3DO vs Jaguar vs 32X - Which is Best? Or Worst?

Episode 386 - Remember the 32-bit generation of gaming? Well how about the sub-generation just before that? This episode pits the three most appealing platforms of that sub-generation against each other. Sorry CD-i and Amiga CD-32, you didn't make the cut with these amazing consoles.
0:00 - Intro, rules, and console overviews
2:28 - Original Pack-in Games
4:57 - Platformers
10:05 - Fighting Games
18:25 - Shooters
25:26 - First Person Shooters
31:21 - Racing Games
38:22 - Miscellaneous
49:37 - End Sketch
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#3DO #atarijaguar #32X

[@GameSack]

Which platform do YOU think wins? Why?

[@vegaspaul9428]

Yeah I think you nailed it. Still have my 3do and 32x, never knew anyone who had or decided to buy the jaguar. 3do really was ahead of it’s time and I myself being a plumber who doesn’t wear a tie would know. Thanks for the great vids as always.

[@vidsofyermom]

@@vegaspaul9428 Hello Kitty Dreamcast.

[@malcolmar]

Another great episode. Thank you. I too think the 3DO was pretty impressive for its time and I also feel the Jaguar just did not live up to its potential. With all that said, I'll take the 32X. It is the only one I had back in the day and I still own one now. It is one of the reasons why I became a retro gamer. The backwards compatibility with Genesis games was a big plus and I feel a lot of its games have aged well and are fun to play today. There were so many 32-bit Sega arcade games that would have been perfect for the 32X but sadly we never saw that happen. If any indie developers made system pushing 32X physical releases I know I would be on board with that especially seeing all the great modern Sega Genesis releases. Doom Resurrection was incredible for the 32X and very cool to play on real hardware.

[@froedlmetallmann4643]

Well, considering the games, all three basically were overpriced crap. Each one has some play-worthy game(s), yet none would justify the price. The 32X led to the tower of doom, needing lots of cabling, as well as not providing power daisy chaining.

[@Fr0stM00n]

Having all those systems, I have to say I played the 3DO the most because of NFS however because of how crazy it looked, the 32X is still my favorite of those three! Too bad you didn’t include the CDi as well as the Nuon! (I still own all those systems but sadly they are all collecting dust!) thanks for another great episode! BTW, is there a Game Sack Discord group?

[@awesomeferret]

Your apparently intentional lack of comment on "where did you learn to fly" is respectable.

[@GregsGameRoom]

I was grateful for that too.

[@jeffb.6642]

ngl I didn't know she ever said anything else besides that one phrase lmao

[@thefunkdroid2777]

I played Cybermorph a lot a few years ago and to be fair you don't even hear that so much ( unless you're completely unable to understand how a controller works).

[@project_boredom2940]

I found an Atari Jaguar for $20 at my local game store. It came with no cords or anything but after giving it a good clean and the right accessories it is now working!!!

[@jessragan6714]

Then after you played some games, you hoped you held onto the receipt.

[@project_boredom2940]

@@jessragan6714 Ngl, I kinda like the system. Sure it came out at the wrong time but I think if it had better development and timing it could’ve been a classic.

[@tempestfennac9687]

@@project_boredom2940 I heard programming for it was really difficult, which is apparently why Doom and Cybermorph lacked music in levels. Which games do you own for it?

[@project_boredom2940]

@@tempestfennac9687 I have Cybermorph, Tempest 2000, and soon I’ll be getting Zool 2. Not sure how many games I’ll get for the system. Probably just a couple more like AVP and Doom when I can find them for a good price.

[@andrecondesso8057]

​@@tempestfennac9687 Figth for life.

[@tubey84]

"Since you're a hummingbird, you have lots of different weapons at your disposal." Amazing sentence right there.

[@DreamMarko]

"Since you're a hummingbird you have lots of weapons" is such an unexpected and great sentence to say :D

[@shigshug8581]

It's always a good day when Game Sack uploads.

[@dustmighte]

Unfortunately, that's usually a sunday (to the east of America any way)

[@cthulhupthagn5771]

Bot

[@shigshug8581]

@@cthulhupthagn5771 no u

[@rossvegas7]

Sunday

[@ThoughTMusic]

Absolutely true

[@wraithcadmus]

This was a fascinating era, the gap between the 16-bit classics and the ascendance of the PS1. No-one knew what would work and what wouldn't, so they just went for it.

[@ShanetheFreestyler]

It just occurred to me the fact that the 32X version of Virtua Fighter had a 16:9 mode while the arcade original didn't, and the 32X version of Virtua Racing did _not_ have a 16:9 mode while the arcade original _did!_ You'd think the opposite would be the case.

[@rebeccasam3434]

That is super weird! I was really shocked that any 32X game had a 16 x 9 mode. I mean it took basically 15 years after it came out that most people would have access to a screen that uses that!

[@ShanetheFreestyler]

@@rebeccasam3434 Widescreen TVs in the 90's were basically unicorns. There was almost nothing that justified owning one unless you were a Laserdisc enthusiast. And even still you were more likely to find a widescreen TV in Japan, (where the format was much more popular), than the rest of the world! Of course Japan would have to have cooler technology sooner than the rest of us.

[@rebeccasam3434]

@@ShanetheFreestyler that’s interesting to know they more existed in Japan! It seems like the earliest I saw anything was maybe a few years prior to 2008 and prior to us all switching to LCD and plasma TVs. I know I was physically unable to lift at 32 inchCRT at all, and then I’m kind of shocked when I’m handling a 50 inch LCD 15 years later lol It’s cool that that game had that on the 32X even if it would’ve been practically unused. It looks pretty damn good and it’s a good game! Virtual fighter 2 on Saturn probably blows it away but still

[@ShanetheFreestyler]

@@rebeccasam3434 Well, obviously VF2 looked better. I don't know off the top of my head if it had a widescreen mode though, but considering it was a next gen game, both on console and in the arcade, (VF1 was on Model 1, VF2 was on Model 2 A-CRX), that's a given. And in both cases, the conversions of VF1 and 2 looked pretty close to the arcade originals, just with a lower screen resolution and fewer polygons. (Technically no polygons on Saturn because it just used sprites with 3D transformations, but now we're splitting hairs.)

