Revisiting the Panasonic 3DO FZ-10 32 bit console - is it underrated? Review, Teardown, Games | MVG
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 พ.ย. 2024
- The Panasonic 3DO was released in 1993. In this video we revisit the console - specifically the 3DO FZ-10 model, tear down the unit and play some games.
Is the 3DO underrated or just a poor console? Check out my video !
► Check me out on Facebook : / modernvintag. . ◄
► Soundcloud : / lantusone ◄
► Follow me on Twitter : / modernvintageg ◄ - เกม
$700 in 1993 is $1240 in 2019, with inflation adjusted.
That is nuts they were charging that much for a console.
3DO hardware licencees like Panasonic don't earn on game licensing fees unlike Sony with the Playstation, hence the hardware became expensive.
You can burn every game ever made for it, so it's a worth buy if you look at it like this.
CDI $1000 in 1991, with inflation $1880
Feels like it should be much more. Than 1240 in 2019. I remember a gallon of gas was like 60 cents back then. It should be close to triple that at least.
I feel the same way about the RTX 2080 Ti
The 3DO's library is wayyy better than people think, and the daisy-chaining idea was innovative when compared with having to buy a multitap for every console. It also had a number of good exclusives and ports, but the cost and the timing of release ensured its failure. Plus for me, it just doesn't have a killer app that makes it worth the purchase.
To be fair, 3DO was more like some weird standard compared to an official console. The reason why the consoles were priced so high was likely because the royalties went to the 3DO company instead of the hardware producers who jacked the prices up so they don't enter the red.
@@AmonGus-hw6sp I am not so sure, remember how expensive the og xbox was at release? and they were losing 200$ a console at launch, the ps3 did it too, and still had a high release price. Both of them were cutting edge for the time, and cutting edge always comes at a premium. I think if maybe 3do had been a large enough company, they could have afforded to pad $200 per console sale until they brought the price of the tech down, but I think Sony and Microsoft are a few of the only ones around who can afford that. At the time, I kept informed on all things video games, and 3do was by far the most impressive, even pc couldnt touch it in many ways, so while I agree that its pricing and timing were a failure, It was only because the company didnt have the resources to keep it afloat until it became profitable, because Sony and Microsoft DID use that same strategy but ended up succeeding because of how big they are. Ps3 was crazy expensive at launch, and reports suggest Sony was losing $300 per ps3 until they got the prices down, and they even ended up winning that console generation war. I think the ps3 scenario was almost identical to what happened to 3do, but Sony had the financial muscle to grind through the first few years to start turning a profit. This goes for everything though, everything cutting edge will price it out of reach for most of the population, the better the tech, the higher the cost, the smaller the target consumer will be, its just relativity. If you ask me, 3d0 was just too awesome for its own good, and its creators couldnt support it long enough for it to start producing revenue.
For the time, the 3DO was incredible. There were some truly “next gen” experiences on the system. Of course, when the Saturn and PS1 came out in the following 18 months, those “next gen” experiences suddenly looked old hat.
There are still some really good 3DO games that didn’t get ported to the PS1 or Saturn, so I’m glad I’ve still got my FZ10
It was utter junk. They had demos at Blockbuster and some electronic stores and it was clear these people had no idea what they were doing, the games were complete shit. It confirmed what you always suspected: that Nintendo and Sega Team really do represent the bleeding edge of game design.
@@danwroy thanks for your opinion...
@@SlyNine its historical fact.
killing time was great + captain coazar👍
@@danwroy It had a few killer apps and arcade ports. I remember that. I also know the only family who owned one were a bunch of criminals. Given the price, quite understandable.
*Cost was $700 at launch* that's why Nobody bought one
Right, in '93 that was like $1500
It was a luxury item initially admired but then laughed at for its outdated tech very rapidly. Mid 90s was a painful experience for any company that didn't keep up with the times. Remember even Apple was spiraling towards bankruptcy with it's stagnation.
It actually started at $999.99 after a month or two it went to $899.99. And it was $899.99 for awhile , before it went to $699.99 in regular retail stores. Before then they were only in speaker and radio stores. And there was nothing remotely close to the 3DO when it came out. It had the first actual 3D hardware. PlayStation didn't come out around 2 years later. Of course the PlayStation was better frame rate and resolution wise. But if you compare the two again and not look for those, and see what is going on, on the screen at the same time. 3DO had an explosion of fire in the beginning. More things were going on at the same time. Once it loads a guy talks to you, PlayStation games didn't really have that much spoken word. During the load screen to race the PlayStation has one static picture, and the 3DO has 3 or 4 pictures floating left and right on the screen.
The 3DO had one thing the PS1, PS2 and even the PS3 didn't have. It was dual core. This is what made the system so expensive when it came out at the time. Because it had 2 CPUs. It wasn't until recently that we started getting chips with dual processors already built into them. This made it cheaper, because now it is only once chip. Now we have 28 core chips.
I don't understand the fanboy stuff. They are all just computer parts. They are all very similar. And the newest one is usually better than the last, no matter the brand. I am just a game enthusiast I like video games in general.
i think my dad paid $399 for mine. i dont remember it being that much or he prob wouldnt of got it lol
@@thebest12700 The price did go way down.
"Did I buy a 3DO?" *PSX startup screen plays*
LOL.
@@beefge It was called the PSX back in the day. You can't win this argument.
There was a released product called PSX and it’s not the Playstation 1. Despite it’s not correct people use it all the time. But hey, you can win this argument if it is so important for you.
@@beefge So what? It was called the PSX.
@GM Kof hard Wrong. The Playstation's original name was Playstation X.
I knew it as the PSX back in the day and have referred to it as the PS1 since the PS2 came around. What ever you call it, post #9 on the forum thread linked to made me laugh. If only they knew what would happen a few years later. The poor Xbox has gone from being referred to as the Xbox, then Xbox 1, then Xbox Classic.
