3DO or lost link
Good day.
Analyzing mezzanines, found Computer Press magazine for May 1995. Those. almost 20 years have passed since its release. The more interesting, in my opinion, to see what was then. My attention was drawn to an article about the “IBM PC expansion board” (note the terminology, by the way), which turns a computer into a game console. In those days, software emulation was presented very modestly (if not even more sadly), so such decisions took place to be. Personally, I came across solutions for the Amiga computer, when with the help of the Amga 2000/4000 board (I had such a beast) I turned into an almost completely hardware analogue of the IBM PC / XT.
Today, such directions, it seems to me, are undeservedly abandoned. Perhaps this is a good idea for enthusiasts (not all the same LEDs on the microcontrollers to light).
')
In general, I scanned the article. Since so much time has passed, I even left the name and phone of the firm of those times. Information is hardly relevant and can be advertising.
So, who cares about being transferred 20 years ago and being a little bit nostalgic (like me) or reading what older people lived - welcome to cat.
Alexey Fedorov (Computer Press 05/1995. Original images. There are no photo cards in the article.)
I have long been looking for a reason to travel briefly into the world of gaming consoles and see how things are there. In the meantime, I was busy searching, Creative Labs, together with 3DO Company, created a map that can turn your computer into a game console. In order to understand why such a card is needed, you should briefly look at the market of game consoles. To date, game consoles (no, not Dendy or Sega, but more “professional”) are represented by the main models shown in the table:
Some of the listed models were released quite recently, some a little earlier, but all of them are united by one property - these are models of the second or third generation, having rather powerful resources. Since this article is devoted to a map that emulates a 3DO console, let's look at the position of this console on the market, where a year and a half ago two gaming platforms dominated - Nintendo Super NES and Sega Genesis, and the rest - Nintendo Game Boy, Sega Game Gear, 3DO and Jaguar were in the background. Since then, the situation has not changed much. The main reason for this is the insufficient production of the games themselves for one or another console. Let's look at 3DO. According to the company, the first year on the market was quite successful: around 250,000 consoles were sold around the world, about 100 games were released, and the price of the prefix decreased by 42% compared to the initial one and amounted to $ 399. The circulation of some games reached 50,000 copies. Currently, 3DO consoles can be purchased at 5,000 stores in North America only. In the US, the release of the 3DO console involved two companies - Panasonic and GoldStar. Who is behind the 3DO company? Such famous companies as AT & T, Matsushita, Electronic Arts and Time Warner. It should be noted that the prefix 3DO - actually the brainchild of the company Electronic Arts, or rather, its former founder Trip Hawkins (Trip Hawkins), who recently left EA. completely giving himself a new brainchild. Only one question remained unclear - why release such a card? The answer is quite simple. First, the game console market is slowly but surely dying, and funds invested in the development of gaming programs need to be paid back. Secondly, the appearance of such a card may lead to a new round of interest in the set-top box itself, which will lead to the emergence of new programs and so on. It is time, however, to look at the card itself.
How to do it? Simple enough. Install the 3DO Blaster card into the 16-bit slot on the motherboard and connect it to it:
The CD-ROM interface has a 40-pin connector and is compatible only with Panasonic drives. Audio connectors are designed for carp family SoundBlaster. In short, the use of this card is limited either by Creative Labs cards / drives, or by their fairly precise clones. However, I have not experienced any problems with the Aztec WaveRider32 sound card. The only problem I encountered is the CD-ROM drive driver. The card is designed for drivers included in the multimedia kits from Creative Labs. But more about that below. From the outside, a monitor and a game panel, functionally corresponding to the game console, are connected to the card. The card also has a connector labeled MPEG FMV CONN, which makes it possible to think about the plan to release a daughter card that allows playing MPEG files.
After everything is installed and connected, it is necessary to install drivers and programs. As a matter of fact, the driver-level functionality of the card is provided by the small CD3DOBLT.SYS driver, whose task is to switch the CD reading modes. But this requires the presence of a specific driver of the drive itself, namely SBCD.SYS, on the command line of which you need to specify the additional parameter - / T: 2. A fragment of the CONFIG.SYS file will look like this:
DEVICE> C0300BLT.SYS / R: 260
DEVICE - SBCO.SYS / R: 260 /
D: MSCD0001 / T: 2
The following line is added to AUTOEXEC.BAT:
SET 3DOB1ST = C: \ 3D0 A: 260
After all these simple operations, we load Windows and start installing the program, which will emulate the 3DO prefix. This does not cause any problems, except that you need to center the image in the window and do not forget to install a CD designed for 3 D O in the CD-ROM drive.
Together with the card three disks are delivered, as well as a disk with the programs Aldus Gallery Effects and Aldus Photostyler. The inclusion of the latest gaming console raises certain questions, especially since these are programs for the IBM PC (but it answers the question of how the number of copies sold of a program is counted). Concluding the purely hardware part of this review, I want to note that in most cases the card is installed without any additional settings - the default values ​​of its parameters are chosen reasonably enough. However, you can change the address of the input / output port (the default value is 260H) - the allowed values ​​are 270, 280 and 290.