[@marafolse8347]

Well with Virtua Fighter all 16:9 has to do is render out the edges of the floor. With Virtua Racing they'd have to render more polygons. I imagine it was added to the first because it was fairly trivial

I had or have all 3 consoles. 3do was MASSIVELY impressive for its time, frequently leaving my jaw on the floor. That said, the Jag is tremendously misunderstood and underated. For a console with such a tiny library, it does have incredible gems, like Alien vs Predator, Skyhammer, Missile Command, Rayman, Wolfstein, Raiden, Battlesphere... Some of them are the best versions of the game, considering all ports available on all platforms. The Jag was awesome, people who do not own the system would never guess how good it actually is.

[@f1reb4ll77]

Skyhammer and Battlesphere are unreleased prototypes, they were licensed for sale to collectors only in 00s, but they are out of direct game comparison with other systems.

[@whiskeysk]

@@f1reb4ll77 battlesphere was fully finished and actually had several different editions, with Gold being the pure unobtainium. Are you sure you're not confusing that with something different?

[@f1reb4ll77]

@@whiskeysk Fully finished doesn't mean released, its final build was published in 2000 for collectors, but it wasn't available as a real game in stores during the console's actual life cycle.

[@SigSantilio]

The Jaguar doesn't win on paper, 3DO does. Jaguar lacks texture mapping support which is very CPU-intensive if you don't have hardware support for it (same for 32X). Jaguar and 3DO are very different and perform better in specific scenarios for each one.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Jaguar specs are typical Tramiel soap on a rope nonsense, don't relate to actual game performance

[@ToTaLShaFF]

Wow the first time you ever seen the 3do win an overall competition! Im happy to see the 3do get some love

[@Marc_Araujo]

It's way better than the Jaguar. Going by the amount of decent games on the 3DO, it shouldn't have been as close...Joe didn't even cover the Alone in the Dark games, the Wing Commander games, or Myst.

[@condog209]

it was set up that way

[@worsethanhitlerpt.2539]

Crash and Burn looks badass and the spooky 1st-person games look cool I always thought the 3Do was total crap

[@Retro_Royal]

I feel 3DO deserved the win in Pack-in Titles and 1v1 Fighters, but that is what makes us individuals :)

[@LeakyBuffer]

Absolutely he totally threw out his dog shit opinion picking the jag on the 1st one

[@janwilt6974]

I bought the Jaguar when it first came out. I have pretty much all the games. I have been an Atari fan since Atari first came out. I am a baby boomer at 72 years old. I have seen it all. I really like my Jaguar and there are a lot games that you did not mention. Although the Jag coming in second shows you were fair and honest. There were more games to choose from on the other 2 systems which gave them a higher chance of winning which shows me the Jag did great. Atari announced that they’re going to bring out new games for the Jag and home brews are coming out! They are now porting Atari ST games to the Jag. Thanks for doing a great job and giving the Jag some love.

[@Superdimensional]

Ironically I owned SSFII turbo on 3DO and never realized it was lacking the parallax until decades later when KZbinrs mentioned it lol. I thought it was 1/1 perfect

[@netowork3d]

Bug...

[@ericl7519]

I'm an Afterburner and Mortal Kombat junkie so I just HAD to have the 32x.Great presentation as usual!

[@rebeccasam3434]

I’m really impressed by how good those look. At the time I really didn’t care because I moved way past being impressed by that, and ironically I’m more impressed by the graphics today that I was 30 years ago! It doesn’t look as good as the Saturn versions, but it still looks silky smooth to me and pretty damn impressive

[@turbinegraphics16]

I believe the Jag development kit allowed using jpg files that are then uncompressed by the hardware into ram as the games were about 2 Mb which is smaller than a lot of 16 bit games and some 8 bit ones.

[@talideon]

Star Control II is so good! It's essentially an RPG with 2D space combat and resource gathering minigames. The story has a lot in common with Mass Effect 3 up until the point you run into Marauder Shields as it centres around gaining allies.

[@TonyToon]

I wish I’d played SC2 back in the day - it’s like the Star Trek RPG (minus the stuffiness) we all deserved.

[@rebeccasam3434]

Yeah, star control 2 is amazing, at least the 3D0 version. For me, the only N64 game that sells me on the system all the way is Zelda, but that’s neutralized by star control 2, and ignoring those two I think three has a stronger Library. I’m not sure in the United States but in Japan it has a larger Library than n64 also.

[@StRoRo]

For me having a quick 10min blast of Afterburner Complete is worth the ownership of the 32x alone.

[@alexq2930]

The amount of work that Joe puts into these videos is tremendous. Great great work. GameSack fan forever

[@YanestraAgain]

He is such a genius.

[@user-pl4nx2bt5u]

what happened to the other guy?

[@Mortalfarmer]

How much can I get paid to leave postitve comments?

[@alexq2930]

@@Mortalfarmer Nothing

[@konradfun]

For that Spacehulk game you're supposed to use the tactical menu to coordinate your squad. It's a strategy game that also happens to allow you to go into first person and shoot things. You're not supposed to play it like Doom or Wolfenstein.

[@archive3do769]

People try the same thing with way of the warrior. As if they can spam the controller like they do in other fighting games. Then they get mad when the game refuses their spammy inputs and it "sucks and feels bad!"

[@NinjaRunningWild]

Yeah, it's obviously based off the board game which is turn-based strategy (& hard).

[@GameSack]

@@archive3do769 LOL someone actually defending Way of the Warrior?

[@GameSack]

@@NinjaRunningWild Yeah I mean obviously. How could I miss something so obvious?

