3DO
Hi there.
In 1993, the video game industry would enter what I would call their Golden Age, and in this age there was a man named Trip Hawkins, who was a Silicone Valley Entrepreneur, and was the founder of Electronic Arts ( EA ) a video games publisher.
Long story short, Hawkins would eventually leave EA, and form another company, 3DO, a Video Game Console Company that would eventually change it’s company strategy and become a games publisher, a strategy that would later be adapted by Sega also when it finally succumbed to poor console sales, but I digress here….
The 3DO was actually the first to market of the big three at this time, the other two at this time were the Sega Saturn, and the Sony Playstation. The 3DO was the first into the market, the games for the system were CD based, as were the other two consoles, but the 3DO was also the highest price point of the three consoles, coming in at a retail price of around $700 a console. This was the first console that was purchased for my Video game rental business, with the Saturn and the Playstation to be added shortly thereafter. I should also note that there was another 3DO console that was produced by Panasonic and had the same architecture under the hood
The games for the system were pretty decent for first generation games, and some of my favorites were the following…
Way of the Warrior- Universal Interactive
This was a next gen fighter with a wicked soundtrack from White Zombie and was a favorite game to play on a Friday Night.
Wing Commander III- Origin
I liked the game but I never got anywhere with.
Waialae Country Club-Golf Sim-T E Soft
This was my first foray into golf games in general, and it was a very enjoyable game.
Alone In The Dark I & II -Interplay & Infogames ( respectively )
The first games that introduced me to the ” Horror ” genre, and the precursors to the ” Resident Evil ” franchise.
Ballz- The Director’s Cut - P E Magic
This was a unique 3D fighter game with fighters that were made out of 3D spheres, and of course each character had it’s own unique personality and special moves. This was the only fighter that I was excellent at, and just loved to play.
Gex -Crystal Dynamics
This was the first of the platformers of the next gen systems and this was an enjoyable game to play, often, very often as a matter of fact, and this was one of the reasons why I was dissapointed when the system finally crashed and burned.
I won’t go thru the whole list of games for the 3DO, but they were pretty decent for the first of the next gen consoles. The system did pretty well for my business as a rental unit, but sales of the consoles in general were pretty low due to it’s high price point at the time of release. If I remember, 3DO’S price would be lowered at just about the time that the Playstation came onto the scene.
Next time when I post we will look at Sega vs Sony, the real video game war!
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