The Story of 3DO -- The PLAYSTATION Before the PlayStation
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- Опубліковано 7 січ 2025
- Embark on a journey through the history of the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, a groundbreaking gaming console that promised to redefine multimedia entertainment in the early 1990s. Developed by The 3DO Company and led by visionary entrepreneur Trip Hawkins, the 3DO aimed to revolutionize home gaming with its 32-bit architecture, innovative hardware features, and a licensing model intended to attract game developers. From its ambitious $699 launch price to its multimedia capabilities and a library of titles like "Road Rash", "Need for Speed", and "Wing Commander III", the 3DO made a bold attempt to compete against industry giants like Nintendo and Sega.
Despite its advanced technology and initial hype, the 3DO faced challenges such as a crowded market, limited game availability at launch, and a business model that proved unsustainable. This documentary explores the rise and fall of this ambitious console, the creative games it brought to life, and its influence on gaming history. Whether you're a retro gaming enthusiast or curious about the evolution of video game consoles, this deep dive into the 3DO era offers fascinating insights into one of the gaming industry's most daring endeavors.
#3DO #EAgames #GamingHistory #VideoGames #RetroTech #90sNostalgia #retroconsole #retrogaming #retrogames #consolegaming #consolegameplay #homebrew
You seem to add that little bit of extra history on all your videos, that so many other creators lack. Keep it up.
I legit bought one of these two days ago because I felt like there wasn’t a more modern take on what the 3DO is. Not just “it’s a failure”
Setting up to hopefully record every game for preservation purposes this year
Your videos are so well done. Please keep it up with all of the systems. Just the right mix of being fun to watch and informative.
I can still remember drooling over pictures of M2 software in an EGM magazine. Thanks for the upload.!
My cousin collected consoles when I was a small child. I remember playing Road Rash on the 3DO and the SOUNDTRACK WAS SO 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Hearing music like that in a video game at that point was a surreal experience. For those that don’t know the RR soundtrack had bands like Soundgarden and Bush.
I felt so cool playing his 3DO 😅
I was just singing that Soundgarden song in my head before I saw your comment. You were able to play just the sound track on 3D0 so my brother and I would play it all the time. We also had Batman: the animated series episodes on 3DO and that sound track also set a eerie mood. We would do our homework to the music and felt like scientist or something.
I only had a 3do because my older sisters boyfriend left it at our place when he went to usmc boot camp. This console deserved a bigger following. Decent number of good games and then it also had a great trippy eyecandy function when you played music cds through it. I still have it though I don’t have a tv to play it on.
Pro tip, this existed before anti copy features so you can just download and burn all the games for it on a regular cdr disk
Says featuring actors like Mark Hamill, shows Malcom McDowell
1:32 Dude if Steve Jobs thinks you’re a square? You’re a square 😂
I love gaming history so much, now I want a 3do console man.
Content is great, but that AI voice needs to go! Around the 10 minute mark, it sounds like it needs to take a poop.
I'm at 56 seconds and decided I couldn't watch any more...sounds like the AI needs an oxygen machine for life support.
you poor bbs 😢
Great video! This brought back memories of my time with the 3DO. I had the Goldstar version. I only owned it for a couple of years but I had amassed a good collection of games for it. I was the only one out of all my friends to have one so everyone wanted to come over to my house to play it. The Need for Speed was probably the game we played the most because I had the steering wheel accessory. Some of my other favorites were Gex, Alone in the Dark, Off World Interceptor, Escape from Monster Manor and D. When my favorite arcade game at the time, MK3, released on the PlayStation I had to have it. So I sold my 3DO and games to buy a PSX and a copy of MK3.
I still remember how's the impact that playing 3D polygon graphic games at home on 3DO. It is totally next generation feeling.
Even the coming SS/PS1 cannot give me that impact.
The next impact is from VR gaming.
