"Panasonic" 3DO - Fifth VideoGame Generation Recap - Adam Koralik 

A 3DO in depth analysis by the great Adam K? Best lunch break ever! :D

Man, the 3DO never EVER gets the appreciation it deserves. For a console released in 1993, nothing else even came close to the raw power of the 3DO. Unfortunately, being an early CD based console, it was plagued with plenty of FMV trash games, but just underneath all that crust were games that truly deserve more love and attention nowadays. I often see people lump it together with the CDI, and that has to be the biggest disservice to a console I have ever seen.

I was in my mid twenties at the time of the 3DO's release. It was a huge monetary investment but I went ahead and at the time, I wasn't disappointed at all. Graphically and sound quality wise, it was far superior to any of the existing competition. Being strongly backed by EA it was a hit for me. I respected Trip Hawkins far sighted goal for the console. Fifa, Need for Speed, Road Rash and Madden were amazing at the time and still rate high in my nostalgia. Panzer General, Allied General & Wing Commander 3 still rate as my all time favourite games...even after all of these years. Memory management was a major problem though and many games had horrific bugs like Alone in the Dark. It was a great game but crashed 30 minutes in & was unresolvable. The console had a really great Cyborg building spy infiltration game too (the title fails me unfortunately) but it would crash about three hours into it. Extremely frustrating. Growing up in that era of consoles was a fascinating time for me. I loved FMV games as it was unique take on gaming and the good ones were awesome like Prize Fighter and Quarterback Attack for the Sega CD. I loved my Sega CD and the 3DO was cool and highly enjoyable plus it had some great educational yet fun games for my young daughter at the time. Playstation One was great too. My favorite console though was the Dreamcast. The 3DO I believe gets unfairly ripped apart by a lot of gaming historians but interestingly most of these historians seem to be younger guys who didn't live through this era like I did in my mid Twenties and early Thirties. I grew up with all of the consoles and the 3DO was the cutting edge at the time and truly unique system. It had expansion ports that were intended to keep it a revelant system. If Panasonic had fully backed Trip Hawkins...the gaming console could have really blossomed. Thanks again for your efforts. I find this time of consoles really awesome and hold some great memories for me. Thanks for the great videos. You do a phenomenal job of looking back.

Back in the Summer of 1993 my father Louis, his fried Ike, and myself attended the Consumer Electronics Show here in Chicago. That was the first time I had seen it up live. You are spot on about your description about the units. The 3DO section. It wasn't a single booth, but almost like a tiny zone made up of other firms making either units or games or movies. You mentioned the VCD, Paramount Pictures had a table playing Top Gun on it. To this day, I can never forget that, as it was something I had never seen before . There was Star Trek 2 playing on another and something else. There was another movie studio, I think Warner, but I don't recall, I just remember watching Top Gun. They had a weird games booth, as I recall. They were divided into arrays with the TV on top (CRT back then) and the unit was either underneath or under a white or purplish cabinet. One row had that post apocalyptic racing game that was sorta like F-Zero meets Mad Max with video segments after or before each game. There was a spaceship fighter game where you scroll around and shot stuff. There were others, but really half of them were like graphic demos of what the system could do where you manipulated this green ball through a maze or something. The game they hyped that was coming soon was based off of Star Trek the Next Generation. They had many different models sitting on tables, mainly behind plastic or glass. I remember seeing one from AT&T, Gold Star, the Panasonic one, and Sanyo. Also, not sure if you knew this, but there were PCs on the floor that had a version of it you could install. Eventually somehow my father's friend who I mentioned won a unit (not at the show, this was later) and gave it to us. It was by the same folks who made Sound Blaster, it was just a card that you plugged in and you had to get a CD-ROM unit (not cheap back then), but basically your DOS or Windows 3.1 machine (sorry, this was before Windows 95!) could play those games. +AdamKoralik, thank you for posting this video, it really brought back a lot of memories. And thank you for the other videos you've posted. As a disabled person, who could not play outside, video games were a Godsend. Keep up the good work!

