3DO M1 Technology

[swaaye]

I searched through the forums a bit but didn't really find a good discussion of the old 3DO console. I really enjoy reading the in-depth analyses of N64, Saturn, Dreamcast, Xbox, Gamecube, GBA, etc!

For some reason I've recently become interested in the thing and am even considering picking one up from eBay for kicks.

Anyway, I am really looking for some insight into the console's hardware. I know it has a little 12MHz Arm7 CPU putting along. But, there's not a lot out there about its dedicated graphics and sound hardware......

 

[Megadrive1988]

IIRC, the 3DO Mark I / Opera hardware had twin graphics processors



http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=2ei6taINNmat@ctron-news.ctron.com&output=gplain

The 3DO relies
on its twin graphics processors and DMA engine to produce its versatile
cellbased graphics.

^note^that's nothing to do with CELL

 

[thop]

All you need to know about the 3DO

 

[Guden Oden]

Egads. That commercial was AWFUL!

Not technically - I'm sure the video effects in it were top-notch for its time - but for the graphics... Jesus, did 3DO games really look THAT awful? Guess they did.

"Jerk-o-rama" is probably the word that describes them best.

 

[swaaye]

Do all games average what looks like 5-10fps?

 

[see colon]

they seamed smooth as silk at the time. (i own a goldstar 3do)

 

[swaaye]

What is a 'cell' engine? I keep thinking of cell animation in cartoons....but that doesn't seem right.

It would seem to suggest though that the thing wasn't really designed to render polygons...was it more of a 2D renderer?

 

[mboeller]

look here:

http://darkwatcher.psxfanatics.com/console/

or better here :

http://darkwatcher.psxfanatics.com/console/3do.htm

the "detailed Spec" and "FAQ" pages are imho really good.

 

[swaaye]

Cool site. Dunno why I never stumbled on it!

 

[jvd]

you can come over here and play with my 3do

 

[wazoo]

The 3DO had some interesting games. Framerate was not really superb in all games. Some were pretty smooth but came really at the end like Shock Wave 2 or PO'Ed.