[@archive3do769]

@@GameSack I learned how to play it. Beat the tournament mode twice recently when revisiting it. Took me like 15 minutes tops focusing on how to play it, and I'm diagnosed ADD. Surely you can manage to match the same.

[@blaat44]

Iron Soldier for the Jaguar was my favorite game on the system by far. I couldn't remember the name of the game for years though so thank you for covering it!

[@Blas4ublasphemy]

I believe that game was also released on the Apple Pippin and Nuon. I wonder what a CIB of one of those is worth now?

[@Athesies]

Ive always been interested in these consoles, theyre like a mid point between the 16 bit era and the true 32 bit consoles. Im keen to see how you compare them

[@rebeccasam3434]

3DO definitely is part of the same generation as Saturn, PSX, and n64. I’m not 1000% sure where I would peg the other two, though they probably count. I might stick Sega CD with them also. But at a minimum 3DO definitely is part of the same generation and looks a lot like a Saturn or a PSX

[@Athesies]

@rebeccasam3434 eh to each their own but the best looking 3do games like road rash and need for speed kind just look mediocre on the ps1 to me. 3do didn't run those technically decent games super well, I struggle to imagine it running something as comparably impressive and smooth as say spyro or sega rally, though I could be wrong

[@rebeccasam3434]

@@Athesies my take has always been that it’s less powerful than those two, though I’ve heard some ports from 3DO look and run worse on PSX but I’ve never played anything I played on 3DO on PSX. Plus I don’t know how things would’ve been had it had the same level of development later on that the other two systems were getting. I know it’s GPU isn’t completely worse than PSX, but I would assume overall it’s the weakest of the three just based on when it launched if nothing else

[@sargonsblackgrandfather2072]

3DO came out years before the other 32bit consoles so it was compared against the 16bits at the time.

[@rebeccasam3434]

@@sargonsblackgrandfather2072 well, it came out one year earlier, but it’s most comparable to Saturn and PSX.

[@mii9010]

Don't forget the 3DO also had games like Policenaughts, D the Kenji Eno game and Dr Hauzer (an adventure game that's a hybrid of Alone in the Dark and RE) Honestly there's actually quite a decent amount of cool looking JP exclusives on the 3DO and since it had a niche enough following people were willing to experiment. Konami was even planning to make Metal Gear 3 on it

[@NinjaRunningWild]

And Escape From Monster Manor.

[@stoves5877]

also didn't the 3DO have it's very own Wing Commander?

[@Marc_Araujo]

I still wish that Policenaughts got a Western release on the 3DO.

[@genstarmkg5321]

@@stoves5877 I don't think, though it got WC3 and a remake of the first one (now called Super Wing Commander)

[@stoves5877]

@@genstarmkg5321 Super Wing Commander that's the one i'm thinking of. Yeah while not a "new" game it was new enough with new animations, sprites, and voice lines. It felt like a new game. Still suprised it wasnt on this list.

[@f4rducky418]

3DO was an awesome machine. Just didn’t sell enough for developers to carry on with it!

[@xmaverickhunterkx]

Not awesome if you count the price. Crap controller too. But it was the best compared to its more similar rivals, like the Jag shown here and the CD-i.

[@unexpecteditem7919]

It wasn’t though it was awful

[@rebeccasam3434]

It actually has more games than N64, at least in Japan. I think I probably like the system better than N64 overall. I would probably have to decide if I like Star Control 2 or Zelda better. I really like what 3DO tried to do with the business model for it, but it just couldn’t work out and 30 years later still can’t work

[@rebeccasam3434]

@@xmaverickhunterkx​​⁠​⁠ 3DO is clearly part of the same generation as Saturn and PSX and n64. By the time those launched the price was fair, but also their business model meant it wasn’t subsidized in the same same way. CD-I really isn’t comparable. That thing is outperformed by literally a game boy in some ways (although if you had to I think you could design around its weaknesses and come up with fun stuff, but it’s nowhere near on par with a 3D0, and gets slaughter by SegaCD in every way other than colors on screen)

[@xmaverickhunterkx]

@@rebeccasam3434 This is not true.

[@sco77yg]

I remember seeing a bunch of Jaguars being sold for £20 in around 1995 in a store, they couldn't give them away. They go for £200 each on Ebay these days!

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

I wouldn’t touch a Jaguar even if I got 1 for 3, absolutely horrible and rubbish console, I’d rather play the 32X instead 🤣🤣🤣

[@gordonshumway7465]

@@Adamtendo_player_1 What a total tosser.

[@goldenheartOh]

I got mine for $5 to $15. 😊 Got my new in box Jag CD player for $50. Iron Soldier 1 & 2 were awesome! AvP was kinda cool but level design was didn't make a lick of sense. I mapped UT & thought "who makes a space ship like this???" It was like a random wall generator was used. I showed it a couple of girls & 1 started screaming when an alien attacked. But I will admit most games on Jag sucked. It had such untapped potential.

[@CA_I]

I remember this as well, i bought most of my Jaguar stuff from a store called Daniels, Windsor, UK. I also owned the 💿 add-on, which unfortunately I lost in a move and it's now worth alot more.

[@sco77yg]

@@CA_I The store I went into was called Makro, it was a wholesaler and sold everything , they had seemingly hundreds of the things! If only we had a time machine!!

[@Super_D36]

This type of competition episode would be perfectly suited for handhelds.

[@thegardner80]

I had a Jaguar back in the day. This is actually a pretty fair assessment. One thing, Defender Plus is the best mode in Defender 2000.

[@Jenovi]

The 32X, only the CD-i came close, it was like, 700 mega power! Insane! 🤯

[@GregsGameRoom]

This was a very fair assessment. A couple Jaguar games that might have made a difference in the final rankings: Missile Command 3D, BattleSphere, Skyhammer, & Val D’isere Skiing & Snowboarding (racing). Although some are after-life releases (but so was World Tour Racing and Iron Soldier 2,) I’d also have liked to see a Homebrew comparison. Jag is killing it in that category.

