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 3DO Company, 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.





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 running 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 be loaded 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 of the FZ-1 board


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


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


In November 1994, the more compact and cheaper model Panasonic FZ- 10R came out on the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer



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



There is also a version of the Panasonic 3DO Robo , which was developed 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 both a MADAM + CLIO GDO-101M model , which was called Alive , and a GDO-202P model on Anvil.





Later came GDO-203P , called Alive II

Unfortunately, I do not have this model yet, so I can’t show the insides.

There is also a 3DO from Sanyo


Creative 3DO Blaster board, which was reviewed in the 3DO article or a lost link , and a Samsung version, about which there are 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 FZ-21 and FZ-35S codes. The
complete set of the latter is now available on ebay for only $ 2,999 :)

Accessories for 3DO

From Panasonic there are 2 gamepads: FZ-JP1X with headphone output and simpler FZ-JP2X . Goldstar gamepad was marked as GPA-111P

On all consoles there is only one port for connecting a gamepad, but 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 in a chain.


There are also the FZ-JM1 mouse , VideoCD FZ-FV1A and FZ-FV10 play adapters , a 256 kB FZ-EM256 memory module that allows you to save more in games, as well as FZ-AK1 karaoke mixer


Gamepads were also released by 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.

This was how stock exchange shares of The 3DO Company looked like.


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