Little update, the Dragons Lair speed issue wasn't down to regions, if you flick it back to 480i it runs at the correct speed so that's a bit of an anomaly but at least I can play it now. Neil
I think you got the 240p vs 480p thing reversed, hehe. Your PVM is just not very high res or good quality to show it. It was designed more as an external viewfinder for big studio cameras than anything else.. What I can recommend is Po'ed. A very nice shooter for the system.
It's because the 3DO's CPU is used to handle the conversion from 240p to 480i, so by turning the conversion off it results in extra CPU power for games to work with. This can result in some games playing at slightly higher frame rate at 240p, but some games tie their game speed to the frame rate, like Dragon's Lair does. It's also been known to affect Escape From Monster Manor & Another World, too.
@@Obscusion2 I don't think that's the issue; I remember thinking "That's awfully fast for NTSC vs. Pal" the same would go for CPU power, especially considering its just video it's playing with Dragon's Lair. It seems to be running straight up at double the speed; and then Trapexit's explanation down below fits what is going on much better. PS: I kept seeing a whole lot of rust-colored gunk at the base of the large capacitor you didn't replace; and at 15:23 when you replaced the tray you can still see it there; I don't know if you got the tray back out and cleaned it to, or you just missed it, but I figured I'd give you a heads up.
@@Obscusion2 This is entirely false. The CPU has nothing at all to do with the output resolution. The CLIO and DAC are responsible for the speedup on account of poorly written code. The exactly details on how it works can be found on the 3dodev site.
Been glued in my seat, great video. Had a very spoiled friend growing up had his old cloths dresser to hold just games not all them fit in it, hell he even got the failed virtual boy lol. Even with like 4 systems in his room the 3do was in the living room smart move by his parents lol he was a little wild and would rage from time to time. He had this sweet tv built for retro game rager lol had a gap and what seemed to be bullet poof glass over it can still remember 1st time i saw him whip a controller at it was crazy
@@RMCRetro you pronounce Matsushita wrong, listen to how Trip says it in the interview, it’s not phonetic. Its something I saw Techmoan look into ages ago and correct himself on.
agreed it´s agreat format. but maybe not the best title fot the breadth of the video. as it could mean the history of this one 3do unit and why it failed. it´s a bit like gamesack where they show the hardware inside and outside, only at rmc you get a much more thorough in depth look inside but also a mini documentary.
Star Control II was one of the gems of the 3DO system. They improved the graphics, animations, and music/sound over the PC version of the game. It really was a great game.
slight correction. the M2 DID see the light of day... just not in console form. M2 hardware made its way into arcade boards from Konami as well as kiosk units.
The "240p" mode really isn't a typical one. You can check the hardware section of 3dodev to find the technical details for those interested. It also cause issues with some games due to it only reporting odd frames back to the CLIO hardware which in turn causes a vsync counter to be double pumped. Games that used that specific counter therefore think the console is really displaying twice as fast and since the game logic is based on that frequency it runs upwards of twice as fast.
I was just going to reply that the switch did not feel right. Normally 480i should give a way better picture, but as with a lot of the consoles of the time , they were battling through a difficult transition to 3D as the technology was coming to the fore. The PS1 got it mostly right, but really it was with the 6th gen consoles that the video felt stable, clean and usable.
@@slowlymakingsmoke Not really sure what you mean. The image quality of the graphics hardware vs the DAC are different things entirely. The 3DO, PSX, Saturn, PS2, etc. output 480i. If not exclusively then in large part.
@@spawnlink That's true in the sense that they're using analog signals designed for 480i, but the 5th gen and earlier consoles mostly just display the same 240 lines repeatedly, making it effectively 240p. 3DO is obviously an exception, as are various N64 titles.
Brings back very fond memories of selling these back in the day! I think part of the problem in the UK is that they were sold in AV dealers (mainly Panasonic Technics Centres) rather than gaming stores. It was great for us in the shops, but I am not sure we got much work done as we were always playing golf on them!! There was of course the follow up console, the FZ-10 as well as the Goldstar version
Yup, got my fz-1 from an AV shop then discovered not a single high street retailer stocked the console, peripherals or any games. Had to use mail order for games as even the AV store didnt sell them, only the console. It was insanely expensive, £600+ iirc, in fact it cost more than my neo-geo aes. No wonder it flopped. Mine is still going, pulling duties as a cd player, its built like a tank. Even my save game files from the mid 90s are still intact in its battery backed up memory, thats seriously impressive tbh.
