3DO Release Dates
Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2014 4:11 am
Hello all, I've been a long time follower of the forum, but this is my first time posting. I wanted to go ahead and join up and post because I thought something I was working on might be of interest here.
I've long been leery of the release dates given on sites like Wikipedia, MobyGames, and GameFAQ. So I've tried to put together a more accurate list of release dates by crawling rec.games.video.3do. There were FAQs posted monthly from December 1993 through mid 1995 and again through the first half of 1996. Each FAQ contained a list of all the titles that were currently available. I matched each month against the next to see which titles were new and thus released in each month. The accuracy is dependent on the folks who wrote the FAQs being right about what was on the shelves but I believe its much better to get the release dates from a first hand source than the guesswork that seems to pass for accuracy on many sites these days. Also I should clarify that these are US release dates, I'm sorry I haven't gotten to searching for the European release dates yet and from my experience the Japanese release dates are fairly well documented. Perhaps in the future I'll get into the European release dates.
Of course this is far from perfect, I still have a number of other things to do to improve upon this list. Firstly like I said there is a gap in mid 1995 during which a lot of games got released so that's problematic. Secondly the 3DO demo discs have lists of games released when the discs were released. I have the dates of the demo discs nailed down pretty well with posts proclaiming "the new demo disc is here!" however some of the release lists from the demo discs don't perfectly match up with the list I got from the FAQs. I would also like to check the 3DO magazines and other gaming magazines to see when some games got reviewed to make sure the release dates are close. The FAQs also ended before the last 3DO games were released in 1996 which left me to look for specific posts about their release and to extrapolate from the announced release dates.
With that all said I'm gunna throw up the list I got so far. Let me know what you think.
3DO Release List
3DO Sampler - October 1993
3DO Demo Disc 1 - May 1994
3DO Demo Disc 2 - November 1994
3DO Demo Disc 3 - March 1995
3DO Demo Disc 4 - September 1995
Sample This! - December 1994
Vivid Sampler - July 1994
— 1993 —
Crash N Burn - October 1993
It’s A Bird’s Life - November 1993
Stellar 7 - November 1993
Mad Dog McCree - November 1993
BattleChess - November 1993
Fatty Bear’s Birthday Surprise - November 1993
Fatty Bear’s Fun Pack - November 1993
Putt Putt Joins The Parade - November 1993
Putt Putt Fun Pack - November 1993
Oceans Below - November 1993
Night Trap - December 1993
Dragon’s Lair - December 1993
Escape From Monster Manor - December 1993
Lemmings - December 1993
— 1994 —
Total Eclipse - January 1994
20th Century Video Almanac - January 1994
Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon - January 1994
San Diego Zoo: The Animals - January 1994
Super Wing Commander - March 1994
John Madden Football - March 1994
Dennis Miller That’s News To Me - March 1994
The Incredible Machine - March 1994
Pebble Beach Golf - March 1994
The Life Stage - March 1994
Twisted - March 1994
The Horde - March 1994
CPU Bach - March 1994
ESPN Step Aerobics - April 1994
Woody Woodpecker Cartoon Vol 1-3 - April 1994
Sewer Shark - April 1994
Out of This World - May 1994
ESPN Lower Score With Tom Kite - May 1994
ToonTime! In the classroom - May 1994
Cowboy Casino - May 1994
Jurassic Park Interactive - May 1994
Shockwave - June 1994
Real Pinball - June 1994
Supermodels Go Wild - June 1994
Alone In The Dark - July 1994
Who Shot Johnny Rock? - July 1994
Immortal Desire - August 1994
Blonde Justice - August 1994
Microcosm - August 1994
Road Rash - August 1994
Way of The Warrior - August 1994
D&D Slayer - September 1994
Burning Soldier - September 1994
ESPN Baseball Hitting - September 1994
ESPN Let’s Play Soccer - September 1994
Gridders - September 1994
Guardian War - September 1994
Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes - September 1994
Mad Dog McCree II - September 1994
Sesame Street - September 1994
Soccer Kid - September 1994
Star Control II - September 1994
ESPN BaseBall - Pitching - October 1994
ESPN Let's Play Beach Volleyball - October 1994
ESPN Let's Play Tennis - October 1994
Jammit Basketball - October 1994
Mathemagics - October 1994
Mega Race - October 1994
PaTaank - October 1994
Shadow War of Succession - October 1994
