Let's Get R*E*A*L: Talking About the 3DO

[ShakeWell]

I currently have a poll up on Patreon and for YouTube Channel Members to decide what the next system I buy will be. Currently, the 3DO is in a pretty wide lead, to the point that I would be legitimately surprised if something else came back and overtook it (not mathematically impossible, just unlikely). I had a friend with one back in the day, so I definitely did play it, but do any other Tyrants have memories or thoughts (or game recommendations) of the system?

Tell me about the 3DO!

 

[ASandoval]

I currently have a poll up on Patreon and for YouTube Channel Members to decide what the next system I buy will be. Currently, the 3DO is in a pretty wide lead, to the point that I would be legitimately surprised if something else came back and overtook it (not mathematically impossible, just unlikely). I had a friend with one back in the day, so I definitely did play it, but do any other Tyrants have memories or thoughts (or game recommendations) of the system?

Tell me about the 3DO!

I got my Goldstar 3DO from a weird store that was around the corner from my high school. It was basically a junk shop with whatever crap the owner had lying around. Paid about 30 bucks for it around 2003, 2004 or so, which I'm happy about.

The only games I've ever had for it are Return Fire (Ok, but not my kind of game) and a bootleg copy of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, though I hope to beef up the library for it one day. Mostly I just associate it with good memories about that shop. The owner died a few years back, so even without any games the system exists as a sort of a memorial since it's the only thing I know that anyone who remembers it has of that store (my buddy got a Sega Nomad from that place for a pretty good price too but that's long gone now). I don't even remember the name of the store, we all just used to call it 'Kevin's Shop'.

 

[Becksworth]

I think two of the big collector’s item games were Immercenary and Lucienne’s Quest, as they were both exclusive, generally well received, and kind of rare.

On the other end of the exclusive spectrum was Plumbers Don't Wear Ties, which is apparently one of the worst games ever.

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

Speaking of Plumbers Don't Wear Ties, that starred Jeanne Basone, who wrestled for GLOW.

I remember magazines saying that 3DO had the best port of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, though I don't recall competition for that particular iteration of SFII being very stiff at the time, and it seems that hasn't held up.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

I played one on a couple of occasions when friends rented them, mostly I remember playing D and the aforementioned port of Super Turbo. Good times! Except one time it was at a friend’s house where I was sleeping over and there was a creepy velvet clown painting on the wall. But the 3DO was also in the room, so I secretly stayed up late playing it, even though I wasn’t supposed to. I guess that’s a wash?

 

[Ghost from Spelunker]

I played Captain Quazar on a display model at Best Buy. It was pretty fun. Then a few years later I saw the port for Windows at CompUSA so I bought it and beat the whole game, it was a pretty fun game overall.

Other memories: Every time I went to Software Etc I saw somebody ask the employees to start up Off World Interceptor on the little TV on the counter at least once. It looked pretty good, but I never tried it myself.
I also saw a lot Road Rash and Crash 'N Burn being played on the demo TV. Crash 'N Burn looked stunning at the time.

 

[ShakeWell]

I remember magazines saying that 3DO had the best port of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, though I don't recall competition for that particular iteration of SFII being very stiff at the time, and it seems that hasn't held up.

Yeah, I mean, it was the only port of Super Turbo until the PS1 and Saturn versions. I remember playing it at my friend's house and thinking it was "JUST LIKE THE ARCADE, MAN" but having looked at footage since, it is pretty clearly not.

Twisted is another one I remember liking. Kind of like Mario Party, but less frustrating. Lots of FMV.

 

[Aeonus]

My older brother and I rented a 3DO in the mid-nineties and fell in love with a TRPG named Guardian War. I'm sure we rented some other games alongside it, but they are lost to the fog of history and only the game with the cute class-changing prerendered sprites remains.
Roughly a decade later, my now college-graduated brother would get a cheap 3DO and copy of Guardian War off of EBay. I didn't have the opportunity to play it again myself, but I understand it doesn't hold up. This shouldn't be surprising, considering that the interim period contained the entire PS1 lifespan, including Final Fantasy Tactics and Vandal Hearts.

And that's literally the sum whole of what I know about the 3DO. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

 

[jpfriction]

A kid in my school had one. Only game I remember seeing was what I remember to be Judge Dredd, but now that I look at a list of games that exist I guess maybe Demolition Man.

Anyway, he showed it to us because Sly pops up and says “You Suck” when you pick the easiest difficulty level, and he thought that was pretty cool.

 

[Mightyblue]

I vaguely remember it because my mother used to take me along to the local mall for different things every weekend (man, childhood in the 90's right?) and the fancy electronics shop next to the food court had a big 3DO display facing out the door for about a year or so. I think I got to play a few minutes of Escape Velocity once?

 

[ShakeWell]

A kid in my school had one. Only game I remember seeing was what I remember to be Judge Dredd, but now that I look at a list of games that exist I guess maybe Demolition Man.

Anyway, he showed it to us because Sly pops up and says “You Suck” when you pick the easiest difficulty level, and he thought that was pretty cool.

I can confirm that definitely happens. The 3DO was such a big deal that they apparently were able to pay/convince Sly to do a whole series of FMVs just for that version of the game.

 

[Phantoon]

I love the concept behind the 3D0. The idea that the royalties for each disc would be hugely less so it would be a better deal for developers seemed great on the face of it. Unfortunately that it had that knock-on effect on the cost of the console. I remember the enormous hype for it when it came out, then it just faded away with a bit of a whimper. I don't even remember seeing one in a shop here in the UK.

3D0s are pretty pricey on eBay, looks like I'll never experience one...

 

[Sarge]

I need to recap mine - the audio has crapped out on it.

Anyway, while you can play it on PC now with all the enhancements, the port of Star Control 2 is excellent on there. The enhancements you see in Ur-Quan Masters come from there.

 

[ShakeWell]

I don't see this poll going any other way at this point, so looks like it's 3DO time! Now I just need to figure out which model + mods will be the most-affordable.

 

[ShakeWell]

I have purchased an FZ-1 from a dude on Smokemonster's Discord. Way cheaper than any of the eBay options I found.

 

[John]

Sweet, are you going to RGB mod it?

I think there's only one ODE available for 3DO's so far, and it's super expensive for the FZ-1 models. Used game prices are pretty high for what you get, but at least there's no copy protection, so you don't have to pay $150 for bad FMV games unless you really want to.

 

[ShakeWell]

Yes, I am, and yeah, it is, but I just don't want to deal with not having one. It's won't be the most expensive solution I've paid for (I have doubts that anything will equal the Darksoft MVS cart).