Did anyone back in the 90s have any of the "luxury consoles"? (Neo-Geo, 3DO, CD-i...)

[Estil | 1,261]

On a related note, I wonder how many people back then had both Genesis and Super NES?  Or even better NES also included!  I mean regarding the console wars especially then it was like Republican or Democrat...you were one or the other.  Unless you and/or parents were really rich you couldn't be both.  And like I said before the TG-16 was the Ross Perot console  

Edited May 3, 2020 by Estil

[profholt82 | 60]

I had an Atari 2600 in the 80s, then got an NES in about 89 or 90, then a Genesis 3 or 4 years after that. But I grew up on a street with a bunch of kids, so I had a neighbor with a Sega Master System that I played all the time while I was still nursing my Atari, and my buddy down the street had a Commodore 64 which we played all the time.

By 93/94 when the 3DO, NeoGeo, CDI were around, I never owned one, but I was a Gamepro subscriber, so I kept up on what all was out at the time. When the 32x came out in fall 94, I got one and picked up Doom for it. This was at a time when Doom was only out for the 32x and Jaguar, and the one kid in the 6th grade who had a Jag didn't have Doom. At that time, you had to have an expensive PC to handle Doom well, so for a few months there, my 32x made me the envy of the 6th grade as we could play Doom on my tv. Hahaha, seems silly in retrospect, but it was a big deal at the time.

When I hit jr high or so (95), a buddy of mine got a 3DO, and we played quite a bit of it, but this was at the time when it was marked down because the Saturn had either just come out or was about to. The Playstation was on the horizon as well. But I remember playing lots of Road Rash, Need for Speed and Fifa Soccer during sleepovers and whatnot.

What's cool about that is about 4 or 5 years ago, that same buddy visited me, and got excited going through my game collection. When I asked him about the 3DO, he said that it was still in a box at his parents' house, and we worked out a deal for it, and I ended up getting it from him. It's actually become one of my favorite consoles over the past few years.

 

[Estil | 1,261]

It might be fun to maybe try one of these luxury consoles out but it's my understanding that finding one in good working order is (cliche, sorry) easier said than done.

[profholt82 | 60]

4 hours ago, Estil said:

Was it worth the pooling over?  Boy I hope it didn't turn out like this!!

PS: If Milhouse still wants that 1973 Topps Carl Yastrzemski with the big sideburns for that $30 can get him about a PSA 6...though I really think for that year you should spring for at least a 7 (about double that).

Granted the Internet/Ebay/PSA was still almost a decade away....I guess like Fresh Prince would say he wasn't think that far ahead!

I still have that card, "Mutton Chop Yaz." They are magnificent sideburns. 

[Estil | 1,261]

I hope nobody here was so desperate for money they resorted to this!  

 

[profholt82 | 60]

5 minutes ago, Estil said:

It might be fun to maybe try one of these luxury consoles out but it's my understanding that finding one in good working order is (cliche, sorry) easier said than done.

Well, the CDI has barely any games. It's got lots of computer software type of stuff, so I've never had much interest in it. And while I'd love to have a NeoGeo proper, I just don't want to put that kind of money into the hobby, super expensive. Maybe I'll get a Neo CD one of these days though, Neo for hobos as they call it. Hahaha

But I love the 3do. I don't know what the consoles run nowadays, but I don't think they're that bad, and there are several versions. What's cool is that there were over 300 games released for it, so there's tons of great stuff to play. I don't have a ton of games for it, probably 30 to 40, but it's been fun seeking out the games I like and collecting for it.

[Tanooki | 4,929]

NeoCD isn't worth it, the load times are absolutely wretched and the games have been diced up a bit more or less over the cart based choices.  I know it's super sketchy, but if you got one of those MVS 1 slots redone as a consolized system and got the 161in1 and if necessary too the 138in1(you'll have to dipswitch mod the daughter board off it) you can get almost the entire MVS library on 2 carts.  It won't cost you really much at all, and if you find you're in love with a game enough most of them are relatively cheap, it's the AES that's disgustingly out of control.

[Boosted52405 | 178]

I also never even knew of these things growing up in Iowa, hell the Saturn was a holy grail luxo type item in my head that no one had.  However, the PS1 had infinitely more appeal to me and was like the first thing I bought when I got a job at 13/14yo - a PS1 and a magazine with demo disc lol.  Rode my bicycle to Target for that mofo and mastered that demo disc (had Cool Boarders I think lmao).

[Tulpa | 3,488]

On 5/2/2020 at 9:33 PM, Estil said:

On a related note, I wonder how many people back then had both Genesis and Super NES?  Or even better NES also included!  I mean regarding the console wars especially then it was like Republican or Democrat...you were one or the other.  Unless you and/or parents were really rich you couldn't be both.  And like I said before the TG-16 was the Ross Perot console  

I had all three. NES, SNES and Genesis. And a Sega CD.

I didn't buy into the one or the other hype. They both had exclusives worth playing, so the idea of blind brand loyalty never clicked with me.

Edited May 10, 2020 by Tulpa

[Estil | 1,261]

46 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

I had all three. NES, SNES and Genesis. And a Sega CD.

I didn't buy into the one or the other hype. They both had exclusives worth playing, so the idea of blind brand loyalty never clicked with me.

Well yeah "not buying into the one or the other hype" or "blind brand loyalty never clicking with [you]" is easy when you and/or your parents had tons of money and can buy all those consoles...and add on...and games!  

I didn't even get a SNES until Christmas 1994...because my parents were all about that whole "you already have a Nintendo"  

Edited May 10, 2020 by Estil

[Tulpa | 3,488]

1 hour ago, Estil said:

Well yeah "not buying into the one or the other hype" or "blind brand loyalty never clicking with [you]" is easy when you and/or your parents had tons of money and can buy all those consoles...and add on...and games!  

