thaddius' Console Roast 2014 Edition - Round 5

[TemplarGR]

One thing i forgot to mention: The CD-i shouldn't be included with this generation. It was early fifth generation, not fourth, together with the 3DO, Jaguar, Amiga32 etc...

 

[cracker]

That's true. I guess the 3DO will be on the next poll and will probably survive what with the Jaguar on the list.

 

[Foxi4]

For the SNES? The original intent was to have a separate slot to support NES games, which would have been fantastic.

That sounds terrible, actually (unless it was one-slot-fits-all, which would be acceptable). So it's not a recent trend and Nintendo was always clinging to the past? Duly noted.

One thing i forgot to mention: The CD-i shouldn't be included with this generation. It was early fifth generation, not fourth, together with the 3DO, Jaguar, Amiga32 etc...

That's incorrect. The CD-i was released in 1991 and it was a console of the fourth generation.

 

[JulietStMoon]

As a devoted Zelda fan, the very existence of the CDi offends me. No contest.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

As a devoted Zelda fan, the very existence of the CDi offends me. No contest.

You haven't been fully offended by it until you actually play the machine.... Then you will know what real pain is. lol


Edit: I wonder what gen the Pioneer Laser Active is and what console would it be considered? I mean it had TG-16 as an expansion or Sega Genesis or it's own games then games on Laser disk for both of those systems. (I keep checking all the local thrift stores and I still have never seen the machine or any parts or any of the laser disk games.)

Edit 2: I guess I could just break down and ebay the thing... lol

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LD-Console-...pt=FR_Jeux_Vidéo_Consoles&hash=item23370b193d

 

[cracker]

That's incorrect. The CD-i was released in 1991 and it was a console of the fourth generation.

It was considered "next-gen" back then by most. Though it didn't have a competitor for a while (3DO being the first).

 

[JulietStMoon]

You haven't been fully offended by it until you actually play the machine.... Then you will know what real pain is. lol

Don't remind me... The Unholy Triforce is still on my to-play list.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

Don't remind me... The Unholy Triforce is still on my to-play list.

For some reason I had a vision pop into my head of Pinhead from Hellraiser saying "We have such sights to show you!"

 

[Foxi4]

It was considered "next-gen" back then by most. Though it didn't have a competitor for a while (3DO being the first).

By that logic, so should the Super Nintendo (1990) and the Neo Geo (1991). The general consensus is that the fifth generation started in 1993 with the release of the 3DO.

Honestly though, the status of the CD-i as a console in and out of itself is somewhat debatable - it was more of an interactive media player standard than a console even more so than the 3DO, the whole console part was tacked onto, which is reflected by the design of the various CD-i's out there.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

By that logic, so should the Super Nintendo (1990) and the Neo Geo (1991). The general consensus is that the fifth generation started in 1993 with the release of the 3DO.

Honestly though, the status of the CD-i as a console in and out of itself is somewhat debatable - it was more of an interactive media player standard than a console even more so than the 3DO, the whole console part was tacked onto, which is reflected by the design of the various CD-i's out there.

Yeah I always considered the 3DO as that system that tried to jump ahead of the competition but costed way too much in the process. I mean it was awesome and did give me my first taste of Road Rash like I had never seen before... but that price tag about made me pass out. I am not sure exactly but I think the store near me that was selling it wanted something like $749.99 or some super crazy price (Walmart, might have had some pack in games or a spare controller or something.) and I about shit myself lol God that was so long ago....

Edit: Weird to me that the NeoGeo holds it's value pretty well, while the 3DO is almost dirt cheap these days.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B001BO2O1C/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=all

 

[Foxi4]

Yeah I always considered the 3DO as that system that tried to jump ahead of the competition but costed way too much in the process. I mean it was awesome and did give me my first taste of Road Rash like I had never seen before... but that price tag about made me pass out. I am not sure exactly but I think the store near me that was selling it wanted something like $749.99 or some super crazy price (Walmart, might have had some pack in games or a spare controller or something.) and I about shit myself lol God that was so long ago....

Edit: Weird to me that the NeoGeo holds it's value pretty well, while the 3DO is almost dirt cheap these days.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B001BO2O1C/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=all

Everything depends on the state of the machine - a lot of 3DO's out there no longer function properly and the systems vary in build quality. Counting on a tested and working 3DO under $100 is counting on a miracle, which do happen sometimes, but that's a matter of luck and auctions.