Space Shuttle - October 1994
Waialae Country Club - October 1994
Demolition Man - November 1994
FIFA Soccer - November 1994
Samurai Showdown - November 1994
Street Fighter II Turbo - November 1994
Neruodancer - November 1994
Off World Interceptor - November 1994
Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties - November 1994
Star Wars Rebel Assault - November 1994
Station Invasion - November 1994
Family Feud - November 1994
The Coven - November 1994
ESPN Let’s Go Skiing - December 1994
Need For Speed - December 1994
Shockwave Operation Jumpgate - December 1994
Crime Patrol - December 1994
Shanghai Triple Threat - December 1994
Supreme Warrior - December 1994
3D Atlas - December 1994
Novastorm - December 1994
Sex - December 1994
Return Fire - December 1994
World Cup Golf - December 1994
Star Blade - December 1994
Theme Park - December 1994
— 1995 —
Love Bites - January 1995
Seal of The Pharaoh - February 1995
Flashback Quest For Identity - February 1995
Immercinary - March 1995
Quarantine - March 1995
Myst - March 1995
Gex - April 1995
Slam & Jam 95 - May 1995
Syndicate - May 1995
Hell A Cyberpunk Adventure - May 1995
Wing Commander III - June 1995
Zhadnost - July 1995
Killing Time - August 1995
Taiketsu! Rooms - August 1995
Alone In The Dark II - September 1995
Wolfenstein 3D - October 1995
D&D Deathkeep - November 1995
— Sometime Before 12/2/95 —
Ballz The Directors Cut
Blade Force
Cannon Fodder
Corpse Killer
Carrier Fortress At Sea
The Daedalus Encounter
Iron Angel of The Apocalypse
Drug Wars
DinoPark Tycoon
Digital Dreamware
Endlessly
Flying Nightmares
Space Ace
Slopestyle An Interactive Learning Cube
Kingdom of The Far Reaches
The Last Bounty Hunter
Mazzer
Space Hulk
StarFighter
Strahl
Striker World Cup
Space Pirates
Mind Teazzer
Rise of The Robots
Icebreaker
Wicked 18
Virtuoso
Trip’d
PO’ed
D
BattleSport - December 1995
BrainDead 13 - December 1995
Bust A Move - December 1995
BC Racers - December 1995
Doom - December 1995
Dragon Lore - December 1995
Foes of Ali - December 1995
Iron Angel of The Apocalypse 2 - December 1995
Primal Rage - December 1995
Psychic Detective - December 1995
The Perfect General - December 1995
PGA Tour Golf - December 1995
Quarterback Attack - December 1995
Return Fire Maps O Death - December 1995
Scramble Cobra - December 1995
Shockwave 2 - December 1995
— 1996 —
Phoenix 3 - January 1996
Captain Quazar - February 1996
Lost Eden - February 1996
Cyberia - February 1996
Creature Shock - March 1996
Johnny Bazookatone - March 1996
Snow Job - May 1996
Cyberdillo - June 1996
Lucienne’s Quest - June 1996
Robinson’s Requiem - June 1996
Olympic Summer Games 96 - July 1996
Olympic Soccer 96 - July 1996
Casper - September 1996
I've long been leery of the release dates given on sites like Wikipedia, MobyGames, and GameFAQ. So I've tried to put together a more accurate list of release dates by crawling rec.games.video.3do. There were FAQs posted monthly from December 1993 through mid 1995 and again through the first half of 1996. Each FAQ contained a list of all the titles that were currently available. I matched each month against the next to see which titles were new and thus released in each month. The accuracy is dependent on the folks who wrote the FAQs being right about what was on the shelves but I believe its much better to get the release dates from a first hand source than the guesswork that seems to pass for accuracy on many sites these days. Also I should clarify that these are US release dates, I'm sorry I haven't gotten to searching for the European release dates yet and from my experience the Japanese release dates are fairly well documented. Perhaps in the future I'll get into the European release dates.
Of course this is far from perfect, I still have a number of other things to do to improve upon this list. Firstly like I said there is a gap in mid 1995 during which a lot of games got released so that's problematic. Secondly the 3DO demo discs have lists of games released when the discs were released. I have the dates of the demo discs nailed down pretty well with posts proclaiming "the new demo disc is here!" however some of the release lists from the demo discs don't perfectly match up with the list I got from the FAQs. I would also like to check the 3DO magazines and other gaming magazines to see when some games got reviewed to make sure the release dates are close. The FAQs also ended before the last 3DO games were released in 1996 which left me to look for specific posts about their release and to extrapolate from the announced release dates.
With that all said I'm gunna throw up the list I got so far. Let me know what you think.