@@joshfacio9379 yeah i think that was mentioned in the video. i just wanted to mention that it was indeed used for its original purpose of games, at least in some small capacity, since it sounded like Neil wasn't aware of that part. :)
I remember the first time I walked into a game rental store and saw a 3DO my jaw hit the floor. The owner of the store called my friend and I over and showed us some sort of baseball game if I'm remembering correctly and the pair of us couldn't believe how great the game looked. It really was impressive at the time.
When I was at Uni in the mid 90s a friend lent me his 3DO for about a year. The best games I had were Wing Commander 3 (ahead of its time), Need for Speed (glad you covered this one) and Return Fire (3D top down shooter, reminiscent of Desert Strike).
After playing Road Rash on my friends 3DO i just had to have one! I sold my Amiga 1200 (which in hindsight I regret) towards the price. Jumping from floppy disc to CD was a big eye opener! Although there was way too many FMV games, there was some great games on the system. My friend had loads of games for it so I got to play lots ot titles, I owned it for just over a year. I sold it to upgrade to a PS1 ;)
This was a fantastic video; brilliantly done, and a great follow-up to the interview video with Trip Hawkins. I remember seeing a 3DO hooked up at a Burdines store in the electronics department in the early 90s and I was able to play the game Crash N' Burn...and while it was a good pack-in game which demonstrated what the 3DO was capable of (I remember being blown away by the graphics and sound), it just didn't have the sense of speed one would expect from a racing game. The interesting thing is, by the the time the 3DO was released in 1993, I had enough money to get the system and even a few accessories and games. Unfortunately, I had fallen for the marketing hype that Sega had generated for the Genesis and Sega CD and had picked up those instead, along with some games. Although the 3DO proved to be a commercial failure, it is one of the biggest regrets in my own gaming purchase history to this day. Mind you, that's not to say that I didn't enjoy playing the Genesis (ultimately, the Sega CD not so much), but I really wish I had been a more discerning consumer back then, because if I could go back and do it over, I would've picked up a 3DO instead. What ultimately drew me to the 3DO wasn't necessarily the FMV games (although they looked impressive for the time), but rather, the enhanced PC titles that were ported to the system. Some examples that immediately come to mind are Out of this World (Another World), Battle Chess, Stellar 7: Gir Draxon's Revenge, Star Wars Rebel Assault, Super Wing Commander, Wing Commander III, and even The Incredible Machine, to name just a few. At $700, one would expect this system to blow the 16-bit consoles away, but to get a better experience than what PCs could give at the time for a lower price was definitely an attractive prospect indeed. If you ever decide to do a deep dive video on the games available for the system, I would love to see the aforementioned games listed above be prominently featured, as I believe that those were not only some of the best games on the 3DO, but the best versions of those respective games as compared to their PC counterparts and other ports. Again, thank you so much for a fantastic video covering what is my opinion an underrated console, and take care. 🙂
Road rash was insanely good and a massive step up from the Megadrive and Amiga versions. Starblade was actually better than the arcade version graphically.
I remember always seeing these either mentioned or advertised in EGM; I knew I was never going to have one, and it disappointed me. That disappointment dissipated a few years later when I got a PlayStation. It's also kind of poetic when it comes to controller designs, right? The 3DO based its controller on the Sega Mega Drive, and the PlayStation based its controller design on the SNES. There's definitely a metaphor there...
Space Hulk was proper scary and Wing Commander 3 with Malcolm McDowell and Mark Hamill really impressed people coming around - not to mention actually being a good game!
at last, someone mentions it! Wing Commander was the only reason I kept my 3DO around as long as I did. I adored that game. It was so much more of a game than anything I'd played before. Space Hulk really was quite special too, very frustrating though. It seems to have been a niche game with you being the only comment that remembers it. I was waiting for them to cover it in this video as for me it shows the best abilities of the platform off more than any other game.
