Which was the best of the three (32x.3DO,Jaguar)

[ReaXan]

32X- My opinion is that it was the most uneeded of the three. I think Nintendo had the better idea of putting a better chip inside the game itself.


3DO- The Playstation pretty much evolved into what the 3DO tried to be. The heavy price tag doomed it from the start. Maybe porting CD-ROM PC games instead of creating new ones would have done the system more justice.


Atari Jaguar- I believe this system in theory could have been a good stop gap between the SNES/Genesis to PSONE/N64 era if Atari could have made it more simple to program for. There were alot of MAME type games that were inferior to play on a 16 bit systems but would have probably looked great on the Jaguar. Examples that come to mind are arcade classics like Aliens, Superman and TMNT 2 which look goregous having bigger sprites.

[Niku-Sama]

Sega tried the co processor in the cart thing but it didn't seem to work out. I think the game was Daytona USA that had it on Genesis.

If you think about it the cost for the peripheral and then the games at regular price was better than regular games with special chips costing more each time.

For what ever reason though it didn't pan out

[celerystalker]

The more I think about this, the more I lean toward the Jaguar as the best. The 32X has a great version of Space Harrier, but stuff like Tempo and Knuckles Chaotix were okay, if unimpressive. 3DO has FMV games that I have a soft spot for, but are generally frowned upon, and most of its library is available elsewhere. The Jaguar, with its small but largely bad library, would seem inferior at a glance, but its exclusives include some winners. Brutal Sports Football is like Mutant League Rugby. Doom on Jaguar is really excellent in spite of its lack of in-level music. Wolfenstein on Jaguar is exceptionally smooth and fast, and Alien vs Predator is expansive if choppy. Tempest 2000 might be the best game on any of these systems, and Cannon Fodder and Theme Park were good on both Jaguar and 3DO.

I think the 32X is easily the weakest, but if I could only pick one to keep, it'd be the Jaguar. Tempest in S-Video is entrancing, and I play it more than the other 2 systems combined.

[CDiablo]

Maybe porting CD-ROM PC games instead of creating new ones would have done the system more justice.


That was the majority of the 3DO Library. I think broken down the 3DO had about 30-50ish exclusives of the 300ish they released. Everything else was on PC.

With that said my vote goes to the 3DO. Better game library than the 32X or Jag. Even at theoretical potential I think the 3DO would have faired best over 32x+CD and Jag+CD. Even going exclusive for exclusive I would say 3DO beats the Jag an 32X because I thought they both had piss poor libraries(though I have some favorites for all 3).

[retroman]

Sega tried the co processor in the cart thing but it didn't seem to work out. I think the game was Daytona USA that had it on Genesis.

If you think about it the cost for the peripheral and then the games at regular price was better than regular games with special chips costing more each time.

For what ever reason though it didn't pan out

It was Virtua Racing. Not Daytona USA, and my vote also goes to the 3DO. Better games, more games, better graphics.

[sfchakan]

Just basing my judgement on the system's libraries alone, I think 3DO wins easily. The other consoles just didn't have quite enough games to justify shelf space for most people.

I actually think the 32X probably had a better ratio of good to bad games, though.

[mailman187666]

I would say the 3DO. Although it had many PC ports, it also had definitive versions of them at the time. Wolfenstein and Street Fighter 2 were great on the 3DO. I own, or have owned all 3 systems, and 3DO is my favorite. I do like what the other 2 systems had to offer as well.

[otaku]

I don't have any 3D0 experience. I'm a sega fan and all but I spent time with the Jaguar more so and am also an atari fan so atari in my mind takes the cake here

[Tanooki]

At first I'd want to jump on the 3DO (2nd model) as it was decent and for a time it did get third party support having even Need for Speed and Street Fighter on there for example, but sticking to the era it was grossly overpriced and it didn't have much unique going for it that screamed buy me when stuff half the price had its stuff and much more. I'd have to give it to the Jaguar, love or hate Atari they had a decent line up of actually unique titles and even good franchise (Alien vs Predator) and sequel (Tempest 2000) type stuff that was fun to play. I had neither, but i put a lot of kiosk time on both of them among other things so I feel pretty safe saying that. If ever I found both at a flea market or someone walked up and gave me a choice I'd take the Jag. 32X really more or less didn't have crap for games. There were a few, some were ports which diminished that value anyway, but it had so little to arrive it's a waste.

