In an alternate timeline, We would have seen the 3D0 do what the playstation did, competing with a stronger Saturn and potentially weaker N64. For all the flaws, the 3D0 had a lot of great ideas as it was one of the first consoles to try to bring the PC gaming experience into the living or bedroom.
Did you say Jagwire? lmao why can no one pronounce Ja-gu-ar. In 1994 and 1995 3DO dropped to 299,99 in 1996 199.99. Wing Commander 3 was out for 3DO way before pS1 even launched dude, where are you getting this from?
As an adult in 1993, I had both the 3DO and the SNES. A lot of my free time was used with the 3DO playing NFS trying to get a clean run up the coast in the Ferrari Testarosa 512R. Or flying the galaxy and exploring the surface of exoplanets in Star Control II. Encountering non terrestrial life forms. It took 7 years of note taking to finally beat the game.
Had a Goldstar tv but no 3DO. Star Control seemed incredible and I had a two page ad with all the great games I drooled over. Then Flux did spread on the gore in Doom. Twas a magical time to be a kid.. 💫
I started making hand drawn star charts of Star Control II, with notes on best mineral planets and anything of note that I found. But then I saw how large the galaxy was, and realized it was 98% a pointless task. I think they planned to have more to do in the galaxy than they ended up with.
Nice vid. I too am a 3do lifer. i'll never forget the aura that machine gave off at the store. A few things to mention....there is no Phantasmagoria or harvester on 3do. And the band is called Swervedriver.
I clearly remember many reviews and ads about the 32X, Jaguar and 3DO. Super Street Fighter II Turbo was something my brothers and I would love to play at home, my older brother bought a Saturn some time later. It's a bit sad the 3DO, Jag and 32X never reached their true potential, but they are very curious, if odd systems, I think I was about 9 or 10 at the time, so anything game related was really enticing, if we had the money to spare, which we didn't. Recently I played Road Rash using Opera in Retroarch, I'm familiar enough with the Saturn, PS1 and PC ports and I can say the original is the better version, in its vanilla state, it has subpar performance compared to the ports, but Opera allows you to set the 3DO setup up to 200% and then the game transforms, it's the best to play today. Proper colors, fair FMV quality, sound and sfx, hit detection and handling, all other ports are good enough, but the original is where it's at. Other Saturn/PS1 ports also show the original 3DO versions are the best ones, Total Eclipse, specially Star Fighter, which makes both the Saturn and PS1 releases look almost like they're 32X in a bad day. Certainly both SEGA and Sony consoles could have handled all the above with ease, but the thing is, ports hardly do the originals justice, mainly because the original team have a vision and they put a lot of effort to the target hardware.
The price dropped shortly after the initial release. Within 30 days I believe it dropped to $399 or $499. I got one for Christmas and I don’t even know how my parents figured it out. I was completely surprised.
Correction on the road rash soundtrack part: You meant to say "Swervedriver" ....Screwdriver was a nazi skinhead band lol, doubt they'd make it onto any video game soundtrack. 🤣
This was an excellent video, I find the "failed" consoles so much more interesting than the successful ones & the overall concept of the 3DO is kind of mad-genius in a way. I do want to mention that I've heard from other sources that while the RRP of the 3DO was $699, very quickly after launch most retailers dropped that price themselves to move units, so it's not totally out of the question that your dad paid less than we would expect.
they are interesting because they are obscure. Everyone has played SNES/Mega drive games to fucking death by now, re-releases galore etc. These consoles offer games a lot of people haven't played at all.
I bought a used 3DO from a game store back in 1996 for $30. I never had any games for it. I used it for a CD player because i really liked the psychedelic light show that was displayed on the television screen when you played music discs.
I wish I bought mine in 1996 for that price, I bought mine in 1994 for $500. Still loved it, but so naive that I had no clue a Saturn or PS1 was coming. LOL I did end up with some great games and memories though, Star Control II taking the better part of a full summer for me.
Those of us with Sega CD weren't buying the CD-i and 3DO hype. Even if Saturn and especially Playstation would prove CD media was indeed the future shortly thereafter.
Hey man, you have my curiosity big time. Seems I grew up around the same time as you and I'm from Westlake. Just wondering what giant eagle did you get the 3DO from?