@@ClayMannloved Wing Commander 3, but I was completely unable to get anywhere in Space Hulk because I was a small child and couldn't understand what I needed to do. The idea of it being a tactical strategy game with FPS elements was totally alien, so I was trying to play it like an action game and would get overwhelmed and die immediately.
Either myself or my brother assembled the Sonic Christmas decoration - attached to the cover of the bright yellow Sonic the Comic shown behind Neil - and put it up on the tree that year :)
Return Fire was a lot of fun. I know FIFA supports at least 4 players because that's how many pads I had for mine. I also remember that because the pads were daisy chained, less sporting friends near the front of the chain would pull the wire out so you had no control.
There was an excellent RBG mod made by Black Dog Tech, They stopped producing it a while back but did open source it. There were a couple of places making and selling it after that but they are both now waiting for the needed chips to become available again before they can make anymore.
Dragon's Lair might be one of the games where using the 240p output causes the game to run too fast (it tries to run at double speed). Wolfenstein 3D and Escape from Monster Manor also have this issue. If a game is running too fast, try switching back to the standard (480i) output.
@@RMCRetro It´s beneficial in Need for speed, which is in dire need for speed and some other 3D titles. FMV benefit most visually from 480i, but not all.
I had the 3DO back in the day, and loved it ... especially playing SF2, and remember the frustration with the pad until I got a 6-button one. Loved this video - thanks!
The problem with 3DO was so many companies had to make profit from it. ARM on the CPU, 3DO on the design, Manufactures on the consoles, and Game developers. 3DO should have sold the Chips allowing different manufactures to make the Chips, then more or less sell those chips at cost to console makers. Royalties on games could have been used to partially subsidies those chips too.
whoa, its hard to believe those cable strain relievers were 3d printed. even for resin printing they look kind of mind blowing especially the flexibility of em.
I think the 3DO gets alot of flak being a business failure. I think you have to show alot of respect for Trip Hawkins and what he tried to accomplish with the 3DO. To be fair he tried something different and managed to get the machine to market with developers onboard! 3DO need for speed is absolutely impressive! Kudos to you trip.
Shit man he paved the way. The idea behind the 3DO was just way far too ahead of its time. The Original Xbox did what 3DO wanted to do I think. An all in one entertainment device with internet, music and movie capabilities. The tech just wasn’t there yet and what it did sport was already expensive enough. The world just wasn’t ready.
I remember seeing the game screen shots in the mags and really wanting one and then many months later I saw the price tag around the same time I saw Ridge racer screenshots for PS1 in Edge. I think the screenshots of Ridge Racer on the PS1 killed off sales for a lot of consoles of the mid - late 90s.
Back then, I had a friend that got one as a dev platform. He brought it over and we all gathered around the screen to drool over what we saw. But as you said in the video, the price tag was an absolute deal breaker for everyone I knew. We happily played away on our Amigas.
I had only eve heard of the 3DO in the context of its ultimate market failure, so it will be interesting to see a more complete perspective and maybe give it a fairer judgement.
I wish friends that were into stuff like this, It would be so fun to have a pal who wants to open computers, cook the chips and do some real nerdy repair stuff, projects even. Fantastic stuff guys, I love Britishness too!
At the time none of us kids was even interested in upgrading to a new generation of consoles to begin with. We were more like "imagine how many Mega Drive games you could buy with 700 dollars?" A new console doesn't only compete with future hardware but also with currently existing, established and popular consoles.
My memory of mad dog was on the CDI, I still have it, it worked pretty well with the gun. I had to take mine back to the shop as they had sold me a french version, happy to get the English version eventually. I bought my CDI used as someone had part exchanged it for a 3DO.
Great episode as always! Its great how you put the machine in the historical context using old magazines and even with your interview. The time when the 3do, ps1 and n64 came out the PC was becoming more more the first choice Gaming platform. Consoles had their exclusives though.
Fascinating insight into the 3DO but I'd expect nothing less from RMC! I'm surprised that given you mentioned the A1000 at the beginning that you didn't highlight that Amiga designers RJ Mical and Dave Needle put together the 3DO hardware for Trip - who was a supporter of the Amiga at EA and likely sought them out because of that history.
