3DO ZONE Forums

Now that I'm selling my broken 3DO testing station and on the market for a new 3DO model - I'm finding myself particularly interested in the Sanyo. I think it looks pretty sleek and awesome, and I'm aware that it uses the same infamous and potentially dubious cd drive and ribbon cable arrangement as the Goldstar.

Since these were sold in Japan, what are websites where I can find one for sale? Ebay is my old standby, but I don't see them showing up on ebay very often. Is there some import retro game website that might carry them? Any Japanese language websites where it would make sense economically to use one of those broker services?

Also, what is a typical pricepoint for a used out of box model? I heard that although these are rare in that they were Japan only - they were not exactly a rare or limited amount item in Japan compared to some of the other 3DO models. I've heard tales of 200 and 300 price points for mint condition systems, could I expect an out of box non-mint model for around 100 these days?

Also, general question about the system - is the controller like the first gen panasonic one or like the second gen one that came with the FZ-10?

Thanks for sharing your knowledge, I'm starting to have a potentially unhealthy (economically speaking) interest in this system

Uhm, have fun finding the TRY Unit. Not as rare as the Alive II unit from Goldstar, but yeah. I was talking to someone here about getting a unit from them once, but it fell through for some reason or another. I can't remember, really. If you find one though, please tell me where you got it because I'd love to own one myself as I just like the way they look. Loose even because I could care less about the box, although I'd want the pad though.

They are much more common *inside* Japan. If you look on Yahoo Auctions Japan, you should be able to find one pretty easily. You can use a middleman service like Rinkya to buy it. They pop up frequently enough on eBay here in the US, but expect to pay stupid prices.. Or at least have the majority of your payment consist of a shipping charge.

Those middleman services look pretty expensive - like, at least an extra $30 or $40 in fees before even getting to $30-$60 international shipping. Maybe I should just look at already imported ones - the additional fees and shipping would seem to kick the price well over $100 anyway.

Yes and no.. The items straight from Japan will be considerably cheaper, which will make up for what the middleman takes out, versus US eBay prices.

Further investigating a sanyo - scouring Japanese websites for a deal

Question: Does the Sanyo have the same compatibility problems as the early goldstar consoles? I heard they share the same disc drive, and many parts inside the goldstar are supposedly labelled "sanyo" suggesting they might be similar internally absent the plastic shell?

(If I'm going to pay a lot for a system, I want to darn well know if my nostalgic fav game Crash n Burn is going to work alright )

Japanese sites for sure. There are also portal sites like Rakuten you can use. They arnt middlemen so it wont be pricier than the shop connected to Rakuten website.. Its in english (but direct translation so sometimes difficult to be sure of titles etc on games), but i see Sanyo's there on a frequent basis, moderately prices, good compared to ebay. Shipping costs would be roughly the same.

I never ran across compatibility issues before my Sanyo stopped working.