[@GameSack]

I tried Val D'isere and really wanted to like it. But I couldn't.

[@bananonymouslastname5693]

I think Power Drive Rally might've been a good consideration for racing on Jaguar. It runs very smoothly, and is the only racer with a top-down view.

[@TechRyze]

Yep - Doom Reurrection and Wolfenstein 3D have since made it to the 32X. Doom is an amazing remake on the 32X - based on the Jaguar game, but with improved music, plus the option of using the Mega CD to improve performance even more, or to use a CD soundtrack. Plus link play and split screen support as well!

[@JomasterTheSecond]

Only one of these consoles has a version of Pebble Beach Golf Links on it, so therefore the 3DO wins due to Stadler by Association.

[@chanhjohnnguyen1867]

Craig stadler is only in the Saturn version iirc

[@JomasterTheSecond]

​@@chanhjohnnguyen1867 That's why it's Stadler by Association - he doesn't appear but it's associated with him.

[@Mittens0407]

What about Golf Magazine Presents: 36 Great Holes Starring Fred Couples?

[@manmonkee]

Killing Time on the 3DO really is a lot better than you'd think. The graphics are stunning, yeah the Frame Rate is awful but at the time 3D games that ran at about 10 FPS wasn't that unusual. It has a lot of depth both in story and with the magical items you can use. I still have my 3DO just to play this game.

[@xamp_exclammark]

Laughs in perfect dark

[@KamatsuKyoto]

Maybe this is the first time ever that Cybermorph wins something (in a positive manner)

[@GuestZer0]

You want the absolute best of the absolute worst? You've come to the right place!

[@sharoyveduchi]

I'd rather buy a 3DO or Atari Jaguar than a PS5. At least they have exclusives to speak of.

[@Slabbin_Cabin]

​@@sharoyveduchiBrilliant narrative. Buy a dog shit console as long as it has dog shit exclusives!

[@michaelwalsh3474]

This is a great video. I'd love to see more like it in the future if at all possible. PlayStation vs N64 vs Saturn. Or Dreamcast vs PlayStation 2 vs GameCube vs Xbox (I think that's when gaming peaked). Thank you for all your hard work, Joe. 😊

[@Bob-lw5gs]

They already did ps vs saturn

[@GameSack]

Thanks! PS2 vs GC vs Xbox is one I'd definitely like to do. The game selection for the video would be TOUGH!

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

I was thinking the same thing and we all know that the PlayStation would win hands down but that depends on if Joe decides to use the same rules as he did with the 32X, Jaguar and 3DO which would make sense.

[@ramadjones]

While I'm an Xbox fan, Playstation 2 would absolutely destroy the other consoles in comparison. The PS2 library is ridiculous. The DC, GC and Xbox have some solid standout titles, but... yeah.

[@goldenheartOh]

​@@ramadjonesI was big on graphics back then, so Xbox was my choice. PSX controller felt awkward for me too.

[@Chris.in.taiwan]

Joe, would it have helped if the 32x had an excellent outrun port?

[@mightydegu]

This was probably the biggest missed opportunity with the 32X, along with the lack of a true Sonic game. Space Harrier and Afterburner are amazing on the 32X, so games like OutRun and Galaxy Force should have been priorities for Sega.

[@Chris.in.taiwan]

@@mightydegu Sega is missed potential in a nutshell

[@freddiejohnson6137]

Nothing would have helped the 32X because Sega of Japan didn't want to even make games for it as they wanted to concentrate on the Saturn and an arcade port from years before wasn't exactly going to get people noticing it

[@chamchamtrigger]

I got a 32X for 25 bucks back in 97. Space Harrier, Virtua Racing Deluxe, and Tempo were enough to make it a worthwhile purchase. To be honest, I would have been happy even if I had only found Space Harrier. I was never able to find After Burner, unfortunately.

[@TheKillogicEffect]

I recall getting the 32X with Doom and asking myself "This is better?" then I pulled it out of my Sega and played Sonic and Knuckles ...lol.. Great video sir and thank you for all the awesome work you do!!!!

[@corey2232]

I'm only 20 mins into the video, but there's a really fun shooter on 3DO called Captain Quazar that deserves a mention. Phoenix 3 was also fun to play, though I'm not sure how good it is in 2023 (I haven't played it in like 15 years). Edit: For the "Miscellaneous" category, FIFA is often considered the best 3DO sports game. Also, Foes of Ali was actually a good boxing game for anyone interested. 3DO also had good ports of Wing Commander & Syndicate.

[@rivalgx3210]

I like how you snuck in one "Where did you learn to fly"... just for us ;)

[@nicksofps7941]

This was a fantastic episode. I had the Jag on pre-order back in the day with AvP and Cybermorph so I found myself weirdly routing for the Jaguar to get the nod here, it put up a decent effort at least lol.

[@johnpenguinthe3rd13]

