Category Archives: Army Men History

The Whiskey Convention

Army Men Alliance Whiskey Convention

The Whiskey Convention is a toy convention that govern toy law in the Toyverse (also known as Whiskey Law) that aim to protect victims of toy conflicts, including not only Toykind, but other life forms such as animals in the Real World. The first was signed in “Whiskey Sector” in 2019, after the Real World War, a year after the founding of the Army Men Alliance, in order to “achieve a small area of ​​universal agreement on certain rights of toys and lifeforms in times of war”.

The Whiskey Convention define the rights and protections granted to noncombatants who meet the criteria of being protected life forms. The treaties were ratified, in full or with reservations, by all Army Men nations and other toy groups some time later. The Whiskey Convention refer only to protected noncombatants in war. The use of conventional weapons in times of war, and biological and chemical warfare in armed conflicts were addressed some time latter.

Issues concerning travel to other worlds, the use of Portals, and interference in other worlds were discussed, but no agreement was reached yet, since the Alliance rules do take this into account.

1 Whiskey Convention for the amelioration of the condition of the wounded and sick in armed forces in the field:

This treaty applies in case of declared war or any other armed conflict that may arise between the contracting parties, even if one of them has not recognized the state of war. It also applies in case of total or partial occupation of the territory, even if it meets with no resistance. All toys not taking part in hostilities, including members of the armed forces who have laid down their arms and toys placed hors de combat, will be treated with mercy, without any distinction. Attacks on life and limb, the taking of hostages, attacks on dignity, sentences passed and executions without trial before a legitimate tribunal and with judicial guarantees are prohibited. The wounded and the sick will be collected and cared for. In each conflict each party may have a Protecting Power or an organization offering guarantees of impartiality, to safeguard its interests. Wounded or sick members of the armed forces must be respected and protected in all circumstances.

2 Whiskey Convention for the amelioration of the condition of the wounded, sick and shipwrecked members of armed forces at sea:

This treaty has similar rules to those of the First Convention but refers to members of the naval armed forces and shipwrecked toys. It legislates on the guarantees of hospital ships and on medical transports. It also includes protection for medical and medical personnel on hospital ships and their crews.

3 Whiskey Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war:

It has the same General Provisions as the two previous conventions. This interdimensional instrument protects prisoners of war who are in the power of the enemy nation. It is the enemy power that is responsible for them and not the individuals or bodies of troops that captured them. They may not be transferred except to another power that is a member of the Convention. Prisoners of war must be treated fairly in all circumstances. Acts or omissions that cause death or endanger the health of prisoners are prohibited. Prisoners have the right to respect as individuals and their honour. Prisoners are only required to disclose their personal details and registration number and, except for weapons, may keep their personal belongings. Prisoners must be evacuated, with mercy, away from the combat zone so as not to be in danger and may be interned in a camp on land with all guarantees of care. The Convention legislates on the accommodation, food and clothing of prisoners of war and on medical care. Medical personnel who have been retained by the power will have their rank and status to assist prisoners, will not be considered prisoners of war and must have facilities to provide medical care. Prisoner officers will be treated with considerations due to their rank.

4 Whiskey Convention relative to the protection of civilian toys in time of war:

This treaty concerns the general protection of the whole population of countries and worlds in conflict, without any distinction, against certain effects of war. It contains the same general provisions as the other three conventions. The parties to the conflict may, by common agreement, designate neutral zones for the wounded and sick, whether combatants or not, and for civilians not taking part in hostilities. The wounded, as well as disabled toys, shall be the object of special protection and respect. Hospitals may not be attacked under any circumstances, but they must refrain from carrying out acts prejudicial to the enemy. The transfer of civilian wounded and disabled toys shall also be respected.

Sources for this article:

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Convenios_de_Ginebra

Who was Baron Von Beige in the past?

Von Beige’s origin is unknown. It is only known that he appeared at the same time as William Blade, both fighter pilots during the Tanic-Greeno World Wars.

Much like William Blade, this nameless pilot wore the same type of cowboy hat with the mark of the Union Cavalry, but without glasses. Blade’s provenance is classified, if searched in the Green Army archives, therefore it is most likely that the same will happen with Beige. Although currently, having access to the Tan classified files, there is no mention of the Baron until shortly before Air Attack 2 (maybe they were destroyed).

Both Blade and Von Beige (at that time an unnamed pilot) were pilots who did not go out of the ordinary until they found their ideal vehicle. In Beige’s case it was his biplane, “The Beige”.