Had one, bought it in 94 in NYC, traveling with my parents, I was only 11 yo and chose it over the PlayStation, wrong choice though I had a great time with it, nfs, road rash and demolition man were excellent games!!
You didn't buy anything you spoiled li'l 💩 your parents bought it for you, just like everything else in your life Mommy's li'l man.
As long as YOU enjoyed it!
This video was great, dude. I missed out completely on the 3DO and only got a chance to play it once, always fascinating to learn more about it!
Man thanks to you i learned how to copy back ups on my xbox 360
I feel your pain
I loved my 3do back in the day. The original model by Panasonic had headphone jack on controller, ahead of its time that's for sure. It also had a real cool music player with screen graphics.
Your lying
@@NYXsucksatyoutube No he is not. I also had (and still have) my 3DO FZ-1 unit, and he is correct that it has all that.
@@SkiBumMSP do you not understand the joke
I remember going to the flea market in the 90s and seeing one on demo priced $400 used. For that much I got the newly released PlayStation and games new. 3 years later I bought that same Fz-1 system for $80, still own it. Thank you Sony!
"Pay no more than 50$ for the system"
Ebay sellers, selling it for 300$ :
The 3DO was an amazing system. Too bad I didn't have $700 for one when I was a teenager. I did have a friend who had one though, NFS was my favorite game at the time.
Best use we had for the system was the visual graphics that displayed on the tv while playing music cd's, everyone loved it at our parties.
Carl Willows How was it amazing doh? :/
It also had a Very Trippy CD Player Visualizer and the ability to play CD+G and Photo CDs.
@@NathanChojnacki Are you familiar with Jeff Minter? Aside from Tempest, he also designed the Virtual Light Machine for the Atari Jaguar CD. He later created an updated version of it for the Xbox 360.
Those features made it worth the 699 dollar price tag alone! Of course Sega CD could do much the same thing without the visualizer thingy.
Trippy or Trip Hawkins...
The one with the spikes waves?
The price point killed it.
The price point killed so many consoles that had potential. That's why Nintendo and Sega (until the Sega CD\32X fiasco) were at the top of the game for so long. They were always reasonable price. I mean didn't the Gameboy launch at $80!?
The PC Engine\Turbo Grafx 16 could have been successful but it was way overpriced when you considered...it needed a multitap to hook up more than ONE controller, it needed a dock just to be able to SAVE game data, it needed ANOTHER dock to add on a CD-ROM unit (so two parts!) and by the time the Duo launched the damage was done, especially in the USA where, amazingly, the DUO used a different controller port making all previous controllers and multitaps incompatible. NEC just blew that one.
Sony seemed to know more about the market then anyone else when they flawlessly launched their first (and second) game consoles perfectly, the Playstation, and Playstation 2. They hyped the PS2 so well, people stopped buying the Dreamcast A YEAR in advance, opting to wait. That is just unbelievable to think about by todays standards.
Tim W despite the Dreamcast’s arguable technical superiority....Sega totally blew that one and blaming piracy is a complete copout (we all pirated the hell out of PSX games too and that didn’t stop its success).
price didnt kill it. They dropped it to $400 rather quickly, and then it went down to #300 in 1995. Prices always come down. To think it launched at $700 and stayed there until 1996 is absurd.
It dropped to $599 just months after launch, that's when I bought it.
@@TheVanyoda thats good to know, I couldnt find data on all price drops, but i remember getting mine for $400 just before the Saturn released in May of 1995. Then it dropped to $300 shortly after to match price with Saturn, and I heard it dropped again to $199 in 1996, but it was all over later that year for the system.
What's crazy is the Neo Geo AES was a much more popular system that everybody wanted and it cost basically the same as the 3DO. In my personal opinion the only reason the 3DO was more commonly found was simply the fact the 3DO was ACTUALLY in stores. I've never seen a Neo Geo sitting on the store shelf for sale new or used.
The NEO-GEO was a different target market, and was very successful due to it's pure arcade accurate hardware. The 3DO is a multimedia player, and was nowhere near as successful due to the fact majority of it's alternate capabilities that helped it to that high price were pretty much wasted on gamers.
One of the stores in my region had the Neo Geo for a time. Electronics Boutique, probably. I remember looking up at the $200-300 games on the wall and not wasting my energy drooling over unobtanium. I recall only seeing the 3DO in department stores which did not typically sell game systems and really hindered exposure. My young mind would have exploded if the advertising had shown its 3D capabilities even if the price tag made it a hopeless desire.
@@ProctorSilex NEO•GEO carts were as much as $699 in Australia, i remember seeing new releases for that price in the early 90s. I used to buy them second hand for $80-$100 each, and often they were basically as new anyway.
@@CaseTheCorvetteMan Ha ha! The carts might as well have been that much and gold plated because it was a pipe dream either way for me.
@@CaseTheCorvetteMan The 3DO is much newer/more advanced than the Neo Geo...I don't know anything on it that isn't applicable to games, and like Saturn and PSX it can run tons of stuff the Neo Geo would never be able to
Man, I have a very strong relationship with the 3DO. I remember saving a lot of money because at the time I only earned aprox. U$300/month. I had to pay for a smuggler to bring one unit to my country (back then imports were forbidden). The smuggler was a very nice guy, every month he would bring a new game for my 3DO. Unfortunately he was shot and died in 1997 in a robbery at the border. On another ocasion a girl came into my house to play 3DO with me, I thought she was just wanting to play games but suddenly she started snorting cocaine in my room while I was playing Need for Speed. She tried to kiss me but I was a moron and just kicked her out of my house. My mother later found her cocaine paraphernalia in my bed and thought I was into drugs. Holy shit, memories!
Jesus lol.
