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Launched by Panasonic on October 4th, 1993, the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer brought 3D graphics and CDROM technology in an all-in-one package, with a launch price that would make Neo Geo owners do a double-take. Introduced as a does-everything-but-the-dishes set-top box for playing multimedia discs, music CDs, oh, and of course, video games at the low-low price of $699.99, the 3DO was set to be a boutique store gadget from the outset.

TECH

3DO Interactive Multiplayer
Manufacturers: Panasonic, Goldstar, Sanyo
Models: FZ-1, FZ-10, GDO-101M, TRY IMP-21J
Type: TV game console


Processor: ARM60 @ 12.5 MHz
Memory: 2 MB RAM, 1 MB VRAM
Dimensions: ?? mm


Being a premier piece of electronic equipment, the 3DO (3DOs?) comes equipped with s-video output, which separates the luma (brightness) and chroma (color) signals, preventing cross-contamination and display artifacting. In essence, a much sharper picture, provided you have a TV capable of receiving it. If not, a Commodore monitor with separate luma and chroma inputs can receive s-video, with the appropriate adapter for the connectors.

The business model of the 3DO is something interesting. Instead of the 3DO company manufacturing the game systems and selling them, they instead license the technology out to established tech manufacturers who then produce and sell the systems on their own. This has the unfortunate side effect of putting all of the risk on those manufacturers, who have no hand in the production of the software which would sell the game systems. Their profits relied entirely on 3DO and 3rd party developers to sweeten the pot for them. Many developers were wary of the system, not having the confidence in it that Trip Hawkins had, which made it even more difficult to get systems out into the market, no matter how recolutionary the hardware was.

SPEC
Display: 640x480, 320x240, 768x576
24 bit truecolor, or 16 bit palette from 24 bit

Audio: 16 bit stereo
Stereo CDDA playback
44.1 kHz sampling rate


While the 3DO doesn't have region locking in the traditional sense, some fonts were exclusive to specific regions, and were stored in the system memory itself. This means that Japanese games simply wouldn't work properly in a US region 3DO. On the plus side, it's reported that no model of 3DO has copy protection, so if you have one of those thousand dollar CD mastering machines, you're good to go.

As expected, the lack of major 3rd party "killer games" is hurting the 3DO line pretty badly, though Road Rash and The Need for Speed are pretty awesome. Still, Electronic Arts isn't enough to prop up an entire system, as even the Genesis still relies heavily on Sega itself to stay at, or at least near the head of the crowd. It remains to be seen if someone can pull the 3DO's proverbial fat out of the fire, or if it will just go down in flames.





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