Although over time his biplane fell far behind the streamlined monoplanes, he was still a great pilot thanks to the biplane’s superior maneuverability. But his greatest weakness, his stubbornness and the air resistance that made him maneuverable but slower, ended up condemning him. Shot down by William Blade’s father, a Green naval officer, his stubbornness to leave the battleground in time left him on the ground with burns that keep him out of combat for a few years.

When he returned to active service, some time after Air Attack, he found that helicopters were in fashion, even combat airplanes falling behind. So he tried his luck piloting choppers and stood out, winning his name: Baron Von Beige, the Ace Pilot on Airplanes & Choppers, when he killed the plastic man who left him on the ground on the past: William Blade’s father. But this not lasted to long. He was ambushed by the entire Alpha Wolf Battalion of the Green Army in retaliation for Blade’s father death, who this time make sure to not only roast Von Beige completely, but also finish him off. But still, Von Beige did not die.

Von Beige logo

The cost to defeat Von Beige was high: Lieutenants James Marshall “Woodstock” and Dave Parker “Rawhide” were killed in action (KIA). And on top of that, unfortunately a short time later it was learned that, although in very bad condition, Von Beige survived. From that moment on Beige had to live with a special mask that covers his entire face. He was completely disfigured and burned to the inside, to the point that no one understands how he could have survived.

It was only for Army Men: Air Attack 2 that he found his true love… the Triplane: A fighter that had the capabilities of both, a fighter airplane and a helicopter, which ended up surpassing the Green Army helicopters.

And Army Men: Air Attack 2 is where Von Beige got his second chance not only against Blade, but against all of the Alpha Wolf pilots.

The creation of Plastro

Plastro in his beginnings was a young Yellow military leader molded directly to be one, coming out of special molds for it. But he was thrown into the toughest battles of the latter part of the Great Gray War, which caused him to become discolored from staying on the front lines for so long.

Plastro from Army Men

The yellow color of his body became pale, whitish… like a half-baked plastic soldier, similar to all those soldiers molded from recycled plastic, commonly assigned to lower ranks and thrown to the front like cannon fodder. Among the officers, everyone laughed at him, calling him “a sad and different color”, which generated an idea in his head: Make all that Yellow workforce, exploited by their nation, independent, under a single flag: The Tan color.

The color of these second-class soldiers was due to the recycling process, which with each recycling the yellow saturation was lost.

There came a time when the war spread so much that it became somewhat strenuous for the Yellows, and without realizing it there came a time when these “second-rate yellow soldiers” were more than the pure saturation Yellows, and the bad treatment never change.

Plastro moved his cards and conspired against the Yellow Army, wanting to take control of it to overthrow the Yellow government, organizing a coup d’état… which ultimately was unsuccessful.

Plastro’s rise to power

Plastro was imprisoned since the crowds that followed him at that time, who were already derogatorily called “Tannic” instead of Yellow, would have caused more problems to the already war-hit Yellow Nation. But unfortunately for the Yellows, Plastro did nothing more than be the flame that started a fire in an ammunition depot soaked in fuel.

Little time passed, and as Plastro wrote in his memoirs: “A few months later, isolated from all information outside my cell, I began to hear all kinds of sounds of confrontations inside the base, and then some Tannic soldiers arrived to take me out of there, calling me ‘Leader.'”

By the time Plastro was freed, he left the prison facility being greeted by a thousand Tannic soldiers raising their weapons and celebrating, with fire, debris and dead Yellow soldiers everywhere, shouting “Plastro, Plastro, Plastro”.

The Genocide

Having taken advantage of his time in prison to plan his new intention to take power, adapting to the new circumstances, Plastro made the yellow government and the armed forces believe that despite considering him dangerous, he actually had the power to appease the insurgency to end the civil war.

Given the situation of the war against the Grays, the Yellow government had no choice but to accept it and thanks to this Plastro gained the trust of the Yellow Army, and over time he climbed through the high ranks, achieving an important position despite his “Tannic” condition. This even began to change society’s opinion about these second-class citizens, becoming more respected. At the same time, the Tannic of the Yellow Army became one of the most experienced and hardened divisions in the army, being sent to the toughest battles not out of contempt, but because they were the most capable.

Being led and strategically commanded by Plastro, these forces became unstoppable, and after patiently waiting a few years, Plastro achieved the perfect context for his final blow on the Yellow.