I didn't have a ton of money. 

[cj_robot | 540]

3 hours ago, Estil said:

Well yeah "not buying into the one or the other hype" or "blind brand loyalty never clicking with [you]" is easy when you and/or your parents had tons of money and can buy all those consoles...and add on...and games!  

I didn't even get a SNES until Christmas 1994...because my parents were all about that whole "you already have a Nintendo"  

I used to find amazing deal at flea markets in the mid/late 90s. I got alot of my consoles that way like my Sega CD, 3DO and Jaguar. They weren't brand new, but they were current enough that I could still find "new" discounted games at stores.

After my NES, my parents never wanted to buy me a console again, so I had to get everything on my own.

Edited May 10, 2020 by cj_robot

[LostLevel83 | 85]

Yep. My brother’s wealthy friend had all the pricy game systems.

We rented a Neo Geo from the local grocery store for someone’s birthday. It was a big deal.

[MachineCode | 159]

2 hours ago, cj_robot said:

I used to find amazing deal at flea markets in the mid/late 90s. I got alot of my consoles that way like my Sega CD, 3DO and Jaguar. They weren't brand new, but they were current enough that I could still find "new" discounted games at stores.

After my NES, my parents never wanted to buy me a console again, so I had to get everything on my own.

I used to get NES games at the Roosevelt Field Flea Market on Long Island back in the early 90s for dirt cheap when my mom would drag us there. Looking back at what they were charging for new games on what was a current console at the time, these definitely "fell off a truck" and into my collection.

[AstralSoul | 502]

No never had one but as a kid I really wanted a Neo Geo. I never realized how expensive they were until later on. The rest in pretty sure I had no idea existed.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

A friend did, briefly--a 3DO.  He got it and 2 or 3 games with it for his birthday.  We came over for his birthday played that as well as Turtles in Time via a system + game rental from Blockbuster.  Apparently he ended up not really caring for the system and got his mother to return it then got her to dump that $700 on another friend's old PC he'd upgraded out of (386SX/25 w/CD-ROM, bad, baaad price even at that time) and ended up happy with that for a while.  I recall us playing Samurai Shodown into the ground until it was time for us to ride along to Blockbuster to help pick out games; overall great game save for the load times.  I ended up watching someone play the Jurassic Park game the following morning and thinking it looked like garbage.  That's one of the main reasons I picked up a 3DO later on when I came across one cheap ($20 or $30) in one of my local buy/sell/trade vintage/new game stores.  Discovered that they'd released a version of Star Control 2 for it and had an absolute blast replaying that game, but with new audio and voice tracks (looooong before The Ur-Quan Masters was even thought about).

[TDIRunner | 2,721]

The only example I have was a friend who bought a 3DO right after the first price drop.  We were both still in grade school, but he had a paper route which gave him some expendable cash (that's what made me get my own paper route later that year).  We really enjoyed playing it, and I wanted to get one for myself, but the PS1 was just around the corner, and i just made more sense to wait for that.  

I was well aware of all of the other consoles on the market because I subscribed to a few different gaming magazines that covered that kind of stuff.  But I didn't know anyone who owned any of the other obscure consoles.  

[RH | 4,895]

On 5/10/2020 at 3:40 PM, Estil said:

I didn't even get a SNES until Christmas 1994...because my parents were all about that whole "you already have a Nintendo"  

Oh, man I remember hearing that, except my parents never even got us a SNES.  I didn't get another home console after the NES until I could get a job, saved up and buy my own N64 (which was purchased on launch day!)  Fortunately, my grand parents bought each of the grand kid Game Boys the year they launched so I had to game on that for much of the early 90s.

[MrWunderful | 2,926]

Never had any back then, as I had to buy most of my gaming stuff with paper route money. 
 

but as an adult Ive had a 3do and an CMVS and the neo geo gets the most playtime out of almost all my old consoles. The games are just so fun, with high replayability. 

[Chuppa | 60]

Nintendo > Genesis > N64

Neighbors had a 32x and I always wondered what the hell that stupid thing was.

[Estil | 1,261]

Recent video of history of Neo-Geo...wow what a beast it is, hardware, joystick, and software alike!

 

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

Has anyone ever heard of someone own any of the super oddballs?

Stuff like CD32, CDTV, PC-FX, or even the GX4000?

[Tanooki | 4,929]

10 hours ago, MrWunderful said:

Never had any back then, as I had to buy most of my gaming stuff with paper route money. 
 

but as an adult Ive had a 3do and an CMVS and the neo geo gets the most playtime out of almost all my old consoles. The games are just so fun, with high replayability. 

You definitely have refined agreeable taste that's for damn certain.

[Estil | 1,261]

This might count as a semi-unpopular opinion but with all forgiveness for that "baby toys" commercial, I think even at the time if I had the money to spend having the Genesis(+CD?)/SNES/NES was a FAR better deal than any of these luxury consoles.  They say it's all about the exclusive games right?  Well name just five on each that would really make any of these luxury consoles worth the money.  

[Tanooki | 4,929]

^I'd agree with you, if it were on point but this is about the luxury ones.   And as far as deals go, on that end, financially speaking, you're right, especially as a kid/teen on an allowance.

I could name far more than five on the luxury Neo Geo, I could name 5-10x that many, but admittedly with the 3DO, CDi, even Jaguar, not a chance.  Sure they had some nice stuff, but coming up with 5 that weren't already on other hardware I can't.  But in all fairness, Neo Geo wasn't really a console, it was a re-pinned(and boarded since the shells are a bit smaller) arcade system with RCA output instead of RGB to a dedicated cabinet monitor.