I actually own all three of these. I paid really cheap for all of them (32X was BRAND NEW on clearance for $20 at Kmart during 1997, Jaguar was $100 and came with 12 games on ebay, and 3DO was $100 and came with 6 games). In my humble opinion, my PERSONAL ranking is: 1) 3DO (the best since it had the best Super Street Fighter 2 at the time, Luciene's Quest which is a fun RPG, the 3DO version of Madden was cool, Killing Time is an awesome FPS, etc). In 2nd place: 32X. I enjoyed 32X due to Kolibri (LOVE that game) Metalhead (very underrated) Knuckles Chaotix (I really enjoyed this) Motocross championship (I'm aware 90% of people hate this game, but I liked it, it also helps that I really like Motocross, and it was a BILLION times better than what the Jaguar had to offer in that category) and I even had fun with the 32X CD version of Night Trap. and in 3rd place: the Atari Jaguar. Unlike the 3DO and 32X, where I had some FUN experiences, the Jaguar is a HUGE mix bag. Supercross 3D on the Jaguar is the WORST game I have ever played (it's literally FIVE frames per second on the actual Jaguar hardware. Seriously, FIVE FRAMES PER SECOND (well, about 10 frames max when moving slower and falling off the bike, and this is a game where you WILL fall off your bike). It's bad enough that the damn 32X's Motocross championship greatly outperforms this alleged 64-bit game in it's genre, but Supercross 3D on Jaguar was in DIRECT competition with the greatly superior Ridge Racer on Playstation 1 and Daytona USA on Sega Saturn during Holiday season of 1995. I hate Supercross 3D. I also HATE, HATE, HATE Bubsy: Fractured Furry Tales (an abysmal Jaguar exclusive) and I despise Kasumi Ninja (I hate that game). With that said... I LOVED Ultra Vortek (yeah, it's a Mortal Kombat rip off, but it's FUN) Atari Karts (yeah, it's a Mario Kart rip off, but it's FUN) and Fight for Life (yeah, 90% of people HATE this game, but I got really good at playing this game, and it's a billion times more fun to play than crappy Kasumi Ninja). Anyway, those are my personal rankings.

[@edy1361]

I agree on your order of the consoles. I had a Jag on launch in Europe. I really tried to like it, i was 14 and got it as a joint Birthday and Christmas present cos it was too much just for a Christmas present alone, £250 if i'm not mistaken. I distinctly remember first unboxing and lifting the console up, immediately saw the missing cartridge flap and wasn't sure if that was how it was meant to be, that along with the cheap plastic feel and very little weight to it instantly got me thinking, oh no this feels like a cheap tacky piece of crap. My Megadrive 1 sitting nearby with top quality build, and beautiful design, a sleek bit of Japanese 80's tech, still today looks amazing imo. The only games i had love for on the Jag was Doom and |Tempest 2000. Alien vs Predator was a huge disappointment, clunky as hell with level design as simplistc as Wolfenstein. I just went back to Doom after a while. I went back to playing my Megadrive and brothers Snes, waay better machines where the games don't feel lie shoved together tech demo's. Oh and the 'power' of the Jag, terrible all round. Do the math? Swivel, Atari.

[@yy-hj4br]

You really lucked out with those prices! I don't know if I'd trade down my childhood PS1 for the three of those, but I'm glad you had your fun with them. By any chance did you try the 32x/SegaCD combo games?

[@Marble_Candy]

The way you explain these games sometimes will always be my favorite thing on KZbin. "You try to shoot down the other racers because this is the future" LOL GAMESACK FOREVER!

[@TheJacklikesvideos]

"being a hummingbird, you have a whole arsenal of weapons at your disposal"

[@mattlockhart7423]

I had a 3DO and 32X while my buddy had a Jaguar. All three systems had their perks.

[@popixel]

"Since you're a humming bird, you have a lot of weapons at your disposal." 😂😂😂

[@charlesanthony6368]

I loved the sound test in knuckles chaotix

[@theharvardyard2356]

My main takeaways from this video: The sound effects are hard panned left or right like an Amiga game.

[@ALM1GHTY.PEANUT]

I was hoping the cyber morph would end with " where did you learn to fly?" And you did not disappoint

[@cajampa]

I agree with the 3DO as the winner. I had an crazy amount of fun with Return Fire multiplayer, Road Rash, Need For Speed back then. One game you missed on the 3DO in the shooter category was Wing commander 3.

[@CasperEgas]

Ha cool, I have a full set for all three systems. I would say the 3DO is the best if you consider the entire library.

[@616Entertainment]

Well, there's a new Game Sack. It's go time!

[@TWONSSHOW]

I'm surprised you didn't mention Power drive rally on the Jaguar. Easily my favorite racing game on the console.

[@cogitoergodumm]

I've never played any of these consoles, so it's interesting to see such a side by side comparison. Really well done video!

[@CommodoreFan64]

If you know where to find the Bios files for the SEGA CD, and 32X(make sure you find all 3), and you still have a DVD drive in your PC to burn SEGA CD games to a CD-R, then it's very easy to emulate using KEGA Fusion, and has been so since the early 00's, so yeah give it a go, you won't regret it, and I highly recommend Virtua Fighter with a friend, and a few beers. Also while Knuckles Chaotix is a game I don't really care for the music is fantastic, and their sound test in the game is still the best way to listen too it by far with the build in visualiser.

[@nikospolitis5635]

As a 3do owner I would say that the 3do was absolutely the best 🙂 .It was an amazing console.

[@Lord_of_the_Pies]

Mine was stolen, wish I still had it. :(

[@GooseGumlizzard]

ooh little rich boy

[@turrican3839]

There were a handful of more shooters avaliable on the Jaguar such as Skyhammer, I-War and Battlesphere

[@ControlAllDa1337]

Same for the 3DO, PO'ed most notably

[@jonnyelpoiss7]

They also forgot star wars arcade for the 32x

[@turrican3839]

@@jonnyelpoiss7 They didn't lol

[@jonnyelpoiss7]

@@turrican3839 sorry, I meant in the shooter section. 😅

[@palebeachbum]

Every time one of your new videos pops up in my feed and I see 3DO mentioned in the title, I'm all over it. 3DO was by far my favorite console. Having played on a 286 MHz PC for several years, the 3DO seemed so amazing at the time. Even though the gameplay itself wasn't anything too spectacular, they felt immersive to my 12-year-old brain due to the CD-quality audio and faster frame rates than what I was accustomed to on the PC. I finally had to give it up around 2005. My 3DO died. I couldn't find anyone to fix it. I bought a used one off eBay and it lasted a few months before it started having issues. I sold it along with ALL of my games. It was hard to do and made me pretty depressed. I have lots of great memories playing The Need for Speed, Road Rash, Return Fire, Crash and Burn, The Life Stage, Alone in the Dark, and many others.