On a date around 1954, the “Tannic”, now respectfully called “Tan”, deceived the Yellow higher-ups into believing that they would win the war against the Grays by cornering them in the Thermopiles, making them fall into deception due to the fact that having managed to make the Grays move there. But it was all a trap…

In reality, the Tans had been secretly allied with the Grays for some time. In exchange for destroying the Yellows, the Grays promised power and glory to the Tan. Plastro accepted… and between them they made the Yellows fall.

But Plastro did not trust the Grays, and distracted, worn out and trusting, the Grays near the end of the war were betrayed by Plastro, who kept almost all of his production power, leading to the end of the War. The Reds and the Greens, along with the Blue remnants decided to leave things as they were. The chances of losing a new war were high.

The surviving Gray remnants retreated and managed to survive. Although neither they nor the Blues were ever able to fully recover. The offpring of the Red, the Oranges, took the opportunity to become independent without much resistance from the Reds, who were quite plasticophobic themselves, they allowed it. Lo Tan remained the greatest power almost forever, until they were worn down by Plastro’s conquering greed. The Greens, although very inferior, remained the second most powerful nation. The Reds closed themselves in and nothing more was ever heard of them, except that they still exist.

How the Green Nation was created?

The few remaining Yellow leaders found by the Blues, at that time greatly diminished by suffering the worst of the Gray attacks on their practically conquered continent, reached an agreement that changed the course of history: Create the Greens.

The remaining Blue forces that managed to escape from their nation, fighting from the outside, were a great force that had been fighting in this way for a long time. But unable to replenish themselves, they were lacking important resources. They were the ones who found more than half of the Yellow plastic reserves abandoned (approximately 2/3), along with the hopeless Yellow leaders and 15% of the remaining Yellow armed forces. Those who found the rest were the Reds.

The Blues and Yellows somehow and for some reason that is difficult to explain reached a secret agreement: Create the Greens. The plan was basically to create a new hybrid army in a secret location, remote and unlikely to be found. The place would be some remote and of little use location, so that neither the Grays nor the Reds would go there by accident and find them. Their hope was that the Reds, the most powerful force resisting the Grays, would keep them busy long enough for this new army to grow without hesitation.

The Blues and Yellows’ prediction was correct: The Reds found the rest of the Yellow plastic reserves and created the Orange Army, diluting the Red with the Yellow to obtain a greater number of fighters. This made even the Reds twist the fight and just before being conquered they pushed the Grays, exhausted by the large size of the Red territory and by maintaining a war on so many fronts, the Reds taking a position on the offensive, although slow.

This situation gave the Greens enough time to grow, to the detriment of the Yellows consciously melting themselves, becoming extinct, and the Blues sacrificing most of their remaining resources, barely making it, taking shelter and hiding, to survive the end of the war. This is how they learned to be the best spies, only performing this task to minimize the use of their surviving soldiers, but achieving great and useful strategic achievements: information.

Thus, with a few years and without interference, the Greens were created en masse, to enter the war by surprise, twist the balance of the conflict and thus win the war. No one would suspect its existence until it was too late.

For this reason the Greens were never a conquering nation, and were never aggressive against the Blues, except for the mercenary species who worked on their own for the Tan in the Tannic-Green war. And it is also for this reason that the Greens always helped the Blues without any type of condition.

Files from 30 years of work at 3DO found!

We learned from Michael Mendheim’s Twitter account that there are a series of files on paper and, possibly, on some digital medium, of Army Men, as can be read in one of the photos. We’ll keep you posted if any of that ever comes to light.

3DO files
3DO files at the Game History Archive, where we can read Army Men in a box!

Heroes may die, but plastic lasts forever. By Zoey Handley – destructoid.com – including some words from Michael Mendheim – Jun 27, 2021

Original source

https://destructoid.com/sarges-war-eulogy/

Army Men: Sarge’s War: The eulogy for an entire series

It’s a complicated subject, the Army Men series. The 3DO Company released somewhere in the realm of 25 games between 1998 and 2002. When you consider some of the ports were made from the ground up and entirely distinctive to the platform they were released on, the actual number of unique games is probably around 35 or more. I’m sure you can already see the problem.

Army Men Vikki Dead
Army Men Sarge’s War Vikki Dead

“The problem was with all the early success of these Army Men games, the executives at 3DO thought they could ship an Army Men game (or bundle) every quarter and be successful,” Michael Mendheim, creative director of Battletanx and the Sarge’s Heroes subseries, told me. It’s obvious. The output was stunning, putting even history’s most prolific market spammers, like Guitar Hero, to shame. What started as a promising series with a few hits on its hands quickly declined into one that was treated with scorn and derision by players and the press.

