Console Debate #2: 3DO

[fox | 1,665]

*There are various 3DO systems by different companies, so this is more "3DO Console Family"

Edited November 14, 2020 by fox

[DefaultGen | 5,401]

3/10. Like the SMS, bad controller and weak library. Star Control II is my absolute jam and makes me want to bump it up to a 4, and collecting the porn games is also fun. But it’s a small port-filled library and I’m never saying to myself “Boy I really need to play the 3DO version of [Myst, Theme Park, Night Trap, Street Fighter, Dragon’s Lair, Out of this World, etc.]”

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

Worst than SMS. At least the SMS was competing against the NES.

3DO was competing against the Jaguar and CD32.

I honestly cannot think of a SINGLE good game on the system that wasn’t available on other platforms...and there are just 10 to many porn games for the system.

Seems me and @DefaultGen once again line up. Damn echo chamber /meta

Edited November 14, 2020 by ThePhleo

[Tabonga | 2,317]

26 minutes ago, ThePhleo said:

 

I honestly cannot think of a SINGLE good game on the system that wasn’t available on other platforms...and there are just 10 to many porn games for the system.

 

Never played it but Lucienne's Quest was supposed to very good - it was released on the Saturn also but only in Japan.

[ifightdragons | 234]

Hot garbage of a console with an awful library.
Road Rash is excellent though, but you might just as well play the Saturn version.

[ifightdragons | 234]

On 11/14/2020 at 8:12 PM, DefaultGen said:

3/10. Like the SMS, bad controller and weak library. Star Control II is my absolute jam and makes me want to bump it up to a 4, and collecting the porn games is also fun. But it’s a small port-filled library and I’m never saying to myself “Boy I really need to play the 3DO version of [Myst, Theme Park, Night Trap, Street Fighter, Dragon’s Lair, Out of this World, etc.]”

I agree that the 3DO sucks. But comparing it to the SMS is harsh.
The SMS has a lot of quality titles. You might not enjoy them, but I can list you 30-40 objectively very good SMS games, easily.

Edited December 3, 2020 by ifightdragons

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

1 hour ago, ifightdragons said:

I agree that the 3D0 sucks. But comparing it to the SMS is harsh.
The SMS has a lot of quality titles. You might not enjoy them, but I can list you 30-40 objectively very good SMS games, easily.

This is a multi series topic so he was referencing the previous one where SMS was the console in question.

2 hours ago, Tabonga said:

Never played it but Lucienne's Quest was supposed to very good - it was released on the Saturn also but only in Japan.

Looked at a few gameplay videos. Seems like an average and maybe even uninspired generic JRPG. The 3D terrain is probably unique for the time, but I certainly wouldn’t go out of my way to play it specifically because of that.

Judging from looks alone that is.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

I've gotta say, this system represents the low point in the history of gaming for me personally.  Since it was so expensive, a few friends and I pooled our money and rented the machine and a whole bunch of games from the local video store shortly after it came out.  We were all psyched and couldn't wait to try it.  Well, by about the 4th FMV game, I was pretty much done with "the next generation in entertainment."  I actually avoided the original Playstation when it first came out because I thought it was just going to be Sony's version of the 3DO with all FMV games.

I will say that the 3DO port of Road Rash was really good, to the point that it was pretty much all we played out of 8 games for the rest of that weekend, but the Road Rash games can be found on a ton of other consoles at this point, so I honestly can't think of any reason to ever play this system again.

2/10 for me.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,516]

Never played one.  Or maybe I did in Best.  Or maybe those were CDis.  Who knows.

As others said, the library gives a 3-4/10 impression.  Not sure if I'll vote 

[Tanooki | 4,932]

Never owned it, researched it back then, and in the years off and on since to see if anything more would come of it.  But nope it didn't.

3/10 here, it's not a total dumpster fire, but it was a disaster otherwise.  Grossly overpriced when it arrived.  It under performed, and while it got some decent ports, even a few excellent, it's that, ports.  There wasn't any big reoccurring or much of a single 'IT' game you'd have to own to justify that thing either at the asinine $700 I think it came out at, or even when it was half or less when it was being put to death either.  I mean even the Neo Geo AES with that sickening $400 price tag at the time with $200 carts was more justified given what that did offer and consistently for years, but 3DO or as i'd call it the Three Dee ZERO, it just had ZERO value.  The hardware wasn't awful, nor were the games, but also neither were great.  Trip tripped up, never should have released in the state it was let alone that nauseating price either.  The stuff Sega and Sony would have out rightly put that thing out of its misery.  Hell even the Jaguar CD or not had a better thing going for it and that says a lot.

[Renmauzo | 1,199]

Does anyone remember any of those kids trivia/gauntlet game shows back in the 80's and 90's? There was one (can't remember the name) which always had a grand prize of a 3DO and 3-5 games, and they did a good job of making it look cool (especially Road Rash), but I remember seeing the price in the Consumers Distributing catalogue around Christmas time and thinking I would never know what it was like to play.

Flash forward to 2016 and I bought a boxed console with a few games on Yahoo Japan for about $50, completely on a whim (wasn't even looking for a 3DO). I tried Policenauts, a golf game (yes, I like those), and SSFIITurbo for a few minutes each, packed it all back up thinking it was neat enough, and brought it all in to my local Microplay to trade.

