October 17, 2019|All Reviews, Retro Reviews
By Rob Leggo
The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer is often written off as having been nothing more than a failed, fad of a system driven by a rush of FMV heavy, non-game games…appreciated more by craft brew drinking hipsters, than real gamers. At the time of it’s launch however, the 3DO was the glam rockstar of the 5th generation of consoles. Expensive, flashy, loud…and quite possibly hooked on Columbian nose candy.
Underneath all the glitz however, was a console that not only had it’s share of high quality games, but was arguably responsible for some real innovation as well. It’s got a special place in my collection, even if they never had a Mario type success story. But is there some legitimate fun to be had with this system? Let’s take a look.
The History
The 3DO was the brainchild of Electronics Arts founder Trip Hawkins, and as the company did not have the financial means to produce the console itself, the hardware would be made by several other companies. The hardware specs were designed in house at 3DO, with the esthetics being up to each manufacturer. The Panasonic 3DO model FZ-1 was the first iteration, and was the first 32-bit console to be sold world wide, releasing in North America in October of 1993. (The Amiga32 had come out a month earlier, but was never officially sold in the US, as Commodore declared bankruptcy shortly after). Goldstar and Sanyo would each go on to make their versions of the 3DO later.
One problem with licensing out the manufacturing process was that the company making the console would have to make money on each console sold, which is different than the usual model of taking a loss on each system and making the money back on the software. The FZ-1 was launched with a suggested retail price of $699 American, far above the cost of either the SNES or Genesis at the time. Panasonic also struggled to make enough for launch time, and that coupled with a grand total of 1 title available at launch, Crash N’Burn, the 3DO had one of the biggest flops of a launch in video gaming history.
By the time it had been on the market for 6 months though, it was riding a wave of success, as the Goldstar model was now available for $399, and a steady stream of games were hitting the market. The 3DO was easily the most powerful console on the market, and was riding the popularity of full motion video with games featuring real actors and Hollywood type sets.
The 3DO also had a very low royalty fee for its software developers, requiring developers to give 3DO a very modest $3 per game sold. While this encouraged more software development early for the system, it also resulted in a flood of shovelware type games that would put the Wii to shame. The 3DO also became known as a haven for many soft-core pornography “games”, and is still known in Japan primarily for this.
Still, the 3DO would go on to release some great games in the next couple of years, and would enjoy moderate financial success. The console itself would go on to sell around 2 million units, and games such as Need for Speed (Still under the Road and Track moniker), Gex, Road Rash, Fifa and a criminally underated port of Street Fighter II Turbo would all go on to sell over 250,000 units each and enjoy critical success. The decline of 3DO started in late 1994, as the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation were both released in Japan to critical acclaim. Both systems came to North America in mid 1995 at a very reasonable launch price of $399 and $299 respectively, and were both technologically superior to the 3DO. In Dec of 1995, Goldstar dropped the price of their 3DO to $199 American to try and compete, but they were eating a substantial loss on each system at that point, and by the end of 1996 the 3DO was officially discontinued. 3DO had been working on a next gen console called the M2, but all rights and designs of that were sold off as well. 3DO would go on to be a multi-platform software developer, making such games as the Army Men series, and Might and Magic. 3DO would go on to declare bankruptcy in 2003, and Trip Hawkins would go on to found Digital Chocolate, and make a slew of mid tier mobile phone games. A very rock-star type end to a company that had been on top of the video gaming world.
The Hardware
The first hardware iteration of the 3DO was the Panasonic model FZ-1, and came with a mechanical drawer 2X CD-ROM, a single controller port, and A/V ports for RF out, Composite and S-Video out. On the side and rear of the unit were also expansion ports. The controllers were daisy chainable, via a controller port on top of each controller. This could be chained up to 8 controllers, which games such as FIFA supported. The original controller that came with the FZ-1 also came with a headphone jack and a volume control, a nice touch if you were playing one of the more “grown up” games! FZ-10 controllers would go on to remove this headphone jack, but all versions of the controllers would support daisy chaining.
The brains behind the 3DO is an ARM60 CPU running at a beefy 12.5 Mhz, with a custom math co-processor. Driving the graphics are 2 video co-processors, code named Clio and Madam, pushing up to 20,000 polygons a sec, at 320X240 (progressive) or 640X480 (interlaced), and a 24-bit colour pallete. The system came packed with 2 Meg of DRAM, and a beefy 1 Meg for the Video processing. All of these specs meant the 3DO was pushing some absolutely revolutionary graphics at the time.
The audio specs were no less impressive, with 16 bit stereo sound, and support for 4 channel Dolby Surround Sound. Games would take advantage of the benefits of having CD media, and games were filled with CD quality music and audio. All of this was powered by the custom 32-bit operating system of the 3DO. Games like Wing Commander 3 took full advantage of this, with some incredibly high quality Surround sound.
