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3DO Interactive Multiplayer (most commonly referred to as 'the 3DO') was a line of video game consoles released in 1993 and 1994 by Panasonic, Sanyo and Goldstar. The consoles were manufactured according to specifications created by The 3DO Company, and were originally designed by Dave Needle and RJ Mical of New Technology Group. The system was conceived by entrepreneur and EA Games founder Trip Hawkins.

Despite a highly-promoted launch and a host of cutting-edge technologies, the system's high price ($699.95 USD at release) and an over-saturated console market brought the 3DO to a speedy demise.

Features and catalog

The consoles had very advanced hardware features at the time: an ARM60 32-bit RISC CPU, two custom video co-processors, a custom 16-bit DSP and a custom math coprocessor. They also featured 2 megabytes of DRAM, 1 megabyte of VRAM, and a double speed CD-ROM drive for main storage, Up to 8 controllers could be daisy-chained on the system at once. In addition to special 3DO software, the system was able to play audio CDs (including support for CD+G), view Photo CDs, and Video CDs with an add-on MPEG video card (released for Goldstar model only). However, few titles utilized the console's full potential.

A notable feature of the console is that it is one of few CD-based consoles that feature neither regional lockout nor copy protection, scoring it points amongst import gamers and software pirates alike, though reports have suggested that the Goldstar model isn't particularly durable when used for either of those purposes. Although there is no regional lockout present in any 3DO machine, a few Japanese games cannot be played on non-Japanese 3DO consoles due to a special kanji font. At the request of the 3DO company, most third-party developers included this font directly on the game CDs so that they could be played on any 3DO console; however, a few did not, including Sword and Sorcery (which was released in English under the title Lucienne's Quest) and a demo version of Alone in the Dark.

It was often said that the 3DO software library exhibited many of the worst aspects of home video gaming at the time. This was the dawn of CD-ROM gaming, so cutscenes of pixelated video footage dominated many titles at the expense of good gameplay. The most well-received titles were commonly ports of games from other systems, such as Alone in the Dark, Myst, Out of This World, and Star Control II. Other notable titles include Need for Speed, Jurassic Park Interactive, Crash N' Burn, Slayer, Killing Time, and the first console port of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, which exceeded the original with its CD-quality audio. Game series that started on 3DO by Electronic Arts, Studio 3DO and Crystal Dynamics established themselves on other 32-bit consoles. One major hit for the 3DO, Return Fire, an advanced tank battle game, was ported from the 3DO to the Sony PlayStation, the Sega Saturn and Microsoft Windows, but met with limited success..

In addition to the consoles, a 3DO Blaster ISA peripheral card for PCs which offered all the features of the home console was manufactured by Creative Technology.

The 3DO Company also designed a next-generation console called the M2, which was to use a PowerPC 602 processor, but the company abandoned the console business and sold the technology to Matsushita, who never brought the system to the market.

Konami later made an M2-based arcade board. * As games ran straight from the CD-ROM drive, it suffered from long load times and a high failure rate, so very few games were developed for it.

Specs

Processor

Display

  • Truecolor 640x480 pixel resolution (approximately 16.7 million colors)
  • Two accelerated video co-processors capable of producing 9-16 million pixels per second (36-64 megapix/s interpolated), distorted, scaled, rotated and texture mapped

System board

  • Super-fast bus speed (50 megabytes per second)
  • 36 separate DMA channels for processing data quickly
  • 2 megabytes of RAM
  • 1 megabyte of VRAM
  • 2 expansion ports

Sound

Models

  • Panasonic FZ-1 R.E.A.L. 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (Japan, Asia, North America and Europe) - The first 3DO system, which was initially priced at $699.99 in the U.S.
  • Panasonic FZ-10 R.E.A.L. 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (North America, Europe and Japan) - Less expensive than the FZ-1, the FZ-10 is smaller compared to the FZ-1.
  • Goldstar 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (North America, South Korea and Europe) - Early models of the Goldstar systems cause some games not to work.
  • Goldstar 3DO ALIVE II (South Korea only)
  • Sanyo TRY 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (Japan only) - The rarest 3DO model.
  • Creative 3DO BLASTER - PC card (ISA slot) with a 2X CD-ROM drive and one controller that enables a PC to play 3DO games. Also very rare.

Fallout

By the early 1990s, the video game market had become overcrowded. Philips, Sega, Nintendo, Commodore, SNK, and Atari each had a video game system on the market. By 1995, most of these systems had fallen out of the loop and were discontinued. Nintendo's SNES and Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis were the most successful systems. Many consider the final blow to be the overwhelming popularity and affordability of the Sony PlayStation, which not only forced out other CD-based systems like the CD-i, but also laid Sega's Saturn to rest by the end of 1998. Despite heavy promoting on the YTV variety show It's Alive, and the potential expandability behind the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, third-party support was lacking, and the 3DO system was discontinued in 1995. The 3DO Company then became a software publisher, producing such games as the Army Men franchise, until it filed for bankruptcy and liquidated its assets in 2003.

See also

External links

Fifth-generation video game consoles | Computer and video game flops | Video game consoles

3DO | Panasonic 3DO | 3DO | 3DO Interactive Multiplayer | 3DO | 3DO | 3DO Interactive Multiplayer | 3DO Interactive Multiplayer | 3DO | 3DO

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "3DO Interactive Multiplayer".

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