[SparTonberry]

If anything, the 3DO is probably why Sony goes with the "razor and blade" business model (and Nintendo uncharacteristically cut the price of the 3DS so soon after release): you have to get people to buy your system first for it to turn a healthy development cycle.

[HardcoreOtaku]

All three were terrible systems but in my opinion the best was the 3DO.
The worst of the three was the Jaguar, it was truly awful.

[Emperor Megas]

3DO, easily. I don't even have to think about this one. The Jaguar is doorstop with virtually no redeeming qualities, and the only thing the 32X is good for, IMO, is Space Harrier and After Burner, and I can get those on the Saturn. It's had lots of fun with my 3DO over the years though.

[jammajup]

I guess they all had a share of ports with a few unique games but the 3DO wins for me because of the high number of playable titles for it compared to the others,I was playing Monster Manor and Need For Speed just a few days ago.

[adolescent]

Definitely the 3DO. It has some great arcade ports like Puzzle Bobble, SSF2T, and Samurai Shodown, great enhanced PC ports like Star Control II, Alone in the Dark, Flashback, etc. as well originals like Return Fire. I don't know why the 3DO gets such a bad rap. It's a great system.



That said, I don't have a Jag anymore but all I originally bought it for was Tempest.



I still have a 32x but its been in storage since the 90s.

[A.C. Sativa]

3D0 by a mile. The controller was crap and it was way too expensive, but out of the 3 it's the only one that's not totally worthless. The Jag was just a complete pile of shit and the 32X was just unnecessary, any of the games made for it could have easily been released on the Genesis.

[c2000]

Another vote for the 3DO. It simply has the best library. I love the look of the Jaguar, but I pretty much disliked all the 3D games and most of the good 2D games were on other platforms as well. The 32X had some good games like Stellar Assault, Virtua Racing Deluxe, Virtua Fighter (for its time, anyway), After burner and Space Harrier and some enjoyable 2D games like NBA JAM T.E. and Pitfall. Like someone else said; the good/bad radio is in order. It just needed 50-100 more games.

1st place 3DO and pretty much a tie between the 32X and the Jaguar.

[WCP]

Honestly, I think it's a wee bit disrespectful to even put the 3DO in a list with those other two.


But, it's certainly par for the course in regards to the 3DO. The 3DO literally get's no respect like Rodney Dangerfield. I totally understand why the 3DO doesn't get any respect either.


1. It was way too expensive for it's first 18 or so months, so very few people experienced it during it's true heyday

2. By the time it did get affordable, the PS1 and Saturn were about to drop at any moment, and they were significantly more powerful and better supported (well at least PS1)



So, what happened, is the vast majority of people either never experienced the 3DO during it's original glory years, or they came to it super late, after the PS1 already dropped it's bomb on the collective video game world. Sure, when the PS1 was out, with games like Wipeout and Loaded and Destruction Derby and all that stuff, the 3DO seemed like a joke then, but the people that played the 3DO in very late 1993 or during 1994 or even early 1995, they know better.

I didn't own a 3DO right away, but a buddy of mine did, and he got a 3DO in October of 1993. I remember playing Crash N Burn at his house in October of 1993, and it was like seeing 10 years into the future. (it was actually only like 2 years into the future, but it really seemed like 10 years). I had never seen anything like that. It was like my buddy had a game at his house that was more impressive than many arcade games. Now, somebody can come along and say that Crash N Burn is a piece of crap, but you have to understand that I was playing Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis games at the time, and going from some 16-bit game to the 3DO, was probably the largest individual technological jump I'd ever seen. (and still is probably)

Then in 1994, games like Total Eclipse and Escape From Monster Manor came out. Road Rash. Slayer. Out of this World (3DO version looks and sounds amazing). Shockwave, Gex, Way of the Warrior and The Horde.


I think all those games shite all over the 32X and Jaguar.