As I noted above, three CDs are included. One of them contains demo versions of various game programs, the other two are games. One of them is Shock Wave: Operation Jumpgate from Electronic Arts, the second is a more or less logical game Gridders from Tetragon. On the demo disc, you can get acquainted with a dozen games for 3DO. Most of all I liked the game Road Arts Rash by Electronic Arts - a fairly realistic simulator of motorcycle racing. All arcade games resemble Mortal Combat.
The company Electronic Arts offers remakes of its popular games FIFA International Soccer, The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes, Syndicate and Theme Park. If we look in the catalog of games offered for this console, for example, in Computer Gaming World magazine for February 1995, then it turns out that of the 38 games offered, 24 are games transferred from the IBM PC, and the rest are arcade games, or football, or golf. Bored live guys. True, the proposed DOOM and Mad Dog McCree 2.
With a price of about $ 500, the 3DO Blaster card allows you to supplement your multimedia computer (MPC-2 level) with the properties of a game console. In this case, you do not get anything fundamentally new - neither in hardware nor in software sense. I can say with confidence that there is not a single game for 3DO (see above) that would be worth it to install this card on your computer. Moreover, in our country, the games for this console are simply nowhere to take. My advice is to save money for something more useful, such as an MPEG file player, or just buy some cool multimedia games.
3DO Blaster map for this review was provided by UniVer JSC
Tel./Fax (095) 434-20-60,
(095) 207-95-14
Analyzing mezzanines, found Computer Press magazine for May 1995. Those. almost 20 years have passed since its release. The more interesting, in my opinion, to see what was then. My attention was drawn to an article about the “IBM PC expansion board” (note the terminology, by the way), which turns a computer into a game console. In those days, software emulation was presented very modestly (if not even more sadly), so such decisions took place to be. Personally, I came across solutions for the Amiga computer, when with the help of the Amga 2000/4000 board (I had such a beast) I turned into an almost completely hardware analogue of the IBM PC / XT.
Today, such directions, it seems to me, are undeservedly abandoned. Perhaps this is a good idea for enthusiasts (not all the same LEDs on the microcontrollers to light).
')
In general, I scanned the article. Since so much time has passed, I even left the name and phone of the firm of those times. Information is hardly relevant and can be advertising.
So, who cares about being transferred 20 years ago and being a little bit nostalgic (like me) or reading what older people lived - welcome to cat.
TURN YOUR COMPUTER TO GAME POSTS: CREATIVE LABS 3DO BLASTER
Alexey Fedorov (Computer Press 05/1995. Original images. There are no photo cards in the article.)
I have long been looking for a reason to travel briefly into the world of gaming consoles and see how things are there. In the meantime, I was busy searching, Creative Labs, together with 3DO Company, created a map that can turn your computer into a game console. In order to understand why such a card is needed, you should briefly look at the market of game consoles. To date, game consoles (no, not Dendy or Sega, but more “professional”) are represented by the main models shown in the table:
| Title | Firm | Characteristic |
| CD-i | Philips | The processor Motorola 68070 15.5 MHz. the ability to display full-color graphics from a palette of 16.7 million colors with a resolution of 384x280 to 768x560. It has 1.5 MB of memory and a CD-ROM drive with a transfer rate of 150 KB / s. |
| CD32 | Commodore | Motorola 68020,32-bit processor, 14 MHz, AGA graphics processor, the ability to display full-color graphics from a palette of 16.7 million colors with a resolution from 320x256 to 1280x512. It has 2 MB of memory and a CD-ROM drive with a speed of 300 KB / s. |
| Jaguar | Atari | Motorola MC68000,64-bit processor, two 64-bit graphic RISC-processors and a number of additional graphic coprocessors. The ability to display full-color graphics from a palette of 16.7 million colors with a resolution of up to 720x576. It has 2 MB of memory and uses cassettes. |
| 3DO | 3DO Company | 32-bit RISC processor with a frequency of 12.5 MHz, two 32-bit graphics coprocessor. The ability to display full-color graphics from a palette of 16.7 million colors with a resolution of 320x240, interpolated to a resolution of 640x480. It has 3 MB of memory and a CD-ROM drive with a speed of 300 KB / s. |
| Saturn | Sega | Two 32-bit 27-MHz Hitachi RISC processors, a set of graphics co-processors. The ability to display full-color graphics from a palette of 16.7 million colors. Has a CD-ROM drive with a speed of 300 KB / s |
Some of the listed models were released quite recently, some a little earlier, but all of them are united by one property - these are models of the second or third generation, having rather powerful resources. Since this article is devoted to a map that emulates a 3DO console, let's look at the position of this console on the market, where a year and a half ago two gaming platforms dominated - Nintendo Super NES and Sega Genesis, and the rest - Nintendo Game Boy, Sega Game Gear, 3DO and Jaguar were in the background. Since then, the situation has not changed much. The main reason for this is the insufficient production of the games themselves for one or another console. Let's look at 3DO. According to the company, the first year on the market was quite successful: around 250,000 consoles were sold around the world, about 100 games were released, and the price of the prefix decreased by 42% compared to the initial one and amounted to $ 399. The circulation of some games reached 50,000 copies. Currently, 3DO consoles can be purchased at 5,000 stores in North America only. In the US, the release of the 3DO console involved two companies - Panasonic and GoldStar. Who is behind the 3DO company? Such famous companies as AT & T, Matsushita, Electronic Arts and Time Warner. It should be noted that the prefix 3DO - actually the brainchild of the company Electronic Arts, or rather, its former founder Trip Hawkins (Trip Hawkins), who recently left EA. completely giving himself a new brainchild. Only one question remained unclear - why release such a card? The answer is quite simple. First, the game console market is slowly but surely dying, and funds invested in the development of gaming programs need to be paid back. Secondly, the appearance of such a card may lead to a new round of interest in the set-top box itself, which will lead to the emergence of new programs and so on. It is time, however, to look at the card itself.