I feel like if Nintendo would have been on board with this, video games would have taken a major halt in progression.

I have a huge soft spot for the 3DO (I even have it as my emblem in Black Ops 1 and 2 and Battlefield 4). Its the system the started off the Need For Speed series, hosted alot of original (some from developers we know and love today from their earlier efforts) titles from multiple companies with games like D, Twisted!, Return Fire, and one of the best ports of Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Wolfenstein 3D. There were plans to upgrade the console from 32-bit to 64-bit via 3DO's M2 (which also was available as a separate console far as I know). The game D2 (which is on Adam's favorite console the Dreamcast) started dev on the M2, which the M2 version is completely different from the DC version. While the console never came out, The 3DO M2 lived on as part of a hardware line for a few Konami arcade games (also a few 3DO powered arcade games too), and used in some teller machines/kiosks. The only M2 game to play (and now mad public) is IMSA Racing, which look great considering the time of its dev.

The 3DO concept was also highly similar to the "IBM PC clone" concept. They were trying to create a standard for videogame consoles, similar to what Microsoft did with PCs.

Think I am going to write an alternate timeline video where the 3DO was an insane success! Should be fun to think of all the game companies working side by side.

I picked up my 3DO about a year ago for $150 with 30 boxed games and 2 arcade sticks and I absolutely love it!

Had the 3DO’s concept existed LONG before it did, it probably would’ve been no contest. I think that’s the universe where this scenario works.

My dad got a 3DO and an Atari Jaguar when I was a kid (I was 6 at the time, Jaguar controllers are not kind to 6 year olds). I loved the 3DO a whole lot. It was so weird compared to everything else(Zhadnost, The People's Party really sticks out, might still hold up as a bizarre party game). It even came with some intro/demo CD that had half an episode of Two Stupid Dogs(among other things I can't really remember) that I watched over and over again. Most of the games I remember really enjoying were ports, but one that wasn't and that I was extremely obsessed with was Guardian War(also called Powers Kingdom apparently). First tactical RPG I ever played and it was damn sweet. Since you mentioned the price is rising, I think it's finally time to get one and revisit my childhood.

I cant find anything similar to this series on youtube. Going into such depth about the company and the industry. Super interesting. I hope you eventually do the 3rd and 4th generations as well.

The first Need For Speed was amazing on the 3DO (looking back from memory) used to play it constantly.

wow the 3DO sure as hell had some potential

Thank you, very good recap and review. You may also wanted to have mentioned, Trip Hawkins, founder of EA, actually left EA to found 3DO, and 3DO was founded in partnership with EA (hence the games). Also interesting is that 3DO gave the out the hardware specs for licensing and manufacturing to nearly anyone who wanted them and Samsung, Toshiba and AT&T (!) actually made prototype 3DOs and brought them to trade shows though they never went any farther than that or produced any "real" working ones as far as I know.

The memory management on the 3DO was also weird. You needed specific discs from Panasonic or specific games to manage the built in memory; you could not do it from a menu on the system itself. The light gun for this system is also quite expensive. I did not care for the games on the system, but the system itself (front loader Panasonic) looks cool enough and is pretty durable.

This was an excellent video. I really do think the idea 3DO had was fucking brilliant, & I always thought the overall appearance of the console was kind of neat, it's like a DVD player with that cool 90's VHS design. Would certainly have been interesting to see how everything would have played out had their "plan" worked.

This is like Antiques Roadshow for nerds.... And I'm okay with that

with the exception of the fm towns Marty & N64 DD , I own all the consoles you have reviewed so far.. I am sure my "do not own" list will grow as I continue watching through the series.. keep up the good work , your outlook on these misunderstood machines is refreshing & its good to know I am not alone,, ;-)

Back in the 1990s: we wouldn't spend $700 on a new eletronic Iphone X: hold my beer

Me & my friend that had that exact 3D0 Panasonic FZ-1 & used to play “WAY OF THE WARRIOR”.