The 32X has Virtua Racing Deluxe, and not much else (imo). The Jag has Cybermorph and AVP, and not much else (imo).


I don't think the 3DO should ever be mentioned in the same sentence with 32X and Jaguar, but I guess thats what happens when you're way, way overpriced for the first year or so.

[celerystalker]

Having experienced all of these in their time, I disagree. The 3DO was interesting at the time, but I still had more fun with the Jaguar. In its time, Cybermorph really impressed me with its scope of worlds and full 3D movement. Then, the 3DO one-upped it with Starfighter, which had even greater movement freedom. Then, Starfighter came out on other systems, so it became less of a defining game for me. Same thing happened with my favorite FMV game, Psychic Detective. Then D. These games lost their system-defining strength when they popped up elsewhere.

I look at my 3DO now with fond memories, but when you start to filter out exclusives, its library stops looking 3 times bigger than the other 2. Star Control II is still awesome. Out of this World on 3DO is not. I checked myself before writing this by playing it side by side on my SNES, literally hooked up on 2 side by side identical TVs. It lacks the original music and doesn't look particularly better overall. Thing about that game is that it wasn't about the graphics, it was all about the animation. Killing Time is okay if choppy. Immercenary was way ahead of its time and almost single handedly wins this for 3DO... but then there's the Jaguar.

Tempest 2000 just rules, and the later 3000 versions are comparatively weak. Doom on Jaguar, despite in-level music, is abolutely fantastic, and probably the best console port of the original. Wolfenstein is probably the best console version on Jaguar. Cannon Fodder only had a US release on Jaguar, I think, but I could be wrong there. Alien vs Predator is unique and solid, but every bit as choppy as Killing Time. I like Cybermorph and Battlemorph. They're unique and weird.

I can totally understand someone preferring the 3DO. I still have and play all of these, but the Jaguar gets the most play in my house. We play Tempest and Brutal Sports Football the most. The 3DO, though, I can only convince my brother to play with me, even for its awesome Super Street Fighter II Turbo. I mean, I can get people to laugh at POed or Cyberdillo, and I can occasionally get someone to try and play Captain Quasar or Mazer, but people are always stunned with the quality of the Jaguar FPS games (like I said, I do give Immercenary the same nod, because it's awesome), and just about everyone gets hooked on Tempest.

[Tanooki]

Well you spelled it out better than I did over the conflict with Jaguar and 3DO while tossing it to Atari for it's dying system. 3DO had Wing Commander and Star Control along with a few other exclusives, but few of quality worth if once you drop off the ports that were also on PC/PS/Saturn too. It's not a bad system, but it didn't get as much as I think it should and could have if it were priced reasonably out of the gate. They even topped the PS3 shitfest of that arrogant ass Ken /'$600 was cheap and if you couldn't afford it to get another Job/' Kutagari by a $100. Jaguar had its issues sure, but when you see the interesting unique games and PC ports of decent to fantastic quality, it has a library there that really shouldn't be ignored. I know if I ever ran into one offline I'd snap it up if someone wasn't Nintendo-like pricing it not knowing better. Great output from that thing and it was cartridge based too.

Oh and Cannon Fodder was in the US on the PC, and much later on the Gameboy Color(own it currently.) That game is so understated because of its mostly PAL region only roots.

What's interesting is both these systems came out and died more or less within a month of each other on both end (life and death) on the US market. I won't argue it as it's a losing fight the 3DO had more games, it definitely did, but that bulk is well padded in games other systems had in large quantities. It's sad, but to me it's like Nintendo's arrogant argument for the N64 when they were getting pounded in 1997-99 'quality over quantity' I suppose. In all fairness if a 3DO dropped in my hands I'd likely keep it, if anything to mess with the superior versions of Star Control 2 and Wing Commander before letting go of it. :)

[Greg2600]

Really tough one. Probably 3DO for the library.

[goldenband]

Then, Starfighter came out on other systems, so it became less of a defining game for me. Same thing happened with my favorite FMV game, Psychic Detective. Then D. These games lost their system-defining strength when they popped up elsewhere.

