3DO finally gets what it deserves

[Greyfox]

For anyone lucky enough to be able to afford one of these back in 1994-95 , will have remembered this to be one of the first 32 bit console preceding the playstation 1 by over a year, (edit: also noting the Amiga cd32 and the FM Towns Marty ) in it's time when the mega cd was produced dittered pixelated fmv games, the 3DO was able to deliver the quality those fmv games should of been as well with a few exclusive classics along the way, but died a death and consider a very under rated console to join the ranks of the dreamcast and the Atari jaguar, but then one day while emulation ran high on your pc and mac with all emulators covering virtually every machine in existence , the 3DO seem to be forgotten, but one emulator did appear , an emulator called FreeDO, and although an excellent emulator in it's own right, but it didn't have updates or improvements or further release after v1.0, they didn't even add joypad support and this was a console emulator??? You had to use your keyboard..lol

But after many years being dormant with no new versions or New and improved 3DO emulation, out of nowhere a Russian programmer of all people decided to begin to creat his own emulator to take on further from where FreeDO left of and created 3DOplay Wich get be gotten here : http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://3doplay.do.am/&ei=Wg2KT5OiGJK3hAf09eXcCQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CA8Q7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3D3doplay%26hl%3Den%26tbo%3Dd

But wait ..... The rabbit hole doesn't stop there...Earlier this year the programmer behind FreeDO decided to release his code as open source and another programmer has taken up the code to improve and add all the features this console platform deserved in he first place and has produced to be the best emulator for the 3DO thus far , even the Russian programmer from the above emulator mention 3DOplay has joined the ranks on helping produce the best 3DO experience to grace your PC .. Have given birth to 4DO and has just been released into the wild from beta stage and can be enjoyed here : http://www.fourdo.com/

You might be wondering why I'm very passionate about the 3DO? , I was one of those lucky people to have owned one back in the day and really do regret in getting rid of it in favour of the PS1, which was justified at the time, the ps1 was kick ass, but the 3DO introduced me to the first taste of 32 bit gaming, and never thought games could be this realistic at the time, where talking 1995 here, the snes and megadrive where the kings of the gaming world, but this simply destroyed that notion when I first saw it..the likes of Need for Speed blew me away..and with a great selection of titles, not all where fmv games, this machine really did have some amazing games for it and I urge anyone who hasn't ever experienced the 3do, this is your chance..

Now regarding emulation , you will need bios files as the 3DO had 4 variants from different companies etc..but you'll have to do a search, regarding games, the 3DO used cd-rom media and you have to Hunt down your games, but this emulator supports iso files and stuff..ohhh btw did I mention the amount of adult content that was released for the 3DO? Well yes their is allot of it, but you run the risk of hair growing on the pam of your hands and going blind or worse. Be found with your trousers down around your ankles in front of your monitor...again...lol

I just had to get this a mention, I loved this machine and games I can highly recommend if you've never played would be of course : Need for Speed, Return Fire, Gex, Demolition Man, Super Street Fighter Turbo, Samurai Showdown, Po'ed, this is small selection of a vast collection..

Grey.

[TL]

Actually the FM Towns Marty was the first 32-bit console, followed by the Amiga CD32 

My 3DO memories consist of playing our demo unit in Game when I worked there. There was some really cracking games on the machine but it was just too expensive to ever succeed. Shame really as it was designed by the same team as the Amiga and the Lynx which is a real sign of quality. I might get one someday.

[Greyfox]

Well you could always relive those memories via the emulators above, And crap your right again!!! ( I hate you!) forgot the Amiga cd32  " title="Roll Eyes" /> but I should of regarded its 32 bit prow-ess as a next gen gaming console and not just simply a computer games back catalogue port over console the Amiga cd32 was,  And didn't the fm towns marty only get released in Japan only?

[TL]

Well you could always relive those memories via the emulators above, And crap your right again!!! ( I hate you!) forgot the Amiga cd32 

Yeah the FM Towns Marty was only released in Japan.

I don't really like emulation, would much rather play on the real hardware.

[Greyfox]

Hence why the fm towns didn't get a mention..+1 for me lol..I live in Europe and not asia , but they really have done a cracking job with this emulator, allowing screen shot grabs etc.. Handy for doing reviews, which I might do on some of my favourites and post them up here ..

But yes..pat yourself on the back..just make sure you hold a knife while you do

[dougtitchmarsh]

Just downloaded fourdo to try. I have a 3DO somewhere but think it may be broken which is why it is "somewhere" and not known exactly where it is.

[onthinice]

Thanks Greyfox! Hope you find time for some reviews?