I traded my neighbor an electric piano for his 3DO in the 90s. My brother and I had so much fun playing that bad boy. We only had 3 games but we played them everyday. I still hear that Soundgarden track on Road Rash in my head. We played a ton of playstation 1 but that 3do felt special
"Game designers are artists... NOT programmers." If only Warner Brothers embraced that philosophy when the acquired Atari. They would've prevented the deluge of 3rd-party game titles that nearly led to the death of electronic & video gaming as a whole...!😕
Great job! I was hoping to binge more of your videos but realized you only have 4 total. Keep them coming!
They should have went all in on what they wanted to be, the Amiga done right. They should have had launched it with a new version of DPaint, an Octamed-like tracker, a morphing program, some kind of transition generator... Possibly a video capture device or way to transfer files for processing. People were spending thousands on the Video Toaster, the Amiga barely kept afloat by people justifying its high cost with the "serious" things it could do. The 3DO should have been the box that ran the cable company feed, that people made their rock videos and commercials on. Then played games on in their downtime never regretting how much they'd paid for it.
The Horde, Immercenary and Star Control 2 were some of the best games. Star Control 2 in particular is such a full game with a huge galaxy to explore. My friend and I looked up all the locations of the different aliens. If it’s still online there was a fan edit for this that let people add content
I was one of those 100K that bought the 3DO in it's first year in the U.S. I loved it until the cheaper versions were released. It taught me to stop being one of the first in line to buy electronics. It has served me well too and saved me thousands. The 3DO had the best looking version of Madden until NFL2K was released on the Dreamcast which was the last console I bought at launch. I loved Need for speed and Road Rash on the 3DO. There were a lot of games I loved from the 3DO. It was just ahead of it's time like the Dreamcast was. The Dreamcast is my favorite console of all time but the 3DO is a close second.
Audio jack in the controllers -genius
You’d think the 3DO would’ve done better in Japan, especially since ppl watched porn on it. Kinda like how VHS and DVDs became industry standard bcuz of adult entertainment
Came out of nowhere with these vids. Subbed. Great work.
I bought into this at the time. And for about a year I loved it. It felt truly next gen and did things none of my friends consoles could manage. I believed it was the future. Shame it didn't last.
This was the only non-Nintendo, non-Sega, pre-Playstation console that I coveted. Too bad it cost a lot of money.
For me that was the Neo Geo AES. In hindsight, the 3DO does at least have a small selection of excellent titles.
It seemed like a neat system, but launched too early compared to the competition. Like the Dreamcast, it came between generations and was a little too weak compared to the upcoming competition.
Also, didnt the M2 eventually release as an arcade board?
Nice - I saw Star Control II in the start there - best game hands down. I played it for the PC in 1996 for the first time - such a great game.
I remember when these came out. For the price I didnt think they looked any better than Sega or NES. Nice to learn the full history. Thanks for sharing
Very nice video. One thing, Street Fighter, was definitely not arcade perfect for the 3DO. It was as close as you could get in 1994, but it didn't quite get there. Also, the control options were absolutely abysmal, as was that strange SF controller. Why the hell couldn't we just get a normal 6-button pad. I also question why Tripp and company thought a 5-button controller was adequate for a console release in 1993.
The market in 1993 was definitely driven by 1-on-1 fighting games and was building towards FPS dominance.
The controls for this game were horrible.
It was a great port but yes. No parallax scrolling no SSF2 characters
I only remember the system because of need for speed. That game was so good.
Rebecca Heineman achieved something impossible with her port of Doom. It was a technical milestone
It's not a technical milestone, but it is incredible that she even managed to get it in a vaguely playable state under the circumstances.
If she'd been given enough time to actually finish the game and wasn't employed by an incompetent idiot who thought you could just add new sprites to the original DOS executable and run it on a games console it would probably have been incredible because she was legitimately talented enough to do something great.
Great video. Here’s some suggestions for future videos; Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast , the NEO GEO Pocket Color and for a way more modern system the Wii U 🙂
I was given 2 show units by Panasonic when I worked for HMV... I took them both to a game shop in South London and sold them for £400 each... thanks Panasonic :)
I remember when 3do came out . Looked cool , but most games looked rough and not goot frame rates . As megadrive owner i saw nothing to jump to 3do for in any way
I used to see screenshots of them in magazines back in the 90s, I thought the graphics were insane looking.