I never get tired of hearing this story.

I had a 3DO and granted it wasn't the most memorable game console I've had but it wasn't that bad. I played a lot of Mad Dog Mcree, Twisted, Roadrash, and Need for Speed

I remember going to a friend of a friend's house when I was a kid and they were playing Road Rash on a strange looking console. They said it was a 3DO. It seemed so futuristic to me at the time. I never saw another one after that day.

Recently subbed, loved the videos and I am hooked on these recaps you do, you get both a pretty interesting history lesson and its always nice hearing about others experiences with various consoles, for most of us it was a very big part of our childhoods. Love your content!

I always loved their full page magazine ads, had this very edgy feel to them. I like that it had stereo and s-video stock - pretty rare at the time.

I liked my 3DO, I think Road Rash (the game I played on it the most) was the best version I saw on any console.

I was 11 in 1993 and I remember thinking the 3DO vs the CDi was going to be the next big thing in consoles, lol. I could never afford either one, though I wanted the CDi for the Zelda games, which looked cool to me from the box art (I really dodged a bullet!)

I remember my family's DVD Player being a Sanyo back in the day. The Fifth Generation was so hard to understand all of.. All the companies were experimenting and taking their own kinds of risks with 3D gaming. I can see why Playstaion was the most successful, but I still think PS1 was designed in a sort of "boring" way despite having a great games library. Crash Bandicoot deserves a circle pad!

It might sound mental, but because I loved Star COntrol on the Megadrive I wanted one of these just for Star Control2. :D

I still have a 3DO in the box brand new w/ Gex game included. I remember the TV ads and articles on Gamepro. Always wanted one and got it I'm gonna open it one day.

One of my favorite quirky systems. Figure it out!

I'm LOVING these recaps. Keep em coming! :D

What I always think about the 3DO is the dumb way you would connect a second controller. We had a Goldstar VCR and remember trying to convince my dad that he needed a Goldstar 3DO.

These have been very interesting videos to watch. While I've heard about a lot of this information from various ones, there are bits I haven't heard elsewhere. After watching half of this retrospective, you've earned another subscriber. Keep it up.

I absolutely loved my 3do ! i Had the chance to have a goldstar 3do back then, and it was a fantastic system. I always own some games for it (wing commander II, which was vastly superior to the pentium version, doom, samourai showdown with the snes controller adapter, crash n burn.... Except for the price point, it was a fantastic machine for its time.

I love the look of the FZ1 3DO. Its one of my favorite looking consoles.

Ah the 3do, so expensive that you couldn’t afford it even if you had enough money

Dude, I really love this channel, keep up the good work!

Adam , i think it is time for you to realize that this is what you do best and you should do more of these videos. Not only your observations are spot on, but it's also your videos that gets the most views. Hope to see more of these in the future :)

hahah thanks for the shout out bro! and yes I have one and love it, especially Twisted and Psychic Detective =)

You come off half like a really cool history teacher and half like a really cool economics teacher in these videos

Very informative video Adam! Thanks a lot for sharing. Enjoying this fifth generation recap!

I miss 3DO they were my favorite third party company next to THQ but they made the best game series the Army Men series

Had they brought something like this out in the mid-late 90's with a DVD player, then things could have been very different.

oh i loved my 3do, i still have it. you forgot to mention that ea was so involved because the 3do ceo was the founder of ea. Also most games of the 3do that later became multiplat had the best version on the 3do, mainly because it supported a mixture of image formats that was impossible on the ps1 for example. so if you compare games like roadrash you will notice more colors and better graphics

Loving this video series Adam, Great stuff. I and my FZ-1 thank you!

I had a friend who briefly owned a 3DO in 1996; I thought it was okay (I knew next to nothing about video game history at the time). Yeah, we played "Road Rash", "John Madden Football", and some other games I can't remember. Yeah, Sony just kind of threw their hat in the ring, and hit paydirt.

