Is the 3DO worth getting?

[youxia]

3 hours ago, Austin said:

I suppose the faux "high-resolution" look has its own certain kind of charm considering the 3DO was the only platform at the time that did it across the board, but trust me when I say that everything looks way more solid in 240p

I hear you, but yeah, as we said the 480i has some sort of original value, and also this console is just a side interest for me so I'm not that bothered about the video output. Plus, I don't know anybody around here who could attempt to do it and I have zero soldering skills.

 

I guess I could also look at forcing 240p via emulation on my crtemudriver PC.

 

14 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

I discovered this site recently. I wonder if full motion video games have their fans, just like any other genre or style?

Nice find.  Back in the day I was vehemently anti-FMV, probably with good reasons too, but now can enjoy these games quite a lot and aim to explore this genre much more. They have certain cheesy-funny charm, and some are even quite playable...

[Flojomojo]

They are definitely a curiosity now. Modern takes like UFO On Tape and Her Story are fun twists that could have been done on old hardware. 

[dudeguy]

Im a big fan of the 3DO. Crash N Burn is a lot of fun. Immercenary is a trip, even if the difficulty is jacked

[Pete5125]

On 5/23/2003 at 2:59 PM, Ze_ro said:

I should point out that there's an emulator for the 3D0 which was just released recently. You might want to try it out before buying anything. I haven't tried it myself, but check out FreeD0

 

As for the different models, a friend of mine has the original tray-loading model, and the thing is built like a tank. This is one of the few consoles that might rival (or possibly out-do) the Atari 2600 for durability! It also stacks nicely in case you have a big collection and not much space

 

As for games, frankly most of them were forgettable. I remember back in the days when I had a Jaguar (at the time, the 3D0 and the Jag were competing against each other, before they were both destroyed by the PSX), I really wanted Way of the Warrior... it looked like such an awesome game! Why did Kasumi Ninja have to suck so bad? Why couldn't they have made it as good as WotW???

 

... years passed ...

 

When my friend got his 3D0 about a year ago, one of the games he got with it was Way of the Warrior, and the game really, really, REALLY sucks! It may actually be worse than Kasumi Ninja, I can't be sure. I can't believe I was so envious of this game years ago! Anyways, that's the end of my WotW story. Don't buy the game.

 

--Zero

WotW, graphics for the time amazing, music insane it had true Rock and roll playing as you played game, character were standard fighting game. Good variety. Background moves like a movie wow. 

With all the good what could be the bad, load time, yeah standard cd load times but while annoying not the issue.

It's the control , 1st off Panasonic daisy chain controllers were actually worse than Jag controllers with their weird generic sega genesis design add that to a 30 Second input lag. Makes the game almost unplayable.

 

Oddest thing as so much is for the time better than competition.

[Gunstar]

On 9/15/2022 at 5:26 AM, Pete5125 said:

WotW, graphics for the time amazing, music insane it had true Rock and roll playing as you played game, character were standard fighting game. Good variety. Background moves like a movie wow. 

With all the good what could be the bad, load time, yeah standard cd load times but while annoying not the issue.

It's the control , 1st off Panasonic daisy chain controllers were actually worse than Jag controllers with their weird generic sega genesis design add that to a 30 Second input lag. Makes the game almost unplayable.

 

Oddest thing as so much is for the time better than competition.

 

Since this is my first post in the thread, let me say first directed at @youxia that yes, the 3DO is still worth getting even if you pay over $100 for a used console.

 

I have a 3DO and Jaguar as does the guy you are quoting, and I have both WotW and Kasumi Ninja, and graphically they are on a par, also on a par in game control, which is terrible. Yes, WotW had better sounding music it gets off the CD than KN's cartridge. But the later released Ultra Vortek for the Jaguar was also on cart and trumps both graphically and the controls are spot on. Though the default game speed is slighly slow, but there is a code to enter for an option of turbos speed which really makes it outshine itself and the other two fighters and why they didn't choose it as the default speed and openly allow for a slower "training" speed instead, is beyond me. UV is the best fighter between both systems and the music is very near CD quality on cart, and sounds great, the sound track booms! but I also think that UV is on a 4MB cart and KN is only 2MB.

