3DO

3DO Interactive Multiplayer (most commonly referred to as the 3DO) was a line of video game consoles released in 1993 and 1994 by Panasonic, Sanyo and Goldstar, among other companies. more...

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The consoles were manufactured according to specifications created by The 3DO Company, and were originally designed by Dave Needle and RJ Mical of New Technology Group. The system was conceived by entrepreneur and EA Games founder Trip Hawkins.

Despite a highly-promoted launch and a host of cutting-edge technologies, the system's high price ($699.95 USD at release) and an over-saturated console market prevented the 3DO from ever achieving any real market penetration.

Features and catalog

The consoles had very advanced hardware features at the time: an ARM60 32-bit RISC CPU, two custom video co-processors, a custom 16-bit DSP and a custom math coprocessor. They also featured 2 megabytes of DRAM, 1 megabyte of VRAM, and a double speed CD-ROM drive for main storage, Up to 8 controllers could be daisy-chained on the system at once. In addition to special 3DO software, the system was able to play audio CDs (including support for CD+G), view Photo CDs, and Video CDs with an add-on MPEG video card. However, few titles utilized the console's full potential.

A notable feature of the console is that it is one of few CD-based consoles that feature neither regional lockout nor copy protection, scoring it points amongst import gamers and software pirates alike, though reports have suggested that the Goldstar model isn't particularly durable when used for either of those purposes. 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. 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, including Sword and Sorcery (which was released in English under the title Lucienne's Quest) and a demo version of Alone in the Dark.

It is often said that the 3DO software library exhibited many of the worst aspects of home video gaming at the time. This was the dawn of CD-ROM gaming, so cutscenes of pixelated video footage dominated many titles at the expense of good gameplay. The most well-received titles were commonly ports of games from other systems, such as Alone in the Dark, Myst, Out of This World, and Star Control II. Other notable titles include Need for Speed, Road Rash, Jurassic Park Interactive, Crash N' Burn, Gex, Slayer, Killing Time, and the first console port of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, which exceeded the original with its CD-quality audio. Game series that started on 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 from the 3DO to the Sony PlayStation, and Microsoft Windows, but met with limited success.

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