3DO Interactive Multiplayer

3DO Interactive Multiplayer

Panasonic FZ-1 R.E.A.L. 3DO Interactive Multiplayer
Developer	The 3DO Company
Manufacturer	Panasonic, Sanyo and GoldStar
Type	Video game console
Generation	Fifth generation era
Retail availability	NA October 4, 1993 JP March 20, 1994 EU 1994
Discontinued	1996[1]
Units sold	2 million[2]
Media	CD-ROM
CPU	32-bit 12.5 MHz RISC CPU ARM60
Online services	Planned but canceled
Best-selling game	Return Fire
Successor	M2 (canceled)

The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (often called simply 3DO) is a video game console originally produced by Panasonic in 1993. Further renditions of the hardware were released in 1994 by Sanyo and Goldstar. The consoles were manufactured according to specifications created by The 3DO Company, and were originally designed by Dave Needle and R. J. Mical of New Technology Group. The system was conceived by entrepreneur and Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins.^[1]

Despite a highly promoted launch (including being named Time magazine's "1994 Product of the Year") and a host of cutting-edge technologies, the 3DO's high price (US$599 at launch^[3]), limited third-party developer support, and an over-saturated console market prevented the system from achieving success comparable to competitors Sega and Nintendo.^[1] This console was released in North America on October 4, 1993, Japan on March 20, 1994 and in Europe in 1994.

Since its discontinuation, the 3DO has been frequently derided by video game historians, citing a lack of decent exclusives and an "astronomical asking price". The 3DO however has gained a cult following with fans of the system. In 2009 IGN chose the 3DO as its 22nd greatest video game console of all time, slightly higher than the Atari Jaguar but lower than its four other major competitors: the SNES (4th best), the Sega Mega Drive (5th), the Sony PlayStation (7th), and the Sega Saturn (18th).^[4]

History

Trip Hawkins, founder of The 3DO Company.

The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was originally conceived by The 3DO Company, founded in 1991 by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins. The company's objective was to create a next-generation, CD-based video game/entertainment standard which would be manufactured by various partners and licensees; 3DO would collect a royalty on each console sold and on each game manufactured. To game publishers, the low $3 royalty rate per game was a better deal than the higher royalties paid to Nintendo and Sega when making games for their consoles. The licensing method accounts for why the 3DO was available from no less than four separate manufacturers.

However, this made the system extremely expensive. The manufacturers had to make a profit on the hardware itself, whereas most major game console manufacturers, such as Nintendo and Sony, sold their system almost as a freebie, in the hopes of making up for the loss with software sales. This caused the system to be quite unaffordable to the common consumer, one of the biggest factors in its downfall.^[5] Some sources claim that 3DO was priced at $699,^[6] far above competing game systems and aimed at high-end users and early adopters. Hawkins has argued that 3DO was launched at $599, and not "higher myths that are often reported."^[3] For a significant period of the product's life cycle, 3DO's official stance on pricing was that the 3DO was not a video game console, rather a high-end audio-visual system and was priced accordingly, so no price adjustment was needed. Despite this, the promised "early adopters" never showed up to purchase mass quantities of games.

The launch of the platform in October, 1993 was well-promoted, with a great deal of press attention in the mass media as part of the "multimedia wave" in the computer world at the time. Even so, the 3DO was awarded Worst Console Launch of 1993 by Electronic Gaming Monthly.^[7]

Price drops announced in February 1996 were perceived in the industry to be an effort to improve market penetration before the release of the promised successor of 3DO, the M2. Heavy promotional efforts on the YTV variety show It's Alive and a stream of hinted product expandability supported that idea; however, the M2 project was eventually scrapped altogether.

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, repositioning their internal software development house as a multi-platform company supporting the Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and computer platforms.

The higher quality of later CD-ROM based systems that emerged in the mid-90s, the limited library of titles, lack of third-party support, and the initial high price point are all considered to be among the many issues that led to the 3DO's demise.^[1]

Variants

Panasonic FZ-10 R.E.A.L. 3DO Interactive Multiplayer

Goldstar 3DO Interactive Multiplayer

Due to the licensing method employed by 3DO a number of different manufacturers produced the 3DO system for the market. The Panasonic versions are the best known and most common.

• 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. The price was later reduced to $399.99 in the fall of 1994.^[8]
• Panasonic FZ-10 R.E.A.L. 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (Japan, North America and Europe) – Released a year or two after the FZ-1. It is a less expensive, slimmer and lighter model and replaced the FZ-1 in Panasonic's portfolio. The FZ-10 featured a top loading CD tray, an internal memory manager and repositioned the LEDs and controller port. The controller is also smaller and lighter than the one included with the FZ-1, but lacks a headphones output.
• Panasonic ROBO 3DO (Japan only) — A FZ-1 custom console, fitted with a five disc CD drive.
• Goldstar 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (South Korea, North America and Europe) — The Goldstar GDO-101M unit, released a year after the FZ-1 is similar in physical appearance to the Panasonic FZ-1. Due to hardware differences and file processing limitations, incompatibilities with some games were reported.
• Goldstar 3DO ALIVE II' (South Korea only)
• Sanyo TRY 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (Japan only)
• Creative 3DO Blaster — PC ISA expansion card with a double-speed CD-ROM drive and one controller that enables a PC to play 3DO games.

Hardware

The original edition of the console, the FZ-1, was referred to in full as the 3DO REAL Interactive Multiplayer. The console had advanced hardware features at the time: an ARM60 32-bit RISC CPU, two custom video coprocessors, a custom 16-bit DSP and a custom math co-processor. It also featured 2 megabytes (MB) of DRAM, 1 megabyte of VRAM, and a double speed CD-ROM drive for main CD+Gs or Photo CDs (and Video CDs with an add-on MPEG video module).^[1] The 3DO included the first light synthesizer in a game console, converting CD music to a mesmerizing color pattern.