I really like the design (aesthetics) of the Panasonic 3DO FZ-1 model specifically, and it's a fairly potent console for 1993, but sadly, Trip just couldn't get devs of any repute and/or pedigree to get on board; I'd have to go with a 4/10.

That said, given peoples' varying tastes, it's probably at least worth a curious look to those who've never tried it. There are some 3DO fans out there, so you never know if you might be one until you try.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

Apparently I'm alone in liking the system, lol.  It was neat and decent for its time, for what it was trying to do.  Star Control II is great on it, but I find that it's got a lot of decent titles, some of which I first played on it.  It's not incredible nowadays, but compared to Sega CD and various PC CD games of the same era?  Hands down I'd be playing the 3DO.  The CDI was out and out garbage (I think Flashback is the only halfway decent game I've played on that, with controllers being too excessively difficult to get your hands on if you don't already have them), but I think the 3DO was decent for its era and pretty much top dog of the pre-Playstation CD consoles.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,516]

@fox thanks for running this.  I'd say it's a hit through two weeks.

[CMR | 519]

It was a good idea, and had some nice hardware.  It was way too expensive and didn't have enough good games though.

Edited November 15, 2020 by CMR

[SpoonMan Abrams X | 697]

Was some interesting games on it, but they definitely all ended up elsewhere and were better off for it. 3/10

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

A couple ports I might play, but nothing I am willing to go out of my way for.

[nrslam | 474]

 I guess I'm approaching this differently than most voters, since I got my systems & games used before the price explosion.

It wasn't expensive to me (1st system was $7 and games were $2 each) so I don't care what it cost initially.

Sure most of the good games weren't exclusive, but I don't necessarily have the other versions of those games, so the 3DO is what I fire up to play some of them.

I find the FZ-1 to be one of the very best looking systems around, it stacks well (hurray for flat tops and front-loader design) and it seems to have been built like a tank.  All of my FZ-1's (I've had, I think, 5 of them over the years) have worked great.  Can't say the same about other vintage optical-drive systems.

Resale value is great.

 

[RH | 4,898]

Never held a controller, much less played one. I always saw this system as a mystical machine that existed, but I'd never seen along with the Neo Geo and Turbo Grafx.

You guys keep saying the hardware was pretty awesome. Ok, so the OG games may suck but does this thing have an active homebrew scene? Curious, are any games actually really good and show off what could have potentially come fr this unit if it had the dev support?

[Nintegageo | 582]

Never played it or been interested in it either. I do think the actual console design is cool.

[PII | 1,884]

In it's heyday I actually new a guy who had one and although I never actually saw it in action, let alone played it; input from a mutual friend was that they both thought it to be quite good.  Based on what little I know about it, it's been in the category of tacit interest.  In other words, if I found one in working condition for a real deal, I'd probably pick it up and make some concerted effort to try out the best it has to offer, but It's definitely not even remotely close to the must have list.  For that, it seems like it would require a prospective gamer to be both especially and insouciantly interested in that particular era of gaming ie. 4th gen. / 5th gen.  

Personally I'm pretty interested in that era. ie. I'm very into SNES / GENESIS, into N64 / PS1 as well, would be interested in a SATURN; JAGUAR seems yet a bit more interesting than 3DO, NEO GEO would be awesome to have, but price is a bit of a factor and I'd love to get my hands on a TURBO DUO.  After all that it seems a bit of a stretch to get interested in 3DO.  

From what I know, it was made possible by the same guy behind ELECTRONIC ARTS.  This is just my opinion, but from my experience, games developed/published by EA can be summed up as: a minority of good/great or memorable games amidst a sea of trash / typical poorly aged and forgettable sports games.  My experience with EA games is limited more or less to the 20th century so I have no idea what they've done since.  

At present I don't see a substantial interest in early 5th Gen. gaming technology anywhere on the immediate horizon, but I suppose that could change.  The closer things get to "Virtual 3D "Reality" " the more likely it is that programmers might experience a resurgence of interest in its roots.

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

It's okay if you're playing by yourself, but how they do 2 player is awful (the second player's controller plugs into the top of the first player).

I do like the 3DO versions of Return Fire, Road Rash, and Need for Speed the best.   Plus some other decent games make it an okay pickup now if you find a cheapo one.

[Tulpa | 3,491]

One of my college roommates had the cheaper Goldstar version (It was like less than half the price of the Panasonic one, and came later.) He had the Shockwave game that I managed to beat one afternoon.

He kept saying he should have bought a Playstation, though.

[Tabonga | 2,317]

15 hours ago, darkchylde28 said:

 It's not incredible nowadays, but compared to Sega CD and various PC CD games of the same era?  

For a really small US library the Sega CD had a really high proportion of great and very good games IMHO.  I don't think the 3DO library compares at all.

[Tulpa | 3,491]

Yeah, Sega CD is awesome if you ignore the FMV dreck (and even those can be entertaining with a group of friends, some alcohol, and a generous amount of snark.)

[Reed Rothchild | 9,516]

28 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

One of my college roommates had the cheaper Goldstar version (It was like less than half the price of the Panasonic one, and came later.) He had the Shockwave game that I managed to beat one afternoon.

He kept saying he should have bought a Playstation, though.

Kinda puts it in perspective, right?

Two CD-based 32 bit systems that came out around the same time.

Now compare the top 100 games for both libraries...