Where did you first encounter the 3DO?

[Rick Dangerous]

A kid down the street had a 3DO around 95. This was while we still all had NES and Genesis consoles and the N64 was still on the horizon. He was a latch key kid with wealthy parents and I remember being REALLY impressed with the 3DO at the time. It was light years ahead at the time of the 8-16 bit stuff. I didn't have that "mind blown" feeling again until I first saw the Dreamcast in action.

 

Where did you first encounter a 3DO and what were your impressions?

[+madman]

I first remember seeing one physically at an Electronics Boutique at a mall back when it first came out. I don't recall if they had a demo setup or whatever, but I remember the box and seeing the enormous price tag knowing there was no way in hell I'd ever own one at that price. I think I was never blown away by it simply because I knew I couldn't afford one, kind of like the Neo Geo years earlier. I don't even have memories of drooling over pics in magazines. I never really thought seriously about a 3DO until my local Best Buy had an open box FZ-1, I drove there twice a week after school hoping for more and more of a markdown, but at the $4.50 an hour (or whatever) I was making at the time it was hard to justify. Someone else scooped it up, I went off to college, got a PSX and didn't think about it again until last year when I found a NIB FZ-10. Now I'm glad 17 year old me didn't drop $400+ on that FZ-1

[Austin]

I don't think I saw a 3DO in action until I bought a cheap, used Goldstar unit off of someone in '97 or '98, can't remember which it was. I remember being reasonably impressed based on the price I paid and the games I received with it (Fifa, Shockwave, Bladeforce, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, and Gex--great starting lineup!). I naturally wondered why it didn't do better on the market, but as I dived further into the library I would begin to understand. Still, I enjoyed it thoroughly, and unlike something like the Jaguar, the hardware was certainly capable of competing and keeping relatively current with the rest of the market at the time. It's a bit of a shame it wasn't able to stick around longer.

[homerj]

I don't remember exactly but I'm sure I had read about the 3DO in magazines & saw it in game stored at the time. It looked so far ahead of other home consoles at the time that I traded in all of my SNES & Genesis stuff to get one. If I remember correctly I still had to put quite a bit of $ with it. The FMV stuff blew me away (yes, even Mad Dog Mcree) & I sang the praises if it to everyone I knew that played games, even after the PlayStation came out. Then a friend of mine brought his new PlayStation over. After seeing Warhawk & a couple of other games he had I knew the 3DO couldn't compete. I loved my 3DO then & I love it now but it probably had the shortest life span for me than any system I've ever owned.

[haightc]

I think in a Sears, FZ10 think I played Chaos Control on it... not sure of the year though

[+save2600]

I think in a Sears, FZ10 think I played Chaos Control on it... not sure of the year though

Sears never carried the 3DO... that was a flip-top Magnavox CD-I you played Chaos Control on.

 

I worked at Sears at the time of its release and the stores in and around Chicagoland didn't carry them anyway. They were heavily invested in the CD-I format at the time. Besides carrying all the various systems, DV card and Mpeg1 movies, they had software teams producing employee training discs for CD-I. The good 'ol days.

[+save2600]

I followed the development of the 3DO in magazines at first, then saw them at EB, Babbages and the Panasonic store in Gurnee Mills outlet mall BITD. Had already had Neo*Geo by then and a CD-I, but never saw the value in 3DO. Especially at $700, but not even at $400 which they seemed to sit at forever. Guess they closed them out at around $99-$129, but my interest had totally waned by then. 3-button controller and knowing what games were available by that time - just never saw the appeal really and is one of maybe 3 North American consoles I never bought into - new or used. And to this day, don't regret it!

 

Most of the games I liked for it were available on other systems, so there's that of course. Was just too pricey a system for its own good. Had it been released at a more down to earth price point and had more developers onboard early on, would have been a different story.