I had a 3do. I played wing commander to death on it!

saved under folder "Documentaries". you're great dude! thanks for the videos! (subbed, obviously)

That Sanyo one looks so much like a 90's VCR

So far I've heard the exact same thing about developers about every single console. With every one they say "It's so hard to program for!"

When 3D0 came out in the early 90's it was a whopping $700!!! My brother bought one after selling his Sega Genesis and entire collection... big mistake!!! Had the Panasonic model but after it was discounted to $400 a couple of years after launch and Genesis was an aging console. SSF2T, Samurai Shodown, Gex, were good games, but most were dreadful.

It would have been very interesting to see if the 3DO had panned out and not faded into obscurity. The most unfortunate part of the 3DO was a product of one of the best things about it; the fact that any idiot could program something and sell it as a game. There were some gems, though nearly all of them except maybe Captain Quazar were multiplats, like Gex, Samurai Shodown, Wolfenstein 3d, Road Rash and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo to name a few. There were some real stinkers, but that was symptomatic of all of the newcomers (even Sony had some pretty awful games) and Atari during that generation. I had a Panasonic FZ-1 back in 1997 that was a hand-me-down, so I got it and a bunch of games, and I really enjoyed it.

I'm glad we have variety because it encourages innovation through the need to stay relevant...

This is like a history lesson that people actually give a shit about.

Fun Fact, Trip Hawkins (EA CEO/Founder) designed the 3DO, so in a way it was EA's entry into the consoles circle.

I imported a broken Panasonic model from Japan for £60, paid to get it fixed and now it looks brand new. Turns out I got lucky as the model I have has a switch that changes the output from 480i to 240p. Apparently only some Japanese models had this switch built in on the back. Gex is a great platformer, this system had potential for sure.

Really cool that you go through each machine from the genration! I envy your video game collection :) best regards

I love my 3DO. Sold my Genesis/Sega CD and a ton of games to get one when it first came out. At the time it was cutting edge and had some amazing looking games, so, could you really blame me? Regardless if most of those games didn't play as well as they looked (Way of the Warrior... I'm looking at you), but down the line they managed to get some really stellar software. Wing Commander III, Gex, Return Fire, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Primal Rage, Trip'd, Twisted, Blade Force, Wolfenstein 3D and my personal favorite... Star Control II. I still play it to this day and agree with you that it's a highly misunderstood console. It had potential, but the price was a major turn off for every one of my gamer friends. Underrated in my opinion, but I have a nostalgic place in my heart for it.

+AdamKoralik I know this particular video is rather old, but I wanted to see if what I say, is something you thought of as well. Bluntly put the whole Nintendo NX concept, seems to be what 3do "rumored" concept as you put it is/was all about! Nintendo is using the Vulkan (API) Technology, which if you know what it is about, makes games easier to develop on multiple platforms, the NX is also going to be a rather affordable system, I ain't saying it's going to be the be all system, but the concept is rather close to what you stated.

45 year old fart once again binge-watching your console/generation analysis episodes. I try to watch them all once a year like reading Don Quixote once a year. Both are as edifying. Love ya! :)

If games had all gone to one format, that would make game collecting a lot less fun

Cool story man. Love the series.

I say, very interesting series of videos Adam Koralik. I have also thought a lot what Sega should have done to avoid their series of disasters. And 3DO seems to be it. In a better world they would have skipped the Sega-CD, 32X and Saturn since they weren't good for anyone. 3DO came at the right time, when the Mega Drive was old and a year before Playstation, and still (what I can gather) more powerful than the playstation. Maybe that's why it was more expensive. The two problems with 3DO was a lack of games which Sega would have solved. And of course the price, which needed to come down to half within a year by the time that PS1 launched. Maybe with more volume (thanks to Sega) and more competition between the licensed console manufacturers would bring the price down. Sega could also make their own version of the console. Some consoles could be a little cheaper but still compatible, some could have RGB-scart (for us europeans) And Sony would not have won here. Microsoft may even had stayed out of the market. And then Sega would be in a better position for the next generation with their Dreamcast. Then maybe no need for the shared license platform.

