3DO Interactive Multiplayer

Afternoon. You alright? Me? Thanks for asking, well I'm fine.

No. You know what - No actually. I'm not. That was a lie. So - I'm not fine. Not fine at all. I have just committed a cardinal sin. Take a seat - let me explain. Somewhere, buried deep in the annals of gaming folklore is written a sacred code. A code of gaming conduct. Only of cause readable by men. That code says, quite clearly:

"Thou shalt not read the manual - thou be not a beast of the field or women of the nagging lofty mount, thou be'est a man known as gamer. And a pox be upon yea should yea read the manual"

Looks like I'm for the pox then. 'Cos, today's 3DO delight, namely The Incredible Machinem indeed had me reading the manual. The learning curve kicks-off at 10,000feet and within 2 minutes plummets to 3 inches. At first glances it all looks confusing.

To save you from the pox, I'll briefly explain what I didn't get. That's right, I didn't 'get' any of it.

O.K. - The incredible machine is a puzzle game. No blocks. No mazes. No mathematics to work out. O.K. - it's not like 99% of the other games on the market professing to be a puzzle game, no actually it's like the old MB game - MouseTrap.

For those that don't remember MouseTrap it was a board game and you moved around the board on the throw of a dice building a highly contrived contraption. It was built with pulleys, bouncing balls, bath tubs and pipes, the end goal being to catch your opponents mouse. In essence, The Incredible Machine is the same.

You are presented with a scenario, for example, burst all the balloons, and your goal is to position see-saws, balls, canons, mouse-powered-engines and a myriad of, well, stuff, in an attempt to solve the challenge. Each screen is different and you are limited in what you can do by the selection of objects available.

...and it is good. It taxes the brain and is rewarding when the machine you just created works.

It has been a while since a 3DO game has drawn me as quickly as the Incredible machine and I'd recommend anyone to play it.

Is it rare? Possibly.

3DO Kid.

I know what you are thinking. "Where the hell have you been you lazy little git?" and you know what - you're right. Just laziness. Still - What are you going to do? I'm here now - and I'm looking at The Horde.

Made by Games for Bob and published by Crystal Dynamics. Games for Bob also made Star Control II for the 3DO, something of an epic cult classic and Crystal Dynamics made some of the best games to appear on the 3DO. Samurai Shodown and Gex being the two I always remember from the Crystal stable.

So - what is The Horde? I dunno. Seriously? I dunno. It's hard to categorize. It's sort of a watered down god sim I guess, with an arcade bit. It's also a tribute to that very, very early 1990s games tradition of cramming the CD to the brim with needless badly acted full motion video clips. Usually, and of cause The Horde is no different, starring third rate actors who were sold on the idea of the future of interactive entertainment. Which of cause the 3DO was, that was until it wasn't. Circa 1996.

None the less, and cynicism aside, this game is pretty fun. You play the role of a gangly legged medieval chap called Chauncey, whose aim is to convert various regions of the Hordes world into delightful homesteads. This is achieved two fold, firstly: in the god-sim element of the game. By clearing rocky bits of the map, planting trees and sowing cows. By doing this you are clearing the area for more farmers to move in and earning money to pay taxes to the evil High Chancellor.

Does it work? Well, it's by no means Sim City  in terms of options and abilities but it is kind of fun and the cows are by far the best of cows in any game ever. The other part of this God mode is setting defenses – from the Horde. You defense-system selection list starts of pretty scabby with only a thin picket fence and your trusty broad sword to help you but as the game progresses, the defense options expand and the element of strategy flourishes. Not in a Command and Conquer sense but enough to make it interesting. 

After between two and four minutes of planning, planting and defense strategy the game switches to attack mode. Hordes of, well, Hordes trample across the game playing field and seek to eat your farmers and their farms, eat your cows and kill you. There is a healthy variety of Hordlings that come trampling across, some scamper and run-about a lot and get chopped down by one swing of the sword, others are big and cumbersome and smash through anything easily. To take these out without some heavy duty defenses takes are certain amount of skill. 

To spice the game up a litte more there is a random element - meteor strikes and the like to augment the game play by making it harder and the occasional limitation or warning, like don't hurt the forest. It all adds to the variety.

The variety in the defense systems, the variety in the number of Hordlings, the quality of the graphics and the overall attention to detail makes The Horde a great game.  It’s obviously been eclipsed since it was made and was probably bettered before it was made – but not on the 3DO.

And, wait for it, donning the might rose-tinted specs of 3DO-dom, the FMV is pretty fun too. There, I've said it. 

If I was to use a single word to describe The Horde that word would be ‘Solid’. It’s not big, it’s not all that clever  - but it’s good solid entertainment, that draws you and is very rewarding. …and the music ain’t bad either and the graphics and animation are very good. It’s a proper 32bit game! 

Add it to you 3DO collection today – I’d say it was medium rare! (Like my steaks!)

Well I'm a loss for words.

The 3DO is to get 4 new games in 2007.

The good ol' 3DO is set to get 4 new games this year. They are all projects that got canned back in the day but I'm quite looking forward to them. I've been waiting 12 years for Powerslide...

- Ice Breaker 2.

- Decathalon.

- Onside Soccer.

- Powerslide.

You can read about them here. (and of cause pre-order them.)

I'm quite amazed that the 3DO is getting 4 new games in 2007, it's good news for such a niche machine - the games are said to work on a standard 3DO machine too, I'm not sure about Freedo emulation.

TEH RARE! Only 50 copies of Decathalon being released!

3DO Kid.

Maybe I was naive, maybe I was fool, maybe I cared too much. Loved too much. I thought the end would come from an Ataryan. Some pit faced 2600 babblers or maybe that moron who loved Myst - but as it turned out, it was the 3DO ranks that dealt the first blow into the very spine, the very foundation, the very life blood of 3DO Kid

The Freedo developers wish to open a forum and website that will become central focus for the 3DO on the web? Just minutes ago loyal 3DO fans - that was me.

I guess I'll just fade away.

Bye then.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

See ya.

Ciao.

O.K.

Move along.

...I have to go and cry.

...Alone.

So, it's not dead, but according to two-thirds of the developers it is. O.K. Fine. It's all new.

We've had Vapourware, we've had Ghostware, we've even had Shovelware. Freedo is officially TheLivingDeadWare.

Nice.

It's good to have hobbies right?

3DO Kid.

OK - so it's undead. Most dead things get a couple of days before becoming undead ('cept of cause in the movies) but Freedo will be back.

In a shock u-turn of fortunes, the Administrator over at Freedo.org has said projects to re-bundle the Freedo code on other platforms is still 'go'?

Wow - it's like the Summer of '96 with the 3DO M2 all over again.

Anyway, the proof is in the pudding. If Freedo isn't dead - lets see some life.

So there we have it loyal 3DO fans. I'll keep you posted.

3DO Kid.