The 3DO Company and 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (Panasonic and not only)

Hello. I didn’t find an article about the 3DO platform, so I’ll try to correct this unfortunate omission.
The article will discuss the history of the 3DO Company, the 3DO consoles from Panasonic, Goldstar, Sanyo and not only hardware stuffing with photos of entrails and even the only platform for this Demo, so I ask for cat.




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The founder of The 3DO Company is considered to be Trip Hawkins ( Trip Hawkins ), who is also the founder of Electronic Arts . Established in 1991, the company set the goal of bringing the 32-bit console of the new generation to the market with content on a CD. At that time, 16-bit Sega Mega CD and Philips CDi discs were already on the market.

The first model of the Panasonic FZ-1 REAL 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was released in October 1993 at a price of $ 599.





At the time of entering the market there were already two models of consoles of the 5th generation FM Towns Marty and Amiga CD32

The prefix had outstanding technical characteristics for that time:

• Main 32-bit RISC processor ARM60 with a frequency of 12.5 MHz
• Mathematical co-processor to accelerate matrix computing, also operating at 12.5 MHz
• Two graphic co-processors operating at 25 MHz. Such a video system could calculate 9-16 million pixels per second with support for scaling, rotation, and texturing. For textures, compression, transparency, translucency and color lighting were maintained.
• Video buffer 1 MB, Resolution 320x240, 24-bit color. At the conclusion interpolated up to 640x480
• Digital Signal Processor for CD quality sound processing
• RAM RAM - 2 MB
• ROM ROM - 1 MB
• Non-volatile memory SRAM - 32 KB for storing saves
• 36 DMA channels
• All components are connected via the bus with a bandwidth of 50 Mb / s

System architecture:


The prefix also had a full-fledged multi-tasking operating system, which was supposed to boot from the CD along with the game or application.
The network has a developer's guide detailing the architecture of the OS. Programming the 3DO Portfolio System

Photo board FZ-1


In addition to the CPU VLSI ARM VY86C060-20FC, you can also consider two ASIC chips, which contain the co-processors. These are 6sc700hf101 - MADAM and 6sc800hf103 - CLIO


Photo FZ-1 with installed drive CR-560B :


In November 1994, the more compact and cheap model Panasonic FZ-10 R · E · A · L 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was released.



The first versions of the FZ-10 in the hardware were similar to the FZ-1, they used the same MADAM and CLIO chips


However, in later versions MADAM and CLIO were replaced with a common ASIC called Anvil.



There is also a version of the Panasonic 3DO Robo , which was designed for installation in hotels. The console was with a CD changer for 5 discs.


In addition to Panasonic, 3DO also released Goldstar, Sanyo and Samsung.
Goldstar had a model on MADAM + CLIO GDO-101M , which was called Alive , and a model GDO-202P on Anvil.





Later came GDO-203P , named Alive II

Unfortunately, I don't have this model yet, so I can't show the insides.

There is also 3DO from Sanyo


Board Creative 3DO Blaster, a review of which was in the article 3DO or a lost link , and the version from Samsung, which is only rumors and legends.

In May 1995, the company announced the release of a new-generation console, the 3DO M2, with even more impressive performance.


There is a very small number of these consoles with codes FZ-21 and FZ-35S
A complete set of the latest is now on ebay for only $ 2999 :)

3DO accessories

There are 2 gamepads from Panasonic: the FZ-JP1X with a headphone output and the simpler FZ-JP2X . Goldstar gamepad was marked as GPA-111P

All consoles have only one port for connecting a gamepad, however this does not mean that there was no multiplayer in the games. The gamepads also had ports for connection, so up to 8 gamepads could be assembled into a chain.


There are still a mouse FZ-JM1 , adapters for playing VideoCD FZ-FV1A and FZ-FV10 , a 256 kB memory module FZ-EM256 that allows you to make more save games, as well as a karaoke mixer FZ-AK1


Gamepads also produced third-party companies.

Under 3DO, quite a lot of games have been released, on youtube you can find the most popular video reviews.

There is also one Demo 3DO teaser trailer , at the time of publication of the article, the video had only 330 views :)



Unfortunately, in spite of ambitious plans, 3DO Interactive Multiplayer is recognized as an unsuccessful platform that lasted only 3 years. In 1996, The 3DO Company sold off its ironworks and completely switched to creating video games, launching such famous games as Army Men and Heroes of Might and Magic . However, this did not save the company from bankruptcy in 2003.

It looked like the stock exchange The 3DO Company


Thanks to web.arhcive.org, you can see how the 3do.com website looked in different years:

Judging by whois, the domain 3do.com was registered on December 22, 1992 and is valid until December 21, 2017

Useful links:

• 3DO consoles forum
• 4DO emulator
• 3DO collection of one maniac, I can not even imagine how much it can cost
• Sources of the game DOOM for 3DO
• Base of games with screenshots
• Press release from 3do.com about the sale of Samsung hardware development
• My IT Museum profile on Instagram
• IT Museum Channel on Youtube