If it was late 95 early 96 the 3do was $200 that's when I bought my first one I bought another 3 years ago about the same price and downloaded and burned almost all the roms for it.
Me and my older brother blew a couple of paychecks one week and bought this when it came out. We really liked the system. Over time, games became harder to find in stores, and we moved on to the PS.
Thought the Carmen Sandiego games would have made their way to this console honestly. I also remember seeing GEX advertised all over the place and thought it was pretty cool looking. I loved the animations.
I LOVE my 3DO to death. Finally bought an FZ-10 back in 2007, and now own roughly 70 games for it. While not my favorite console of all-time, if you go by just sheer blind fanboyism and devotion, it's a very close #2 just behind my Jaguar. Though in reality, it's in my Top 10, though not Top 5. My personal Top 5: Sega MegaDrive/Mega CD/32X Sony PSX Sega Dreamcast Sega Saturn Nintendo GameCube
LOVED this video! Great overview of some under-appreciated games. I appreciate all the work you put into this and I enjoyed every minute. I missed out on 3DO in the 90s like most people. I was 12 when it launched and sadly didn’t have an inexplicable Giant Eagle moment to bring it into my life, but I picked one up about ten years ago and fell in love. The library is a time capsule in the best way. For me this system is worth owning for Need for Speed alone. It’s such a unique experience with its driving-for-driving’s-sake vibe that was completely lost in all its other ports.
3do sounds neat but the road rash soundtrack had swervedriver not skrewdriver! I did a double take on that because skrewdriver were a nazi band so i looked it up and yeah, swervedriver. important difference!
It wasn't so bad. The stock controller has shoulder buttons like a Super Nintendo controller, and a few companies made 6 face button controllers as well. I have a couple of them. It could've used a more widely available arcade stick, though.
@@bananonymouslastname5693 its been a while since I watched the video, didn't the narrator claim the buttons were unmappable? 3 face buttons and 2 shoulder buttons that are mappable is a better scenario than the one I imagined (3 face buttons that are unmappable). either way, im sure the game was playable. my original comment was meant to contrast the joy of having a perfect port of SF2 but having to play the game with technology not equivalent to the arcade.
I agree out of all the consoles the 3DO represents the vaporwave nostalgia of the late 80s and 90s the most. It’s made for aesthetic fans like none of the other 90s machines.
I still remember saving all my money from cutting grass to buy a Sega CD. All my friends from my neighborhood use to bring everyone by just to watch the crappy Sewet Shark fmv. Looks bad now but then it was mind blowing technology. I miss those days.
RU-vid just recommended me this video, it was excellent! Watched the Genesis Action-Adventure video, also amazing. It said to "check in the future for a video on Alundra, I'm writing a script". Look at the video, it was 3y ago. Exellent! Go to your videos page, no activity for a year and no Alundra :(
Crazy dude! I'm from Ohio too and I too got my hands on a 3DO when I was a kid. I got lucky and grabbed one from a local video rental store used. I became obsessed and still have a large collection with all cases, instructions, even adds and magazines. Demo disc and more.
"The PlayStation was released in fall 1995 for $299, IIRC." - AtariAgeForums. Could it be in this time period? $299 was not cheap, but before SAT und PSX not something extraordinary high I guess...
It's sad the 3DO and ATARI Jaguar were a little bit ahead of the SNES and Genesis when they finished the development . By the time they were released to the public , the PlayStation and the N64 were superior to them .
it was a little different when I was a kid all that but on the back wall there was a NeoGeo in all the game stores. they didn't stock games for it you had to buy them by mail. nobody ever bought the neogeo it was a symbol. but then there were two systems that promised to be more than games and wanted to have all the potential of computers with all the accessibilities of VCRs these were the CD-i and the 3DO neither ever beat the CD on the Pc. still as expensive as they were they were waaaaay closer to the gaming PCs of the era than any other consoles. still if you had a high end PC at the time you looked at all this with an unenlightened meh. that said back then mostly a wanted a computer that could run softimage. or an sgi onyx or indie workstation. back then the market was uninformed but not me. a inexpensive-ish 486 or G1 MMX or pentium with a powerVR or grass valley graphics card could blow the doors off of a 3D0 or CD-i easily. 700$ expensive!? not compared to the 2500$ or so the computer I'm describing costed at the time. kick it up to the performance range and spring 3500 or so and you get the idea. I always wanted a neogeo but by the time it was 3D0 games weren't enough and I wanted to do stuff like softimage at home in my fanciful dreams.
