managed to source the guide book as well, love how it reads as a fairytale rather than just a walkthrough.

I got my 3DO in March or April 94 with my tax return that year. It came with a three pack deal where I got Total Eclipse, Need for Speed, and Star Control II along with it for $299. Later, I'd pick up Road Rash. Between Need for Speed, Star Control II, and Road Rash I think it more than fully justified itself.

DID YOU KNOW that the highest selling 3DO game is... GEX? The funny thing is GEX sold around 1 million copies & the 3DO sold around 2 million units. GEX sold almost 1 to 1 with the 3DO console.

Editor Dylan should be protected at any cost.

The 3DO it is a fun machine to emulate these days the 4do emulator works well and i do like how pc dos games made their way to the 3do as they tend to look and play better and are easier to play these days instead of running a windows 95 virtual machine. It's definitely a very niche machine to emulate these days but the stuff that's available is interesting if you like the full motion video era of pc gaming which by the way if you were around back then was really groundbreaking stuff, imagine the transition from 2d platformers from the 8 and 16 bit era and then seeing actual actors and spoken dialogue in a videogame. At the time that was the future of games and the possibilities afforded by cd-rom storage seemed limitless. Today of course it all looks corny and silly even, however the 3DO is a perfect time capsule of that era in gaming and it is simple to emulate which is why a console i never had is a new favorite console to play games on.

TITF Now in the 90’s. Watching you and editor Dylan is making my broken finger hurt a little less. PS: Since I know someone will say you can’t “break a finger” it’s a distal phlange fracture.

I had something similar to the 3DO called the Tandy Memorex VIS-- most of what I remember from that thing was playing an edutainment game called the Secret of Hosea Freeman, where you toured the New Bedford Whaling Museum and learned about scrimshaw.

Secret of Mana! My gateway drug into the beautiful world of RPGs

Editor Dylan makes the show. I love Jared, but Dylan, fuck. He kills it. That segway? Pure gold.

I remember the 3DO launch like it was 30 years ago! How special it was!

Next weeks episode!? OH BOY! I CAN'T WAIT!

That "My boy!" at the end means that we're gonna go on a journey next week. Sweet!

"Gee, the Phillips CD-I sure is boring around here." I love Mana, so much so that I got the strategy guide which was a lot like a fairy tale depiction; very unique for a strategy guide of the era. Sad thing though: I never beat it until literally a few months ago. It's fun but the leveling up of things like magic is just such a pain to deal with; sure there are ways around it but the grinding just so you can have even max healing...yeesh.

Tim sounds like he was a great friend, that is so sweet of him to do that for you.

Secret of Mana is still one of my favorite SNES Action JRPGs. I would rent it a lot to beat it which I did. Years later I got a copy when Hollywood Video was clearing out their SNES game for $10.

I never saw most of these commericals for games like the SoM one, would have made me want even more though that was a cool one.