The 3DO Experience - Episode 28: Shock Wave: 3DO Space Combat From 3DO!

[00:00:00] Have you experienced the awesome power of the Panasonic Reel 3DO system?

[00:00:05] Obviously.

[00:00:06] Presenting 3DO.

[00:00:09] The most advanced home gaming system in the universe.

[00:00:13] It's time to put away your toys.

[00:00:18] 3DO, Panasonic Gold Star and Creative Labs.

[00:00:21] A new low price and free games.

[00:00:23] The graphics of Panasonic Reel 3DO.

[00:01:27] below 30 and I had frost on my windshield and then when I left work it was 60 so about the same kind of we I still had to wear a jacket.

[00:01:30] Yeah like we had snow on the ground here like a couple days ago.

[00:01:35] So did we and it's melted now.

[00:01:38] I can see that the plow ripped up my front lawn which is nice but I don't have to deal

[00:01:44] with that the HOA will take care of it so.

[00:01:47] Climate change it's around here to be honest. Okay, it might be a Midwest thing, but I guess we're technically, I don't know, Ohio is like, I say Ohio is like somewhere between the Northeast, the Midwest, and the South. Because you get all three depending on where you are in the state. But yeah, this is weird.

[00:03:01] Like I've heard of it, but like I've gone to the store and never seen it.

[00:03:04] Yeah.

[00:03:05] So either I'm not paying attention or bucks maybe they wanted 20 for this one. So I mean that's not too bad. I

[00:04:23] Miss the wired controllers sometimes

[00:05:24] and I always thought it was a rough go of things, but you know. But on the other side, once Microsoft had the 360 controller,

[00:05:27] like the One and the Series are basically the same thing,

[00:05:31] but with some modernizations here and there.

[00:05:35] You know, like I still really enjoy the Series controller.

[00:05:38] You know, it's not that different from the One controller,

[00:05:41] but it has like a much better D-pad.

[00:05:44] I like the different texture turn like the vibration off for the most part because most games when they have it, it's just weighed like the series vibration is way too excessive. Like a lot of times, does Xbox use HD rumble at this point? Are

[00:07:05] they still using the old style? I think it's pointless to me. There are some games that use rumble really really well but most games it's just like oh, it's gonna shake here and there like weirdly enough as you is Audio listeners. I have power wash simulator behind me because I'm playing that again the DLC came out So, you know praise the power wash. They actually use rumble decently. Well, because when you're washing

[00:08:24] When something finishes, you know, you'll get the light, you know I will say one last thing on rumble before we move on from this. I will say one thing I found that was really fascinating was I was experimenting around with the the blimcast emulator for Dreamcast recently and I was playing Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid has like rumble programmed into it at certain points. The emulator actually recognizes the Dreamcast rumble pack and

[00:09:42] it actually would rumble at the points and I booted up was Mario's Tennis, because of that famous intro, you know. I wanted to see if Mario's Ball would actually come into my face, and he did. So, kudos. And the game is, I'm not a big fan of the game itself, but. No, it's a very average tennis game, honestly. Yeah, but I will say, Warriorland, Virtual Boy Warriorland,

[00:11:01] does a lot of really cool things with depth.

[00:11:04] And it is brought right in in the 3DS, which.

[00:11:07] I always tell people, like, But the big misconception is a lot of people don't realize is you have to set the thing properly. Like there's those two like dials on the top that you have to set. As long as you have those perfectly aligned to your eyes, it's not going to hurt your eyes. You know, it might strain them a little, but that's mostly just because of what kind of medium it is. And I think probably it's just having those that striking red color there and like everything

[00:12:24] else being closed off.

[00:12:25] That would be my guess. strategy and was first person. It's pretty dope. It's basically just a cool, I think the big thing was it was basically a futuristic version of Punch-Out. Yeah, but with more strategy and more control over your character. And being first person was nice. There's so many Virtual Boy games that aren't first person, and it's like, why bother? The only two I can think of are that one and then Red Alarm, but fuck Red Alarm.