The big problem the 3DO had was that there wasn't really an original 3DO system - the 3DO was a design that was sold to other companies which made the consoles themselves. A lot of people simplify things to "Panasonic 3DO", but that's not really accurate - the 3DO was designed by... The 3DO Company, and manufactured by Panasonic, Sanyo and GoldStar. It was a license-based system, and this caused massive inconsistencies in design of the systems. Panasonic 3DO's happen to be the best out of the bunch, or so I hear, but 3DO as a "system" was a standard rather than one specific console, kinda like the CD-i, but to a much larger extent.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

Everything depends on the state of the machine - a lot of 3DO's out there no longer function properly and the systems vary in build quality. Counting on a tested and working 3DO under $100 is counting on a miracle, which do happen sometimes, but that's a matter of luck and auctions.

The big problem the 3DO had was that there wasn't really an original 3DO system - the 3DO was a design that was sold to other companies which made the consoles themselves. A lot of people simplify things to "Panasonic 3DO", but that's not really accurate - the 3DO was designed by... The 3DO Company, and manufactured by Panasonic, Sanyo and GoldStar. It was a license-based system, and this caused massive inconsistencies in design of the systems. Panasonic 3DO's happen to be the best out of the bunch, or so I hear, but 3DO as a "system" was a standard rather than one specific console, kinda like the CD-i, but to a much larger extent.

Yeah I always think of the 3DO as the Panasonic one (it's honestly the only one I have seen in person and played.) they seemed like really high quality machines at the time. Of course they probably where suffering from bad caps that the industry seems to have problems with every few years, or maybe cheap optical drives? Or maybe some combination of those problems and some others that I don't know about lol Maybe that M2 chip is a pile of crap (I think it was a 32bit M2 chip or something in it, I am trying to resist looking it up lol)

Edit: My curiosity got the best of me... lol the M2 was the unreleased 3DO 2 machine (what ever it would have been called.) The 3DO had an ARM CPU wild that has to be the earliest ARM CPU in a machine I am aware of... (I didn't think they existed back then.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3DO_Interactive_Multiplayer

 

[Foxi4]

Yeah I always think of the 3DO as the Panasonic one (it's honestly the only one I have seen in person and played.) they seemed like really high quality machines at the time. Of course they probably where suffering from bad caps that the industry seems to have problems with every few years, or maybe cheap optical drives? Or maybe some combination of those problems and some others that I don't know about lol Maybe that M2 chip is a pile of crap (I think it was a 32bit M2 chip or something in it, I am trying to resist looking it up lol)

There's a number of things that go wrong, they mostly concern the optical drive. As for the M2 chip, don't you mean the 3DO's successor, sold to Matsushita and never released in console form?

EDIT: Come to think of it, I've just remembered Creative Labs' take on the 3DO... the 3DO Blaster:

Spoiler

That's right, son! 3DO Quality* games on your PC!



*Mostly arse. ;O;

 

[trumpet-205]

Is that ISA expansion card?

Geez, never seen that before.

 

[Foxi4]

Is that ISA expansion card?

Geez, never seen that before.

Yep, that's an entire 3DO system on an ISA card, along with a compatible CD-ROM drive and a gamepad. With this thing in your rig you could play 3DO software on your PC, no emulation required.

 

[codezer0]

Yep, that's an entire 3DO system on an ISA card, along with a compatible CD-ROM drive and a gamepad. With this thing in your rig you could play 3DO software on your PC, no emulation required.

I would actually entertain that. Though seeing the fact that it is an ISA card implies that it's going to be limited by really old hardware, too.

I know there were some oddball games on the 3DO that I would have played, and looked interesting/impressive/awesome/amusing. Problem is, growing up around that time, I don't recall any stores even carrying anything for it. Probably had a lot to do with the fact that the 3DO was released for the ludicrous price of $750USD... in 1993. Accounting for inflation, that's over $1000 for just the *expletive* console. Same with the Neo Geo. Everyone knew how mindblowingly powerful it was at the time. Even to this day, its design enabled it to be a formidable 2D powerhouse. But yea, $650 MSRP at launch, plus $200~300 per game? hell no.

 

[Foxi4]

I would actually entertain that. Though seeing the fact that it is an ISA card implies that it's going to be limited by really old hardware, too.