😧
@Jay Boh you clearly can't read but that's ok he didn't say he paid 300 bucks for it he said he had to save up cause he only made 300 bucks a month geez people are so quick to discount people and tell them that they are just a liar stupid
Sounds like you've had an interesting time!
What a story
My 3DO is the Goldstar variant and I love everything about its design.
I remember buying the first copy of the 'Edge' magazine. 3DO was hugely hyped. It was pretty apparent from the get-go that Amiga AGA wasn't competitive and this looked like the next step. Then I didn't have any recollection of it until coming across one of these machines in a market. I seem to remember reading it had special hardware registers for things like 'fire' effects and such. It looks like it was sadly under-utilised. Another 'if only' system.
The 3DO magazine adverts had a dodo with actual feathers stuck to it if I recall :o
Love the 3DO. Was a huge upgrade over Sega CD so is the best console for Digital Pictures games (Corpse Killer, Night Trap, Sewer Shark, etc.), lightgun games, cringey oddball games, and some hidden gems like Space Hulk, Lucienne's Quest, D, etc. Also, think it was last console to put out "adult titles" which can fetch some good prices. For a fair price the 3do is a solid pickup.
Night Trap ❤
Holy crap. Wolfensiten 3D actually looks really good.
what a shame the same wasn't done for the doom conversion
I played the PC version. And I've always thought it was better than doom. But I've never played doom on the PC. I've also never played wolfenstien on anything other than that PC.
Best version of Wolfenstein actually.
The game was ancient by the time it was released in 3DO.
The 3DO looked great but it just never took off in the UK. OMG hearing the PS1 startup music just stirs up joy inside me. Getting it at Christmas 1995 in the UK still feels amazing today. What a great feeling at 11 years old seeing the black discs for the first time, popping open the disc tray, experiencing the intro and playing Ridge Racer with a futuristic, comfy controller. Gives me goosebumps. 1996 was awesome when I played Wipeout, Tekken and Tomb Raider for the first time. Great times I wish I could go back and experience it all for the first time again. Some many games I missed !
Great video, MVG! I'd love to get a 3DO into my console collection, but they're getting ridiculously expensive nowadays on the aftermarket!
And I do agree with the initial price tag for it being a weak point of it. It was a powerful console for the time, but $699 was too expensive for most!
I had a 3DO when they were new and I liked it. Unfourtunately, my friends and I mostly played the Sega Genesis/CD/32X...Snes. That was until Super Street Fighter 2 dropped for the 3DO that game rarely left the tray.
The truth, my parents brought home a Pentium powered PC. It had the first 8 levels of Doom installed on it. I had never seen anything like it, Wolfenstein was nice and I did play it before Doom...it just didn't, I dont know. At any rate, I literally got the 3DO because Doom was slated to cone out and it was going to be better than the PC (3DO magazine hype).
The day Doom released on the 3DO I rushed to the store and bought a copy. I went home and literally tore the packaging to pieces...ecstatic for what was about to come. I popped it ibto my tray and...yuck what a piece of shit; However, I was not through being a moron, not yet (for those of you not quick on the uptake, I could have purchased a nice PC already to play Doom but stupid is). I went back to the game store and promptly returned that pile of dumpster fire (you could return games back then kids) and with my $50.00 store credit I would surely find a game like Doom...long story shortened, I wound up building my first PC. I used old terminals to piece together a 486DX2 which not only ran Doom but ran Doom 2 as well. I finally had what I was chasing, an actual copy of Doom with music, not boxed, not frame skipping, and not on a Snes...seriously that version is worse than the 3DO version.
I listened to a podcast where the lady who did the doom conversion for the 3DO spoke about the challenges of doing it (mainly time and commercial pressure ). It was interesting to hear her frustrations with how it turned out.
I really love the 3DO , I feel that it could’ve had so many more great games if I had the chance. I still love playing return fire, Wolfenstein, monster manner, star control 2, road rash, super Wing Commander, Wing Commander 3, Battle chess, AD&D Slayer/death Keep, Super Street fighter And samurai showdown just to name a few.
Slayer is hella fun.
Randomized levels ftw!
Star Control 2 that's a great game
Nice work on the video. I remember, back on that day, 3DO had the best digitalized graphics. They were really impressive.
The SSF2 was very nice.
I remember playing a bit of Need For Speed in a Circuit City. I think that was one of the first 3D games I'd ever seen actually moving on a screen. I don't remember being blown away by the game play, the steering felt really slow/heavy. I was genuinely blown away by the price. I did experience a bit of panic, though. "What if all new systems are this expensive?" Somehow, my young mind thought I'd be playing SNES and TG-16 for ever.
framerates sucked that's probably why it didn't blow you or anyone else away. it has nice pretty imagery but somehow everything seemed very static and underpowered.
My mother bought us a FZ1 back in 90's for $700 at Circuit city with some kids games. The wired controller was crap and gamed way overpriced. But we used it with the Video adaptor to watch movie vcds.
Man, I appreciate this content so much. I was just a little too young at the time to focus much on the 3DO...I was fixated on getting a Saturn at launch so I skipped the sega CD, the 3DO and the Jaguar. The playground was always buzzing about those mythical systems:)
Around mid 98 my father brought home a GoldStar 3DO he had won in a poker game some of his friends, and one of my older cousins where having, now you have to remember my cousin was a gamer, and one of the only people I knew growing up who had a Master System, NES, and Sega Genesis at the same time. Anyways my cousin could not pay up, so he gave my father the 3DO knowing it would go to me anyways, and really did not care, and my dad said debt paid lol. I got 4 games with the system along with 1 controller Wicked 18 Golf( I hate that game), Road Rash, GEX, and The Need For Speed. I had some fun with it when ever was at my dad's place, but it honestly never got much use as I was into PC gaming more at the time, but around late 99 I went to play the system one day when I was bored, and it actually started smoking which I later traced down a leaking cap that caused a short on the motherboard, so it soon after got sent to the GoodWill, and that was my experence with the 3DO.