Great interview with Trip and great work on the restoration of the console! I remember reading about the 3DO console well before it was released and getting really hyped for it since compared to the 16-bit consoles it was a big step forward in specs. The super high price at launch meant that no-one I knew could afford it. Once the cost of the console came down to under $500 the Saturn and PS1 were both available and both of them were more powerful than the 3DO and cost less. So the 3D0 had a window of a little over a year to really establish itself but few could afford to buy into it and the rest is history. I worked at a Best Buy in the Midwest US during the latter part of the 3DO's time and the media folks that took care of that part of the store loved and hated the 3DO area. They loved it because they didn't have to spend much time on it since few games ever sold but they also hated it because things rarely changed for months at a time and they had to periodically tidy up the same games over and over again since customers messed with stuff buy didn't buy anything there. The SNES and PS1 were the 2 games consoles who's areas had the most attention since those were what sold best until the N64 was released and that caused the SNES area to shrink significantly.
For me this was the greatest era for gaming. We had been treated to Mega drive and SNES 2d brilliance and now this crazy leap into 3d multi media and who knows where! Console releases all over the place and as Edge used to say " the future is almost here...." I traded in my much loved Jaguar for a 3DO shortly after release day at a local independent game store (the big stores didn't stock it iirc). Think I paid £399 but maybe £499? Was silly money back then considering I was hourly paid and we lived in my girlfriend's sisters spare room but I never regretted it. It was, and remains a magical console.
Will always remember the issue of EDGE titled something like “As dead as a dodo” , the subject was the demise of the 3DO. Back then the magazine came sealed in plastic, I was on a London bus and as I opened the issue feathers came flying out from some page, as you can guess I had no idea what was happening until I got reading. Thank you Future!!!
I think it was an advert along the lines of don't buy a dodo, get a 3DO. Someone wrote in stating exactly what happened to you. I still have that issue somewhere, and the feathers. :D
I purchased one, for 500 dollars from a walmart in NW Louisiana as a young man. Bought 3 games, too. Ended up paying around 900 after taxes, and a couple of other things. Gex, Need for Speed, and Myst. And I LOVED it! A friend of mine borrowed it, because I was out of town working in the oilfield, and he disappeared to somewhere in North Carolina, and so did my AWESOME multiplayer 3do. Well, it was awesome to me, at the time, having intentionally skipped most sega products. My first system was an ATARI 2600, and second, in 1986, was an NES classic, and ever since, console wise, I've been a Nintendo fan ever since. I'm currently in the process of restoring a Nintendo 64, as a matter of fact. Just got to get my hands on the IPA that I need. Edit: Mine was the one with the spring loaded disc tray. Top loaded. Also, I'm mostly a PC gamer now, I just like nostalgic systems that got away from me. Ahh, the memories!
Oh ok, commercial failure. Yeah I get that. I got mine when it was like half price, $300 I think, and I remember it very fondly. Lots of great games, best version of road rash, way of the warrior, sewer shark...
When I lived in Japan I bought a Japanese 3DO. Don't know if it had the switch, but it's likely. Sold it to a local game shop along with a 64DD, Sega Megajet, Marty, and others. Did not realize there was so much life to it and the next time I'm there, I will have to see if it had that switch! I really enjoyed this video. Had no idea the 3DO could be so much fun.
Off World Interceptor was a good game with a sense of humour. Look up the story of why the cutscenes ended up receiving the Mystery Science Theater treatment. There was a football (soccer) game that supported 8 controllers, possibly an early FIFA.
Ah the nostalgia…I used to read both “Gamepro” and “Electronic Gaming Monthly” here in the states back in the day for my gaming information. My copies of each was destroyed in a recent flood. They were in a large cardboard box in storage at the time. I think I’ll subscribe because I like your format. Edit: Also had “Tips & Tricks” for the walkthroughs and cheat codes.
