3DO Interactive Multiplayer

• • Manufacturer: Panasonic, Sonya, and Lucky Goldstar (LG)

  • Designer: Dace Needle and RJ Mical

  • Generation: Fifth

  • Bits: 32-bit

  • Year Released: 1993

  • Units sold: 2 Million

  • Media: CD-ROM

• Summary: The 3DO is a set of specifications created by the 3DO company and are the blueprint for making the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer game console. The specifications for the console was licensed to three other companies, Panasonic, Sonya, and Lucky Goldstar. The Panasonic 3DO version made the most headway into the market, that's why it was the most known.

History

The 3DO was created by the 3DO company and licensed to Panasonic, Sonya, and Lucky Goldstar. It was launched in North America in 1993 followed by its release in Japan in 1994. Although the game console was very advance at the time and was highly promoted before its launch, it wasn't the ideal home video game experience. Cutscenes and pixelated video footage dominated many titles at the expense of gameplay. The best titles were usually games ported from other systems such as Gex, Road Rash, Flashback, Alone in the Dark, just to name a few. High manufacturing cost and licensing fees was the underline cause of the console's expensive retail price at $699.95, which limited its third party developer support. The console sold 2 million units before discontinuing in 1997, lasting only 2 years on the market.

Hardware

Processor:

• • 32 bit 12.5Mhz RISC ARM60

  • Math co-processor

  • 32kb SRAM

Display:

• • Interpolated 640x480 resolution output to screen.

  • 24-bit color.

  • 2 accelerated video coprocessors, 9-16 million pixels per second

System Board:

• • 50 Mbit/s bus speed

  • 36 DMA channels

  • 2 megabytes of main RAM

  • 1 megabyte of VRAM

  • 2 expansion ports

Sound:

• • 16 bit stereo sound with 44.1KHz sound sampling rate.

  • Fully supports Dolby surround sound.

External Hardware

• • Light gun

  • Controller

Notable Qualities

The 3DO system included the first music visualizer, converting CD music to color patterns. With its controller port, 8 controllers can be daisy chained on the system at once. A steering wheel, light gun, and flight stick are able to be hooked up to the system. 3DO interactive software was really advance at the time. It can display full motion video, fully textured map 3D landscape in 24 bit of color.

Notable Titles

Due to the lack of support from third party developers, as well as a short stay on the market for only 2 years, the titles for the 3DO console is limited compared to it's fifth generation contour parts such as Sega Saturn, Play Station, and Nintendo 64. Among the limited titles for the 3DO, the most notables are Return Fire, Alone in the Dark, Army Men, Bust a Move, Flashback, Gex, Mad Dog McCree, Myst, Policenauts, Road Rash, and Wolfenstein 3D.

References

"3DO Interactive Multiplayer -." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 28 Mar. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3DO_Interactive_Multiplayer>.

"3DO Interactive Multiplayer - LoveToKnow Video Games." Love To Know. Web. 28 Mar. 2010. <http://videogames.lovetoknow.com/wiki/3DO_Interactive_Multiplayer>.

"3DO Interactive Multiplayer Console Information -." Console Database. Web. 28 Mar. 2010. <http://www.consoledatabase.com/consoleinfo/3do/index.html>.