You're listening to Memories of 3DO, a retrospective look at

a video games console classic.

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And now this week's episode.

Leading up to its north American launch in October, 1993,

while the 3DO still had problems, including a much reduced launch

lineup due to developers getting to grips with the new hardware,

excitement was still growing.

Multimedia was the future as multiple video games and entertainment magazines

were loudly screaming from their pages.

News programs were also talking about a future where a set top box would

be the hub of your entertainment

set up - from TV to movies, sports, video games, and more.

As such 3DO was ideally placed to be at the forefront of this next wave.

However, as the months played down, it became clear that launch wasn't going

to be everything 3DO needed it to be.

Because of the hardware and the chips being used, the cost of the console was

going to come in at an astronomical $700.

Although manufacturers could set their own price, which would see

a reduction soon after launch.

There was also only one game available, Crash'n'Burn from Crystal Dynamics.

While it wasn't a terrible game as such, it was in no way an example

of the jaw-dropping graphics gamers had been promised in the

months leading up to the launch.

Additionally, due to manufacturing difficulties, Panasonic only managed

to ship 30,000 to stores across the U S which led to huge shortages and

disappointment from eager gamers.

However Trip Hawkins and his partners were nothing if not savvy marketers,

and they kept interest in a system peaked over the holiday period.

Sneak peaks and trailers of the games to come look to show 3DO owners

they had made the right choice as did upcoming accessories, like the modem,

expandable memory, and more If the launch in the US was disappointing, the

Japanese launch would make up for this.

Kind of.

While not the huge selling launches the likes of Sega and

Nintendo enjoyed with new systems.

70,000 units were shipped in Japan.

While the first hardware partner was Japanese, the 3DO company was still

very much an American piece of tech, which traditionally made it hard for

any non-Japanese hardware developer.

So 70,000 units was a pretty good achievement.

Indeed, thanks to the Japanese launch and game magazines raving about the likes

of Gundam Extreme and Full Boost, which satisfied Japanese gamers and the love

of battlemech games, north American fans saw a bright future, especially with

their love of the sport genre promising to be more than met by Electronic Arts.

In fact, TIME Magazine even went as far as naming it their Product of the Year for

1993 with a glowing reference that stated.

If you think you've seen graphics, wait until you've seen the jaw

dropping footage of the 3DO.

Despite the imminent releases of next generation machines from Sega,

Nintendo, and a new player in the market with Sony entering the fray,

it looked as if the hiccups of the launch were firmly behind the 3DO

and the marketplace was finally ready for this newcomer to shake things up.

In the next episode of Memories of 3DO, the games start flooding out,

the European launch, and a glimpse of a 64-bit future for the machine.