 

As to the much malign Jaguar controller, I definitely prefer it to any 3DO controller, it is much more comfortable in my hands and the pro-controller that adds 3 more buttons and shoulder buttons is the best between them.

 

Both systems have games on one that than the other, both in terms of ports of the same game, and original titles. Or better games in certain genres than the other. 

 

I purchased both systems (3 including the Jag CD add on) on clearance, all combined for the same price as the Playstation and Saturn cost in 96', and the bonus of all 3DO and Jaguar games on clearance for a few dollars instead of paying 10 times as much for Playstation or Saturn games and the first generation of games for those newer systems didn't look any better than the best of 3DO and Jaguar libraries. Between the two, I had a large enough library of great games, and exclusives to satisfy me through the 32-bit era until I bought a Dreamcast in '99.

 

The 3DO, Jaguar/CD and Dreamcast are still my 3 favorite consoles of all time to this day. And don't fall for the Jaguar being not as powerful as the 3DO in 3D graphics. They did things differently, and the Jaguar had plenty of bad example as far as 3D graphics that didn't look as good as comparable games on the 3DO, but there are some that are completely comparable and on par too, that came out at the end of the Jaguar's life, as good looking as the Studio 3DO and other 3D games that came out at the end of the 3DO's life. For me, the 3DO and Jaguar systems compliment each other and complete each other with a combined library of great games where I never envied the Playstation 1 or the Saturn. Either one alone would have not been enough in terms of the size of their libraries to keep me satisfied until '99 and the DC. The 3DO and Jaguar/CD are tied for my favorite console(s) of all time and the DC comes in at second for my three favorites.

 

Of course these days I also own a Saturn and a PS2 (which I use almost exclusively for PS1 games with texture filtering set to ON. The Saturn is my forth (or third in my list since 3DO/Jag are tied) favorite console of all time, and no Playstation 1-4 comes below the Saturn. I also own original and 360 Xbox's and Xbox One S, but I have no order of preference beyond the Saturn. I've never been a fan of anything, or owned anything from Nintendo. Previous to the 90's "next gen" 3DO and Jag, I only ever owned Atari and Sega machines. To this day never a Nintendo.

 

Looking back on both the 3DO and Jaguar and whether either one is worth getting today, the 3DO yes, only because the prices of systems haven't sky-rocketed 10 fold like the Atari Jaguar, even though I'd recommend both as great systems with some great games otherwise. The Jaguar costs $500 or more for a used Jaguar, and even more, for a new system. Even the Jaguar CD, due to rarity (only 20 thousand ever made) are selling for about $1000 now, with only a library of about 20 commercial releases. A dozen originally, but many original unreleased but finished CD games and new commercial quality ports have been released over the years since due to the avid fan base that the 3DO doesn't have. I'm just glad I already own them and don't have to pay the ridiculous collector's prices today.

Edited January 11, 2023 by Gunstar

[3DO HD]

3DO didn't have a huge library of great games, but it definitely had some unique ones... and some of the best games IMO ever made, for any console and were exclusives.

 

The ones most worth playing IMO are:

• Starfighter 
• Killing Time
• Crash N Burn
• Total Eclipse
• Twisted
• Gex
• The Horde
• Road Rash
• Return Fire
• Guardian War
• D

And the modding community is pretty active. Here is a shameless plug for a channel that showcases how could the console still looks with an RGB 240p output VS the stock 480i composite or S-Video: 

 

 

[Austin]

On 1/11/2023 at 1:16 PM, 3DO HD said:

De-interlacing the 480i signal with an upscaler on capture sort of defeats the purpose of a 480i vs 240p comparison. It's not an accurate representation of what 480i s-video looks like in person.

[3DO HD]

On 1/26/2023 at 5:16 PM, Austin said:

De-interlacing the 480i signal with an upscaler on capture sort of defeats the purpose of a 480i vs 240p comparison. It's not an accurate representation of what 480i s-video looks like in person.

Agree 100%. All of my first captures were calibrated incorrectly. Including 240p RGB. A few weeks back I correctly re-calibrated every input using the Phoenix emulator for reference and got my 240p RGB dialed in perfectly. (Which became my new reference). My composite, S-Video, and RGB 480i profiles are now colored exactly the same as their 240p counterparts, the Scaling / Cropping is as close as I can get it, and interlacing has been disabled.