I know there were some oddball games on the 3DO that I would have played, and looked interesting/impressive/awesome/amusing. Problem is, growing up around that time, I don't recall any stores even carrying anything for it. Probably had a lot to do with the fact that the 3DO was released for the ludicrous price of $750USD... in 1993. Accounting for inflation, that's over $1000 for just the *expletive* console. Same with the Neo Geo. Everyone knew how mindblowingly powerful it was at the time. Even to this day, its design enabled it to be a formidable 2D powerhouse. But yea, $650 MSRP at launch, plus $200~300 per game? hell no.

Pretty much. Two things killed the system - incredibly high price tags put on by the manufacturers (who probably wanted to make up for the license fee they paid to 3DO for the right to manufacture the system which was an expense on top of the already expensive components) and 3DO's very lenient approach to video game licensing. Nintendo and SEGA were both very restrictive in terms of what games were released on their systems (even though many terrible titles did slip by anyways) and making games for their consoles did not come cheap (hence the loads of unlicensed games like EA Games on the Genesis/Mega Drive or "Wonder Tree" games on the SNES) - they had a very hands-on approach to keep the quality bar relatively high. On the Neo Geo, the majority of the library was a first-party SNK festival of arcade titles. In the case of the 3DO, all that was required was a small fee, not to mention that CD's were a cheaper medium, which resulted in a tsunami of poor quality software. I'm assuming that Creative thought that by releasing the 3DO system as a PC expansion card, they could cut the price tag of the system down substantially - the card "only" cost $399 in the states (and $600 in Europe... for whatever reason), which was less than the other 3DO systems - that's one hurdle less.

 

[thaddius]

The 3DO was totally forgotten about in this poll.

The 3DO is considered part of the 5th Generation (according to Wikipedia anyway, which is what I set my watch to apparently). It'll be up there in two weeks.

Similarly the CDi is on the list for 4th Generation on Wikipedia, hence it's place in this poll.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

Pretty much. Two things killed the system - incredibly high price tags put on by the manufacturers (who probably wanted to make up for the license fee they paid to 3DO for the right to manufacture the system which was an expense on top of the already expensive components) and 3DO's very lenient approach to video game licensing. Nintendo and SEGA were both very restrictive in terms of what games were released on their systems (even though many terrible titles did slip by anyways) and making games for their consoles did not come cheap (hence the loads of unlicensed games like EA Games on the Genesis/Mega Drive or "Wonder Tree" games on the SNES) - they had a very hands-on approach to keep the quality bar relatively high. On the Neo Geo, the majority of the library was a first-party SNK festival of arcade titles. In the case of the 3DO, all that was required was a small fee, not to mention that CD's were a cheaper medium, which resulted in a tsunami of poor quality software. I'm assuming that Creative thought that by releasing the 3DO system as a PC expansion card, they could cut the price tag of the system down substantially - the card "only" cost $399 in the states (and $600 in Europe... for whatever reason), which was less than the other 3DO systems - that's one hurdle less. I'm not entirely sure how much the games cost at launch, but $200-$300 seems like a stretch to me - I'll have to look it up.

The 3DO games where normal priced compared to the SNES or Genesis, when he was talking about 200-300 dollar each games he was talking about the NeoGeo. I had a friend who actually owned a small stack of those games at the time... I wouldn't touch it myself for those prices but play it at a friends house? Sure call me over I will bring the snacks! lol

 

[Foxi4]

The 3DO games where normal priced compared to the SNES or Genesis, when he was talking about 200-300 dollar each games he was talking about the NeoGeo. I had a friend who actually owned a small stack of those games at the time... I wouldn't touch it myself for those prices but play it at a friends house? Sure call me over I will bring the snacks! lol

Oh yeah, I totally misread his post, my bad!

*Edits post appropriately*

Well, to be fair, Neo Geo cartridges had a lot of customized "guff" on them, they were practically miniaturized MVS cartridges (on a side note, the home console Neo Geo is totally compatible with arcade MVS cartridges if you use a pass-through, which is *insane* - it's as close as you can get to having an arcade at home without actually owning arcade cabinets) - think NES mappers, except on cocaine and steroids, plus they were all imported goods so naturally the prices were uber-high. The Neo Geo was something you salivated over because your wealthy neighbour had one while you were forced to punch quarters into an arcade machine, weeping, dreaming of owning one yourself, not something you actually owned.