So what's good on 3DO?

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Originally Posted by Mega Drive Bowlsey

Perhaps it's a recent thing this new found appreciation people seem to have for consoles that were massive commercial failures back in the day. What next? Atari Jaguar appreciation week? Philips CDI memorial day? :p

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The CD-i has its fans, and it was modestly successful in the Netherlands in particular (not a big surprise since it originated there).

I think you always have to keep in mind how much video game markets can vary by region. It's well-known that Atari's later consoles performed a bit better in the UK, for example, and the Lynx sold better there than in the US IIRC. So it doesn't surprise me that you think of the Jaguar first, even though worldwide sales of the 3DO -- which performed very poorly in Europe, as I recall -- were nearly an order of magnitude higher than the Jaguar.

The 3DO had some modest success in Japan and Korea, and I've wondered if the Korean connection explains why there seems to be a disproportionate amount of interest in the console from Russian hackers (I think surplus/leftover Korean consoles were imported to Russia IIRC).

And yes, the 3DO got a ton of industry hype in the US in the lead-up to its release and the first few months afterward. If you read US gaming magazines, it was definitely in there, and talked about with eager anticipation.

It was marketed as a game console for adults. They even had a commercial with the SNES and Genesis dropping into a toy box, to show that the 3D0 was not your kids console.

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Originally Posted by bultje112

what are you talking about? 3do had really good japanese developer support. the system was also far more successful in japan than in all the other regions combined.

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I meant localized titles - of course there are games like Blue Forest Story or Policenauts, but as interesting a business model 3DO was with its open-door development I can't understand why the same consideration wasn't taken in making Japanese games available. Games like Lucienne's Quest should have been at the fore-front, not some $400.00 wonder that it is today.

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Originally Posted by Lync

I meant localized titles - of course there are games like Blue Forest Story or Policenauts, but as interesting a business model 3DO was with its open-door development I can't understand why the same consideration wasn't taken in making Japanese games available. Games like Lucienne's Quest should have been at the fore-front, not some $400.00 wonder that it is today.

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then why did you say this: Like the CD-i, in the 90's not having backing from Japanese developers is a death-punch.

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Originally Posted by goldenband

The CD-i has its fans, and it was modestly successful in the Netherlands in particular (not a big surprise since it originated there).
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I liked the CDi lol, but if it was your main console, you would be gutted. I liked the FMV games though. And one didn't always need Japanese support. The Amiga and ZX Spectrum were hugely useful in the UK and outsold the NES, SNES and Master system.

Check this out.

Life Stage. Crazy.

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Originally Posted by goldenband

Doctor Hauzer has been translated, BTW, in case anyone didn't know, and is now playable in English. Here's hoping more 3DO games from Japan get translated; the translator behind DH was working on Blue Forest Story, IIRC.

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Wow, really? That's great. The Japanese version is all right but can be intimidating without reading the flavor text.

Though to be perfectly honest, the best way to play Dr. Hauzer is probably through the emulator 4DO, which can overclock the console processor and address some of the game's horrendous slowdown/low framerates. Full 3D environments on the 3DO were always a bit spotty imo.

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Originally Posted by TrekkiesUnite118

Unless you want Parallax scrolling...

Also it's soundtrack is an available option in Capcom Generation 5 for the Saturn and PS1:





Because a Lamborghini Diablo topping out at 10mph is totally realistic...

While I can be ok with the other suggestions, those two are just flat out wrong.

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Try 203.1mph... Ive played the sh** out of that game on 3DO and never once had the Diablo top out at 10mph, ive never even heard of that before.

Go and look on the 3DO forum and have a look at the Need for Speed best times thread.

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Originally Posted by bultje112

then why did you say this: Like the CD-i, in the 90's not having backing from Japanese developers is a death-punch.

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Because it should go without saying that for any company to produce a video game machine without the support of Japanese developers, especially during the 90's, was an incredibly dire business endeavor.

And perhaps this is more a discussion of the cultural condition of Japan and electronic consumer-ship, but I think it's been understood that with very few exceptions that foreign electronics are not known for being embraced if at all moderately successful in Japan.

So enter the CD-i, how could Philips possibly hope to fare promoting a video game machine in a market practically directed by the country the majority of its business competitors call home turf. Sell it as a 'multimedia' machine and hope to God banking on all the rights to those Nintendo licenses they acquired turns profit.

Similarly, the 3DO is pitched as a 'multimedia' machine. The difference, they managed to have it branded under a Japanese name: Panasonic. That tells you 3DO knew it sure wasn't going to stand a chance having General Electronic pitching it, and that other Japanese companies were willing because they at the least had home court.

That is all that I was trying to get at.

I won't pretend to know or guess why Panasonic couldn't get more of the bigger names on board, arcade-hand-me-downs from Namco, Capcom's Street Fighter II is hardly noteworthy, would Konami's Policenauts been a big-push or would it be as successful as Snatcher before it? Localization, supply, demand, it's all conjecture from me at this point. But from what is out there, the import scene is hardly a system-seller for the 3DO today unless you really love stuff like Virtual Cameraman... :p

^not to mention cheaper versions of already-in-English games like Microcosm and Novastorm. Importing 3DO games have -some- advantages... :cool:

Its library is really more about getting that type of western-developed PC/console game that only existed for a small slice of the 90s.