Retro|Spective 218: Hardware

[Mayhem]

Played the Odyssey, yes it's basic but it was the first console and thus laid the groundwork for the rest. 3DO championed by Trip Hawkins of EA, and just didn't grab the market at the time. Don't know if because Nintendo was so dominant in the US at the time, or the market wasn't quite ready for a CD based console.

[wakka]

Actually, to be a pedant (and if I can't be a pedant here where can I be?), the CDi was offered in multiple models too. The photo you used of a CDi above is a Goldstar (aka Lucky Goldstar aka LG) model rather than a Philips one.

The 3DO was another concept where I can see the thinking behind it. If movies and music are offered on generic formats for playback on hardware made by multiple manufacturers, why not games?

3DO championed by Trip Hawkins of EA, and just didn't grab the market at the time. Don't know if because Nintendo was so dominant in the US at the time, or the market wasn't quite ready for a CD based console.

I think it really came down to cost. The fatal flaw with the 3DO strategy was that since none of the hardware manufacturers made money out of the sale of software, they had to make all their profit on the initial hardware sale. Which made it vastly more expensive at retail than Nintendo, Sega, or ultimately Sony machines.

[Mayhem]

since none of the hardware manufacturers made money out of the sale of software

They did, you had to ask permission and get a license to sell on Nintendo or Sega consoles. Then Ninty/Sega also received a royalty on making every single cartridge, and every sale. In the case of Nintendo and the NES, you were allowed five titles per year, which is why the likes of Konami got around this by creating the Ultra Games label for example.

[wakka]

To clarify, I was talking about 3DO manufacturers since Panasonic, Sanyo and LG could not benefit from these types of deals, they could not be as competitive on hardware RRP as Nintendo, Sega and Sony.

[Asura]

To clarify, I was talking about 3DO manufacturers since Panasonic, Sanyo and LG could not benefit from these types of deals, they could not be as competitive on hardware RRP as Nintendo, Sega and Sony.

Yeah, the 3DO was a weird one because unlike what I said above about other platforms, the 3DO's problem wasn't the actual machine/standard itself, but rather that business model.

In a sense, you wonder how those early conversations went - of how the whole point of the console business (from a platform holder perspective) is basically the Gillette Model; you sell people a doodad as cheaply as you can, then you've set people up to buy the widgets they need for that doodad and you make the money on the widgets.

But IIRC it was a reasonably big success in Aus/NZ? And unlike the CDi, I've played some decent games that were available on it that genuinely did impress me at the time.

I do not recall what they were.

I remember some kind of combat racing game, and another game with a kinda monster truck thing that later came out on PS1 (I think...)? Also IIRC, 3DO versions of Super Street Fighter and some NeoGeo fighting games that were very impressive home ports (for the time) - I don't want to say "arcade perfect" because they probably weren't, but I certainly remember them being much closer than what I was playing on the Megadrive!

[wakka]

For what is undeniably a lesser console in the grand scheme of things (and obviously a short-lived one), it actually has a pretty decent library.

In a sense, you wonder how those early conversations went - of how the whole point of the console business (from a platform holder perspective) is basically the Gillette Model; you sell people a doodad as cheaply as you can, then you've set people up to buy the widgets they need for that doodad and you make the money on the widgets.

Yeah, it was $699 on release. That's more like $1500 today. A crazy price. The idea of a unified, VHS-like standard was a very ambitious and really quite interesting concept but it was never going to be viable unless it became extremely popular, extremely quickly, thereby forcing Nintendo and Sega to make their future consoles '3DO compatible'. And it was never going to become that popular at almost four times the price of competitors with far larger, better game libraries.

In a way, it's actually not a dissimilar idea to what Microsoft have attempted with Game Pass. In Microsoft's dream scenario at the conception of Game Pass, I think they would probably have conceived of a point where Game Pass had become so popular and so ubiquitous that Sony and Nintendo would have no choice but to offer it on their systems since a games console that lacked it would fail to find much of a market.

[BearBoy]

I remember some kind of combat racing game

Road Rash?

Or maybe Crash 'N Burn?

I remember seeing a 3DO in the HMV in Bristol, where I was a student at the time, back when they were released. Seem to recall the graphics looked pretty impressive compared to my Megadrive but the price was well out of my reach. Don't think I ever actually played on one.

[Baseley09]

Gor my first 3do off a drug dealer in the early 2000s pad had it sitting there with sam sho and the pad had been painted green, eyes popped out of my head he thought it was a laugh, was gold to me snagged it for £20 I recall. Ended up with the flight stick and loads of goodies. Since gone and now I'm on an FZ-10 rebuilding the library. To me even though crash n burn is quite limited, it looks great. Remember oggling over it in Gamefan magazine, mustve been mad at the time compared to what Megadrive and snes were offering - for a fortune of course.

[Neon Ignition]

The Panasonic version of the machine is one that I still like the physical design of today, it doesn't really have any distinct features but it none the less comes together in a pleasing way. The controller really was its weak spot especially for SSF2T

Several 3DO games had a weird style, distinct but not that likeable. That being said, the ports that came later took the focus off the system but playing them back when they came out the likes of Road Rash, Need for Speed etc were impressive. Return Fire was amazing when that first launched on the system too. Even some of the weaker games like Hell still stick in the mind thanks to things like Dennis Hopper hamming it up

[CMcK]

I had access to the CDi due to working in Clydesdale (electrical retailer) and remember there was a big push from Philips to retailers. Thing is most of the software was edutainment really. The golf game looked nice and the FMV cart added some decent quality video for the time but as we have seen since the Laserdisc days it's not a boon for interactive software. I guess developers of the era didn't know what to do with all of that storage and the CDi was really quite underpowered.

The 3DO on the other hand is a system I still use and enjoy to this day. I bought a PAL model at launch selling my MD and M-CD to pay for it. Ok with hindsight that wasn't a great idea but it seemed like a big leap from the venerable 16-bit daddy. Panasonic brought consumer electronics giant kudos and decent build quality while EA gave us a glimpse at the future of gaming with high quality production values and 3d graphics. Plenty of decent titles on the system too but the standard pad wasn't great although the Capcom pad was superb and the Panasonic stick is lovely too.
One thing people may not appreciate about the 3DO initiative was that it brought modern development practices to console game development leaving the assembly language coded to-the-metal era behind.
Good to see Nightdive studios updating some 3DO games for modern audiences these days as they deserve a larger audience.

[Brad]

I had a 3DO at launch. Space Hulk, Need for Speed, Road Rash, SSF2, Slayer, Starblade, Wing Commander 3, Hex and the mighty, mighty Return Fire (the greatest competitive couch game ever made) are the standout titles for me.

[Baseley09]

Yeah Return Fire really is one of the most exciting multiplayer games of all time.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Actually, to be a pedant (and if I can't be a pedant here where can I be?), the CDi was offered in multiple models too. The photo you used of a CDi above is a Goldstar (aka Lucky Goldstar aka LG) model rather than a Philips one.

To be even more pedantic, ASCII and MS were the first to try and standardise through multiple models with the MSX home computers back in the early 1980s.

[Brad]

To be even more pedantic, ASCII and MS were the first to try and standardise through multiple models with the MSX home computers back in the early 1980s.

To be EVEN more pedantic, your msx facts weren't actually any more pedantic than wakka's CDI trivia.

[Nu-Eclipse]

To be EVEN more pedantic, your msx facts weren't actually any more pedantic than wakka's CDI trivia.

Ha! I think you'll find that they actually were, given that I technically referred to a home computer and not a console per se.

That's okay. You're forgiven.