 

As I've been capturing and posting new / corrected videos I've been delisting the old, inaccurate ones.

[Varanis Ridari]

Worth it for some early Electronic Arts and Crystal Dynamics gems.

 

Since Trip Hawkins sorta made 3DO as a dumping ground for psuedo-first-party EA games that Nintendo or Sega wouldn't take or didn't have acceptably powerful hardware for at the time. When tired of regulation and high royalty fees from console manufacturers, make your own decentralized console! As we saw, trying to apply a VHS/Compact Disc style shared standard didn't work when everyone who could have jumped on to share costs played a "wait and see" on the system. 🤣

 

Had an FZ1 inherited from my dad for a number of years, solid machine. Admittedly used more as a CD player for a bit, until I figured out what was good on it.

 

My faves:

 

Gex

Total Eclipse

Killing Time

Road & Track's The Need for Speed (series debut if you can believe it)

Road Rash

Blade Force

D

Alone in the Dark

Flashback

Super Street Fighter II Turbo

Starblade

Samurai Showdown

Off-World Interceptor

Star Control II

 

Wolfenstein 3D (stay away from the Doom port)

[BassGuitari]

I missed out on this party for the last 20 years(!), but since it was bumped, I'll chime in now. 🙃

 

"Is the 3DO worth getting?"

 

It depends. There's little practical reason to recommend it since most of its best games came out--and were arguably improved--on other platforms, essentially making the system redundant. The hardware itself has become very temperamental with age, and fixes aren't necessarily straightforward or inexpensive. Its games' unique Tall Boxes (part of the system's appeal, IMO) are expensive to collect. And for people whose only familiarity with the 3DO is AVGNian quasi-informed comedy takes, its library might not be enough to elevate it (in their minds) beyond "$700 FMV Porn!" memes.

 

But, it's still a good system, especially if you're interested in the early/mid '90s next-gen gaming ecosphere, in all its early 3D, pre-rendered, FMV glory. It's not the system for fans of RPGs or 2D shmups, but it's got a good cross section of just about everything else. And to kind of counter my own point above, while most of the 3DO's best games were ported to PSX or Saturn, they probably aren't the games you're going to play on those consoles anyway (vs. the Resident Evils and Metal Gear Solids and Panzer Dragoons), so you may as well play them on 3DO. 😁 And not for nothing, but 3DO games often tend to have incredible music and sound, and the controllers have their own headphone jacks so you can feed it straight into your ears. If you have an interest in the kinds of games the 3DO plays and you're okay with being a little impractical (or you don't have/don't want PSX or Saturn), or you just want to see what luxury gaming was like in 1994-5, I'd say yes, it's worth it.

 

A big part of the 3DO's charm for me, personally, is the era that spawned it. It was an incredibly exciting time in videogames, and exotic consoles like the 3DO were (or at least seemed like) bleeding-edge quantum leaps beyond my Sega Genesis. I wanted one just for Super Street Fighter II Turbo. So part of it is the experience of what I missed out on. 

[SUPER STREET FIGHTER II TURBO]

On 5/23/2003 at 8:36 AM, MacGurl said:

I've never seen this console in action, never seen any of the games played, so I have no idea if this sucks or not. What's the difference between the GoldStar and the FZ-1?

 

Like all consoles, just depends on if it has games you want to play that you can't play on consoles you already have.

 

To me, in 1994, 3DO was an absolute must have. Super Street Fighter II Turbo was 3DO exclusive and blew away the Street Fighter games on SNES and Genesis. The version of Madden on 3DO was lightyears ahead of SNES and Genesis. Great port of Samurai Shodown (I didn't own a Neo Geo at the time). Gex was a great platformer and exclusive at the time.

 

But as the years went on, I had less and less need for my 3DO. Saturn received a much better port of SSFII Turbo in '97. Sports games are obviously obsolete very quickly. Gex was ported to PSX and Saturn. A lot of the lightgun games didn't have great longterm replay value IMO.

 

So eventually I did get rid of my 3DO and I have a hard time recommending it to people unless they are completists. But back in the day, having one was a dream come true and just because it doesn't have any exclusive games now that I'd be interested in, from 94-96 it was by far my favorite system.