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I was at E.A. working on the ill fated 3D0 OS video subsystem when Doom was released. The game was immediately installed on everyone's PCs, "for research", and

I was at E.A. working on the ill fated 3D0 OS video subsystem when Doom was released. The game was immediately installed on everyone's PCs, "for research", and for the next week or two absolutely zero work occurred at Electronic Arts.

8372049 3y ago
While 3DO may not have been a success, at least you could play the legendary HoMM3 and Star Control II on it.
- bsenftner 3y ago
  Being an OS developer for the 3D0 was enlightening, primarily because very little of the highly publicized 3D0 technology actually worked. The OS team was expected to fix the hardware bugs, while maintaining all the marketing hype. Plus the executives were early spending the money they expected to earn and were half checked out during the critical "nothing works this cannot be delivered" meetings. It was the cascading cluster fuck of all cluster fucks, as E.A. had no capacity to realize this "ambition", just executives capable of selling the idea.
  - ido 3y ago
    Interesting! My vague recollection (as a kid at the time) was that the 3DO really did deliver some impressive stuff but just at a very high price. Of course by the time the Playstation was released it was game over for 3do (and Atari, and Sega).
    - bsenftner 3y ago
      I worked on the PlayStation OS too. Very different everything. I was Sony Computer Entertainment's first software engineer hire, promptly sent to Tokyo to help finish the system.
      - ido 3y ago
        What were the main things that stood out to you as different?
        bsenftner 3y ago
        Professionalism; EA was basically modeled after rock bands as programmer teams back then. Sony was creating a series of international divisions and appointing star people from other divisions with their own new division, dubbed Sony Computer Entertainment of [Country Name], and an entire campus to run. Their attitude was game developers were tough and critical and needed to be won over, while EA's attitude was game developers were gamers who code and can be satisfied by a pizza party.

8372049 3y ago

While 3DO may not have been a success, at least you could play the legendary HoMM3 and Star Control II on it.

bsenftner 3y ago
Being an OS developer for the 3D0 was enlightening, primarily because very little of the highly publicized 3D0 technology actually worked. The OS team was expected to fix the hardware bugs, while maintaining all the marketing hype. Plus the executives were early spending the money they expected to earn and were half checked out during the critical "nothing works this cannot be delivered" meetings. It was the cascading cluster fuck of all cluster fucks, as E.A. had no capacity to realize this "ambition", just executives capable of selling the idea.
- ido 3y ago
  Interesting! My vague recollection (as a kid at the time) was that the 3DO really did deliver some impressive stuff but just at a very high price. Of course by the time the Playstation was released it was game over for 3do (and Atari, and Sega).
  - bsenftner 3y ago
    I worked on the PlayStation OS too. Very different everything. I was Sony Computer Entertainment's first software engineer hire, promptly sent to Tokyo to help finish the system.
    - ido 3y ago
      What were the main things that stood out to you as different?
      - bsenftner 3y ago
        Professionalism; EA was basically modeled after rock bands as programmer teams back then. Sony was creating a series of international divisions and appointing star people from other divisions with their own new division, dubbed Sony Computer Entertainment of [Country Name], and an entire campus to run. Their attitude was game developers were tough and critical and needed to be won over, while EA's attitude was game developers were gamers who code and can be satisfied by a pizza party.