[@Unquestionable]

Very cool comparison video and perfect way to end my weekend. Was at a local gaming convention and TIm Kitzrow, the announcer from NBA Jam/NFL Blitz/and tons of pinball titles, was a guest and told some interesting stories about working in the industry during that era along with just being a great guy in general. Actually had a signed copy of the 32X version of NBA Jam available for sale along with versions for pretty much every console it was released on (picked up the PS3 remake myself as I was super curious and heard good things like a decade ago).

[@Mythos_Musik]

I know the system had it's problems but got dang, Tempest 2000 was so much fun and that soundtrack was radical.

[@M1XART]

You did a great job covering 3DO. But Jaguar had some more games worth to mention, like SkyHammer, I-War, Myst.

[@goldenheartOh]

Iron Soldier 1 & 2. They were phenomenal back then! Smooth frame rate AND crazy far draw distance! Even a lot of N64 games didn't draw the polygons that far.

[@orangejjay]

Myst was on Sega Genesis and also 3DO. And it's a pretty simple game at that.

[@bruceg22000]

Joe, I bought the 3DO for $700 too. Fortunately, I decided to return it and got my money back.

[@DavidBrown-bs7gg]

Had a 3DO, it blew me away when I bought it. Some great innovations, like a headphone jack in the comtroller, and the CD visualiser. Not to mention the original Need for Speed

[@damonappel]

The 3DO's Need For Speed still stands as one of my favorite racing games, ever. While the PS1 version had a better frame rate, it dropped the competitive notion which the (albeit corny) FMV scenes provided. It also inexplicably removed the car slowdown when you hit the berm. On 3DO, even a slight roll on the gravel could shave off that second or two you needed to pull off the race win. Which made you focus even more intently on driving fast, accurately and dangerously. Such a great game. NFS alone was worth the purchase of the system. --And an in-store kiosk demo in a Media Play store was the reason I started saving-up and trading-in to buy the 3DO, so many years ago.

[@9ner]

@@damonappel after learning more about the 3do, it's kind of like the dreamcast of that era. innovative with flashes of what was in store for 32 bit gaming while having a fun library. pretty damn cool system.

[@FlameImperishable]

3DO nostalgia is very strong for me. Many great games that I was in love with back in the day.

[@Scopie33]

Entertaining episode. Considering how often the Amiga was mentioned it was a shame the cd32 wasn’t included.

[@braselthegamer]

Really cool to be able to see an assortment of games that you don't normally get to see on other retro game channels for these consoles.

[@Holammer]

Another great episode introducing two new bugbears for Joe. Jpeg compression artifacts & Amiga style hard panning. The panning issue might have been mentioned before.

[@johnrussell8086]

32x had so much potential. Virtua fighter showed the power. Space harrier and after burner gave us great arcade ports. If we saw more super scaler games it could have been popular. Developers such as Capcom and Konami could have given us quality new titles. I'm looking through the lens 30ish years later, we all looked to more powerful hardware by that point but it is still interersting to think what could have been.

[@thehumbleone1983]

@johnrussell8086 I agree with it’s a shame as there was many games that were never released I think there was supposed to AVP the arcade game for the 32x

[@cyxceven]

Outrunners and Galaxy Force II ports would have been awesome.

[@Jon-eo1lz]

The magazines at the time had castlevania and super turbo coming to 32x.

[@johnrussell8086]

@@Jon-eo1lz I think that version of Castlevania eventually became symphony of the night. Probably too big for a cartridge but could have been a classic?

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

Outrun and Galaxy Force would have been near arcade perfect snd completely obliterate the lame MD/Genesis ports and yeah Outrun on Sega’s 16 bit machine was pants with crap renditions the original arcade soundtrack with the craptacula “exclusive” track, “Step on Beat”, the PC Engine port give it the middle finger of being a superior version that looks and sounds better than on a Sega console, embarrassing for Sega.

[@MrRetrostage]

Don't forget Wing Commander III on 3DO! There are also some gems like Quarantine (OK, it's not good 😅), Slam 'n Jam, Po'ed, Alone in The Dark 2, Incredible Machine, Star Fighter and even FIFA. It's also my pick of the 3 as you can guess.

[@f1reb4ll77]

Wing Commander III was in glorious Dolby Surround (4 channels), Jaguar and 32X couldn't compete there.

[@notgoinback2cali236]

Star Fighter was an incredible shooter. PO’ed doesn’t hold up these days but the jet pack was new and different and it was crazy fun. Many say FIFA was better than Madden. I played my 3DO so much it eventually broke.

[@EmperorMAR]

Thanks for listing the games on the website so they are easier to check out. The Jaguar had some stronger Fighters and Racers than I realized. And I confirmed that, though not quite as bad, the jpeg artifacting is still noticeable on CRTs

[@redacted2275]

I played most of the platformers mentioned here on PC back in the day and watching them being mentioned side by side made me realized that by that time, PCs were already worthy competitors against the 32-bit era of video games... Also, we still lived in the boom of shareware CD-ROMs/floppy disks days containing most of these releases, it was an affordable way to at least experience them a little without the need of buying three, four consoles...

[@SomeOrangeCat]

I can agree with this outcome. I'd also go so far as argue the 3DO port of Wolfenstein 3-D is the definitive port, because not only does it have the level set from the SNES/JAG/MAC version of the game, but also all 60 levels from the PC version. That's *90* levels!

[@DoggoneNexus]

And, mercifully, a map.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

@@DoggoneNexus Yup. The SNES port gets dumped on for censorship, but it introduced the extra weapons, ammo expansions and map that all future ports used.

[@SvennyMcG]

Really fun pairing and comparison! Neat to see more light upon these consoles 🎮

[@asscactus5459]

I’m surprised you didn’t include the amazing Sailor Moon fighter for 3do (even if it’s a Japan only release)

[@OhMyPoBoy]

I’ve been thinking about picking up a 3do lately. It has no copy protection, so i’d be able to explore its library by simply burning the games to cd. If im not mistaken, it renders 3d with quads instead of triangles!

