Just Got A 3DO!

[Austin]

If anyone wants me to start posting reviews of these titles, just let me know.

 

Maybe you should just focus on enjoying the system and games you are (seemingly rapidly) buying. Reviews can come later.

[DaytonaUSA]

 

Maybe you should just focus on enjoying the system and games you are (seemingly rapidly) buying. Reviews can come later.

 

Yes, yes. Either way, might just put some on our site eventually.

 

It's hard to pass up good deals , that and the system honestly doesn't have the most games for it in the world, so I don't think I'll have to be buying too long. There's about 30 or so titles that I'm interested in. Which is more than enough to justify the price of the system, but not nearly close to the likes of the Super Fami, N64, or Saturn when it comes to collecting for me .

[Austin]

 

Yes, yes. Either way, might just put some on our site eventually.

 

It's hard to pass up good deals , that and the system honestly doesn't have the most games for it in the world, so I don't think I'll have to be buying too long. There's about 30 or so titles that I'm interested in. Which is more than enough to justify the price of the system, but not nearly close to the likes of the Super Fami, N64, or Saturn when it comes to collecting for me .

 

You'd be surprised.. the 3DO has something like 300+ games, between the US, Japan, and a few UK exclusives. But worthwhile ones you will likely be interested in? Yeah, 30 sounds reasonable.

[DaytonaUSA]

 

You'd be surprised.. the 3DO has something like 300+ games, between the US, Japan, and a few UK exclusives. But worthwhile ones you will likely be interested in? Yeah, 30 sounds reasonable.

 

 

I'll re-read the game list. Who knows, maybe I missed some. Just going after the ones I REALLY want first.

[zetastrike]

I've wanted a 3DO for some time. I've always found it fascinating. I just happened to walk into my local retro game shop on monday and asked how often a 3DO turns up and the guy called another location and they have one for sale. So, I told them to send it here and I'm picking it up tonight! I'm excited. It's an FZ-1 model and I'm buying Need for Speed and Total Eclipse along with it. Last night I went on ebay and bought Return Fire, Blade Force, Gex (loose), and Starblade. I haven't bought a console that's new to me since 2012, so I'm really looking forward to it.

 

I have a different stance on completeness with this one compared to any other disc based console. Normally, I go CIB or nothing, but I have longboxes with a passion. They're too big and I have nowhere to put them. It's why I only buy Japanese Saturn games. So, for any game that comes in one of those weird cardboard/plastic case/box things like NFS, I'm buying the loose disc, and any game that came in a jewel case inside a longbox, I'm going for the disc, case, and manual.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions for what else to pick up. If there's anything that Game Sack, didn't show, I'm interested. I've already compiled a list of ~50 games I'd want.

 

Are FZ-1s fairly robust machines? I'd rather get an FZ-10, but I took the fish I can get. Are they likely to konk out randomly? That's the only thing I'm apprehensive about.

[DestinedCruz]

Massive kudos for mentioning Game Sack there! Most underrated show on Youtube.

Alone in the Dark is a good pickup for the system, though it can be a bit of a hassle to play these days. I also really recommend Samurai Showdown as it's the best console port (even better than the AES version). The superior versions of Out of this World/Another World and Flashback are also ones to watch out for, as well as the best 90s console port of Wolfenstein 3D.

[zetastrike]

Massive kudos for mentioning Game Sack there! Most underrated show on Youtube.

 

Alone in the Dark is a good pickup for the system, though it can be a bit of a hassle to play these days. I also really recommend Samurai Showdown as it's the best console port (even better than the AES version). The superior versions of Out of this World/Another World and Flashback are also ones to watch out for, as well as the best 90s console port of Wolfenstein 3D.

 

Is Alone in the Dark 2 any better/different than 1?

[DestinedCruz]

Yes and no. It got really bonkers weird with the design and story, but the control is a bit better. The first game is just a lot more ominous and creepy and a LOT less bizarre.

EDIT: In response to your durability question, FZ-1s are the best of all of the 3DO variations in terms of build quality and dependability. Plus they have that cool hover-tank look.