[Bobinator]

I didn't think the CD32 really counted as a 32-bit system, considering it was basically made for "Hey guys, remember this game you probably already have? We put a CD soundtrack over it! That's worth buying it again for 10 pounds more than last time, right?" I mean, sure, there were a lot of good games ported to it, but... well, they were just ports.

As for the 3DO, I have to say, I've always been fond of it. Sadly, I had to sell mine off a few years ago to pay for a hard drive, so I've been emulating it a lot. Sure, it might not have been the most successful console. It might have not had the best games. But it had... well, heart. The games were unique, in their own way, and there was some decent stuff if you looked. Like Twisted, which was basically a prototype for Mario Party.

Sadly, that's a game that none of the 3DO emulators I've tried can really play properly. :/

[Greyfox]

Like Twisted, which was basically a prototype for Mario Party.

Sadly, that's a game that none of the 3DO emulators I've tried can really play properly. :/

well it must be your lucky day m8, as the newest version of 4DO plays this at 97% perfect, just some booting time issues, but other than that it's great, give it a try today , we do / had a ghost member here that's a 3DO nut like me, but he's ghost in the 3DO shell, but he did leave a little 3DO gift for us all

[Bobinator]

Like Twisted, which was basically a prototype for Mario Party.

Sadly, that's a game that none of the 3DO emulators I've tried can really play properly. :/

well it must be your lucky day m8, as the newest version of 4DO plays this at 97% perfect, just some booting time issues, but other than that it's great, give it a try today

Nice! How about the semi-sequel, Zhadnost, did they get that working too? Last time I tried it, it tended to freeze...

[Greyfox]

Nice! How about the semi-sequel, Zhadnost, did they get that working too? Last time I tried it, it tended to freeze...

yes a 100% on that one..here is the compatibility list for games and applications that run under 4DO for you to cross reference

http://wiki.fourdo.com/index.php?title= ... ility_List

[onthinice]

I will let you slide on the reviews Greyfox.  Just let us know sometimes what 3DO games your playing and what you like about those games?

[Bobinator]

Actually, if nobody minds, I might get into the games I really enjoyed:

Gex:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xMt4U_wJPk
OK, I'm cheating again a bit here. I originally played this on the PS1, but this version came first, and it has the added bonus of being able to save your game instead of using passwords. So, this game came out back in the era everybody had some kind of animal mascot with attitude. Gex, unlike most, however, doesn't suck. The controls are smooth, there's a lot of cool level gimmicks, and the whole gimmick where you can crawl across walls and ceilings is a lot of fun. The one real flaw is that Gex talks all the time, and you're not likely to understand any of his jokes. At least, I never did.

Twisted:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3FuhDizUf8
As I've said before, this is pretty much the spirtiual predecssor to Mario Party. You can have up to 4 players, but the odd thing is that only one player is in control at once, you have to pass the controller around every time a new turn comes up. Basically, as one of several really weird characters, like a car salesman and his puppy, a TV workout drill seargent, or a CGI pez dispenser, you have to make your way up to the top of the staircase, beating puzzles and screwing over your friends.

Way of the Warrior:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUNeKmHvVWM
OK, so this isn't really a good game. I don't care. So, you all know who Naughty Dog is, right? Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, Uncharted? Well, before Crash, they ended up making this, a goofy Mortal Kombat clone with odd controls, brutal AI, and... I'm not making this sound too good, am I? Well, it's worth it for the comedy value, including a character that can only be described as Not Jason Statham.

[AmigaJay]

I didn't think the CD32 really counted as a 32-bit system, considering it was basically made for "Hey guys, remember this game you probably already have? We put a CD soundtrack over it! That's worth buying it again for 10 pounds more than last time, right?" I mean, sure, there were a lot of good games ported to it, but... well, they were just ports.

You can't not just count it as 32bit because you didn't think it was!! Sure a lot of the games were ports, but exclusive games were in development but at the same time if you were an Amiga developer and had chance to well your game to a bigger market at the same time it wouldn't make sense not too.
Yes most of the games ended up being ports of Amiga games bar microcosm, litil divil and Flink and the multimedia titles, but of course that doesn't mean the games were crap, same for the mega cd, alot of games were ports of Megadrive games with fmv and cd audio, same for pce cd games, the generation of gaming was changing from 2d to 3d commodore messed up with by delaying their aaa chipset which would have handled 3d and bunged out AA (Aga) to bridge the gap for a couple of years, trouble was everybody beat them to the post and of course they went bankrupt in 94.

[onthinice]

I played a lot of Gex. Maybe because it came with my 3DO.