I saw both the 3DO and Jaguar being demoed at a trade show showcase here in Sweden around the time when both the SNES had gotten Starfox and the Mega Drive had gotten Virtua Racing released and I was thoroughly underwhelmed by what was on display. When the PS1 released here in Europe like a year after the 3DO it could have cost as much as the 3DO and it still would have beaten poor old 3DO to a pulp but with that price difference the 3DO was bazookad into total oblivion three times over while the Jaguar swiftly ran away and faded from store shelves. It was a massacre! I know there are people that like these systems, even though it's hard to fathom, but they had no chance against Sony's system. Even SEGA's Saturn struggled outside of Japan and Nintendo stayed in the game mainly through it's brand and 1st party games. I was a Nintendo fanboy at heart during the 8 and 16 bit eras but joined the Playstation hype the instant it was released. I mean Sony's consoles during that time even finally killed off SEGA as a hardware manufacturer while Nintendo had to fight for years until the Wii was released. It's crazy to think that Xbox managed to come out after all this and gain some real ground. Crazy times!
Xbox simply replaced Sega (they may even had a hand in Sega's demise). However, it's deeply unfair to associate the 3DO with the Jaguar. While slightly less powerful, 3DO visuals were absolutely comparable to PlayStation's, cross platform games were basically identical. If I was a fanboy of something, I was of Capcom and Sega's arcade games (not consoles) and later of NAMCO arcade hits. I too ended up getting a PlayStation but I always had respect for the 3DO, it was the first true next generation system.
Mad Dog and Crime Patrol are ok with the controller if you hold down one of the buttons while you're moving the cursor. I don't recall which but two of the buttons control how fast the cursor moves. Other games I recommend: - Battlesport - Hell - Samurai Showdown - Twisted - Return Fire
Love my 3DO... But I agree. Back in the day, it was impressive to wait for, but at that price, I didn't even know anyone who would even consider buying it... The FZ1 is also a great looking system on the shelf, even now... Knocking on wood, mine still reads CDs... I have it plugged into the CRT TV so I can use it for light gun games... (Corpse Killer is hysterical fun)
When I saw the 3DO in October 1993 running Crash 'n Burn on a huge 36" televsion at a computer show, it looked absolutely amazing. Then I ended up buying an import USA 3DO for £399 in April 1994. It came with an S-Video to Scart converter that delivered a really nice image on my Sony 25" television. S-Video looks much nicer than using Composite. I bought quite a few 3DO games between 1994-1995, and many of them were impressive for the time. Road Rash is easily my favourite 3DO game. I think the biggest problem with the 3DO tech was the CPU clock speed only being 12.5 MHz. A lot of programmers would have thought this was quite slow. The 3DO being outdated tech by 1995 was a huge problem. The PlayStation and Sega Saturn were much faster at running 3D games, so they ended up leaving the 3DO in the dust.
Hello from Brazil! This is the first video I watch on this channel, great work on the research of the magazines back then and also on the repairs! One game that I always tell ppl to play (with a partner preferably) is TWISTED. It's about a bunch of really stereotyped characters that compete against each other for a chance to come to the REAL WORLD! They do it via some games, like trivias, jigsaws and such, to get on top of the "stairs" that will lead them to our world. The cheesy presentation of the videos, characters and all that's shown there is so funny, that u guys are probably have a really good laugh playing it. Anyways, again, nice work... Cya guys around.
3DO, PS1, Saturn and N64 couldn’t compete with my parent’s PC running Duke 3D, Doom, MK1&3, NASCAR racing 2, Sam & Max, Space Quest 6, Sim City 3000 and NAPSTER. (+ a whole bunch of games I don’t remember)
Hey, regular viewer here, with a fact around Need for Speed: You noted at 43:30 that the bike racing game was much faster, maybe due to using sprites. That's not the reason. NFS for the 3DO was more realistic to actual car speed than other games were - in fact even the PC version of NFS! The doubled (?) the speed of it on the PC version. So that's the reason why NFS on 3DO appears to be so slow - it's just more realistic! ;)
I was lucky enough to work at a small video game store that imports alot of these new consoles back in the mid 90's as part of the school work experience program. I was a young lad and working for 2 weeks was a dream.
My first job, I had a3DO on my desk. I used it for playing music CD's as you didnt need to see the screen to advance/pause/etc thanks to the gamepad.. I couldnt use the cd rom in my pc as it was hooked up to the playstation dev card. Bit of an expensive cd player :D
I remember MEGA magazine being a bit obsessed with the 3DO for some inexplicable reason. They were lips to sphincter with Electronic Arts at the time so maybe that.