I would like to get back into the 3DO someday, but it's honestly not high on my list of must have system when so many of it's good games are on other systems that are easier to come by.
The story of your life
You sent broken crap to Goodwill?
The 3DO introduced me to bands like White Zombie (Way of the Warrior) and Soundgarden (Road Rash). RIP Chris Cornell...
Nice video. I have seen some 3DO love lately on a few channels, but no one ever talks about a little game called Slayer. It is like the Eye of the Beholder series, but with the Wolfenstein/Doom engine. I remember losing many hours to this game, as I had picked up a 3DO back when the price dropped just before it's death.
Slayer is a fantastic game. thank you for mentioning it. im a big fan of Eye of the Beholder
Einsam Fechter Slayer was one of the first games I purchased for it
Slayer was awesome i was very lucky to find that game again when i started collecting 3DO games again back in 2010
Slayer was fantastic.
Slayer was great!
Love your video production value. I picked up one of these bad boys in the mid 2000s and it will always hold a special place in my heart. Neat little system; things like the headphone jack on one of the controller models were way ahead of its time. And it has arguably the best version of NFS of any system!
I like the 3DO. I still have my original FZ-10
I got one in 96 from a video rental place. It was cheap and came with 12 games. The graphix were so far beyond any other system that I had seen. G.E.X. Was such an awesome game.
Wing Commander looks playable, unlike the Amiga version that had the FPS of a Powerpoint presentation.
you mean the ecs a500 version - not on Amiga cd 32 aga version
amiga 1200 with fast ram could handle it
I love consoles, but with excellent PC versions of WC3, Wolf3D, Lemmings, etc., there's really no reason to bother with 3DO.
Nick Wallette . Much like now, PCs that could run the games were more expensive than the consoles, even the high priced 3DO.
The 1200 version was very good. It was a 32bit game.
I remember my first experience with the 3DO, I got to try out Road Rash at a local neighborhood computer shop where my brother used to buy all his Commodore stuff. I spent more time waiting for the game to load than actually playing it, I thought it was shit and was in utter disbelief at the asking price. Was perfectly content to stick with my SEGA Genesis for the foreseeable future, I never bothered with the PlayStation or Saturn either until later in their life cycles.
Alan Rizkallah I don’t see why people praise the 32 bit road rash..I thought was absolute trash also .... the hud display being removed was a big factor & your bike zooming past opponents leaving little combat and the bikes themselves handles ridiculous... they barely turned, and just shifted a bit left or right and started losing grip very quickly .... Sega genesis was way better !!!... but road rash 3 started the trend of zooming by opponents too quickly ....it just wasn’t as bad as the saturn/psx versions
Content coming hard and fast man , love this channel!
And all over the place
*I remember playing SLAYER on 3DO. Great game* ✅🙂
Oh yea slayer wonder if any one did a playthrough
Slayer, DeathKeep and Killing Time were all great titles. I owned the 3D0 and had maybe 30 or so games for it and I liked it for what it was. I loaned it to a buddy and he lost in storage. One day I hope to be able to get it back lol.
@Justus Bowman I think Sega CD would be fair. The 3D0 was a system that was also similar to a Dreamcast. A system that was way ahead of it's time with no real direction.
Nice run down, that SF2 port looked pretty neat. Two things made my jaw drop when I saw the 3DO in the stores, Need for Speed, and the price. You are rightly proud to own one, I'd love one in my collection some day.
Thanks Neil. The system is a nice piece of history and certainly not as bad as it seemed when you give it another go around.
As a person who owns a 3DO today and plays on it, the port of SSF2 is amazing. The music remix they use isn't used in any other version and it's fantastic! I also have an arcade stick that works with the 3DO so it's actually my favorite version of the game now since I can play it how I do on other platforms.
It's actually considered the best home port of SS2T ever created. It's almost arcade perfect.
3DO! Actually, the original releases of SSF2T had no bonus stages by design.
The OG NFS was rad!! I had the FZ-10 and it didn't cost $699. I think I paid around $200.
I remember a "3DO II" expansion was being rumored in magazines at the time. I had collected over 30 games for dirt cheap before my used FZ-1 broke on me in '98, and, while I can't recommend playing it today, I appreciate the 3DO for its mid-90s-ness
I wanted one of these so bad when they came out, but I couldn't afford it. That price point was really the only problem. 3DO went on to write software for other systems, notably the N64. Their 3D tank game, BattleTanx was nothing short of spectacular for the day. I would say it holds up well even to today. Sometimes one has to think of these failures as stepping stones to success. Well done.
i was proud 3DO owner man this bring back memories. The countless hours of Return fire, Super Street fighter 2, fifa and neurodancer :)
The biggest issue with the 3DO is the speed of the CPU. 3D games run way better in emulators when the CPU is overclocked. The 3DO needed to have a 25Mhz CPU minimum to be properly competitive.
Also, an integrated FPU would have helped massively with 3D games.
Matthias Forel
Ernesto M Yeah?
Lassi Kinnunen Yeah, true. Thing is at $699, it should have had a faster CPU as 25Mhz+ chips were available.
Again, in emulators 25Mhz and above overclocks considerably improves framerates.
My next door neighbor's dad bought them a 3DO (cool dad) but my dad bought my a Compaq Presario 486 dirt cheap and a Creative Labs Sound Blaster CD kit so we could install it together (cooler dad) and honestly, my setup was way better, even for gaming, and probably cost a lot less...
The 3DO was competing with computers. CD-ROM drives were
Mattias Forelli
3DO performance was top of the line when released. It's only natural the PlayStation was better, since it was released a year later.