[crtfreak]

I first saw one in early 94 at Coastal Computers. It was a small local computer store that carried the 3do. I remember they even had a huge colored neon sign in the window. I remember playing Crash n Burn on the store demo unit

 

It wasn't till early 95 that I finally bought one at Walmart when they had the fz-10 Gex bundles for 299.99

[crtfreak]

Sears never carried the 3DO... that was a flip-top Magnavox CD-I you played Chaos Control on.

 

I worked at Sears at the time of its release and the stores in and around Chicagoland didn't carry them anyway. They were heavily invested in the CD-I format at the time. Besides carrying all the various systems, DV card and Mpeg1 movies, they had software teams producing employee training discs for CD-I. The good 'ol days.

 

I played Chaos Control at Sears also on a Magnavox 450. I remember they had two on display on sitting on the counter to a Magnavox CRT and one behind the counter playing Forest Gump

[BassGuitari]

Pretty sure the first time I saw a 3DO was at Software Etc. in the local mall, running Supreme Warrior. There was actually a small crowd around it. FMV seemed like the future of gaming at the time, and the 3DO itself was pretty exotic and had an aura of high-endness.

Then I actually got to play Supreme Warrior, and that was the end of that.

Still, when my family got a Packard Bell computer a year or two later, it included a gaggle of software including Mega Race, which I thought was absolute tits because it was a "3DO game." Despite the Supreme Warrior demos at the store, the 3DO was still considered a pretty sexy system in my area (partly fueled by the mystique that came from nobody frickin' having one) until the PlayStation came out.

[Prosystemsearch]

I first heard of the 3DO via Screwattack on youtube years ago.

[Silverfleet]

Back when I was a kid, a rich friend of mine was told by his parents that if he got his grades up, he could get a video game of his choice. He wanted Starblade, which was a giant Namco arcade cabinet that cost thousands of dollars. His parents said ok, and he kept his end of the bargain.

 

When his parents told him that there was no way they were fitting a giant arcade cabinet in the house, they agreed to settle on the 3DO. This was close to its release, so they laid out some decent cash to get it. He got Starblade, Samurai Showdown, Quarantine, and one of the Putt Putt games in addition to the console and Crash and Burn. It was really cool at the time, and having good ports of Starblade and Samurai Showdown were awesome at the time! Someone stole it from his house during a house party years later.

 

I picked a Goldstar 3DO off of a coworker about 12 years ago; he was clearing out his storage space before moving to the other end of the country and he brought it in and gave it to me. I just hooked it up for the first time in years about two weeks ago. It's pretty cool, even today.

[jce3000gt]

I got mine on my 15th birthday in 1994 from my mother. Totally out of the blue too as I didn't ask for it. She knew I loved video games so she probably asked the Foley's employee what to get for her son who loves video games. LOL I believe she got it on the first price drop, but that was a long ass time ago.

[TDIRunner]

A friend of mine actually owned one of these in high school that he bought new. I remember thinking how awesome it seemed at the time. We played PO'ed and Gex for hours. I always wanted one, but finding PO'ed available for the PS1 caused me to lose interest. Never thought much about it for many years, but eventually picked up an FZ1 3 or 4 years ago for a good deal. I still enjoy the system, but I don't find my self wanting to spend much money one it. I wouldn't mind eventually upgrading it with one of the USB mods.

[Nebulon]

At a friend's place.

 

He loaded up Space Hulk and I was like, "Wicked!"

[jce3000gt]

My mother surprised me for my birthday in '94 with one. I was thrilled!

[Scotterpop]

My first exposure to 3DO was at the local mall in the old Electric Avenue department of Montgomery Ward. I had just started working there in '94 and was thrilled to be working in the part of the store that sold video games! They had an impressive free-standing kiosk for it with these fins on the sides that housed those huge cardboard game clamshells. Naturally, I was blown away by the (at the time) cutting edge graphics of games like Crash 'n Burn and Gex. And I was equally floored by the price tag… $700!!! Yep, that really was the asking price. So to my knowledge, we never actually sold one, go figure! At the time, we also had demo units for the Philips CD-I and JVC X-Eye. Those were eventually phased out when the PS1 juggernaut launched the following year. But I'll always have fond memories of the 3DO for that brief, shining moment when it really was the coolest kid in the room!