[@Sinn0100]

Just make sure you buy the right discs. I believe Verbatim CD-Rs work with the 3DO but I can't remember for certain. I haven't burned a 3DO game in a very long time. Just research the discs first because some CDRs have a success rate at like 10%. Oh and make Road Rash one of your very first burns, you won't be sorry.

[@matthewnikitas8905]

As long as you’re ok with burning a hole in your wallet to buy games then hey go for it 😅

[@Sinn0100]

@@matthewnikitas8905 Not necessarily...it really depends on what he wants. I mean 3DO is high but not Neo Geo AES high. Plus he can burn every single game and play them without issue. Doing it that way and he's spending what...a few dollars per game? I don't know as I haven't purchased a spindle of CDRs in a long time.

[@jessragan6714]

@@Sinn0100 You know what really sucks? Burning games for an Amiga CD32. Good luck getting ANY discs to run on that mofo! (I probably need an ODE or somethin'.)

[@Sinn0100]

@@jessragan6714 I have not tried that at all. I have never seen an Amiga 32 in real life. Hell, I saw an Amiga 500 once at a friend's house. I thought it was pretty neat.

[@wettuga2762]

The battle of the consoles I never played... and the winner is: the one I never played! Good episode as always!

[@thomasboehnlein5205]

Such a brilliant idea for a video. And so much fun to watch. Excellent job.

[@rushnerd]

Wrestlemania on the 32X is actually the best wrestling game you are ever likely to play. No one bothered ever trying to do something like that again.

[@GameSack]

Yeah it's actually playable!

[@matthewpordes3224]

Amazing video! Was shocked to see the Jaguar do so well (more familiar with the others). Grateful to be introduced to something new 🤔

[@ilikecurry2345]

So really, it was the Do The Math campaign that ruined the Jaguar, as well as the faulty Jaguar CD add-on.

[@goldenheartOh]

​@@ilikecurry2345nah. It was the crap quality control. It was about dead before the CD player even came out.

[@ilikecurry2345]

@@goldenheartOh Ah.

[@videogameobsession]

Hey Joe, will you consider doing an episode covering every Doom port? That might be a 12 hour episode.. Sorry, bad idea.

[@DarkReturns1]

John from Digital Foundry did an excellent video on that subject! I think it was an hour or two long haha

[@Locomamonk]

too overdone nowadays... I think AVGN did one

[@bizarrosparks]

Stop skeletons from fighting has a great doom comparison video.

[@francescosmith7859]

He doesn't cover every port but there's a much older episode where he goes through the 32X (which ends up being his favorite), the Saturn, Jaguar, PS and N64 versions. I'm pretty sure the episode was titled "Giving Games a Second Chance." He also has a newer episode about a month ago where he brings up Doom again and he likes the newer games. That one was "Franchises that got a second chance."

[@videogameobsession]

Yes_, the DF Retro on it was good, as was the SSFF, but they didn't cover manynof the more obscure Doom ports in depth. I'm more fascinated with playing Doom on my Kodak DC-260 digital camera from 1998 than on any if my consoles. It would of course require either borrowing many of these "appliances" to play Doom on, or to get help from the community for footage and info.

[@ScrapKing73]

I have two of these, the Jaguar and the 32X. If I had to let go of one, I’d easily keep the Jag. I have a Sega Nomad for Genesis games, and Jag software is more interesting to me than 32X-specific software. There’s also a pretty vibrant homebrew community for the Jaguar, including new commercial software. I bought “Defender of the Crown” for the Jag recently. :-)

[@jbmaru]

The Jaguar features the most technologically advanced 16-bit games

[@Borh7777]

It's funny now but back in 1994, it was a real question, with the Amiga CD32

[@officialFredDurstfanclub]

I hope for your sake you didn’t buy the Amiga 32

[@Borh7777]

@@officialFredDurstfanclub ah ah, no. I had a friend with an Amiga and did not like it, so I bought a 3DO. It was the least bad choice I guess ?

[@f1reb4ll77]

CD32 library was quite comparable to the Western Sega CD titles.

[@PsychomachineryEBM]

32X is so underrated. It had high potential but it wasn't used it right.

[@maxxdahl6062]

They had a bunch more planned but canned too, like a 32x CD version of virtua fighter, daytona usa, primal rage, etc.

[@gluttonousmaximus9048]

Maybe it's the setup. Likely from some flawed design of the original console that didn't plan out power and video passthru.

[@maxxdahl6062]

@@gluttonousmaximus9048 I doubt it was that as much as all of the CPU's and other co-processors they had to write for. Passthru's shouldn't matter too much.

[@CommodoreFan64]

I love the SEGA 32X, but I feel it should have been a stand alone CD console with at least a quad speed disc drive from the very start, and the Saturn not even existed with how poorly SEGA handled it, and I feel it would have been a better bridge till the SEGA Dreamcast came out.

[@maxxdahl6062]

@@CommodoreFan64 Nah the 32x itself was a bad idea that even sega of america didn't want, but sega of japan was forcing a stop-gap system on them thinking westerners weren't ready for a jump to full 32 bits for some reason. Sega of america tried to lessen some of the damage and production costs by making it an add on.

[@fiskburk2908]

Joe I love the quality of sound in the bgm, thanks for your effort!!

[@Khabaal87]

Honestly Joe your video is way more entertaining than any of the mentioned consoles. And it could keep my attention for over 50 minutes, which neither of these plattforms would be able to do... ^^

[@matthewnikitas8905]

It’s kind of crazy to think about how many 3DO games were ported to the PlayStation. Johnny Bazookatone, Gex, Crash and Burn as you mentioned in the video. It really was the true precursor to the console

[@GameSack]

Crash 'n Burn never came to the PlayStation, but Road Rash did!

[@matthewnikitas8905]

@@GameSackAhh ok

[@WeskerSega]

@@matthewnikitas8905 Many of those 3DO games were also ported to the Sega Saturn and PC.