I learned a lot from this video. Thank you!

Road rage and gex on the 3do, I loved.

AdamKoralik great episode. i've never actually played one myself, but used to own lots of game magazines from different game magazine sources, and remember seeing this in quite a few reads over time. Can't wait to hear the interesting story behind the Sony PlayStation/PSOne. and also Atari Jaguar/CD most definitely (in which i havn't played either if I must add).

The 3DO was my first and favourite console. My mom bought it for me at $100 at a store because it was on sale. Its interesting with respect to your theory in this video because she didn't understand the concept of different consoles having their own library and thought this machine was a good deal for just $100. I was disappointed at first having wanted a Saturn/PS1 like everyone else but I grew to love it and the 3DO had some awesome games for it too. IMO what would have saved the 3DO was if it was launched for under $400

I finally got one and love it!!

...yeah, you got the history of 3DO on point... cool video!

OH GOD Thank you for explaining this! This answered SO MANY questions i had, now it all makes sense. SUBSCRIBED

I can see the '3DO' idea of making a standard platform coming up in the future. It has 'corporate and anti-consumer greed' written all over it.

I loved it, My friend and I played Strahl and Wolfenstein, Super Street Fighter 2 turbo and Samurai Showdown.

really interesting! i've been meaning to look up info and background around the 3do as it's probably the console i'm least savvy with.

I had a friend in high school who said that the 3DO was the best console ever. He would go on and on about the good games and say just ignore the crappy ones. The main reason I couldn't pick one up is because I was poor back then, and this friend of mine was well off and his parents had great jobs. There were some very good games on the system and I think it would have been so cool if the 3DO had made it. It's too bad that it didn't though.

been waiting for your next video

I just got a working, FZ-1 3DO for free. My parents found it in a storage building they've been going through and gave it to me. I was really surprised .

Another reason the 3DO was so expensive is because other console makers (other than Nintendo) sell their stuff at a loss and recoup on software (either first party or the fees you mentioned). Panasonic/Goldstar/Sanyo had no reason to do that, so they charged what was economically feasible. Also Madden came out on the Apple II, then the Genesis well before the 3DO.

This is really interesting, and their idea actually made a lot of sense and was very ambitious. It sounds like the recent battle between Apple's iPhone (Nintendo/Genesis) and Android (3DO). Unfortunately for 3DO, the reason Android survived using a similar concept is that most people are drawn to a phone for its features and capabilities, which mainly lay in apps. Most apps, however, are either utilitarian or universal. Apple's iPhone has some exclusive utilitarian app, there will most likely be an Android equivalent that offers the same features. Then there's apps like Instagram, Yelp, Uber, etc. that are universal and will never be exclusive to one cellphone company/manufacturer. The phone companies need to offer these apps as much or more than the apps want to be offered, so they can't strong arm the app companies into exclusivity. Though, with video games, it's the popular and familiar characters and the gameplay that sell consoles. When those trademark characters are exclusive to a console brand, without characters of your own, it's almost impossible to compete against. It's not just because people like the familiar, but they also know that those characters are tied to quality gameplay. If Zelda is there, then good gameplay is there. If Solid Snake is there, then good gameplay is there. It's no surprise this machine couldn't compete against Sonic and Mario, and Sony had the foresight to quickly tie its brand to exclusive characters like Crash, Cloud, Spyro, etc. 3DO's thinking was in the right direction, but they took a huge leap before having their ducks lined up, and you're very right about Sony being lucky. They were lucky that all these other competitors made absolutely ludicrous, rash, and/or short-sighted decisions, including Nintendo. Sony won by being the only one with a truly modern (for the time) and programmer friendly medium. Nintendo, on the other hand, never recovered from the N64, which is weird to say, since it was so successful and memorable. Yet, if it had been bold enough to create hardware that utilized CD, or struck a compromise with Sony while they were still working together, I would guess that the N64 would have completely dominated the market. Looking at how successful it was, despite being cartridge based, it's truly a testament to the power held by the brand and the ingenuity of its developers, who made incredible gameplay within the strict limitations of the machine. But, had they gone CD based, the door never would have been opened to new developers, it would only have to deliver the K.O. punch to the Dreamcast in the next gen, absorb Sega titles as 3rd party releases, and likely, if any new competitors did enter the ring after that, we'd be looking at them today with the same fascination as we have for the 3DO. "This is Microsoft's bulky ambitious attempt at entering the console market with the Xbox." But hindsight is 20/20, and who knows, in the future we might be talking about Samsung's amazing new console, Google's facepalm of an attempt at gaming hardware, reminiscing on Sony or Nintendo's relevancy.