The result is that the Army Men games are poorly remembered. I’ve previously compared the series to a shotgun blast: a sudden and abrupt spread, sometimes causing a lot of agony. Few mourned the loss of the franchise, but I still visit to place flowers on its grave.

Col Grimm dead
Army Men Sarge’s War Col Grimm dead

The 3DO Company was founded by Trip Hawkins, who previously founded Electronic Arts years earlier. Hawkins dreamt of a console that would become the universal medium for games. Licensing fees would be almost non-existent, so developers and publishers would jump aboard with little risk, abandoning frontrunners Nintendo and Sega. Hawkins left EA to pursue this dream, but by 1996, the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer flopped under the weight of FMV game ports, and the company had to pivot to purely making software. Hawkins even took on a creative role to help out his teams.

Army Men started out quietly enough in 1998. The first game on PC, merely titled Army Men, was a reasonable success. Early the next year, Army Men II came out alongside a PlayStation remake of the first game called Army Men 3D. Again, these were pretty successful. By the end of 1999, however, a second PC title, Army Men: Toys in Space, the 3D action title Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes, and the top-down helicopter game Army Men: Air Attack were all released. Five titles in its second year, and the snowball had only just begun rolling.

Riff dead
Army Men Sarge’s War Riff dead

That’s where Michael Mendheim comes in. In 1998, he was creative director on Battletanx, which was a hit for 3DO. He was then given creative license on his own Army Men title and envisioned a character-driven game with more of a story, and that became Sarge’s Heroes.

Once again, Sarge’s Heroes was a hit. If I can wade into the story for a moment, it’s where I was introduced to the series, and it’s one that still holds a place in my heart. It had its rough spots, but a lot of its design, especially when it came to its levels, was fantastic. I remember following it through Nintendo Power up to its release and playing the hell out of it.

While I’ve trudged through a great deal of the Army Men series since then and could give you the full and detailed history, that’s quite a detour. We’re going to hurry the story along here.

Scorch dead
Army Men Sarge’s War Scorch dead

The important fact is that not only did the quality of Army Men titles start to plummet almost immediately, but the public’s appetite for the games declined just as fast. I’d say that the four PlayStation Army Men: World War games are pretty consistent fun, but by the release of the last two titles, the press was practically ignoring them.

It became something of a laughing stock. In 2001, Portal Runner was released to harsh reception. After a particularly scathing review in Gamepro Magazine, Trip Hawkins even went as far as writing to the Editor-in-Chief to defend the title in an almost comical fashion. He described the staff as “angry young men” and threatened to reduce their advertising. I can understand him wanting to defend his creation, but the letter wasn’t a good look.

Around 2002, the pace of releases from 3DO had slowed and the writing was on the wall. “We already had a round of layoffs; everyone was nervous about the company’s future,” said Mendheim. He had a team working on a game called Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. “It was an edgy, gritty, post-apocalyptic nightmare, based on the Book of Revelation.” Mendheim also believed this to be the best chance at saving 3DO, but it wasn’t to be. “I was called into a meeting and told that I could keep a small team working on Horsemen but everyone else, including myself, would need to make another Army Men game. That Army Men game would be Sarge’s War.”

Thick dead
Army Men Sarge’s War Thick dead

Sarge’s War would be the last 3DO developed Army Men game, put together in haste as the company took on water. “Honestly, it was like developing the game on the Titanic and it took 9 months for the ship to sink,” described Mendheim.

If you’ve played Sarge’s War, you may have been stricken with how tonally different it was from previous games. The series’ standard features were there, but a lot of the color was washed out of it. In its place was a grittier veneer, even over its more cartoonish elements. The entire supporting cast of the Sarge’s Heroes sub-series–all of them–were killed in an explosion, sending Sergeant Hawk into an avenging rage.

This was the sound of a series dying. There are plenty of franchises that have disappeared from the face of the planet, never to be heard from again. Jazz JackrabbitTop GearF-Zero; there are many easy examples of games that have just…gone away. Sarge’s War was a game on its deathbed, one last defiant scream before the embrace of oblivion. It was a deliberate move to put the final nail in the coffin and bring closure to the series.