3DO Release List
3DO Sampler - October 1993
3DO Demo Disc 1 - May 1994
3DO Demo Disc 2 - November 1994
3DO Demo Disc 3 - March 1995
3DO Demo Disc 4 - September 1995
Sample This! - December 1994
Vivid Sampler - July 1994
— 1993 —
Crash N Burn - October 1993
It’s A Bird’s Life - November 1993
Stellar 7 - November 1993
Mad Dog McCree - November 1993
BattleChess - November 1993
Fatty Bear’s Birthday Surprise - November 1993
Fatty Bear’s Fun Pack - November 1993
Putt Putt Joins The Parade - November 1993
Putt Putt Fun Pack - November 1993
Oceans Below - November 1993
Night Trap - December 1993
Dragon’s Lair - December 1993
Escape From Monster Manor - December 1993
Lemmings - December 1993
— 1994 —
Total Eclipse - January 1994
20th Century Video Almanac - January 1994
Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon - January 1994
San Diego Zoo: The Animals - January 1994
Super Wing Commander - March 1994
John Madden Football - March 1994
Dennis Miller That’s News To Me - March 1994
The Incredible Machine - March 1994
Pebble Beach Golf - March 1994
The Life Stage - March 1994
Twisted - March 1994
The Horde - March 1994
CPU Bach - March 1994
ESPN Step Aerobics - April 1994
Woody Woodpecker Cartoon Vol 1-3 - April 1994
Sewer Shark - April 1994
Out of This World - May 1994
ESPN Lower Score With Tom Kite - May 1994
ToonTime! In the classroom - May 1994
Cowboy Casino - May 1994
Jurassic Park Interactive - May 1994
Shockwave - June 1994
Real Pinball - June 1994
Supermodels Go Wild - June 1994
Alone In The Dark - July 1994
Who Shot Johnny Rock? - July 1994
Immortal Desire - August 1994
Blonde Justice - August 1994
Microcosm - August 1994
Road Rash - August 1994
Way of The Warrior - August 1994
D&D Slayer - September 1994
Burning Soldier - September 1994
ESPN Baseball Hitting - September 1994
ESPN Let’s Play Soccer - September 1994
Gridders - September 1994
Guardian War - September 1994
Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes - September 1994
Mad Dog McCree II - September 1994
Sesame Street - September 1994
Soccer Kid - September 1994
Star Control II - September 1994
ESPN BaseBall - Pitching - October 1994
ESPN Let's Play Beach Volleyball - October 1994
ESPN Let's Play Tennis - October 1994
Jammit Basketball - October 1994
Mathemagics - October 1994
Mega Race - October 1994
PaTaank - October 1994
Shadow War of Succession - October 1994
Space Shuttle - October 1994
Waialae Country Club - October 1994
Demolition Man - November 1994
FIFA Soccer - November 1994
Samurai Showdown - November 1994
Street Fighter II Turbo - November 1994
Neruodancer - November 1994
Off World Interceptor - November 1994
Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties - November 1994
Star Wars Rebel Assault - November 1994
Station Invasion - November 1994
Family Feud - November 1994
The Coven - November 1994
ESPN Let’s Go Skiing - December 1994
Need For Speed - December 1994
Shockwave Operation Jumpgate - December 1994
Crime Patrol - December 1994
Shanghai Triple Threat - December 1994
Supreme Warrior - December 1994
3D Atlas - December 1994
Novastorm - December 1994
Sex - December 1994
Return Fire - December 1994
World Cup Golf - December 1994
Star Blade - December 1994
Theme Park - December 1994
— 1995 —
Love Bites - January 1995
Seal of The Pharaoh - February 1995
Flashback Quest For Identity - February 1995
Immercinary - March 1995
Quarantine - March 1995
Myst - March 1995
Gex - April 1995
Slam & Jam 95 - May 1995
Syndicate - May 1995
Hell A Cyberpunk Adventure - May 1995
Wing Commander III - June 1995
Zhadnost - July 1995
Killing Time - August 1995
Taiketsu! Rooms - August 1995
Alone In The Dark II - September 1995
Wolfenstein 3D - October 1995
D&D Deathkeep - November 1995
— Sometime Before 12/2/95 —
Ballz The Directors Cut
Blade Force
Cannon Fodder
Corpse Killer
Carrier Fortress At Sea
The Daedalus Encounter
Iron Angel of The Apocalypse
Drug Wars
DinoPark Tycoon
Digital Dreamware
Endlessly
Flying Nightmares
Space Ace
Slopestyle An Interactive Learning Cube
Kingdom of The Far Reaches
The Last Bounty Hunter
Mazzer
Space Hulk
StarFighter
Strahl
Striker World Cup
Space Pirates
Mind Teazzer
Rise of The Robots
Icebreaker
Wicked 18
Virtuoso
Trip’d
PO’ed
D
BattleSport - December 1995
BrainDead 13 - December 1995
Bust A Move - December 1995
BC Racers - December 1995
Doom - December 1995
Dragon Lore - December 1995
Foes of Ali - December 1995
Iron Angel of The Apocalypse 2 - December 1995
Primal Rage - December 1995
Psychic Detective - December 1995
The Perfect General - December 1995
PGA Tour Golf - December 1995
Quarterback Attack - December 1995
Return Fire Maps O Death - December 1995
Scramble Cobra - December 1995
Shockwave 2 - December 1995
— 1996 —
Phoenix 3 - January 1996
Captain Quazar - February 1996
Lost Eden - February 1996
Cyberia - February 1996
Creature Shock - March 1996
Johnny Bazookatone - March 1996
Snow Job - May 1996
Cyberdillo - June 1996
Lucienne’s Quest - June 1996
Robinson’s Requiem - June 1996
Olympic Summer Games 96 - July 1996
Olympic Soccer 96 - July 1996
Casper - September 1996