This is definitely a memory.I'm from ohio did not come into ohio until 2000 the very first store😂 And they never sold video games.They are a grocery store chain.Nor do they ever have a video store inside of them.Either stop trying to click bait to get people to watch your video
wing commander 3 NFS road rash street fighter was just like teh arcade and many other games where so awesome my dad got me one some how and i loved it for a wail i remeber seeing it when it was new in teh mall and it was the most sophisticated systems cd based around back there for a few years it blew my mind when i saw it at Ebs or how ever tha old game store was spelled me and what little friend i had would play the hell out of NFS for sure and it was a great gaming memory for sure wish i would have kept it i used to like listening to music on it and it had a lot fo cool effect to play with the music
I remember seeing it in magazines. We had a Babbages at the mall and I don’t think even they had it. They may have carried the Jaguar. I didn’t see a 3DO until ‘96 or ‘97 after it was already dead. Played space hulk and thought it was neat.
I always wanted a 3DO. I remember playing the heck out of the demo one at the huge Blockbuster my family used to go to. Did play a lot of these games on the Sega CD! So much nostalgia. This is what we thought the future of gaming would be. I miss how experimental everything was during this period. Now everything is so streamlined and safe and boring.
The price cut you mentioned might have been in 1994, as that was when I got my Panasonic FZ-1 model, when it was $400. And I absolutely LOVED The Horde on 3DO. I was shocked at how smooth the FMV was compared to previous games I played on the Sega CD, not to mention how hilarious the acting was, especially Michael Gregory as the High Chancellor. Eventually I played it also on the Sega Saturn but it's as you said, the cutscenes were not as good there. Shame. Wing Commander 3 3DO was a masterpiece. At the time it was the only way I could play it as my computer at the time was a 486/50 that would never be able to run it so I resorted to the 3DO version, and even with missing the ground based missions, the 16-bit color FMV sequences were a nice alternative. I actually preferred it over the PS1 version that came out a year or two later. Also, playing it with the CH Flightstick was an absolute dream.
It's really interesting to think of alternate timelines where a 3DO (particularly the pricing model) was a success, or FMV was the endgame for graphics, or maybe the Sega CD+32x were successful enough that add-ons were there the norm. Just a lot of wacky ideas around this time. The Daedalus Encounter reminds me of Cyberia but there's no FMV in that game. Also fun hearing your experience growing up with the 3DO. I never knew about it until later but I was old enough for it.
Cyberia has FMVs, but they're rendered in CG instead of actors. It's an interesting game we enjoyed on the Saturn, it's really a PC game in its core and couldn't be more 90's, that's why I like it.
I’m just gobsmacked they sold game consoles at a grocery store where you lived. Like I rented games from grocery stores back in the day but I never saw them selling consoles. Then again I’ve never even seen a Giant Eagle.
Man first time I saw a 3do in person was at a mall in Vegas. But it was like 399 at that time and it was the fz10 model. I got my 3do maybe a year later one of my friend’s friends in his neighborhood by giving my friend some rollerblades I didn’t fit anymore, a few weeks later I see him and his friend said he wanted to give me something for the rollerblades cause before the ones I gave him he never had any and fell in love immediately. He had in a bag an fz10 an original controller a five button controller and killing time, immercenary, blade force, ballz, and a few others. Was so happy to find my Japanese fz10 a year or more just been trying to find the actual games has been shitty.
Great video, really well done! I didn't have a 3DO when they came out but I always saw the ads in magazines. One of them that stuck out the most was the ad for Cyberdillo. I always thought it was so cool looking. I own a 3DO now and I emulate it on my computer and phone as well. Cyberdillo did not live up to my expectations lol but I find the console really fun. My neighbor had one back when they where new and he comes over once in awhile and we play on my FZ1. First thing I did when I got mine was take take the top off, inspect the capacitors and then I greased the sled rails, it ran just fine.