The 3DO is one of few CD-based units that feature neither regional lockout nor copy protection, making it easy to use for pirated software.^[9] 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 which English language consoles could not read. Games that did not and still had compatibility issues include Sword and Sorcery (which was released in English under the title Lucienne's Quest), the adult video game Twinkle Knights and a demo version of Alone in the Dark.

The 3DO, just like the Amiga CD32, had standard video and audio ports that were compatible with standard off the shelf cables. In addition to standard RF modulator support and stereo, the console could also be used with composite and S-Video cables.

The FZ-1's RISC CPU

Technical specifications

Processor

• 32-bit 12.5 MHz RISC CPU (ARM60)
• Custom Math co-processor (It does not use the stock ARM FPA unit.)
• 32kb SRAM

Panasonic FZ-1 "Clio" graphics accelerator

Panasonic FZ-1 "Madam" graphics accelerator

Display

• Resolution 640×480, 320×240 60 Hz for NTSC version, and 768×576, 384×288 50 Hz for PAL version with either 16 bit palettized color (from 24 bits) or 24 bit truecolor.^[10]
• 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

• 50 MB/s bus speed (synchronous 32-bit @12.5 MHz bus)
• 36 DMA channels
• 2 MB of main RAM
• 1 MB of VRAM
• 2 expansion ports

Sound

• 16-bit stereo sound
• 44.1 kHz sound sampling rate
• Supports Dolby Surround sound
• Custom 20-bit Digital signal processor (DSP) – 20 bit accumulator with 16-bit parameter registers for extended precision

Media

• Double-speed (depending on manufacturer) 300 kB/s data transfer CD-ROM drive with 32 kB RAM buffer
• Multitasking 32-bit operating system

Accessories

Among the accessories shipped standard with most 3DO systems were a/v and power cables along with one standard controller. The 3DO controllers were unique in that the system base unit contained only one controller port and the controllers could be physically daisy chained together via a port on the back of each controller. Up to eight controllers could be linked together in this fashion. All controllers for each 3DO console are compatible with one another.

In addition, standard 3DO controllers released with the Panasonic FZ-1 also contained a headphone jack and volume control for silent play. The Goldstar model also included a controller with this feature.

Third party accessories were produced by a number of companies including Logitech and included items such as joysticks, light guns and a steering wheel.

Games

Crash 'n Burn on the 3DO, the system's first bundled title.

Some of the best-received titles were ports of arcade or PC games that other cartridge-based systems of the time were not capable of playing, such as Alone in the Dark, Myst and Star Control II. Other popular titles included Total Eclipse, Jurassic Park Interactive, Gex, Crash 'n Burn, Slayer, Killing Time, The Need for Speed, and Immercenary. Additionally, 3DO had the most popular port of Road Rash, and the arcade fighting game Samurai Shodown was ported to the system with all original graphics intact. The first home port of Super Street Fighter II Turbo was also available on the system, exceeding the original with its CD-quality audio.

However, the 3DO library also exhibited less successful aspects of home gaming at the time. It was launched at the dawn of CD-ROM gaming, and early titles on 3DO (and Mega-CD alike) frequently attempted to use interactive movie-style gameplay. Such titles rendered all and nearly all of their graphics in full motion video, which necessitated that any interactive influence from the player be limited to a greater extent than other games of the time. Some games followed a single unfolding of events simply by correctly timed prompts executed by the player. Night Trap, Mad Dog McCree, and The Daedalus Encounter are some of the more notorious titles from this era. Also, digital video was of very low quality at the time, especially on low-cost consumer devices.

Game series that were originally launched on the 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 to the PlayStation and Microsoft Windows, but met with limited success.

Aborted successor

The 3DO Company designed a next-generation console that was never released due to various business and technological issues. The M2 project, which began as an accelerator addon for the 3DO,^[11] was to use dual PowerPC 602 processors in addition to newer 3D and video rendering technologies. Late during development, the company abandoned the console hardware business and sold the M2 technology to Matsushita. While Matsushita initially claimed to be planning a game console with the technology, it was shortly thereafter re-branded for the kiosk market competing with the CD-i system.

Konami later made an M2-based arcade board.^[12] Games ran straight from the CD-ROM drive causing long load times and a high failure rate due to the CD-ROM being continuously in-use.

Market competition

Video game (primary market at launch)

• NEC PC Engine with Super CD-ROM expansion
• Nintendo's SNES
• Sega Mega Drive with Mega CD expansion
• Atari Jaguar

Video game (primary market at end-of-life)

• Sega's Saturn
• Sony's PlayStation

High-end A/V (secondary market) (multi-purpose audio/video systems)

• Commodore's CDTV
• Philips' CD-i
• Pioneer's LaserActive
• Tandy Video Information System

Emulation

FreeDO is working on a 3DO emulator. While older beta builds are available on its website, it is still in development with the latest alpha build available here. A 3DO BIOS file is necessary for it to run.

Cultural references

The console's high price and quick obsolescence is skewered in the anime adaptation of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei. The morose high school teacher Itoshiki Nozomu describes purchasing a 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, as well as a Betamax VCR as one of the major mistakes in his life.^[13]

See also

• 1993 in video games
• 3DO Rating System
• List of 3DO games
• Panasonic Jungle

References

External links

• 3DO at the Open Directory Project

This article is based on material taken from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the "relicensing" terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later.