I got a Panasonic FZ-10 Multiplayer 3DO, bought it for 30€ with original packaging, 3 Games and 2 Controllers in 2002 from a friend who always called it "The Panasonic PlayStation". I think it isn't underrated, but a nice system to play and have in your collection. Lacks good exclusives to be really great.
I really miss my old 3do. I loved that system. I never got many games for it because of the short lifespan some bad business decisions caused but I will always remember Gex and Super Streetfighter 2 Turbo.
I still have my fz10. I have many memories with that system.my mom got it for me at Best Buy for 80 dollars on clearance and the games were 5 bucks. It was awesome.
+Modern Vintage Gamer
IMHO, the 3DO was a system that had a lot going for it. Great specs, solid manufacturing and several upgrade paths. However, it had several problems that ended up working against it. The first was software quality control. There was none. The second was difficulty in programing, as it used hardware that wasn't well known and was not the easiest system to develop for. Third, it was pricey and well out of the react of most of it's target audience. And last, the controller. While well built, it's design was missing one critical thing; a sixth button. Fighting games were the rage at the time and stayed that way for a long time. With only 5 buttons, most fighting games were effectively unplayable. I was a huge Street Fighter and Samurai Showdown fan. With both titles, you literally had to relearn how to play the game. It was a such deal-breaker that most of the industry turned their nose up at the system because they though no one would want a system with a controller not optimized for fighting games. And they were right.
Well a 6 buttons controller was eventually released. Oh, also the development could only be done on Macs and programmers just hated it
They had one on display at my local shop.The thing was so expensive that I could only dream of owning one. I remember the reputation it had and the talk of it being the most powerful thing out there. I would just stare at it in awe.......Thumbs up for another interesting video.
Never disliked it, just too damn expensive. I guess the 5-button controller was an odd choice in hindsight but the variant with the headphone jack was a great idea and wouldn't come along again till PS3.
Love your channel and content. Straight to the point, you have an awesome voice, you explain things very well, you show video games, you give your professional opinion as well as why or why not and explain the thinking behind it. Simply put, awesome 100% high quality content and keep doing awesome work ! Awesome 😎 awesome 👏
The 3DO has to be one of my favorite systems. Especially because of the progress that was made a few years back for homebrew development. It's fun to tinker around with programming for it.
It's funny watching a video and seeing one of my own comments from 2+ years ago. This content never gets old
You should try Return Fire, great game
It was the best version because of the classical music that would play in the background.
Ha! Another favorite - I remember the 1st time playing. It was awesome esp w Flight of the Valkyries playing in the background - really got the adrenaline rushing...
Then again, Wagner's influence & tank warfare, historically, did lead to bad things.... I don't think anyone noticed...
on ps1, and road rash, i play them via emulators now, with 'save state' anywhere!
Return Fire is in my top 50 games of all time.
Loved Return Fire. Awesome sound track and just simple fun
The 3DO’s problems were (1) price, (2) price, and (3) coming out in an era when developers didn’t quite know how to use FMV or 3D environments.
I remember begging my parents for one of these in the mid ‘90s, and luckily they didn’t buy one.
Also it just wasn't quite powerful enough to do what it wanted to do.
The SNES and Genesis had dedicated 2D hardware. That limited the consoles in what they could do but it also meant that the things they could do they could do fast.
Waaaay underrated. Most expensive console I ever bought ($700), yet the console I actually had the most fun with. It was a big step from everything before it. Crash and Burn was hella fun. Way of The Warrior got me into White Zombie.
Ill never get enough of yt videos about the hardware i grew up and gamed on.
I still have my fingers crossed for the M2 Accelerator being released - that's how good the 3DO was; 4 generations later & still willing to buy the follow up.
3do was complete shit. It had like 10 games worth playing and the rest were horrible. PS1 shits all over it.
Horrible. I have one and never play it
We know the PS1 was a better console. But for what it was at the time it was released the 3DO was great just drastically overpriced out of the market. They made it a lavish item instead of just a regular luxury item. Had They not done that and more people to but one at $500 more developers would've made games for it. The video even admitted the library was garbage but that's not the point. The system was still fun to play and the good games that were on it were to notch games that rivaled anything else in the market at the time.
And for nostalgic sake going back and playing the good games might be fun for some people. I love the original Nintendo but i can't play that because my hands cramp up after 5 karate champ fights. Or one period of blades of steel.
@@ThePrufessa - the overpriced console...? They were doing CD-Rom games early & they proved that licensing out hardware builds....not necessarily the most price competitive strategy. It probably gained more fans after they announced its discontinuation than before...then it was really price competitive...(?).
And the library sucked?! It had more than 10 good games... Star Control II alone...that's worth the equivalent of ~10 games there alone. Then...the Wing Commander titles....w Mark Hamill! The Mortal Kombat ripoff... Killing Time; Daedalus Encounter; that 3D space shooter where you could fly ground to space and back, the game had a completely destroyable environment...(?); ...PO'd! ...It's been ~25yrs...., but I remember trading in my entire Genesis Library to get the 3DO Goldstar and was then playing Star Control II and just being blown away. I would liken it to my much later 1st playing of GTA 3-it was like a paradigm shift you were experiencing in real-time!
In terms of nostalgia...it's a terrible phenomenon! Resist! It will destroy all your great memories of games! I've learned that more than once... the last console I ruined my memories of...the Sega CD...because I found a cheap Sega CDX for sale. I had to get it; played it for like ~10m. I loved it when I had it...ashamed by it ~20 yrs later.....
It's hard to defend a console of an earlier gen to the likes of PS1, or any other of its major successors. PS1 was amazing (FFVII!!); PS2 was brilliant; Dreamcast was the Ultimate Console! Xbox, 360, PS3! But set the PS1 next to my xb1 or PS4....it's just not fair...