I had the FZ-1 when it first came out. I had it on lay away while i was working my summer job. It was a good system, it played games and my music cds. I was a bit pissed because shortly after when electronics boutique sold the games.
My fave games were, samurai showdown, hell: a cyberpunk thriller, killing time. Capitan quazar. Mad dog McGee. Gex.
Everyone wanted the best which was hard to tell which new expensive console was best to get 3d0, neo geo, 32x, jaguar, turbo grafx, amiga cd, etc, etc so why not fall back on what everyone else already has, the genesis or snes, less expensive and a huge existing library to consume and swap/borrow with friends. Thats how I remember the thinking at the time.
Awesome video without trying to romanticise the 3DO straight to the heart !
Still the best looking console design IMO
So expensive that you're better off just buying a PC.....$1500 after inflation
Proud fz1 owner here.
I'd love to see what a present day modder could do with Doom on the 3DO. I bet it wouldn't take them 6 days to get it running perfectly.
I got my FZ-10 about 4 years ago on eBay for like 150. Fun fact: you can usually burn your own games to CD -r
Good video, is this really your voice?
1:36 just want to make it clear using psychedelics is a much more serious thing than most people make it out to be in the modern age. Be very careful doing that and imho don't do it because anything it can "open you up to" you already have inside.
Damn that Panasonic G1 looked so good.
Sony know what they where doing, clearly already ahead in development versus 3DO probably why Trip's offer was declined, not to mention didnt rush the tech out, and took there time to make sure it came out at the right time at the right price.
$700 then is north of $2000 today. There were people that were prepared to pay that kind of money, but these were mostly hardware enthusiast, and they wanted a computer (typically PC), not "dumb" console just for gaming. Situation was further exacerbated because hardware at that time could not realistically utilize full CD, except in a form of some kind of interactive movies. 3DO was not realistically 3D console, and for 2D games there were much cheaper alternatives.
I remember playing GEX and Super Street Fighter turbo at my friends house on his 3DO. We were tying to unlock Akuma.
I managed to get him to turn up about once by hitting all of the attacks at once on the selection screen. I had no idea that he existed, so I was a bit confused by the fact that he didn't have a super meter and half of my attempts to mash out specials led to the the dodge move that looks like a super but isn't.
Since I had a standard controller and light punch was on the tiny little play/pause button and I also needed to hit the two shoulder buttons it basically never happened again 😂
It was a really excellent version of the game, but I'd never want to go back to that button layout haha
Bruh a suggestion. 4:3 content is trendy right now, if most of your source material is in that aspect ratio, why not embrace it instead of cropping?
im glad i held out and waited for the sony PlayStation , I was a computer gaming guy and the console had to be better than what I could do on my PC and the PlayStation for a few years did that.
14:22 Okay I’m definitely looking up gameplay for this 😂
I do wonder in some alternate universe if the 3DO was successful would we have a 3DO 5 now? & no PlayStation 5? Man that would be interesting
I've never heard anything good about the 3DO. I wonder if opinions would've been different had the price not been astronomically ridiculous?
Interesting video though 👍
Video was great, but why use the 16bit version of Fifa footage instead of the 3do version?
Your description on your channel states you tell untold stories. While watching this video, you used an AI voice that stated information that has been told many times before.
You missed the redesigned 3DO console at a cheaper price.