I'm actually surprised that 3DO didn't take off because the price dropped significantly in the first year and the games had no copy protection whatsoever
Jaguar and 3do are viewed today as the complete flops they were but people don't understand the massive amount of hype there were around these machines when they released. Everyone wanted one... just that no one wanted to pay for one lol.
"undeniably shot in front of a green screen" This was before green screen became the standard, chances are it was actually shot in front of a blue screen.
I had and still love my jaguar but wanted a 3DO console soooo much but was way outta my league but 2 years ago i finally got the FZ1 3DO and i love it ❤
Why call yourself a rube? You had one of the most cutting edge gaming machines of the time. Yes, it sold less than the Sega Genesis and Snes but that was only due to cost. I myself went with the Atari Jaguar because it had the best version of Doom in 1994...I'm more of a rube than you are. ;) Addendum- Wasn't The Horde on the Sega Saturn? I remember playing it on a Saturn and it looking quite good...maybe I'm wrong?
I don't know of specifically which (I don't own a 3DO nor do I have any convertors I just run my AV compatible consoles on any older HD TVs with support for it (even a 3D TV for PS3/360) but there is AV to HDMi convertors or other video output types of there. I know of some on eBay but youtubers may have better coverage on details for these on price, which ones to go with and more. I don't look into them I just know they exist, so not really much I can tell you. I can't remember if the 3DO has SCART or S Video but I know it has AV/Composite. I find the cables to add Composite or Component to be a bit awkward but it makes sense why but if your TV has a port for those to add on the coloured cables then your in luck if not a convertor for HDMI to AV composite or component is your best option. There can be ones that have multiple on the one device but straight up one to the other HDMI/AV may be what your looking for. Some youtubers will have a better idea about types and brands about this than I do. Good luck. :)
I was born in 1987. My dad worked for Sony and won a contest at work and the prize was a 3DO. My very first game system was a 3DO. We had Gex, Crash and burn, and of the course the goat Road Rash mf 3D. It’s weird that my first console was a 3DO. Wild to think about. I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who owned one of these things ❤
Great video! Happy to subscribe to your channel! My two fave games for the 3DO that weren't mentioned are the original Samurai Shodown (which, naturally, is a perfect arcade port of the game) and Lucienne's Quest, which is a rare jRPG for the system (I think, perhaps, the only one in English). The 3DO was such an odd anomaly of the early nineties. I really wanted one when I was a kid, but that's mostly because I wanted anything hyped to hell by the gaming magazines. I--like everyone at the time--was mesmerized by FMV, even if the games rarely lived up to the hype. In the end, I vastly prefer the games that featured animated cutscenes to real life acting, something seen a lot more on the Sega CD and the PC Engine/TG CD. I wanted a PC Engine/TG CD so badly when I was a kid (especially the TurboDuo model) but I honestly didn't know a single place near me that sold one.
@@theretrospectivegamer oh yeah! I've only played Ballz for the SNES, which was pretty bad. I'm sure the 3DO version was better. I don't know how closely you follow the retro game hacking scene, but they have done some interesting things with games like Ballz on the SNES, like increasing the speed of the ROM so the game actually runs at a normal speed (they call them "fastROM" hacks). But hey, I'm sure the 3DO version is already just fine. Also, speaking of Ballz, to me, it seemed to be just a next gen knockoff of a game for the original Famicom (Japan only) called Joy Mech Fight, which is actually incredible. It combined the weirdness of having fighters made of little cellular bits animated into the shape of a person with the polish and finesse of the original Kirby games. There's some amazing work being done on hacking that game recently, adding characters, improving the mechanics, and of course translating it into English. Such a great game if you want to like Ballz based on the concept but you don't feel like it lived up to the concept.
90s nostalgia for a system that was DOA? No one had a 3DO except rich kids and the 3DO was not popular even for the rich kids who dumped it and played nintendo and sega instead.
This eas freaking great! The 3DO was always a mystery to me. I've stuck with Sega Genesis and then Saturn, but I was always curious about mystery consoles like the 3DO, turbo grafix and neo geo.