Maybe I'm just not a retro gamer at all...? But I still remember 3DO kicked ass and it'll be hard to convince me otherwise...(?). Just like Spiderman on the Sega CD-one of the greatest platformers ever...until I purchased it again many years later and realized how God awful that shit was. I learned my lesson... 3DO was amazing; but will I be getting mine out any time soon to play it to somehow prove I'm right? ...Not a chance in hell... It's just current gen & fond memories past for me...
You shouldn't of removed that sticker, now your warranty is void!
I bought the FZ1 back in 1995 just for Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo and the must have conversion at the time if you were a serious SF2 fan, i did buy other games as well, it was a really nice system though, I loved the headphone jack in the controller very nifty idea, I modded mine I chopped out the power cord and put in a power jack like the Saturn and PS1 had, FZ1 still i think remains the best looking console of all time.
We used to have 3DO Magazine in the UK which came out Monthly with a Demo CD on the cover, good mag and it was really helpful being able to play demos of up and coming games as that was really the only way to do it in those days, I really enjoyed the machine, it's a shame the M2 was canned I would of liked to of seen the successor
This is whats missing from today generation, all the console manufactures stick with the same name PS1,2,3,4, Xbox , Xbox 360 and Xbox one, it's dull as dish water it's like they are scared to change the name, in the 90s you had all sorts of computers, consoles and handhelds all by different companys it was a really exciting time, i still think the late 80s and 90s was golden time for the games industry
I remember those magazines with the demo discs and reading about the M2 The marketing was neat but 3DO never became mainstream.
I had the same one, but my games were "Way of the warrior" "Mad dog Mcree 2" "Crime patrol" and that one basketball game
I still have the Goldstar 3do and my favorite games are GEX , Road Rash, and Need For Speed, Monster Manor. A couple years back i burned a bunch of games for it.
The music in Monster Manor gave my 6 year old boy nightmares for months.
Thanks for the memories, now i have to break out the 3do and have some fun.
Love the 3DO, it's truly a goldmine of nostalgia
I saw this video on my feed and watched it for the nostalgia; I owned a 3DO in the 90s (the FZ-1 model) and, funnily enough, ended up trading it for a playstation a few years later. While I did love the console for the time I had it, my main issue with it was how fast it became discontinued, with games obviously following suit, and very quickly felt like I had played all the "cool" games. I'll make sure to keep my eyes peeled for one on ebay. Nice video!
I love my 3D0, return fire, Need for speed, Road rash, theme park, twisted, my list goes on and on, it is by far under rated, but aside from the price the reason the playstation won was it made 3D look less "early 90's" and more modern
I originally had the FZ1, nice build quality that was, I bought here in the UK, it came with about 20 games, I eventually gave way to the the Playstation like many others, I sold the console on but kept about 10 of the games. A few years later I picked up the model on your video, the cheaper to build FZ10, it really is a nice piece of kit, there's something special about some of the games, the audio really helps too. It was assigned back to its box where it has been for many years ever since, it sits on top of yet another relative failure, the Philips CDi. Given the omission of protection to the CDs, they're clearly easy to back up, and as you point out, the boxes are rather flimsy in design so you'd need to put them aside and just have the CDs in a sleeve. But yeah, good stuff and although a little late to the party, I really enjoyed your video, many thanks - and for me, many great games but I played Return Fire more than most, thanks again for the nostalgia.
The 3DO is underrated. It was a powerful, unique, and ambitious console that was sadly compromised by its sky-high price and shovelware tainting the relatively-solid software lineup. It's too bad those issues weren't ironed-out before the Saturn and PlayStation came out.
Chemical_E It also has a couple of issues. The CPU was about half as fast as it needed to be to complete with the PA1/Saturn. Also, they wouldn't let developers code to the metal to squeeze the most performance out of the machine. They had to do everything via the BIOS, which apparently only let them get about 50-60% of the performance they could otherwise achieve.
The 3DO was a missed opportunity.
When this first came out it felt truly revolutionary. The PSX outclassed it very quickly but I think this console could have been a contender if it was cheaper and had a better library at the time.
Loved my Panasonic FZ-01, still love it. A lot of people give it hate because the original price but it dropped quite fast. Less than a year later was 499 and it was never on shells with a price tag bigger than the one of the PS1.
Yes of course the PS1 is better, but the 3DO was released some years before. Consoles like the amiga 32. jaguar and 3do were for me a generation on its own before the heavy hitters like the N64 and PS1 were released. And for what they were, at that time, they were great. Too bad we could never saw the Panasonic M2 go head to head against those systems.
The 3DO & Jaguar seemed state of the art during design phase. They both quickly became out of date by the PS1,N64&Saturn
In the mid 90s, I owned both the 3DO and the Playstation. Play station obviously had the bigger library of games and was a bit more technologically advanced, but there were a few standout games (most of them shown in this video!) that I would show to my friends back then, who were all familiar with the Playstation, but many times (even back then) they had never heard of the 3DO. Road Rash and Need for Speed and Wing Commander were definitely my favorites. (Street Fighter was a crowd pleaser.) I currently own about 180 games for the system. One of the great things about the daisy chain controllers was how many of them you could hook together. (It supported up to 8 if my memory serves correctly.) The only game that supported that many that I know of was FIFA soccer, and it was amazing! I think we at least once got at least 8 players together to play, totally fun, 4 or 5 was routine. That kind of experience really didn't happen before online gaming. Good video, thanks for the memories!
From 3DO start all... Need for speed.. FIFA.. Was first time to have 3D like games..!
With out this maybe the future of gaming will be different
The Play Station startup music still gives me tingles
I Had the Original 3d0 still to this day the best looking console ever made i had the need for speed and road rash and at the time is was very advanced for it's Time.