Edited June 13, 2014 by DestinedCruz

[CatPix]

ALone in the Dark 1 and 2 are better played on PC. If I recall right, any AITD save takes up a good chunk of the save memory of the 3DO, and the game is easier to play, and slightly faster on PC.

As for the 2... it's far not as good. It was more action oriented, with guns and all. Except that the graphic engine is absolutely not made for fast paced action and the game suffer alot from this.

[zetastrike]

I got my 3DO. It's awesome. Need for Speed is such a good racer and Total Eclipse seems cool, but I haven't spent as much time with it yet. Now I have to wait until early next week for the next four games to arrive.

 

Does anyone know if it would be worth it to hook it up to an HDTV through s-video? They're going to install a flatscreen in my dorm room and I already have two other consoles that I use on my CRT (that has only one set of AV jacks). It would lead to less clutter if it'll work.

[DestinedCruz]

It will look far better on the CRT. I take mine with me to work sometimes and there's only a big ol' LED TV there and everything just ends up looking washed out (mainly because edges tend to bleed together when using SD systems on flat panel HDTVs).

[CatPix]

You can tune up the sharpness to reduce that effect. No to the min or max, but a bit before it. And remove all those color and picture improving effects, they are useless (it works for the TV too, and digital input as well).

It also depends on the TV... A high end LCD TV will have a better analog-to-digital chip and the quality will be better than on a low-end product (even if LG TV were said to have such excellent chips, so there is good cheap TV in that regard).

Edited June 14, 2014 by CatPix

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Regarding best / dependability, my experience is different, The FZ1 is a beauty for sure, I love the look so much I got one, then ended up having issues with it, figuring it a fluke, got a second, worked for a while then started having issues. The problem besides being old systems of course if the motorized tray mechanism, yes it looks awesome but with these older systems the more complex they mechanism / moving parts the more likely failure. Then I got the FZ10 and have not had an issue since. Sure it is not as cool looking but consider since it has the old flip-top lid is similar and is less prone to breakdown than the FZ10. AS A BONUS the Memory Management program for you game saves is BUILT INTO the FZ10 so you do not have to load it from disc like the FZ1 model. So anyway that is my experience with the Panasonic models. I hear different stories with other brands apparently the Goldstar model being one of the worst.

[CatPix]

Overall, both the Panasonic models are reliable; for early CD systems, that is. It's certainly seems more reliable than first Playstation models and the first PC-Engine CD-ROM attachment.

[DestinedCruz]

Oh I totally forgot about memory management because I got the REAL Sampler CD with mine (at a local store too!), but from the research I've done the FZ-1 is still generally more reliable. Heck I even have two friends in town that both have FZ-10s with dead disc drives.

 

Just based on requiring that CD though the FZ-10 might be a better idea overall.

[CatPix]

Any Sampler CD will do (Euro, Jap or US), and you can burn it too. Some game include a memory management as well.

It's not a so big issue tho, unless you have game consuming room like Alone In The Dark. I have over 10 games that I play on the 3DO and I have still 70% of memory free.

Edited June 14, 2014 by CatPix

[Austin]

Heck I even have two friends in town that both have FZ-10s with dead disc drives.

Tell your friends to check to make sure the tiny tab that gets the disc drive spinning hasn't snapped off. Myself and at least one other person I have spoken to recently have had the same problem, but have managed to resolve it by manually gluing in a replacement. Other than that, I haven't heard many instances of FZ-10 drives dying, so that could very well be their problem.

[DestinedCruz]

Good to know, thank you! I'll let you know how it goes.

[DaytonaUSA]

You need to get Road Rash, Street Fighter 2, and samurai shodown for sure. You'll love gex in the 3do BTW. The fz-1 models are good. Just make sure the CD tray works as they go bad like the model 1 neo Geo CD systems.

 

I'd recommend battle sport if you liked the Lucas arts 2600 game that's nearly identical in gameplay. Shockwave is pretty fun as well. Star control 2 is a fantastic game. And crash n burn is a REALLY fun non-fmv polygonal racer ala road rash.

 

There are some other games I'd get after you get the really good ones. Like tripd, soccer kid and sailor moon s.