[@archive3do769]

Almost all the crystal dynamics games were ported, just not crash n burn. Ea games, same thing except immercenary

[@Jajuka81]

I generally agree with the final score of the consoles. I bought the 3DO brand new for $400, and I still have it (and it's still hooked up and still works). However, I think it's worth mentioning that you basically covered the only games worth playing on the Jaguar and the 32X, while the 3DO had a much bigger library than the other 2, and there were some great games you left out. Alone in the Dark is considered the grandfather of the survival horror games, like Resident Evil. There were other great shooters you left out, like Wing Commander 3 (which was huge at the time), Star Fighter (3D shooter like CyberMorph), PO'ed (FPS), Sewer Shark (we all know Sewer Shark...), and other titles, like Star Wars: Rebel Assault. Also, there were good ports of FMV/light gun games, like Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, and Mad Dog McCree. The 3DO had some real stinkers, for sure... but there was a huge library of really good games, too.

[@hw5091]

I agree. Personally I think the 32x had the most potential, considering sega could've made a bunch of games for it, plus that symphony of the night that away. The Jaguar just didn't have any great ips, atari was just a dinosaur by then. Then the 3do was decent traditional console, but panasonic wasn't a developer, however it had just enough variety and releases to edge out the rest.

[@JimLeonard]

Fantastic job. Answering the questions we had since we were teenagers reading GamePro.

[@nicolasrolke3538]

Awesome episode and idea. 💯🌊

[@Agostoic]

It's always a good night when Game Sack uploads.

[@mistertitanic]

Fantastic episode all around. It's good to see some focus on these C-grade systems that we've all known about for decades but barely any of us have played. I sure learned a lot.

[@teddym2808]

Incredible video. THANK YOU JOE. Food for my retro soul.

[@Sinn0100]

You missed a game for the Jaguar that in my eyes puts it above the other two. That game is Skyhammer and it's stupidly rare. The game features a fully polygonal open world, incredible draw distance, and all at a decent frame rate. The game looks so good it could stand toe-to-toe with a mid-generation Playstation/Saturn game. Think of the game G-Police for the Playstation but with slightly better graphics.

Agree, Skyhammer is amazing. And because of that one, I still think the Jag had muscles to compete on par with the rest of the 5th gen. Skyhammer wasn't even a finished game (I'm guessing lots of code left to optimize), and it still delivered super quality graphics, music and gameplay. Imagine the Jag with more shelf time, betters devs, better budgets, larger dev teams, more optimization on the code, etc. A great console for sure.

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

lol, Jaguar is a lame console just like Atari itself being lame 🤣🤣

[@Sinn0100]

@@Adamtendo_player_1 Uh-hu...Spoken like one who knows very little about the industry or what Atari has done for it. Thank you for the useless comment.

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

@@Sinn0100 Atari were only ever great in the late 70s and early 80s, I know enough to know that other than people old enough to me my grandpa, most people know that Atari apart from some arcade classics like Gauntlet and Road Blasters, will never be up there with Capcom or Konami in the arcades or Sega for that matter because Atari’s games just weren’t all that impressive compared to those giant’s arcade games.

[@Sinn0100]

@@Adamtendo_player_1 Okay, so it's obvious to me that you are young and your information is....we'll call it American centric (that's okay with me, I'm an American). Here goes...oh and know when I found out about this I was absolutely floored. I would suggest you look up the Atari ST and Atari Falcon post haste. You see while we in the US were talking about how powerful our little 8-bit consoles were...Atari (and Amiga) were making Earth shattering waves in the UK and Europe. The Atari ST was a computer built to be the best video game machine on the market. It was a monster that not only ate the Nes/Master System's lunch but it easily went toe-to-toe with arcade games of the time. We're talking about a machine that was affordable, wildly popular, and just stupidly powerful for its time. People in Europe/UK were playing fully realized 3D polygonal based games while we thought Double Dragon for the Nes was the best. Think about that...if it wasn't for the Sega Genesis who knows how far behind we would have really been. Addendum- You do know that Nintendo basically forced Atari out of the American video game market illegally right? They forced all 3rd party licensors to sign an exclusive contract preventing them from making games for anyone else (which was illegal). The three times Atari got new games for the 7800 at the same time as the Nes...the 7800 looked/played better. Check out Commando for the 7800 vs. Nes and tell me what you think.

[@ezg2000]

Man Joe, a late night upload. I am All For It. And my winner is the 32X. 😅

[@11vag]

Thank you for putting the effort into making these videos. I know it takes time.

[@repussified]

3DO clearly had the most interesting game library of all the underachiever "next gen" consoles. It's also got a ton of weird-ass Japan-only games.

[@HappyConsoleGamer]

I hope all these system can play 120 FPS! OR I AM FUCKING IN!

[@mrbransformer4184]

That involves Megapower!!!!!

[@GameSack]

120? You're lucky to get 12 out of any of them. Hope that's OK.

[@HappyConsoleGamer]

I AM FUCKING IN! @@GameSack

[@ivan55227]

All 3 of those are garbage platforms not worth your time, yet, somehow 32X looks like it actually has better games than the rest. Unexpected when you think about it. Yes the 3DO has far more games than both Jag and 32X but vast majority of those games are trash anyway.

[@telengardforever7783]

God, I remember the 3DO display stands where EVERYWHERE in the early 1990's. The demos running on them were awesome! Real voice and music and amazing graphics. My NES at the time just couldn't compare. But my father looked at the price tag and was like "Nah." I guess back then adults weren't used to paying sky high prices for everything like we are now. I remember the 3DO price was around $800 for that machine which seems like a steal compared to the pandemic price of a PS5 around $2k.

[@marklechman2225]

I really like these comparison episodes. Will definitely be revisiting this one.

[@wompha1]

Primal Rage was released in North America for the 3DO. it was the first version of the game i ever played.