I can't speak to D, but aren't the non-3DO ports of Star Fighter and Psychic Detective markedly inferior? IIRC Star Fighter has massive graphical cutbacks, and the PS1 version of Psychic Detective has some significant censorship/cuts.


Immercenary was way ahead of its time and almost single handedly wins this for 3DO.

Nice to see Immercenary get praise, as I really enjoyed it. It becomes a bit repetitive after a while, but it really is a nicely-designed FPS (kind of a Spectre VR clone, oddly enough) with RPG elements and an impressive lack of in-stage loading times.

[celerystalker]

Starfighter has pros and cons on each system, so it's tough to say which is best. Psychic Detective, though, is edited on PS1, as it's missing the sex scenes. I freaking love that game.

[Kevincal]

You have to factor in price to this and in the 1990s the 3do completely sucked because it was way too expensive for anyone except rich people to afford.

Ya, it has a bunch more games than the Jag but the type of games they mostly were completely sucked. Boring pc ports and FMV games. Even road rash and need for speed are overrated imo. both rather boring. I like genesis road rash more than the 3do version for control and fun factor and music.

Jaguar is the best of these 3 systems. It was very affordable and had plenty of awesome games, real true videogames. not to mention the system is still alive and producing new games.

32x obviously is very weak and could barely be called a standalone system.

I have owned multiple of all 3 systems and tons of games for all these systems. Jaguar is the winner.

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

Probably 3DO. It had the biggest library and yes it had some good games. Also it was technically impressive for its time. It was pricey, but in November 1994 I think they dropped the price to $400, which ended up being what the Saturn launched at 6 months later.

[goldenband]

Psychic Detective, though, is edited on PS1, as it's missing the sex scenes. I freaking love that game.

"I want to do something for you...something special."
"Open the door."
"Mm-hmm! A little more special!"
"Don't get greedy!"
"I can't help it!"

My wife and I had a blast with that one.

BTW for me the 3DO is an easy winner so far. Among other things, the Jaguar is just too much of a pain in the ass -- the games are pricy and often chintzy, and the scene is perennially plagued with "interesting" personalities. If it had a terrific, SD-based flash cart things might be different.

That said I actually liked Hover Strike quite a bit.

[Kevincal]

"I want to do something for you...something special."
"Open the door."
"Mm-hmm! A little more special!"
"Don't get greedy!"
"I can't help it!"

My wife and I had a blast with that one.

BTW for me the 3DO is an easy winner so far. Among other things, the Jaguar is just too much of a pain in the ass -- the games are pricy and often chintzy, and the scene is perennially plagued with "interesting" personalities. If it had a terrific, SD-based flash cart things might be different.

That said I actually liked Hover Strike quite a bit.

The Jaguar scene is fun. Also there is something called a Skunkboard for 100 bucks and then you can play just about all jag games for free. also I have some kickass jaguar multicarts :)

I tried to get into 3do playing and collecting. heres the thing. the controller absolutely totally sucks balls. and nearly all of the games are complete boring trash with loading times. wolf 3d and doom are better on jaguar. 3do has nothing like tempest 2000 or iron soldier. rayman is better than gex. street fighter 2 on 3do sucks hard because of the controller. also 3do systems break down more often than jag cart system. 3do is interesting and pretty cool but I look at it a lot like the neo geo... a system for rich elitists who aren't even really gamers. both neo and 3do very overrated while jaguar a true gamers system is vastly underrated.

check out all the jag videos I have uploaded to youtube not long ago. most of these games were played with skunkboard or multicart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW_lfu_XJzA&index=2&list=PLSbCiA_gvHP7BwuSpilM7T1UZZvBoHQ-j

[Emperor Megas]

both neo and 3do very overrated while jaguar a true gamers system is vastly underrated.Man, you actually had me going for a minute. That's some nice trolling. :wink 2:

[Kevincal]

Im being dead serious, lol. The only reason people praise and love neo geo and claim its so great, is because they played the games at the arcade when they came out in the early 90s and then became neo collectors and spent stupid money on neo stuff.

