The 3do, Atari lynx and the Amiga...have something in common

[carmel_andrews]

I was recently persuing someone's dog eared copy of 'ultimate history of videogames' (3 Rivers Press/Steven Kent) and I found out a little nugget if info that previously I weren't aware of

 

That the people that designed the Atari Lynx/handy and some of the team that created the Amiga (i.e. RJ Mical and David Needle) were also the brains, or at least came up with the idea/hardware for what became the 3DO

 

Interesting thing is though, Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins wasn't the first person or company that Mical/needle approached to fund the 3DO project, they'd previously approached Sega, the American arm was up for the 3DO but the head office in Japan poopooed the idea (bearing in mind that every games system of sega's after the megadrive did poorly compared to sega's rivals like nintendo and sony)

 

 

Interesting that in the same part of the book, both Sega and nintendo's top people slagged off Hawkins idea of getting the 3do onto the market, in that it was litterally no different to the MSX business model (which sega themselves had previously been assoicated with and also not forgetting that nintendo's early 3rd party software publishers came from the very companies that had supported the MSX business model)

 

 

Weirdly enough, Didn't sega also poopoo the proposed 64bit addon or upgrade to the 3do (the so called 'bulldog' or M2 system)

Edited September 25, 2013 by carmel_andrews

[Keatah]

You don't need brainz to make a 3DO, whatta flop! You do realize just about everything was FMV on that?

[Rex Dart]

Hey now... it was some of the best looking FMV of the time. Generally better quality video than a Playstation game, even.

[Keatah]

I'm just biased with a hate to nearly all FMV, perhaps colored by early PC 2X CD-ROM games.

[gamecat80]

Seems that the 3DO and CD-i kinda go together with their characteristic FMV cut scenes. The first time I saw a CD-i game I was like: how WEIRD.....not really "bad"....just plain WEIRD. I wasn't even sure it was a "true" videogame.

I think the 3DO, CD-i, etc have their place.....I would not mind having one for cheap. But I'm sure as heck not gonna pay for what they go for on ebay or most other places.

[Hatta]

You don't need brainz to make a 3DO, whatta flop! You do realize just about everything was FMV on that?

 

You're thinking of the CDI. The 3DO did have FMV games, but it had a decent number of great games too. Road Rash, Need for Speed, Star Control 2, Wolf 3d, Killing Time, Blade Force, Cannon Fodder, Syndicate, Gex, Flashback, Puzzle Bobble.

 

Of course, it was terribly over priced at release. And a lot of the good games were PC/Amiga ports. It was a bad buy at the time and deserved to fail. But for the console collector, if you can pick one up for $50 it's definitely worth owning. That it has the best version of Road Rash on any platform ever is worth the price of admission. The CDI on the other hand, has almost nothing to recommend it. Mine was free, and I still don't know why I have one.

[Osgeld]

3d0 wasnt a bad machine from the hardware standpoint, little weak but it did hit the market before any other 32 bit console, but you have to keep in mind the damned things cost 600 bucks, had crappy controllers and outside of EA no one wanted to develop for it cause of its rolex price.

[desiv]

Yeah, I love my 3DO and it has lots of great games that aren't FMV...

 

But that price thing was crazy, and by the time they started to get reasonable pricing, the Playstation was out and the end of the 3DO was in sight...

 

Of course, it had some of the worst games in history as well (Plumbers!!), but it has some great games..

Best versions of Need for Speed, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, and Star Control for any system...

(and they hold up well today still)

 

Goes to show that no matter how good/innovative the hardware is, you need software AND marketing...

 

desiv

[+remowilliams]

poopoo

[Keatah]

I actually owned a 3DO back in the day. For some inexplicable reason I got scared of it returned it the next day. I repeated the process with the 3DO Blaster shortly thereafter. For those of you not in the know, this blaster thing was an extra-full-size ISA board that would fit in 486-class PCs. It was basically all the 3DO console hardware stuffed onto an ISA card. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3DO_Blaster

[Hatta]

Returning it was probably a good idea. Still, they're nice to have in a collection. I'd love to have a 3DO blaster in my 486. I'm curious though, how did they handle joypads? Did the 3DO blaster have its own joypad port, or did it use the system's game port?

[Keatah]

Own joyport. And pass-through video.

[Seob]

 

You're thinking of the CDI. The 3DO did have FMV games, but it had a decent number of great games too. The CDI on the other hand, has almost nothing to recommend it. Mine was free, and I still don't know why I have one.

The CD-i isn't FMV only. It has a lot of games that aren't FMV. There are a few games that use the FMV cart only for the extra memory, like The Apperentice and Lucky Luke, who use the FMV cart to play extra sound files.

Games to check

- The Apperentice

- Lucky Luke

- Christmas Crisis

- Dimo's Quest

- Hotel Mario

- Micro Machines

- Secret Mission

- Flashback

- 7th Guest

- Myst

- Tetsuo Gaiden

- Atlantis The Last Resort

- Burn:Cycle

[Classic Pac]

Lets see a 3DO has no lockout of any kind even region, and M2 only wound up in limited use in the arcades.