[00:13:42] Yeah, well there's also that first person survival horror Virtual Boy game that was

[00:13:48] Japan only. my copy. Ooh, let me see if somebody has the Xbox version. I saw a couple of those. Basically, I saw the, um, I just want that anime cover because the anime cover is so hilarious to me. Yeah, let's see, I see PlayStation and Switch. I don't see an Xbox one yet. No? I

[00:15:00] swear I saw one. There's probably not that many, that. So I don't know. Maybe that's all they did. But I'll get the I'll get the physical. It's still coming out in March, right? I believe so. Okay. I didn't see any delays. So let's see. March 5th.

[00:16:20] Oh, that's next week.

[00:16:22] We're gonna have to start planning. Mine also came with this fun thing. Got a little pamphlet of EA games for 3DO. Ooh, my man, John Madden. There he is. It's actually kind of cool. Sorry, I'm still recovering from my cold, so I may sound a little funky. It's actually kind of cool, like we got like Superwing Commander, Link Park, Sherlock Holmes,

[00:17:43] Escape from Monster Manor, Sesame Street, fuck yeah.

[00:17:46] Oh, we need to do to Sesame Street. Jesus Christ. Oh, is it extremely expensive? It's like one hundred dollars. Yeah, that's an emulator right there. Oh, come on.

[00:19:00] It's like the fucking putt putt.

[00:19:02] Those are Sesame Street.

[00:19:04] The putt putt games for 3D or up there, too, for whatever.

[00:20:02] Where'd you learn to fly? Not her. I berate you every five seconds.

[00:20:04] No, just that one lady who looks familiar,

[00:20:06] but I can't pinpoint where I've seen her

[00:20:08] from, where she goes,

[00:20:10] This isn't a game, Lieutenant.

[00:20:12] Yeah, I love that one.

[00:20:14] I'm just like, shut up.

[00:20:16] I see her, I'm like,

[00:20:18] she looks so familiar, but I cannot

[00:20:20] place her. What was her name?

[00:20:22] I forget it.

[00:20:24] Because the credits are in the back.

[00:20:26] Was she Major Stewart? But I've been meaning I haven't like sat down and properly played it yet I'm trying to think if there's any other Star for I haven't played that much Star Fox Sorry, Chris. I've tried and I don't know it just doesn't click for me. I don't know why I like Star Fox assault You know fun fact that developed by the Ace Combat 2 team

[00:21:44] That kind of makes sense Yeah, maybe I'm expensive. Expensive. That's the whole thing. That's fair. See, for me, whenever I think of a like a flying game or like a space combat game, I always immediately drawn to like my immediate comparison is always going to be Ace Combat because it is like the go to like air combat series to the point where the first one was

[00:23:03] called Air Combat over here.

[00:23:05] Yeah, I think it's like if you're in the know about You know, and those games I think are fantastic. Like those are super fun. Yeah, that was a good, like exclusive, original Xbox game that doesn't get a lot of talk anymore. For real. Though one of the coolest things about Crimson Skies and about like the Xbox in general,

[00:24:20] is that if you're weird, you can, through like LAN cables,

[00:24:26] system link between all four generations of Xbox I think the game that intrigued me the most was probably Halo of course. But I'm trying to think of the one. Blinx the Time Sweeper. Blinx and then Voodoo Vince are like the two. Yeah I still need to play Voodoo Vince. When it drops in price on the Series X3 Master version I'll get it and play it.

[00:25:40] Is it like a collectathon platformer?

[00:25:43] It's kinda. It's more linear.

[00:25:45] Which I kinda like about it. Port of that. I don't know who did the port. I know the game was created by beep interactive And I think it's like the only game that beep interactive made Beep interactive. Yeah, that sounds like a like a 90s dev team that doesn't exist anymore. I Don't think they do or they were just like a team within Microsoft. Yeah. Well the original was published by Microsoft

[00:27:03] So is it technically a first-party game? Yep. It was one of the few that they had

[00:28:03] happen in the future. Now going back to Shockwave, this game is a little interesting.

[00:28:09] So 1994, this was a very early 3DO game.