[zetastrike]

You need to get Road Rash, Street Fighter 2, and samurai shodown for sure. You'll love gex in the 3do BTW. The fz-1 models are good. Just make sure the CD tray works as they go bad like the model 1 neo Geo CD systems.

 

I'd recommend battle sport if you liked the Lucas arts 2600 game that's nearly identical in gameplay. Shockwave is pretty fun as well. Star control 2 is a fantastic game. And crash n burn is a REALLY fun non-fmv polygonal racer ala road rash.

 

There are some other games I'd get after you get the really good ones. Like tripd, soccer kid and sailor moon s.

 

So I went to ebay and bought PO'ed and Cyberdillo today. They were both pretty cheap and I like old FPS. I'll eventually get Street Fighter, Samurai Showdown, and Road Rash. I was looking at battlesport. Is it any fun to play single player? I only have one gamepad and I can't picture my friends wanting to play it with me.

 

 

Does Shockwave Beyond the Gate come on two CDs? I didn't know Crash n Burn was fully polygonal. I always assumed the tracks were prerendered. That's awesome to know.

[DaytonaUSA]

Battlesport is great with one player. I don't have another controller either. Yeah if you're used to 3do graphics its plain as day its polygonal (outside the cars of course). Plus unlike the fmv racers on the system the framerate doesn't slow down (because its a video). I just have the first shockwave which comes on on CD.

[+thegoldenband]

I didn't know Crash n Burn was fully polygonal. I always assumed the tracks were prerendered.

 

IIRC it's precalculated in a very clever/elegant way. I don't remember the details, but 3DO developers ewhac and gammadev talk about it in one of their "Let's Play" videos, though I think it wasn't in the video they actually did for Crash 'n' Burn!

[DaytonaUSA]

Weird. Its pretty widely believed its polygonal in the 3do forums. Even says as much in the back of the box.

 

Again, if it was fmv the frame rate would stutter when the car slowed down as its just a recorded video in slow mo

[+thegoldenband]

Well, it's definltely not FMV, it's just that (IIRC) they precalculated all the possible views from the track -- it's being rendered in real time, but the rendering is all based on massive tables with precalculated data. Again, this is from memory (wish I could remember which video they talk about this in), but I remember that there's definitely a trick of some kind being used, and that it made the 3DO look far more capable of fluid real-time 3D than it actually is.

 

EDIT: Aha, here's a source! Link originally found here. So my "pre-calculated" phrase wasn't quite accurate (or so the programmer says?), it's actually "lists of visible parts".

 

Well,

I probably shouldn't say anything but what the heck. The track is being
pulled off the CD. Originally the entire track was in memory but when the
enemies cars were added the frame rate went all the way down to 5fps. The
solution was to write a tool that would, for each view of the track, remove
all the polygons that are not seen. Since you can move left and right and
up and down (cockpit vs 3rd person) nothing is 'pre-calculated'

The entire track is still in memory. The track consists of tons-o-polygons.
Far too many for any machine to display in real-time. On part of displaying
something in 3D is figuring out which parts you can see and which parts you
can't. For example, if you are driving down a race track and you are
looking forward you can't see behind you therefore you don't want to draw
the stuff behind you on the screen. So, you do some math to tell you what
parts of your 3D world you can actually see. This takes alot of time. In
fact it is probably this single biggest problem with anything that works in
3D. All programs deal with this in different ways. Flight Simulator does
it while it's running. It keeps a list of all the things you can see and as
you fly around it adds or removes things. To see it in action, fly in skew
mode and skew really fast and then stop. You will see different 3D parts
pop in one at a time as the program finds new things that are now in your
view.

On CnB we wrote a program that would 'drive' down the track and for each
section of the track it makes a list of all the parts that can actually be
seen. These 'lists of visible parts' are then stored in the CD and as you
drive down the track the 'list' for the part of the track you are currently
on is loaded. This makes it run faster because we don't have to do all the
calculations for which things are visible while you are racing.

[DaytonaUSA]

That makes sense to not have the track that's not visible unrendered. Definitely makes sense how they made some very nice graphics for the track.