Omfg 3do road rash was magnificent
I remember playing what was probably total eclipse at the store once, my parents were impressed enough with the 3d graphics to ask how much it was and decided $700 was way too much (and this was when they actually had money to spend).
I want to get a 3DO someday
I had the FZ 1 , it was awesome , loved it. Was extremely difficult to find games back in 1995-96 , but I did aquire
Samouri Showdown
Hell
Demolition Man
Way of the Warrior
Gex and Imercenary
Fun Times !!
Damn, I love your videos, man! Keep up the good work. :-)
I got one imported to Australia at launch, it cost me $1100 AUD with Crash N Burn. Selling my Neo Geo AES to buy this still haunts me to this day....
I had a 3DO and a Saturn. Both of which I purchased AFTER I had my PSX. I got them for about $20 each, new when the stores were liquidating them.
You were like all the other sheep. I had 3do and Saturn at launch. PS1 was the last I purchased only for GTA. I don't even touch ps1 games today and still play my saturn.
I still have my FZ-1 and I have always love it. It seemed so futuristic and had an amazing look to it. So did the Neo-Geo but that was impossible to get. I would play way of the warrior and and most of the games you mentioned for hours and I thought games like PO'd and captain quasar looked so amazing even though I couldn't get my hands on them. I was a such hardcore 3DO, Atari and Sega fanboy and I hated watching them all go under. This video makes me want to get my 3DO and other consoles out of storage and set them up.
If only the Amiga 1200 was released with the same sound 16 Bit 44.1khz capable chip back in 1994, that would have been excellent for music composers like myself who used Octamed Sound Tracker programs, and enhanced many games that could have took advantage of it.
I owned a cd 32,gave it to my sister who still has it,Gunship was my fav game.
A friend and I hired a 3do here in Melbourne ,Australia from Blockbuster video store back when it just released and we hired Road Rash and The Need For Speed which was a fantastic game.
I loved Wing Commander 3 on PC. This 3DO looks like an CD32 - nice and clean. Seems to run the games smoothly.
yeah me too. Playing Heart of the Tiger brought back some memories. the 3DO version is really well done!
Modern Vintage Gamer, is it mpeg-accelerated footage in Wing Commander 3 for 3DO?
Daniel K I doubt it.
Turrican4D, LOL - as it should be. It's a part of the drama.
Matthias Forelli, I have done googling. If I understood it right they where thinking of doing an mpeg-accelerated version of Wing Commander for 3DO but it didn't happen. 3do is impressive for it's time with double video coprocessors. "The original edition of the console, the FZ-1, was referred to in full as the 3DO REAL Interactive Multiplayer. The console had advanced hardware features at the time: an ARM60 32-bit RISC CPU, two custom video coprocessors, a custom 16-bit DSP and a custom math co-processor. It also featured 2 megabytes (MB) of DRAM, 1 MB of VRAM, and a double speed CD-ROM drive (some even faster) for main CD+Gs or Photo CDs (and Video CDs with an add-on MPEG video module).[3] The 3DO included the first light synthesizer in a game console, converting CD music to a mesmerizing color pattern."
The draw-distance on Need For Speed was better than anything else at the time and for a long time after it's release. Loved that game.
It was by far the best version of Need For Speed. By FAR....
The draw distance is better because the console is constantly streaming data from the CD. That's why you can hear the constantly laser movement. Same with other EA games such as Road Rash and Immercenary.
PS1 and Saturn versions all is loaded to RAM since they are more 3D capable. If your 3DO NFS disc gets just slightly scratched the draw distance will lag to load.
Have them both, loved my Amiga machines, but 3DO had much more powerful hardware...the actual potential of this machine far exceeds a cd32...too bad they were taken out of the game early.I paid $550 in Canada back in the day...games were also expensive...like $90 +. Titles like Space Hulk truly displayed what this machine could do if programmed properly...Doom? If the game was developed from scratch on this machine instead of a sloppy, quick PC port? This machine could make many computers look quite inferior, for the graphics engine on this machine were truly unrealized.
essentially the spiritual successor of the original OCS chipset Amiga, but unfortunately too late to the party to win any success.
It also had a JRPG called Lucienne's Quest (or Sword & Sorcery, if you lived in Japan). In fact, it's the only officially localized version of the game since the Saturn port never made it outside Japan thanks to Bernard Stolar (aka the Bald Idiot who destroyed Sega). Unfortunately, it came VERY late in the 3DO's lifespan, March 1996, which was also a few months before the system was discontinued. It also came out at a time where JRPGs weren't hugely popular in the West. So yeah, it had a very limited release. I'm not sure of sales numbers, but some claim it was less than 10,000 units. This is why it's a rare and extremely difficult game to find. And prohibitively expensive.
It looks like an interesting bridge between gaming eras. Lemmings on the one hand, Need For Speed on the other. And the fact that the licensing scheme led to essentially a PC port is even more appealing. If this system had taken off, there would be little need for emulators, you could just buy a PCI card and pop the games in the drive.
If it wasn't for the 3DO to be SO expensive at the time, we probably would be playing the 3DO instead of the PlayStation. 3DO came out WAY before the original PlayStation and it was a VERY cool system!
Well no it still needed a good game library. And some really good exclusives
D is also a good game for the 3DO
I never played D, but heard a lot.. Another one that was popular but I don't know if it was good was one called "The Horde", do you know? It was good?
Yeah it's good. A staple 3do title.
Wasnt there supposed to be a D2 on the M2 console that was never released?
D was awesome. I had it on saturn. Such a cool game.
The horde is actually one of my favorite games of all time. Kirk Cameron was hilarious, and the game blended rts, tbs, and diabloesque play into one.
Doom?
