3DO Interactive Multiplayer (1993)

Probably the first 32bit console, 3DO features a wide selection of FMV games and only a few gems (like “Wing Commander III”, “Lucienne's Quest”, “Gex”, and the original “Alone in the Dark”).

Features

CPU: 32-bit ARM60 RISC CPU 12.5 MHz, custom Math co-processor (designed by NTG for accelerating fixed-point matrix operations).
RAM: 2 MB RDAM + 32 KB SRAM (battery backed up)
VRAM: 1 MB DRAM
ROM: 1 MB
Display: Two accelerated video co-processors (25MHZ [NTSC], 29.5MHZ [PAL] clock rate), capable of producing 9-16 million pixels per second (36-64 megapixels interpolated), distorted, scaled, rotated and texture mapped
Graphic Modes: 640×480
Colors: 16.7 million colors
Sound: Custom 16-bit Digital Signal Processor (DSP) 25Mhz with 44.1 kHz sound sampling rate and 3D sound support. 3DO has also fully Dolby Surround support
I/O Ports: 1 AV I/O port (for FMV cartridge), 1 I/O Expansion port, 1 control port (can daisy chain up to 8 peripherals), stereo audio output, composite video output
Media: CD-ROMs
CD-ROM drive: 320ms access time, double speed 300kbps data transfer, 32KB RAM buffer
Controllers: Standard DPad, 3 action buttons, L+R buttons, Start/Select, Head Phone Jack and volume control dial

Usage

MESS supports the following 3do versions:

3do [3DO (NTSC)]
3do_pal [3DO (PAL)]

3DO games are controlled through a 8-way Directional Pad (D-Pad), similar to the one present in most console controllers since mid-80s, and 5 buttons: 3 front buttons labeled as A, B and C, and two dorsal buttons L and R. Additional buttons P and X, used as Start and Select buttons, but also for Play and Stop functions in the CD player, are present on the controllers. Finally a headphone jack and a volume control dial are present, on the bottom part of the controller.

A few games can be controlled through a steering wheel, a flightstick or a lightgun.

Currently, MESS has no controller emulation.

BIOS options

Different 3DO models are supported for each version: “Panasonic FZ-10 R.E.A.L. 3DO”, “Goldstar 3DO v1.01m”, “Panasonic FZ-1 R.E.A.L. 3DO”, “Goldstar 3DO Alive II”, “Sanyo TRY 3DO” (the last two being NTSC only). You can switch between them, changing the -bios parameter. At command line,

[3do]

"-bios 0" or "-bios panafz10" = Panasonic FZ-10 R.E.A.L. 3DO Interactive Multiplayer

"-bios 1" or "-bios goldstar" = Goldstar 3DO Interactive Multiplayer v1.01m

"-bios 2" or "-bios panafz1" = Panasonic FZ-1 R.E.A.L. 3DO Interactive Multiplayer

"-bios 3" or "-bios gsalive2" = Goldstar 3DO Alive II

"-bios 4" or "-bios sanyotry" = Sanyo TRY 3DO Interactive Multiplayer

[3do_pal]

"-bios 0" or "-bios panafz10" = Panasonic FZ-10 R.E.A.L. 3DO Interactive Multiplayer

"-bios 1" or "-bios goldstar" = Goldstar 3DO Interactive Multiplayer v1.01m

"-bios 2" or "-bios panafz1" = Panasonic FZ-1 R.E.A.L. 3DO Interactive Multiplayer

Software

A list of 3DO software can be found here.

Known Issues

The emulation of this system is still Preliminary.

History and Trivia

3DO Interactive Multiplayer (often referred to as 3DO) is a set of technical specifications created by “3DO Company” in 1993. “3DO Company” was the result of a partnership between Matsushita, AT&T, Time Warner, MCA, Electronic Arts, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (a venture capital firm) and the New Technologies Group (NTG). None of these companies ever manufactured a single console. Other manufacturing companies (in the end only Panasonic, Goldstar and Sanyo) could license the rights to create their own console and label them as “3DO”, by simply fulfilling the required specifications.