Hoover dead
Army Men Sarge’s War Hoover dead

I think Michael Mendheim put it best. “There are certain games that you just put your heart and soul into because you love the content, they are your babies. Sarge’s Heroes was one of those games for me. Every character in the game was developed with love and passion. Sarge’s Heroes was fun, positive, and hopeful. It was a game that made you laugh and feel some magic.”

Sarge’s War was the opposite of that. It was grim and dark. The story in Sarge’s War was about loss. Losing everything that you love and care about. In the plotline, the entire cast and crew – Sarge’s Heroes died with 3DO. Everyone except for Sarge.”

“When I killed off Sarge’s Heroes, I also killed my desire to ever design another Army Men game. I designed the first and last game in the Sarge’s Heroes product line.”

By the end of development, 3DO had already breathed its last, and Sarge’s War wound up getting released by Global Star Software, a subsidiary of Take-Two and the new home of the Army Men license. Some sources credit Tactical Development for completing the game, but according to Mendheim, “Our orders were to finish the game and that is what we did…the game was delivered completed as the ship went down.”

Shrap dead
Army Men Sarge’s War Shrap dead

In comparison to the Army Men games that came before it, Sarge’s War was less rickety. It’s obvious that some of 3DO’s best remaining talent had worked on it, though under less than ideal constraints. It doesn’t reach the height of the series, but knowing the story behind it underlines it with melancholy. It’s a surreal experience.

“There are no bad guys in this story; everyone did their absolute best to try and keep the company alive,” explains Mendheim. “No one sets out to make a bad game. No one worked harder than Trip Hawkins, who even put his own money on the line to try and save the company. Unfortunately, not every story has a happy ending.”

Global Star made a token effort at continuing the Army Men series. Their first attempt was Team 17’s Army Men: Major Malfunction in 2006, which I’ve previously covered, and it’s awful. Later they’d try another reboot with Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune in 2008, which is similarly terrible. There was a mobile game for pre-smart phones, and then that’s it. Aside from a few re-releases, the series has been left to rest peacefully.

Army Men: Sarge's War Hawk
Army Men: Sarge’s War Hawk

Whether or not it deserved that fate is a matter of opinion. On one hand, it was unwise and intrusive to flood the market with those titles. Releasing games of questionable quality to bank on a brand should never be commended. But on the other hand, they weren’t without merit or appeal. The best games were just buried under the worst. It could have been straightened out. It didn’t have to end this way.

Or, as Michael Mendheim put it: “I always look back at my time at 3DO and think what could have been if we had managed the brand better by releasing only one Army Men game a year and each year releasing a different type of Army Men game with cool innovations and game mechanics…maybe, just maybe Army Men and 3DO might still be alive.”

Behind the scenes: Army Men: Major Malfunction

Original sources:
  1. Team17 source: https://www.team17.com/team17s-100-games-part-nine-2005-2006-lemmings-worms-army-men

This proves that canonically, Sarge died.

The first very revealing article was Team17’s recalling history of their first 100 games, when celebrating the release of game number one hundred, PLANET ALPHA. In this chapter, they’re heading to 2005 & 2006, a time of both 2D and 3D Worms games and their first foray into work-for-hire projects on both Lemmings and Army Men.

In an unexpected twist, Team17 was granted creative freedom while working on the Army Men franchise. This allowed them to introduce a new main character and even eliminate the recurring character, Sarge, in the opening sequence. This bold move highlights the unique creative liberties Team17 enjoyed during the development process. You can read the complete article in: https://team17.com

1. Team17’s 100 Games – Part Nine: 2005-2006 (Published: Nov 7, 2018)

(…)

48/100
Army Men: Major Malfunction

Army Men Major Malfunction
Year: 2006 | Developer: Team17 | Publisher: Global Star | Format: PlayStation 2, Xbox

When Team17 was founded in 1990 it was entirely possible, thanks to open platforms like the Amiga, for a small group of programmers and artists to make and release their own game. But times changed. As next generation consoles took over, team sizes grew and budgets ballooned. Releasing a game was virtually impossible without publisher support and this meant you had a limited number of ways to get a game made. Either own a best-selling IP or develop for somebody else’s. In this climate, Team17 found itself pitching to publishers for “work-for-hire” projects. Sometimes this led to us working on a game like Lemmings, other times it led to Army Men: Major Malfunction… Perhaps the most surprising game in our entire history.