Gladly to see your new video, Adam. Actually most of my people know 3DO even its console never sold in China.It is well known by its PC games. Such as Might and Magic Francis and Heroes of Might and Magic Francis.

Interesting to me that RJ Mical, one of the inventors of the Amiga computer also was part of the 3DO, Atari Lynx, and Playstation. Guy makes his rounds.

If i'm not mistaken Madden was born on MS-DOS and the Apple II. Great video otherwise though.

This was suppose to be the next big thing back in the day. Everyone thought it was going to be huge. I think the price and the fact that it never had a system selling exclusive is what killed it. Allot of people don't realize that the Sega Genesis wasn't really a big hit until around 2 years into it's life. It wasn't until Sonic the Hedgehog came out that it became a really big deal. Before that, the NES was actually outselling it. Gex could have been the 3DO's mascot, and it almost was. Unfortunately, it was soon released for the PS1 and Saturn as well. They should have done whatever it took to get Crystal Dynamics to keep it a 3DO exclusive.

Weeeeeell you could argue that every PC does it like this, they all adhere to a few standards, starting from the IBM PC

Great video Adam. Very informative and exciting to watch. I have the goldstar and the FZ1. The goldstar loading times a little longer compared to the FZ1. I've seen the Sanyo in a store (boxed) like your jaguar story the day I went to pick it up........GONE !

The 5th generation was the wild west of gaming consoles. So many companies, so many consoles.

Given the fact that you hadn't heard of this back then, and were too young to follow what was going on, your misconstrued vision of the 3DO's goals and efforts are forgiven.

Great, brings back some good memories.

Interesting watching these videos when I know more about these systems. Still, good work, keep it up.

Innovation might have taken a dive, if all the hardware was universal.

I’m watching this retroactively. It is so nostalgic to step back to the terrible audio quality 😂😂

Do you have the SNES controller adapter? Back in the day, EGM was pretty critical of 3DO's controllers, and pretty much said that the Super Street Fighter II Turbo port was more or less only playable with the SNES controller. I've never seen a 3DO outside Babbages (now Gamestop), so I couldn't tell you if that's true or not.

If you haven't seen this, you definitely should check out the old G4 Icons episodes from the mid 2000s, there's actually a great episode on Trip Hawkins and the history of EA and a little bit of the 3DO.

I really like this series. Looking forward to your PS1 and N64 videos.

3DO is nostalgic for me because I played Gex, Wing Commander (the Mark Hamill one), and Jurassic Park on it. JP creeped me out when you were running around the dark halls trying to restart the power grid.

Thanks for the video, Adam. The daisychaining of the controllers makes sense with your explanation of trying to make the console last for many years. The main thing I knew about the 3DO before watching this video was AVGN complaining about the daisychaining, but now it makes sense.

good concept. maybe if the big names worked with panasonic on the hardware dev , so they each had input and each company added features that highlighted the specific companys pros (and cons ) and integrate those features to work together. (there is still time to do this as well) it could be/have been an awsome universal console.

Great Vid Adam, The only game we really played at my neighbors was Road Rash, at the time it seemed like the best version out. We played the crap out of that game. I remember 3D0 games being $80-100 CDN and being somewhat difficult to find. Surprised you didn't mention the M2. That I zoned out and missed it.

You uploaded on my birthday :D