[desiv]

Yep, but there are a few Japanese 3DO games that won't run on non-Japanese 3DO's.

Not because of a lockout, but apparently because of a missing font of something???

Apparently its not a large number....

 

M2 looked nice, but they probably would have released it at $1500 or something..

 

desiv

Edited September 27, 2013 by desiv

[CatPix]

it's indeed a set of kanjis that is missing from US and PAL 3DO. It doesn't matter much because the only games to use those very specific fonts are RPG and/or text games, so unless you're skilled in Japanese there is no point to get those games and/or owning a Japanese 3DO.

[Rex Dart]

I'm just biased with a hate to nearly all FMV, perhaps colored by early PC 2X CD-ROM games.

 

Then you should try Gex, Crash n Burn, Road Rash, Blade Force, D&D, Cannon Fodder, Star Fighter, Killing Time, Super Street Fighter 2...

[108 Stars]

That the people that designed the Atari Lynx/handy and some of the team that created the Amiga (i.e. RJ Mical and David Needle) were also the brains, or at least came up with the idea/hardware for what became the 3DO

That's actually pretty well known, and the reason why the official Lynx development kits er running wih Amiga computers. Imagine the irony of the Tramiels having to buy Amigas instead of using STs to develop for the Lynx.^^

 

Interesting thing is though, Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins wasn't the first person or company that Mical/needle approached to fund the 3DO project, they'd previously approached Sega, the American arm was up for the 3DO but the head office in Japan poopooed the idea (bearing in mind that every games system of sega's after the megadrive did poorly compared to sega's rivals like nintendo and sony)

3DO was a good system for its time, but it's only natural that Sega, Nintendo and Sony were not interested.

 

The thing is: The idea of the system was bad. A standard for consoles might have had benefits for customers, but not for console manufacturers. For them the licensing model for the 3DO was bs.

The way video game systems had worked since the Famicom was: The manufacturer sells the console at the lowest price possible to get a large user base. The hardware is not intended to make profit.

Then you allow other companies to publish games on your system; with the large user base you have to offer they will be interested, and they will be willing to give you a large portion of their profit.

 

3DO had a different concept; licensing fees for software were very low and went to the 3DO company. The hardware itself was licensed, so every company could pay 3DO a fee and then sell 3DO systems. But with the fees from software going to 3DO company, that meant that the manufacturer of the hardware had to make his profit with the hardware sales.

 

Having to make profit with the system itself meant that they could not sell it at a dumping price. The result was a very high priced console. Expensive system = small userbase. Small userbase = limited 3rd party support. Limited 3rd party support = dead console.

 

The entire concept was just utterly unattractive for hardware manufacturers. It would have meant giving up the income from 3rd party licenses, and instead trying to sell hardware with a profit.

 

 

Interesting that in the same part of the book, both Sega and nintendo's top people slagged off Hawkins idea of getting the 3do onto the market, in that it was litterally no different to the MSX business model (which sega themselves had previously been assoicated with and also not forgetting that nintendo's early 3rd party software publishers came from the very companies that had supported the MSX business model)

Yeah, like I said above it was only natural for Nintendo not to want this. Just because MSX was popular in Japan, and that many Famicom devs started out on MSX doesn't mean a similar concept would make sense for a console manufacturer. Nintendo's key to success had always been full control of their hardware and software business. Remember the problems Atari had faced; competitors releasing adaptors with full VCS hardware for their systems, and crap software flooding the market because there was no control. Nintendo learned from Atari's mistakes. Add to that that Nintendo scrapped plans for the SNES CD drive and ultimately went with cartridges for the N64, they did not want a CD based system at all.

 

Also, Sega being associated with MSX is a misconception. It is because their first console, the SG-1000 and its variations used hardware very similar to MSX (and Colecovision), making ports very easy and quick. The thing is that Sega had designed and testmarketed their console beore MSX was introduced. So it is more of a coincedence than Sega being part of it. The reason was that the MSX-standard basically used the most common, off-the-shelves-components available, so it was just natural others would try their luck with very similar hardware.

 

Weirdly enough, Didn't sega also poopoo the proposed 64bit addon or upgrade to the 3do (the so called 'bulldog' or M2 system)

I never heard about that. Not saying it isn't true, but there would be little point in offering them the M2 after they had already not wanted the first one... and the first one had flopped. What I do know is that they were offered the hardware that would become the N64 and declined, but that was a few years before the M2 was ready.

Edited September 28, 2013 by 108 Stars

[CatPix]

There might be a confusion with Philips that indeed was interested in a add-on card for the CD-i that would have made the CD-i 3DO compatible, or at least, make the CD-i "3D capable". In exchange, Philips would have been able to sell the M2 under the "Philips CD-i" label. This project never got far, probably because of the fail of both the CD-i and the 3DO.