Today’s super little article is about a nice new development for the Panasonic 3DO. Developer Todd Gill has released 3DO ODE Menu, a replacement interface for several popular optical drive emulators that makes browsing and managing games stored on SD cards easier.
It introduces cover artwork, favorites, recently played games, faster navigation, customizable themes and some useful improvements for multidisc games like Wing Commander III. Gill has also created a companion Cover Maker utility that can automatically find and prepare game artwork, which is a particularly nice touch. I’ve included plenty of screenshots showing the new interface and how it all works.
I love seeing developers continue to improve the experience of using original hardware, especially for consoles like the 3DO that don’t always receive as much attention as Nintendo and Sega’s machines. It’s not a new emulator or a replacement console, just a nice, useful quality-of-life improvement for people still enjoying their 3DOs more than thirty years later!
I love to see passionate people working on the slightly more niche retro systems. The 3DO has tons of great, but also strange and unique, games.
I had a buddy who had a 3DO back in the 90s. And you’re right about those weird games. Whenever he’d fire the thing up, we’d start playing a game and a few minutes in and I’d always be like, “what in the world is this game about?“
Always had lots of fun with road rash and NFS
And not a decade too late!
(Or two!)
Seeing that pic of the deck brings back so many memories. I had actually forgotten what both the deck and the controller looked like.