Save games were stored on 32KB of in unit storage, and this honestly is one of the weak spots of the 3DO. 32KB runs out fairly fast, and the FZ-1 has no way to manage its save memory, and relied on certain games to have access to manage save games. The next model, the FZ-10 would include a native memory manager with it to alleviate this problem. There was also a expansion memory unit sold by Panasonic which added 256KB, the FZ-EM256…but this was sold in Japan only, and currently goes on Ebay for roughly 3 trillion Canadian dollars.
Speaking of the FZ-10, there were several models released after the FZ-1, with the inner workings of each being the same mostly, with several slight upgrades like the built in memory manager.
The Games
There were 162 games officially released in North America, with 214 released in Japan. The 3DO had no region lock capabilities, so all games can be played regardless of where they are from. Due to the CD medium still being fairly expensive at the time, there were no copy protection protocols on the 3DO, so nowadays “backups” are fairly easy to make and play on the system. “Backups….”
Games were released in a couple of different styles of cases., The earlier game releases had a very nice longbox that folded open. Inside was ample storage for up to 2 CD’s, and storage for the manuals and such. Later games would go for a much cheaper plain cardboard box, which would have room for the CD crystal case and the manual inside. These newer boxes tend to damage much easier, and require a little bit more love and affection.
The 3DO was released at a time when game developers were experimenting with the wonders that were full motion video in games, often with very comedic results…and this I feel has clouded what people consider of the 3DO as a gaming console. In my opinion though, there are quite a few great original games, as well as a handful of games where the definitive version is on this platform. Here are some of what I consider to be the best games on the platform (my opinion only folks….I’d love to hear what some of your favorites are below in the comments!)
The Accessories
The 3DO had a good amount of accessories, especially considering its relatively short production run. The most popular was the Gamegun, made by American Laser Games, and was designed to look like an old 6 shooter…assuming said 6 shooter was also bright orange. This gun is now highly sought after by collectors, and goes for a fairly high price. Also, as is the case with most light based game guns, this will not work on a TV unless you are using a CRT based one.
The Gamegun was used in about 10 games, which consisted mostly of FMV made shooters made by American Laser Games themselves. These are some of my favourite experiences on the 3DO, as these games have some of the cheesiest acting you could ask for, but are challenging and fun at the same time. The 3DO also had enough power to run these almost arcade cabinet perfect, with full screen video as opposed to other systems that ported these such as the Sega CD.
Panasonic also released an expansion module that allowed MPEG decoding, which enabled the 3DO to play Video CD discs. There was a model made for both the FZ-1 and the FZ-10, and they both plugged into the side expansion port of the 3DO. This module was not very popular in North America as the Video CD format was never that popular here, but they were much more common in Japan. This adaptor also sells for ridiculous money on Ebay as well….because of course it does.
There was also a Panasonic and Logitech version of a 3DO mouse, which worked in about 20 games, but was primarily meant for games like Myst. These were just standard 1994 era mice, and made for more of a computer style play experience with those type of games. These are available for more reasonable prices than the other accessories here, as there were more made at the time…running about 50 bucks Canadian at the time I’m writing this.
Other accessories included an adapter to use SNES controllers on the 3DO, a ludicrously rare steering wheel made by a group called Home Arcade Systems and a karaoke system, as well as the memory expanding module mentioned earlier. Not as many accessories as there were plastic doodads for, say the Wii…but not too shabby either.
The Verdict
The 3DO is an interesting system, from an interesting time in video gaming history. Sprite based games were starting to be replaced by polygonal ones, (like Alone in the Dark, for example) and developers were busy trying to figure out what the future of gaming was going to be. FMV video games were developed and released by the bucket full, and a lot of them were very, very bad.
But hidden amongst all of that, were some truly amazing games. The version of Star Control 2 for the 3DO is by far the best way to play this already amazing game! Same with the 3DO’s version of Need for Speed, Road Rash, Flashback and Out of This World. Return Fire, Lucienne’s Quest and The Amazing Machine were amazing console exclusives (at the time) to the 3DO. And as cheesy as they were, there is absolutely no other experience like playing one of the American Laser Games games….especially Space Pirates.
So, if you can somehow find a 3DO in the wild at a reasonable price, I would heartily recommend picking one up. Games for this have sky rocketed in price lately, as collectors have been scooping these up, so as far as bang for buck goes, this may be a stretch to recommend to someone who isn’t already invested in this time period…at least until Panasonic releases a 3DO mini classic system! (Not holding my breath) But for anyone who lived through the 90’s, the 3DO is a nostalgic trip down a badly acted memory lane, and recorded on 17 CD’s.
Written by:
Rob Leggo fondly remembers the 1990s, and dresses up as Screech from Saved by the Bell every Halloween….as well as every other Friday!
The Grumpy Old Gamers 
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