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Was just reading about the 3DO because I was gonna write an emulator. Wikipedia and others point to steep price tag, the spec-only-third-party hardware approach

Was just reading about the 3DO because I was gonna write an emulator. Wikipedia and others point to steep price tag, the spec-only-third-party hardware approach, and that they didn't collect many royalties from the games as the reasons for the downfall of the 3DO. But as I looked around and read, it seemed they were super proud and stingy with the tech (expensive devkits iirc), and the tech was about 2 years too early and just a bit before the 3D revolution that came with 5th gen consoles.

MBCook 9y ago
There’s just no getting around the price. It was (inflation adjusted) $1200 plus games. Remember when gamers were upset the PS3 was $600 even though it was also a Blu-ray player? Remember when the Xbox One tripped out of the gate because it was $500 and not $400 like the PS4? $1200. There were other mistakes. You’re right development was expensive. It wasn’t as powerful as the PS and Saturn that came later much cheaper (the Saturn was also considered too expensive at $400... which was $300 less than the 3DO). They didn’t have pre-built franchises to lean on like Mario or Sonic. But MAN was it expensive.
- slantyyz 9y ago
  It didn't have Mario or Sonic, but looking back, you could argue that it laid the foundation of next generation of EA (like 'em or hate 'em) titles. FIFA and Road Rash were vastly better on the 3DO than they were on 16 bit machines at the time. I remember being in awe of how great FIFA was on the 3DO, and the 3DO version of Road Rash was easily my favorite version of that game. If I'm not mistaken, Need for Speed was first introduced on the 3DO. I remember there being quite a few good games on 3DO (mostly from EA and Crystal Dynamics), including what might have been the closest thing to an arcade version of Super Street Fighter 2 turbo. But yeah, the 3DO was ridiculously expensive. Having said that, so was the Neo Geo home console. I had a few friends who were really into the SNK 2d fighting games at the time, and they'd be plunking well over $100 per cartridge.
  - MBCook 9y ago
    It was affectively EA’s console, they tried to support it well. And it was obviously WAY more powerful than the 16 bit machines. NeoGeo at least had an argument, it was literally an arcade board you could buy at home. To the group of gamers who wanted that stuff there was a strong reason for it to exist and an explanation for its cost. If they had gotten a couple of killer titles maybe it could’ve done better. Or if the price had fallen faster before the system was declared “dead“ by the public. But by the time that happened it was just too late. $700 was three SNESes and a game or two at the SNES launch price. But this was three years later so you could probably buy a few more games. It was just an obscene amount of money, especially for what was still considered a “kids toy” until more into the PS2 and XBox.
    - slantyyz 9y ago
      IIRC, I grabbed the 3DO in 1995 for around $500 CAD (and the dollar was weak against the USD at that point). This was just prior to the North American release of the Saturn and PS1. It's been so long but I think I got a Japanese import of the PS1 prior the North American release for about the same money a month or two after getting the 3DO. At the time, a friend and I had opened up a video game shop, and until the PS1 releases really started ramping up, the 3DO games were actually pretty popular with the kids who came into our store.
      - MBCook 9y ago
        I remember seeing them in stores before and after the PlayStation came out. I was always kind of interested in it and liked playing with Gex some of the other games, but it was totally academic because I knew that even after price drops ($500, or $400) it was never going to happen for me.
puzzle 9y ago
The machines used a fairly sophisticated OS. It was an evolution of the Amiga OS, which originally was meant for a console, too, although they kept adding bonuses and abstractions that a game machine didn't need. Compared to its predecessor, "Portfolio OS" also added memory protection, although that was more to implement their copy protection and royalty scheme than for security or reliability.
- kodablah 9y ago
  Would you happen to have any links to machine docs for the 3DO? I have scoured the net and haven't found official docs about e.g. their graphics processors like I have with consoles like the Saturn.
  - puzzle 9y ago
    Not that I know of, sorry. Perhaps it might be worth petitioning some of the original developers. I doubt Matsushita/Panasonic would have the information anymore, although they would retain copyrights.

MBCook 9y ago

There’s just no getting around the price. It was (inflation adjusted) $1200 plus games. Remember when gamers were upset the PS3 was $600 even though it was also a Blu-ray player? Remember when the Xbox One tripped out of the gate because it was $500 and not $400 like the PS4? $1200. There were other mistakes. You’re right development was expensive. It wasn’t as powerful as the PS and Saturn that came later much cheaper (the Saturn was also considered too expensive at $400... which was $300 less than the 3DO). They didn’t have pre-built franchises to lean on like Mario or Sonic. But MAN was it expensive.

slantyyz 9y ago
It didn't have Mario or Sonic, but looking back, you could argue that it laid the foundation of next generation of EA (like 'em or hate 'em) titles. FIFA and Road Rash were vastly better on the 3DO than they were on 16 bit machines at the time. I remember being in awe of how great FIFA was on the 3DO, and the 3DO version of Road Rash was easily my favorite version of that game. If I'm not mistaken, Need for Speed was first introduced on the 3DO. I remember there being quite a few good games on 3DO (mostly from EA and Crystal Dynamics), including what might have been the closest thing to an arcade version of Super Street Fighter 2 turbo. But yeah, the 3DO was ridiculously expensive. Having said that, so was the Neo Geo home console. I had a few friends who were really into the SNK 2d fighting games at the time, and they'd be plunking well over $100 per cartridge.
- MBCook 9y ago
  It was affectively EA’s console, they tried to support it well. And it was obviously WAY more powerful than the 16 bit machines. NeoGeo at least had an argument, it was literally an arcade board you could buy at home. To the group of gamers who wanted that stuff there was a strong reason for it to exist and an explanation for its cost. If they had gotten a couple of killer titles maybe it could’ve done better. Or if the price had fallen faster before the system was declared “dead“ by the public. But by the time that happened it was just too late. $700 was three SNESes and a game or two at the SNES launch price. But this was three years later so you could probably buy a few more games. It was just an obscene amount of money, especially for what was still considered a “kids toy” until more into the PS2 and XBox.
  - slantyyz 9y ago
    IIRC, I grabbed the 3DO in 1995 for around $500 CAD (and the dollar was weak against the USD at that point). This was just prior to the North American release of the Saturn and PS1. It's been so long but I think I got a Japanese import of the PS1 prior the North American release for about the same money a month or two after getting the 3DO. At the time, a friend and I had opened up a video game shop, and until the PS1 releases really started ramping up, the 3DO games were actually pretty popular with the kids who came into our store.
    - MBCook 9y ago
      I remember seeing them in stores before and after the PlayStation came out. I was always kind of interested in it and liked playing with Gex some of the other games, but it was totally academic because I knew that even after price drops ($500, or $400) it was never going to happen for me.

puzzle 9y ago

The machines used a fairly sophisticated OS. It was an evolution of the Amiga OS, which originally was meant for a console, too, although they kept adding bonuses and abstractions that a game machine didn't need. Compared to its predecessor, "Portfolio OS" also added memory protection, although that was more to implement their copy protection and royalty scheme than for security or reliability.

kodablah 9y ago
Would you happen to have any links to machine docs for the 3DO? I have scoured the net and haven't found official docs about e.g. their graphics processors like I have with consoles like the Saturn.
- puzzle 9y ago
  Not that I know of, sorry. Perhaps it might be worth petitioning some of the original developers. I doubt Matsushita/Panasonic would have the information anymore, although they would retain copyrights.