The 3DO was the most expensive console I've ever bought. Nearly $800 when it first dropped. I was so upset when they made cheaper versions later on to cut cost and the price. I loved the console though.
Part of me wonders if they packed the original with a keyboard, mouse and a VGA output if they may have had a better introduction at the higher price point. A "budget" way to play demanding PC games like Wing Commander 3 that got ported to 3DO.. I bought mine in the fall of 1994 when the price dropped to $399 - it started to pick up some momentum but Sony just killed them and Sega with their massive marketing budget later that year.
I would recommend the following games: Star Control 2, FIFA Soccer, Madden , Slam and Jam, Phoenix 3, Wolfenstien 3D, Shanghai, Bust a move, Incredible Machine, Johnny Bazookatone, Space Hulk, D , Shockwave 2, Wing commander III, Demolition Man, Bust a move, Burning Solider, Lemmings, Flashback, Star Wars Rebel Assault, Casper, Space Hulk, Scramble Cobra, Novastorm, Return Fire, Cannon Fodder, Twisted, Star Fighter, Star Blade, Primal Rage, Samurai Showdown, Braindead 13, The Horde, Captain Quazar, Deathkeep, Soccer Kid and some nice golf games. Also a nice Open Lara promo of Tomb Raider and (Korea) Firewall and Eye of Typhoon and a english translated Doctor Hauzer some of my favorites. Good luck and a Return Fire Maps of Death add. 3do also had a wonderful wireless controller Docs worth the price runs on AA batteries
I bought a 3DO at launch and had every game available, until the Saturn came out. Soccer Kid is another good platformer, Wing Commander III is great (Mark Hamill), Shockwave was another good 3D action game. For multiplayer, Twisted is a great Mario Party style game. The Horde is a fun action strategy game (with Kirk Cameron). Of course, you need to play Way of the Warrior, by Naughty Dog (yes the same Naughty Dog).
Fun fact the 3DO M2 hardware made it into a few arcade games. There's a guy here on RU-vid who is really into collecting obscure arcade hardware and he's got some of them. Think he's called video game esoterica
I got one of these in 94 and it was so unbelievable cool at the time. The games , especially those by EA, were very well produced. I'm not sure how I talked my mother into spending $700 on one. Still have it actually. Definitely had the best version of road rash of any console. It was a big disappointment when the M2 was cancelled.
I remember the hype very well. Everyone was talking about it but noone could afford it. In the end I don't know anyone that got it and I've never seen one for real.
Superb work on getting this upgraded and repaired it seemed a great system ,but i have always preferred 8 and 16 bit computers so back in the day i had no real interest in a consoles back then .
The retro comes first! I'm just happy to get whatever help I can in here to fix things up and hopefully tell a good story along the way. Thanks for watching Colin!
I'd never heard of the FM Towns Car Marty, going to have to investigate that. If you're looking for more car-based consoles, RMC, also check out the Hi-Saturn Navi. A flattened Hi-Saturn, it also had a PSone-style screen. Apparently it even had satnav.
I remember reading about the M2 in the gaming mags back in the day. It was going to blow away the competition with what it could do. Then it was delay after delay, till it was finally sold.
The 3DO was something I drooled over at the time and I was very lucky to play one at my cousin's house. It truly was spectacular compared to what we were used to seeing with the dominant 16-bit consoles of the era. I finally got my own 3DO a few years ago with a stack of games and I really love delving into its library - but I always return to Road Rash, The Need for Speed and Gex. As an aside, I've been keenly following the 3DO optimal drive emulator, and was ready to pull the trigger, but the current pound to dollar conversion rate is shocking and makes it a very costly purchase.
I spent an entire summer working everyday to earn a 3do, collecting cans, working part time at a super market, landscaping, surfing, pet sitting, dog walking, car washing, modeling watches, sold old game systems and hair pieces, anything to achieve its enormous price tag. Biggest let down system i ever bought. 5 good games. Return Fire, Shockwave, Alone in the dark, Road Rash, and Samurai Showdown .
for me the game that I always looked forward to play if I had a 3DO was Doctor Hauzer, shame it never came out in the US or Europe, but this days there's translated versions
