Need for speed.

Try and picture the scene. The video game playing world waits with baited breath as an unreleased Japanese uber console squares itself up against an already released American console.

The Japanese machine sports an (almost) perfect arcade racing game, the American machine flaunts a photo realistic pseudo racing simulator. Xbox 360 vs PS3 or 3DO vs PS1?

It is true to say that few, very few games indeed fire the imagination.

Games that manage to fire the imagination, tend to, long before they are actually released, guarantee themselves a place in history.

A game that fires the imagination makes you want to play them because of what they may contain.

These types of games are developed by people so in tune with their target audience, they may well be wasting their time developing a game, when it would be probably more lucrative for them to start their own religion.

These types of games are so few and far between that it is probably also true to say, you could write their names on the back of a small stamp. 'Elite' from the 8bit days I believe offered this, more recently Grand Theft Auto and Grand Turismo too.

These games sell a dream rather than selling fancy graphics or even game play.

EA Canada back in 1993 delivered just such a game.

It was November 22nd 1994 by the time we in the UK got a whiff of the Need for Speed 3DO. I remember the day clearly.

I was stood in the kitchen to the rented accommodation where I lived. I shared a house with a small group of all male game players and we had spent the day placing a stake in the ground regarding which games console we thought would do best.

I, mistakenly, was backing 3DO. Brian on the other hand was backing the Atari Jaguar and Dom, well Dom was doing what Dom did.

On that evening we all stared at the Edge review of 'Need For Speed' for the 3DO. It was the usual, "YAWN, 3DO equals yawn!", from Edge magazine but we all stared at the pictures in awe anyway.

The review harked on about something called frames-per-second and scenery and some mention of something called 'draw distance', it meant nothing to me. Did I mention? NFS on the 3DO has a Porsche 993.

So, what was EA's Need for Speed promising? In a word ,'Heaven'. Let us not forget, most people my age, at that time, wanted a Porsche, a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. Nobody and I mean absolutely nobody wanted a modified VW Golf or a Subaru Impreza with a big silly fin, especially one that was all painted gold with a blue light strapped to the underside of the chassis. No that would be silly.

Men of 20 years old, way back in 1994, were simple creatures. Women and super cars. If not one, then the other, if possible, both. To be realistic and to be fair, most of us would have walked over a woman to get at a Super Car. Especially in that house.

Need for Speed promised us Porsche's, Lambos and other Super (super!) Cars.

The dream NFS on the 3DO sold us essentially amounted to this: We could take our mighty Super cars and race it against 'other' Super cars.

That however was only half the dream. The other half of the dream allowed you to crash super cars. And then, wait for it, watch replays of the crashes from a variety of angles.

Oh Lord God above, thank you - thank you.

It is my firm belief that no feature, in any game, ever, in the history of the world, has ever been as responsible for putting quite so many bums on seats, in Churches and praising the Lord on high, as that feature found in the Need for Speed on the 3DO.

What will come as a surprise to those that were not there at the time, was that we knew, just by looking at the pictures in Edge magazine and getting the general gist of the Edge review, that the Need for Speed 3DO, would be one of the greatest driving games ever.

As I recall, minutes turned into hours, hours in to days, days into months. All spent staring at a 14" colour TV, holding a badly designed 3DO D-Pad, watching by today's standards, crude 3D representations of now dated super cars.

"So ---!" What if you play today?

Hit the accelerator. Drop it into first. Wheel spin. Accelerate up to a 120mph. Scream past the cop. Mr X vanishing into the rear view. Through the woods. Across the top of the beach. The balloons on the right. Brake. Hair pin. Apex. More acceleration. Cops. Hill. Weave traffic. Win.

Somethings are best left simply remembered.

I can say this confidently and without any doubt and the Star Control II crowd will hate me, the SFII players will bash me and the Interactive Movie lovers, well they will dribble into their hands and talk to the walls as usual but the Need for Speed is the greatest game on the 3DO.

NFS is touted as rare on eBay. NFS on the 3DO is as rare as hamster pooh, in a hamster cage, with a well fed and happy hamster in it.

You get the picture.

In summary: Damn, damn, damn, I love this game.

3DO Kid.