[Gabriel]

I saw it in magazines first. I started really wanting to play Star Control II, Total Eclipse, and Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed.

 

The first time I saw the real system in action was at Babbages in the local mall. They had a little demo display set up at the front of the store running Total Eclipse. I think it was the only game I saw running on it before I bought one.

 

I guess I bought the system sometime in early 1994. I think it was March or maybe April. I had just got my tax return, and intended to blow it all on a 3DO and a game (probably Star Control II). I was pleasantly surprised when I found out the system had been marked down to $299 and came with Total Eclipse. I also bought Star Control II and Need for Speed. There was a sampler disc with a demo of Gex and something that can only be categorized as a horrible shareware game called Racing in Hell or something like that. It also had information about a mail in offer for a free copy of Gex.

 

Total Eclipse looked great at the time but turned out pretty horrible. I barely played it after the first week I owned the system.

 

I ended up not really liking Star Control II. It wasn't really what I expected after having played the Genesis version so much.

 

Need for Speed was the winner. It was the game I played the most on the system, It alone was worth the price of the console.

[Lendorien]

It's been fun reading people's memories of this machine. I've always been fond of the 3DO. I think if the price point hadn't been so high, it could have been a serious contender. As it is, it's still a respectable system with some very good games. Definately ahead of its time with some features that broke new ground.

 

I'm pretty sure I encountered one of these at a store around '94 when I was in high school in Saginaw. I remember being at a Sears and seeing the CDi (and being slightly unimpressed by the Zelda game with it's slow loading times and cheesy animations), and later, the 3DO playing Gex, I think.. It's hard to know. I was 17 at the time.

 

My first real encounter with the 3DO was about 7 years ago. I was at a Goodwill and saw a Goldstar one sitting on a shelf. At that point I wasn't collecting yet, so I thought maybe it was an early DVD player or something. I did see the controller port and the 3DO label, but without a smart phone, I had no way of knowing what it was. I kick myself about that once an a while.

 

About 6 months later, now a little more informed, I found a Panasonic Fz-10 at another Goodwill and snapped it up for 10 bucks. It came with two controllers and I happened to get four games with it at the same time. Need for Speed, Jurassic Park Interactive, and both of the Shockwaves. I've had it ever since. I have about 6 games for it as it's never been one of my main collecting focuses. I have a more than a few AHEM... downloaded games for it, but when I play it, I tend to play Need for Speed on it.

 

I would love to get Star Control II for it as Star Control II is easily in my top 10 games overall. Definitely one of my favorite thrifting pickups. I can't think of a system I got through thrifting that I'm more fond of, perhaps aside from my APF TV-Fun 401 that still gets pulled out at parties.

Edited June 28, 2017 by Lendorien

[jce3000gt]

It's been fun reading people's memories of this machine. I've always been fond of the 3DO. I think if the price point hadn't been so high, it could have been a serious contender. As it is, it's still a respectable system with some very good games. Definately ahead of its time with some features that broke new ground.

 

I'm pretty sure I encountered one of these at a store around '94 when I was in high school in Saginaw. I remember being at a Sears and seeing the CDi (and being slightly unimpressed by the Zelda game with it's slow loading times and cheesy animations), and later, the 3DO playing Gex, I think.. It's hard to know. I was 17 at the time.

 

My first real encounter with the 3DO was about 7 years ago. I was at a Goodwill and saw a Goldstar one sitting on a shelf. At that point I wasn't collecting yet, so I thought maybe it was an early DVD player or something. I did see the controller port and the 3DO label, but without a smart phone, I had no way of knowing what it was. I kick myself about that once an a while.

 

About 6 months later, now a little more informed, I found a Panasonic Fz-10 at another Goodwill and snapped it up for 10 bucks. It came with two controllers and I happened to get four games with it at the same time. Need for Speed, Jurassic Park Interactive, and both of the Shockwaves. I've had it ever since. I have about 6 games for it as it's never been one of my main collecting focuses. I have a more than a few AHEM... downloaded games for it, but when I play it, I tend to play Need for Speed on it.