But the reality is, Neo geo games are designed to eat your quarters, moreso than designed to actually be fun.... If you are a rare gamer who only really cares about fighting games. I suppose I could understand the love for neo. However, I would take any Capcom street fighter game over any neo fighter... The difficulty in neo fighters is just plain ridiculous. and again, the cost of neo anything, is more than ridiculous. also neo geo was 16 bit not 24. Oh and I loathe the AES home joystick.... not to mention everything just feels way too japanesy.

3do, ya again, I don't know it has what 100-200 "games" but a great majority of those are just utter garbage. A lot of 3do "games" make the worst Jaguar cart games seem ok. Not to mention pretty much all the good 3do games came out on playstation not much later.

ok, actually I would call jaguar versus 3do a tie... since I am obviously a jaguar fan with a bit of bias. we could even say neo geo ties in there too. but obviously the 32x comes behind all of these. anyway the main problem with jaguar is so many people simply do not know about the games on this system. let me tell you there are some really awesome games on this system and some really awesome video game music. and graphics too. and the jag controller is not that bad. infact something most people do not know is there are variations of the jaguar controller d pad and buttons. a few different controllers were made in different countries at different times anyway some jag pads are better than others as far as d pad etc etc. but check out my jaguar videos in my playlist in my last post you will be surprises.

another cool thing about jag, you can play jag games in rgb, component and or even on your VGA computer monitor without modifying your jag at all. you just need a catbox or similar device. that's another thing jaguar has lots of people know nothing about, tons of cool hardware and software pieces.

I have owned many neo geo AES and a neo CD, and have played all neo games on emulators. I just cant see how people claim these games are so great. sure they are beautiful but the difficulty and overly japanesey is a huge turn off. I have played like 100 3do games and again great graphics but the controller is weak. lots of loading times and most of the games themselves just feel like cheap pc games with tons of fmv and boring stuff. and 3do doesn't have something like AVP or even Raiden it has like POED which is a weird not so great game.... and then it has that rpg that people claim is great I think its lucienes quest but meh... jaguar has towers ii and highlander LOL ;)

I just really feel the Jaguar is a true blue American gamers system that was realistically priced from day one and has plenty of great software. its just that it was bashed in the media so hard all its life. this is another thing people do not know. The Atari company itself was black balled in the video game industry starting with the LYNX because everyone was so pissed at Atari for their 8 bit systems ultimately failing and being oversold to stores etc. and Atari did not kiss the medias butt enough ie magazines like Nintendo and sega did so therefore when the Jaguar came around you read in the magazines mostly negative about Atari and the Jaguar. Especially EGM. I have an issue of EGM from the early 90s where Atari sent a letter to EGM regarding their LYNX system EGM was using for screenshots of the magazine. Basically EGM and Atari were beefing big time. EGM Was the the most popular gaming magazine when the Jaguar came out and most other gaming magazines of the time followed what EGM said and EGM said JAGUAR SUCKS!!! the only magazine that was cool and honest was Diehard GameFan regarding the Jaguar. The othter thing Atari simply didn't have the money to properly market the JAguar. Marketing is EVERYTHING. With enough money you can convince the world a piece of poo is the greatest thing ever, all through limitless marketing in the mainstream media. Atari couldn't do this, people were like "Jaguar what? what is that?"...

Fact of the matter is the JAguar with the CD attachment was very capable of competing with the PS1 and Saturn. Its just that the game developers bailed on making Jaguar games cus the Atari company didn't pay nearly as well as sony or even sega. Its all about money.

[celerystalker]

While I do prefer Jaguar to 3DO, it is comparatively trash next to my Neo Geo. There just isn't even a vague comparison. Tempest rules and the FPS games are great, but next to the volume of quality fighters, shooters, the handful of good beat 'em ups, the run 'n guns, and the unique stuff like Windjammers, Flip Shot, Crossed Swords... none of these three systems are even vaguely close. That's why the Neo wasn't part of the topic.

[sfchakan]

Im being dead serious, lol. The only reason people praise and love neo geo and claim its so great, is because they played the games at the arcade when they came out in the early 90s and then became neo collectors and spent stupid money on neo stuff.

