Consequently, when the machine did arrive on that bungled US launch day (many shops received just one or two units), only one game was ready: Crystal Dynamics' passable but hardly awe-inducing Crash And Burn. The 3DO company then had most of 1994 to build up a decent user base and to persuade talented software designers to develop for the machine, but unfortunately only a handful of exceptional games emerged.

EA, with whom Hawkins retained close links, produced great conversions of Road Rash, FIFA Soccer and Need For Speed. Silent Software's Return Fire was a fantastic head-to-head shoot 'em up later converted to the PlayStation, and Capcom produced a fine version of Street Fighter 2 X. Without at least double this number of 'triple A' titles a year, though, the machine was sure to fail.

The 3DO was certainly not aided by the fact that 1994 was dominated by news of two forthcoming consoles - the first from Sony, one of the largest consumer electronics firms in the world, and the second from Sega, a videogame legend. During the early months of the year - when 3DO desperately needed to consolidate its position and attract development - Sony were on a world-wide tour of the game design community, wowing allcomers with their own amazing 32bit hardware. It was clear that the 3DO would have to produce some amazing games from somewhere if it was to prevent the public - and the top notch developers - from simply waiting for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn.

But, as we've already seen, those amazing games never came - at least not in great numbers. In contrast, a year and a half after 3DO's launch with the now ironically titled Crash and Burn, Sega could call on the output of their own arcade division to aid the Japanese premiere of the Saturn: Virtua Fighter and Daytona proving irresistible to dedicated gamers.