 

I would love to get Star Control II for it as Star Control II is easily in my top 10 games overall. Definitely one of my favorite thrifting pickups. I can't think of a system I got through thrifting that I'm more fond of, perhaps aside from my APF TV-Fun 401 that still gets pulled out at parties.

 

I agree with your assessment about price. The price, focus on FMV games, and also the lack of 3rd party game support was the killer for it. Though mostly I blame price I do believe the other two aforementioned categories were equally responsible for killing it. If it had some of the major developers port or code games from the other systems on the 3DO and convinced companies like Squaresoft, Working Designs, Falcom, and Enix to port/make jRPGs for it the system would of been a monster. Just imagine what the Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana) original CD version of the game would of been like on the 3DO? If the 3DO had full keyboard and mouse support imagine the PC game ports? Imagine WarCraft II in 1995 and StarCraf in 1997 being released on the 3DO and PC? The system handled arcade games at the time very well (*see Super SF2 Turbo) so I know it could of also been a great alternative to the NeoGeo. So many possibilities squandered and that is what makes me sad. The 3DO could of almost taken a large market share % away from the big 3 if they would of played their cards right. Another disappointing thing is homebrew never really got started on the 3DO so any fan-made games like what we see for the NES, SNES, and Genesis are non-existent here on the 3DO.

 

Before my mother bought me mine I did see the display at a local Foley's store in Texas and thought it was pretty cool at the time. I never imagined a few months down the road I'd have one.

[DJ Clae]

-Best Buy. The store manager was changing games and showing it off. Crash and Burn and Dragon's Lair. Saw the CD-I for the first time at the same store.

 

-Dayton's which was later bought by Macy's. Not an electronics retailer, but had a small appliance section in the basement. It was just the kind of overpriced item they would carry. Of course Pebble Beach Gold Links was running on display.

[Montrealer]

I had never really heard about it until my family got one in 1993. Our house was robbed clean while on vacation, including my SNES and games. The insurance company offered to replace for whatever console was available, so my dad actually suggested we get an "upgrade" to the SNES by getting a more recent machine.

I already knew I didn't want a SegaCD, so we got a 3DO with Crash n Burn and Dragon's Lair. It wasn't long before I bought a SNES again HA! But I kept the 3DO and I always thought it was sorta cool, even if it was difficult finding good games for it at the time.

[UHATEIT]

 

I had never really heard about it until my family got one in 1993. Our house was robbed clean while on vacation, including my SNES and games. The insurance company offered to replace for whatever console was available, so my dad actually suggested we get an "upgrade" to the SNES by getting a more recent machine.

I already knew I didn't want a SegaCD, so we got a 3DO with Crash n Burn and Dragon's Lair. It wasn't long before I bought a SNES again HA! But I kept the 3DO and I always thought it was sorta cool, even if it was difficult finding good games for it at the time.

 

That's too bad you got robbed clean, but pretty awesome if you were able to get a more expensive system out of the deal! As SNES come cheap compared to 3DO systems even back then so you made out pretty well!

[Magnum0ik]

A friend of mine had one back in about 94, when they came out. He got it with Fifa and at the time had a Mega Drive so to me seeing Fifa life this was magic. After seeing games like Demolition Man (I am a big Stallone fan), Foes of Ali and others I had to have one so I traded my Mega Drive along with around 10 games and picked it up.

 

I didn't really have a 3do for long as I got a little frustrated with, firstly I didn't know many people with one (only this 1 friend) and secondly, not many places were selling the games and there wasn't many games coming out (no internet then) so it wasn't long before I traded for a Saturn.

 

I have regretted this ever since and I finally picked one up again around a year ago - I first got the FZ-1 a year or so ago and have since swapped this for the FZ-10 as I prefer this model. I am now building up the games, aiming for as close to a full set as I can get.