Incorrect. My kids eat up the Metal Slug games and a few others. They're fun as hell and well animated.

[Emperor Megas]

Kevincal's just kidding around to liven things up, guys. :D

[Kevincal]

:d

.

[Kevincal]

While I do prefer Jaguar to 3DO, it is comparatively trash next to my Neo Geo. There just isn't even a vague comparison. Tempest rules and the FPS games are great, but next to the volume of quality fighters, shooters, the handful of good beat 'em ups, the run 'n guns, and the unique stuff like Windjammers, Flip Shot, Crossed Swords... none of these three systems are even vaguely close. That's why the Neo wasn't part of the topic.

k well. I just feel neo geo is super overrated. I mean like you have baseball stars picture as your avatar. now I played baseball all my life and baseball video games and baseball stars sucks compared to games like bases loaded II on the nes or rbi baseball 3 on genesis. :) of course great graphics but the gameplay is very very MEH. That's what im getting at about the neo geo. Sure great graphics BUUUUUUUUUUUUUT the stuff costs a fortune and the gameplay isn't even that great. I mean metal slug is beautiful but I get bored with it VERY quickly "ya the premise of this game is shoot the shit out of everything that moves, and that's it.". hmm k its like non stop shooting and explosions I mean like I would rather play something else... not so much skill involved but just memory. but damn I hate neo fighters. Why like every Neo fighting game the FIRST GUY you have to fight kicks your ass? I mean have they ever heard of gradually ramping up difficulty? lol. those snk wackos.

[KWKBOX]

It all depends on what games you are into because at the end of the day most people buy a system due to it's strongest/exclusive library. Since 32X had the smallest it is out from the get go for me. As for the Jaguar the controller would hurt my hand after playing for like 15 mins so that kills the system for me since I do not know of a 3rd party controller for that system. So I guess 3DO wins by default because it has a large library of games and a controller that does not kill your hand after playing for a short time.

[celerystalker]

k well. I just feel neo geo is super overrated. I mean like you have baseball stars picture as your avatar. now I played baseball all my life and baseball video games and baseball stars sucks compared to games like bases loaded II on the nes or rbi baseball 3 on genesis. :) of course great graphics but the gameplay is very very MEH. That's what im getting at about the neo geo. Sure great graphics BUUUUUUUUUUUUUT the stuff costs a fortune and the gameplay isn't even that great. I mean metal slug is beautiful but I get bored with it VERY quickly "ya the premise of this game is shoot the shit out of everything that moves, and that's it.". hmm k its like non stop shooting and explosions I mean like I would rather play something else... not so much skill involved but just memory. but damn I hate neo fighters. Why like every Neo fighting game the FIRST GUY you have to fight kicks your ass? I mean have they ever heard of gradually ramping up difficulty? lol. those snk wackos.

It's true that Baseball Stars is my avatar, but it's because the goofy quote on the box. Super Baseball 2020 is my favorite Neo baseball game, because Baseball stars is mediocre there. It's better on NES, even. I think you may struggle with fighting games overall, though, if the first guy is killing you (unless you're talking the ridiculous Art of Fighting), and if you don't care for run and guns, that's fine. I don't care for FPS games. I'll still give the Jaguar credit for its quality ones, though. It deserves the praise objectively, as does Metal Slug.

I get Neo Geo being too expensive. It is. You can buy the entire Jaguar library for the cost of an AES copy of Neo Turf Masters and have money to burn. But in objective comparison of game quality, it just isn't close. Trevor McFur isn't taking out Pulstar anytime soon. Ultra Vortek and Kasumi Ninja aren't outshining Samurai Shodown and King of Fighters. Baseball Stars Professional may be the weakest baseball game on the system... but what was that baseball game on Jaguar again? Sensible Soccer, was it? Good thing there's Super Sidekicks.

Love my Jaguar. More than my 3DO, more than my 32X, more than my PC-FX, more than my CD-i. For overall library, though, it's like asking which 2 year old drew the best fire truck. They're all red and look like shit, but at least one has kind of round tires, so it wins. Given the choice of that or a photograph to show someone a fire engine, I'll take the photo.