A computer turns, a computer turns into ... a game console
How to do it? Simple enough. Install the 3DO Blaster card into the 16-bit slot on the motherboard and connect it to it:
- - interface cable from the CD-ROM drive;
- - cable connecting the card with the video card expansion slot (feature connector);
- - an audio cable connecting the card to the audio output of the CD-ROM drive;
- - an audio cable connecting the card to the sound card.
The CD-ROM interface has a 40-pin connector and is compatible only with Panasonic drives. Audio connectors are designed for carp family SoundBlaster. In short, the use of this card is limited either by Creative Labs cards / drives, or by their fairly precise clones. However, I have not experienced any problems with the Aztec WaveRider32 sound card. The only problem I encountered is the CD-ROM drive driver. The card is designed for drivers included in the multimedia kits from Creative Labs. But more about that below. From the outside, a monitor and a game panel, functionally corresponding to the game console, are connected to the card. The card also has a connector labeled MPEG FMV CONN, which makes it possible to think about the plan to release a daughter card that allows playing MPEG files.
After everything is installed and connected, it is necessary to install drivers and programs. As a matter of fact, the driver-level functionality of the card is provided by the small CD3DOBLT.SYS driver, whose task is to switch the CD reading modes. But this requires the presence of a specific driver of the drive itself, namely SBCD.SYS, on the command line of which you need to specify the additional parameter - / T: 2. A fragment of the CONFIG.SYS file will look like this:
DEVICE> C0300BLT.SYS / R: 260
DEVICE - SBCO.SYS / R: 260 /
D: MSCD0001 / T: 2
The following line is added to AUTOEXEC.BAT:
SET 3DOB1ST = C: \ 3D0 A: 260
After all these simple operations, we load Windows and start installing the program, which will emulate the 3DO prefix. This does not cause any problems, except that you need to center the image in the window and do not forget to install a CD designed for 3 D O in the CD-ROM drive.
Together with the card three disks are delivered, as well as a disk with the programs Aldus Gallery Effects and Aldus Photostyler. The inclusion of the latest gaming console raises certain questions, especially since these are programs for the IBM PC (but it answers the question of how the number of copies sold of a program is counted). Concluding the purely hardware part of this review, I want to note that in most cases the card is installed without any additional settings - the default values ​​of its parameters are chosen reasonably enough. However, you can change the address of the input / output port (the default value is 260H) - the allowed values ​​are 270, 280 and 290.
It's time to do business
As I noted above, three CDs are included. One of them contains demo versions of various game programs, the other two are games. One of them is Shock Wave: Operation Jumpgate from Electronic Arts, the second is a more or less logical game Gridders from Tetragon. On the demo disc, you can get acquainted with a dozen games for 3DO. Most of all I liked the game Road Arts Rash by Electronic Arts - a fairly realistic simulator of motorcycle racing. All arcade games resemble Mortal Combat.
The company Electronic Arts offers remakes of its popular games FIFA International Soccer, The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes, Syndicate and Theme Park. If we look in the catalog of games offered for this console, for example, in Computer Gaming World magazine for February 1995, then it turns out that of the 38 games offered, 24 are games transferred from the IBM PC, and the rest are arcade games, or football, or golf. Bored live guys. True, the proposed DOOM and Mad Dog McCree 2.
Conclusion
With a price of about $ 500, the 3DO Blaster card allows you to supplement your multimedia computer (MPC-2 level) with the properties of a game console. In this case, you do not get anything fundamentally new - neither in hardware nor in software sense. I can say with confidence that there is not a single game for 3DO (see above) that would be worth it to install this card on your computer. Moreover, in our country, the games for this console are simply nowhere to take. My advice is to save money for something more useful, such as an MPEG file player, or just buy some cool multimedia games.
3DO Blaster map for this review was provided by UniVer JSC
Tel./Fax (095) 434-20-60,
(095) 207-95-14
And the images found on the web
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/217571/
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