[00:28:14] And you can tell.

[00:28:15] One thing I'd found, I spent like an hour like trying to figure out who made this game.

[00:28:20] Because the developer says it on the front box.

[00:28:24] It's very tiny there.

[00:28:25] Is the Advanced Technology Group? differentiate it? I don't know to be perfectly honest it really isn't clear. Yeah it was also released on the Saturn and oh boy I get to say this the Apple Bandai Pippin. The Pippin! Everyone loves the Pippin. Oh God. Except an odd system. You can tell Steve Jobs was not there at the time because if you watch any sort of advertisement for it, it is hilariously cringe. Yeah. So going into the gameplay for Shockwave, it is a very standard like the 80s and 90s and it's like all these years that to them seem like oh like 2022 like so far away and it's like well we're here now. I know. They didn't think that far ahead like Star Trek was smart they're like oh we're in like the 25th century or whatever. Yes so far. Like who fucking cares or even

[00:32:22] say like the Nier games right like Nier Replicants 2053 I think and then Nier Automata is like improve their capabilities. We still don't have healthcare yet, but we have found a way to use crack to make fighter pilots better. And judging by all the FMV in this game, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. Yes, because this game has quite a bit of FMV, but at least I didn't get super far in the game, but for me it's like it wasn't anything

[00:33:40] that memorable. No, it wasn't like, like. Yeah. And it's interesting, too, because like, gameplay wise, it's like, fine. But it's so average in like every way. Yeah, I know. Like, for some reason, I was playing this game. It made me think of your play the independence game. The Independence Day game. Yeah know, that gives such a big evolution that it almost feels unfair. You know a series that kind of I get reminded of too? There's a Colony Wars, if anyone remembers Colony Wars on a PS1. I've heard of that name. That name is familiar. It was basically a Star Fox-ish kind of game

[00:36:23] that

[00:36:24] Psygnosis made.

[00:36:26] Good old Psygnosis.

[00:37:25] Yeah, honestly depends on who you ask because I mean a lot of people would prefer Spyro. Mario 64 is a great game, but it is also like the most basic platformer ever.

[00:37:30] And I just like it gets so much hype that I'm just like I just don't care.

[00:37:35] To me like Sony's closest thing to to Mario 64 is Jagged Taxter.

[00:37:42] Okay.

[00:37:43] Like the original like the precursor legacy is called that somehow I remember that. hard to avoid their lasers. You occasionally crash into pyramids and shit. And then there's refill stations, which are nice. But then if you have this very specific track you have to follow. And if you even veer a little bit outside of it, they just start damaging your ship for no reason. Yeah, you know like with the controls, one thing I really noticed playing this was, the

[00:39:05] controls are for the most part fine, but they are a little slippery at times. But it felt like there wasn't enough emphasis put on the game actually being anything good. You know what I mean? But I wouldn't say the game is bad. No, it's so... average. That's kind of like... Like, kind of painfully average. Like, it feels like EA was experimenting with how to make 3D graphics, because I think at the time this was one of their earliest 3D games retain their charm, but I think those are ones that have more significant art styles. You know? Like to me, even comparing this to Road Rash, it's like... You can tell EA had figured some stuff out. Well even then, Road Rash doesn't have a lot of 3D models. It's more just a lot of really good 2D sprite work, but done on a 3D plane.

[00:41:43] I think the road is 3D, I think.

[00:41:45] The road and the buildings are 3D console. I mean, technically the Jaguar came first, but the Jaguar, the Jaguar's hardware was such a clusterfuck that like it was never gonna be the meat reader. It was never gonna reach its full potential. Yeah, and I mean, I don't know how the, I know it has a really big like fan game scene,

[00:43:02] like people make games for it.