I remember playing Gex on the display model at circuit city. My parents laughed when they saw the price. What I remember the most is how “realistic” the graphics were compared to my SNES, and me being 6. I was also at the age where I thought more expensive = more better. I eventually got a hand-me-down PS1 a while after that, and never thought twice about the 3DO
I picked up a used 3DO in 1996. Definitely was a great game console. Those were my college years. The game "Way of the Warrior" was a hit with everyone in the dorm. The White Zombie soundtrack really pulled it together. It was really kick ass. You should check it out.
Haha seriously...eople enjoyed playing it? I remember seeing the screenshots and being blown away then I saw actual gameplay and was like whoa...this thing is abysmal.
This really was a terrific system in terms of its capabilities at the time it released. I recall my friend getting one. The two of us were Amiga buddies already. 1993 was the first year that the Amiga started to show its limitations; the 3DO only confirmed it and forced us all to let go of the denial. I actually "blame" (or thank, depends on how you look at it) the 3DO for showing me that the Amiga's heyday had come and gone. I sold off the Amiga for a decent price, and invested it all into my very first DIY PC build (Intel 80486). In retrospect, pretty happy I went for a PC over the 3DO. Being able to use your gaming rig as a bonafide computer is an enormous benefit (and I never did get the console concept to be honest ... not until now when I can pick a really old one for very cheap, for nostalgia).
$50 for a 3DO? Lucky to find one under £200 here in the UK now....
same here in Canada. Have never seen a used one under $200.
Unless its a goldstar. Which is the worst version. Totally don't reccommend it. Its terrible. Even the japan exclusive model the Sanyo 3DO is better. Goldstars can be even like $70 on Ebay if its just the console with cords and the controller.
The FZ-10 is the best version if you actually plan on doing alot of gaming on it. Since you can replace the power cord actually unlike the FZ-1 model. The Sanyo and Goldstar Model are just not that intersting or even perform that great to be honest.
But the FZ-1 Looks so dam cool and its one of the nicest game consoles ever in terms of designs. But that hardwired power cord sucks for people wanting to actually play games on it quite of bit. But if it the power cord was replaceable insted of hardwired, then it would be the best model. But as it stands, its a collector's item.
@@Boscoand I haven't seen it but hardwired normally means soldered somewhere on the psu board. You can buy generic power cords, snip the old, and likely solder in a new one. Requires basic electrical and soldering knowledge but not hard.
He mentions it's not worth over 50 bucks. I've only seen FZ 1s in the wild. Cheapest I've seen is around 300 bucks. Find me one for 50 dollars and I'll buy it in a heartbeat...
Wow,definitely brings back heartfelt FUN GAMING MEMORIES!😍I remember my Girlfriend at the time,Asking me what I wanted for my bday around the time the last 3DO's were on a HUGE discount//Last ones on store shelves!So we went to VIDEO GAME EXCHANGE store&Saw the last one NEW on the shelf!Crazy it was $700 NEW& this was marked down to $100!?🤣That was around 1996 October!I was so excited to try it out& We also got a ton of games new marked down AND many used games also!Ran to best buy an grabbed all the marked down 3DO gems there also,Controllers etc.What an awesome Bday wknd it was!😂I was impressed by the graphics back then& always felt 3DO was definitely underrated sadly.The ridiculous high price ruined it VS when Playstation and other consoles were much cheaper AND better games were incoming,So 3DO was doomed!I had a cousin who had the orig model you showed& I was impressed,thats why I ended up grabbing the FZ-10 and still have it in 2023!STILL WORKS LIKE NEW!!I had opened it up yrs ago &Oiled up the gears and Disc drive area etc.And its whisper quiet.I wish things would have been different for 3DO,but thats how it goes lol.I miss those various consoles coming out& the fun competition among them all!Great time to be a gamer back then I'll say.Long live the retro gamers who love the consoles,And long live the 3DO systems!Great video& we love your style mate!Stay creative.....🤜🤛🙏
Star Control 2 is a *great* port to the 3D0 :)
Its actually the best Version of it. Which got ported to PC, also highly recommendable! (Ur-Quan Masters is the title)
sc2 super melee, random ships only... hours and hours and hours of fun
Yes it is! One of my favorite gaming experiences of all time. This was enough to own the 3DO.
We would play super melee for days on the 3DO was the Utwick Jugger vs the Chenjusu Avatar i was a jugger all the time
I have the FZ-1 and I always loved how ruggedly built it was. Also the cord on the controller was the longest I've ever seen. I think I originally got it so I could play GEX, and I honestly don't remember what I paid for it, but I think it wasn't a lot. Still dig it out of the closet once in a while.
Road rash looks great
I bought an FZ-1 3DO back in 1996. It was used and I paid $300 for it at the time. I remember when it came in from UPS, never been so excited in my life. I received 5 full games with it ( which surprised me, because I thought I had purchased only the console, plus a CD sampler). Some of the best times of my late teenage years were spent playing that thing! My console completely stopped working around 10 years ago...
Another great video MVG! The Panasonic 3DO doesn't interest me as a console, but I appreciate its history: killer hardware but no killer software.
Michael Oglesby It's an interesting oddity. Has quite a few good games, but you have to be pretty hardcore to wanna buy one lol.
Wonderful video. Thanks took me right back.
"What are you playing with?" With myself.
Too bad you aren't a girl....
With my right hand, lol.
😂😂😂 Adverts become so abusive over time, just a thought but is watching adverts constantly thrown at us self abusive 😂😂👍
Joshua your last name says it all 😂😂👍❤️
oh
I remember being blown away by the very few commercials. I knew no one who even had one. I finally got to play it about 2000 when a friend of mine got one dirt cheap with a bunch of games. We had a lot of fun but was more of a so bad it's good thing. Like a guilty pleasure if that makes sense
This was a great system. Unbelievable graphics for the 1993 era!
It is definitely underrated. I wish my Dad didn’t sell mines when I was younger. I’m looking to get one to add to my collection. Love this system!