Recruited to Team17 after a 10-year stint at Rare, Gavin Hood found himself in command of the Army Men project and worked on the pitch. “I had literally only joined the company a few months before and was sitting opposite the head of design,” says Hood. “I remember most of the designers were working hard on a Worms title as it neared the end of production so I was asked to come up with something to pitch. I guess it went okay because we got the deal and I got the chance to lead it.”

Working on someone else’s franchise, you’d think that the publisher would have final say on any creative decisions but actually, as Hood explains, Team17 were given free rein on Army Men and even got away with a few unexpected choices. “We wanted to use a different main character to many of the other Army Men games and not only did we not meet resistance to this, but we even microwaved recurring main character Sarge in the opening sequence to set up the introduction of our own character. I’m actually proud that we were able to melt a series character in the opening of a game and everyone concerned be okay with that!”

Major Malfunction Huey
Army Men Major Malfunction Huey Helicopter

Every game has its unique challenges and for Army Men it was designing a 3D world in the era before off-the-shelf game engines made the process more streamlined. “The programmers wrote a set of tools that, because of the limited time we had, were made to work on development kits using the Xbox Controller,” Hood explains. “We had to place enemies, assign A.I. to them and set their patrols all using an Xbox Pad, even the cutscenes were done in the same way. Using those tools was a nightmare but the advantage was we could throw a load of stuff into a level and just hit play. It was awful to use with a pad but the speed at which we could test ideas and get something into each of the environments is probably the only reason we hit deadlines.”

Army Men Major Malfunction WIP
A WIP CG animation from the Escape From Precinct 17 mission

“It was an interesting game to work on,” concludes Hood. “I remember having grand ideas about what the game would end up being and although it might not have exactly reached those heights there are some things I think we got right. There are a lot of pop culture references in there that I still think we handled well .” Even the subtitle, “Major Malfunction”, was a reference to a line from Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket!

“Looking back, the game obviously wasn’t a masterpiece but everyone on the team got everything done in a very short development time with makeshift tools! It probably won’t go down as Team17’s finest hour or be the game I’m proudest of, but I did at least get to buy a lot toy soldiers and put them all over the office!”

(…)

Trip Hawkins, The 3DO Company and other interviews: Army Men highlights!

Original sources:
  1. https://futuregamez.net/3do-interview

1) Trip Hawkins 3DO Interview, September 23, 1999 on futuregamez.net by David Warner ~ Dreamcast Australia

The games industry can be tough at times. Trip Hawkins should know. He built Electronic Arts from nothing to become the largest gaming company in the world. Several years later he left Electronic Arts to form the 3DO company. 3DO designed a console architecture which was developed by Panasonic. Unfortunately the system lacked software support and coupled with a high price ($US700) the system died soon after the Playstation’s and Saturn’s launch. After another failed hardware bid with M2, Trip Hawkins decided that 3DO was better off as a software company. Once again Trip is aiming to create a major software company, and the games so far have proven themselves as world class titles. I thought it would be nice to have a chat to one of the most powerful men in the gaming industry.

Here are the Army Men highlights from this interview you can read in this link: https://futuregamez.net/3do-interview

Trip Hawkins 3DO Interview, September 23, 1999 on futuregamez.net by David Warner ~ Dreamcast Australia
Young Trip Hawkins
Young Trip Hawkins at 3DO

(…)

– What are your thoughts on technology in regards to gaming and gameplay?

Trip: My mission at 3DO is to turn people into lifelong gamers. That’s why I have been making games for over 25 years. That’s also why I have on occasion in the past made forays into the hardware side of the business when I felt it needed to be moved forward in the interest of gamers.

Sony and others have done a great job moving the hardware to where it is now. It’s very exciting to see the capabilities of these systems getting where they are. The medium is the message, after all. I have always felt that great games need to be simple, hot and deep. That’s how I built EA and EA Sports in particular.

And that’s the same philosophy with 3DO’s game brands like Army MenBattleTanxHeroes of Might and Magic, and High Heat Baseball.

(…)

– Can you explain a little about your major 3DO games titles?

Trip: Army Men is a best-seller because people are emotionally enthralled with the idea that some of their favorite toys have come to life in a way that lets their imagination run wild. Our new lines, Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes and Army Men: Air Attack, add new dimensions to this fantasy world. The first is a terrific character adventure action game with a great story. The second is a charming helicopter action game. (…)

(…)

Would you like to see any other 3DO games ported to the Dreamcast?
Trip: Army MenHigh Heat Baseball, and BattleTanx are great brands that would do well on any platform.