[00:43:04] And I don't know if these people have actually figured it

[00:43:06] out and are able to make games that utilize tried to ask them like, oh, we need manuals to figure out how this works, and Atari never made any. Yeah. So they were kind of just left on their own to figure it out. That's one of the main reasons why most Jaguar games don't have music is because the Jerry chip was the sound chip, but a lot of developers used the Jerry chip for other things and they

[00:44:20] couldn't put music in because they were using the sound chip to do basic processing, which

[00:44:25] was supposed to be done strategic and not just mash

[00:45:42] the laser button the whole time because I'm about five through five of them before I just was like, I'm bored. I don't want to play this anymore. I think I did too. I've been playing so many games, then I'm Where as Shockwave, I think it just, it didn't, like if it's going for the Star Fox formula, it doesn't realize why that worked so well. You know, it's trying to be technically more impressive, and it is, than the Super Nintendo version, but better graphics don't make a better game. Yeah, and speaking of graphics, I guess this

[00:48:20] is the best time to get into graphics and sound. Graphically I will say there was some decent variety to the levels. Sure. For 94. I feel like that second level where they have the mountains, you know, I was like oh look at that, you know, they're messing with the levels a little bit.

[00:50:42] I think they were so used to things running at 60, no problem, you know?

[00:50:44] I mean, frame rates weren't even really,

[00:50:46] didn't become a thing to what, like the PS2, 360,

[00:50:51] that sort of time frame?

[00:50:53] At least for people being obsessed about them, yeah.

[00:50:55] Yeah, yeah, like the obsession, I think,

[00:50:57] is kind of weird at times.

[00:50:59] But back then, like, almost every NES

[00:51:03] and Super Nintendo game runs at 60.

[00:51:05] I mean, there are exceptions that's what sucks. Yeah. I did want to go into reception a little bit because it was actually a little interesting to me. The game for the most part, the 3do version anyways got like 7.75 out of 10 from EGM. Sure. Which I guess for the time, but they then also gave the Saturn version a 4.3.

[00:52:23] So well, the Saturn version came out two years later.

[00:52:27] Yeah. shot and I was like huh that's interesting. Yeah like I went to the Internet Archive and somebody has the first 3DO magazine issue. Like it's just there and you can just like flip through it and it'll be curious. They're like it's like news and you know an advertisement

[00:53:40] for Virtuoso. That's all we got to cover at sensitive, which to be fair, I do see. But they praise the graphics,

[00:55:00] which I guess for the time, understandable.

[00:55:03] Sure.

[00:55:05] And then some people like the middle where it's like it's not crazy bad shit, but it's not like genuinely good either. You know? No, it was operation jumpgate which was released in 95 yes and I God though it's I think it's two discs oh yeah that'll be interesting to look at so my guess is probably more FMV most likely I mean that's why Wing Commander is multi discs yeah or a psychic detective I say to find that one yeah I'm begging you to play that one I'm going to I just uh oh

[00:59:02] yeah I might have to emulate it but uh yes so now going on to must play okay Yeah, but it doesn't have any of that 3DO charm or anything about it. Yeah. Like this game should have been like a PC game in the mid 90s and would have the same effect, you know what I mean? Even the shittiest 3DO games we've played so far, like P.O.D. P.O.D. at least had a charm to it despite being a very...

[01:00:21] Well P.O.D. has something to talk about.

[01:00:23] Yeah.

[01:00:24] You know?

[01:00:25] Like Shockwave is one of those anti-podcast games.

[01:00:27] Yeah. and say it's a fine time a double fine time could you imagine like dre and tim shafer doing pakka that'd be cool that'd be interesting does dre like tim shafer's games i'm just curious we'll find out we'll we'll probably find it if dre listens dre tell us do you do you like tim shafer do you like the double fine stuff because i know you're a bit of scrape that thing clean. I will get all the achievements, I will do everything, I will 100% it because this is for science. To quote Jeff Gertzmann, because I've just been watching him a lot, this is for science. So I will be doing a scientific investigation into Plumbers

[01:03:00] Don't Wear Ties, the definitive edition. And hopefully I can come back with something interesting.

[01:03:04] Hopefully. is episode 28 next week we'll do like we'll do something next week and then um that'll be episode 30 so sure it's even um do you want to do like another developer showcase maybe crystal dynamics yeah let's talk about crystal yes without crystal dynamics 3do is just an expensive toy