The system was conceived by Trip Hawkins, the man who created Electronic Arts in 1982, and its technologies were originally designed by Dave Needle and Robert J. Mical of New Technology Group, which already designed the Atari Lynx.

Technically, a 3DO system can run 3DO Interactive software, play audio CD's (including support for CD+G), view Photo-CDs and even play Video CD's by using a special add-on MPEG1 FMV cartridge (but this cartridge was only available for the American Goldstar and Japanese Panasonic 3DO systems).

Despite a highly-promoted launch and its advanced technology, 3DO never met the expected success. The main reason for this has probably to be sought in the system's high price, not balanced by high quality titles, neither at launch nor immediately after. For sure, few titles exploited the full potential of the console, and the most well-received titles were often ports of games from other systems. This prevented any real 3DO penetration in the console market.

3DO Company's official position about the price was that 3DO was a high-end audio-visual system rather than a simple videogame console, so the price was fair. Only in 1996 they announced a price drop, probably to help the diffusion and popularity before the launch of the promised next-gen console M2, but it was definitely too late.

Among other interesting characteristics featured by 3DO:

a built-in music visualizer, the first in a console system, converting CD music to a mesmerizing color pattern;
a custom OS, loaded from CD (not present in the internal ROM), consisting of
- a multitasking kernel with drivers for peripherals, a complete file system and support for physical storage,
- several software “folios” that provide a link between application software and the 3DO hardware, and are designed to allow software compatibility as new versions of the hardware are developed;
up to 8 controllers can be daisy-chained on the system at once; other peripherals may also be hooked into the system: a mouse, a steering wheel, a light gun and a flight stick have been produced;
no regional lockouts and no copy protections; nevertheless, a few Japanese games cannot be played on non-Japanese 3DO consoles due to a missing 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).

In addition Panasonic, Sanyo and Goldstar models, also a 3DO Blaster ISA peripheral card for PCs was manufactured by Creative Technology, offering all the features of the home console and allowing the PC to play 3DO games.

The 3DO system was eventually discontinued at the end of 1996 with a complete shutdown of all internal hardware development and divestment of the M2 technology. 3DO restructured themselves around this same time, becoming a multi-platform software company until its bankrupt in 2003. Also, the “M2” technology, i.e. the second generation of the hardware based on a PowerPC 602 processor, was sold to Matsushita. Later, Konami 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. Only few games were developed for it.

3DO Models

Panasonic FZ-1 R.E.A.L. 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (Japan, Asia, North America and Europe).
Panasonic FZ-10 R.E.A.L. 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (Japan, North America and Europe): Less expensive than the FZ-1 and smaller, was characterized by its top-loading design, which addressed the problem of hardware failures of the CD tray in FZ-1.
Goldstar 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (South Korea, North America 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).
Creative 3DO BLASTER - PC card (ISA slot) with a 2xCD-ROM drive and one controller that enables a PC to play 3DO games.

Canceled Models

Various other companies showed (or claimed to have) interest in manufacturing a 3DO based system. Among them:

Samsung: home console including built-in MPEG decoding hardware;
Toshiba: car navigation system based around the 3DO architecture;
AT&T: home console including a modem for networked games and communication;
Scientific Atlanta: interactive TV test for US West;
American Laser Games, Atari Games, Electronic Arts: arcade systems based on the 3DO.

None of the above project seems to have reached the completion.

Controllers

Joypad 3 buttons: standard joypad with 3 action buttons (A, B, C), two more front buttons (X, P) also used to control the CD player, and two dorsal buttons (L, R)
Joypad 6 buttons: this joypad simply remaps 6 out of 7 buttons of the standard joypad for easier use with “Super Street Fighter II Turbo”
Mouse: with 3 buttons
Flight Stick Pro
Gamegun
Steering Wheel

(info from old-computers.org, Wikipedia, FAQs, etc.)