The 3DO was LATE. In 1993, the leading gaming platform was already the ... PC ! It started with Wolfenstein 3D in 1992. But till mid 1993, the leading gaming platforms were Genesis/Megadrive, SNES and the Amiga 500. But at the summer of 93, the technically most advanced games were only available on PC. For example: Doom, X-Wing, Ultima Underworld, etc. And ALL the other ones ran MUCH faster on PC than on any other platform. For example: Dune 2, all the point and click adventure games, etc. The 3DO's development started in 1989. If the developers had sold it for example to Commodore or Atari or even to Sega or Nintendo, the 3DO could have released in 1991 or early 1992. Even BEFORE the PC became the leading gaming platform. All the mentioned PC games would have been ported to the 3DO, and coz of the price of a 486DX PC, the 3DO would have won the war easily. But no, in 1993 the 3DO came too late. Just a year later, PSX was released and it killed all the other consoles, excluding the N64 (which is barely survived). Just for the context: at the summer of 1993, my 486DX50 PC (4MB ram, 170MB HDD, Cirrus Logic VLB and a GUS) with a 14" analog monitor costed half as much as my 9 year old (1984) Toyota Supra! PCs were VERY expensive to buy just for gaming! All my friends had only 286 or 386 PCs.
muchas gracias por esta historia :D
You said it had no exclusive titles, then said collectors like it's exclusive titles 😂
Hey Trip you be trippin' selling a console more expensive than a Neo Geo🤣
it actually had at least 20 very good to very playable games. but it was so expensive it never had a chance. And meaybe for the better. Imagine they'd invested even more and then the PS hits.
Playstation is synonymous with success, so this is definitely not the Playstation before the Playstation.
It was from the perspective of the relationship with developers. 3DO was very attractive because of the good support and low licensing and Sony picked up on that principle. Also, many of the most unique games on PlayStation would never have been greenlit if they weren't originally intended to release on 3DO, the PS1 versions being the result of a pivot to the next cheapest platform after the 3DO failed to meet sales expectations.
Most multiplatform games are noticeably superior on the 3DO version, such as Space Hulk, Battlesport, and Starfighter, which all had very noticeable visual deficiencies, so it's not completely off base.
I think they released too early.
If only they could wait couple of years, to use the improve hardware
3DO was not a failure because of its gaming library it had some of the best titles at the time road rash with Soundgarden soundtrack, full motion video games that were only possible on PC ported PC games for the first time, Wing Commander3 with Mark Hamill live action, even The horde with Kirk Cameron was hysterical and innovational at the time. Way of the warrior was cheesy as hell but it blasted White zombie and was just overall badass. So many games like crash and burn, gex, D, need for speed, super street fighter 2 turbo , FMV light gun titles, twisted which was a game show that you could play for hours and was absolutely just the best game I think I've ever played. And let's not forget the ports from night trap and even porn games coming to a console for the first time ever. It was just the sheer cost of the item and it was obscure I mean you would walk into a PC Richards or a Comp USA these things were not in a EB games or in Toys r Us this was something that was almost $700 and most parents were not going to spend that on kids gaming and at the time the average gamer was in their teens whereas now the average gamer is in their forties. All in all it was an incredible experience and I am so thankful I got to own one
Their base price was too high. If they came out of the gate with a lower price, it would’ve gone a different way.
Overpriced shit, only roadrash and need for speed was worth it
And crash n burn at the time
Lol never had a 3do but do remember those annoying commercials but it never inspired me to put my toys aways, it made me want to bring them out 😂
I watched this documentary with my mouth on the floor. I had no idea what an absolutely stupid idea this was from day one. And 699.00… in 1993? Unbelievable this got past the first stage.
People didn't want to spend 700 dollars for a machine that played crappy FMV games. Shocked pikachu face.
William Salvador Heineman
The console cost was why this failed. The controller was also really bad. Panasonic controller was best of them all and it was still terrible.
I can’t believe that Ted Bundy created the 3DO
Two days ago, some Sony dude claimed PS1 were the first huge leap over SNES. I told him,PS1 didn't exist when the huge leap happened as 3DO were the first one. He then said. "To him 3DO were irrelevant as it sold far less than PS1, making PS1 the first huge leap".
Well. Huge leaps in hardware isn't measured in sales numbers...
well it was A leap...but not as huge as the all round performance of the PS1
Is this AI voice? :(
everyone wanted it, no one bought it. the proposition didnt make sense. yes it was a great machine, but much more money for much less content didnt add up.
yay!
never once ever heard of this one before : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_Loopy