The History of 3DO

3DO

The 3DO was created by the 3DO Company, a partnership formed by seven companies to create a technical hardware model and license it to anyone who wanted to assemble it. This was the case of Panasonic, the first company to launch the 3DO in 1993 in the USA. Its model was known as the FZ-1. The 3DO is considered the first 32-bit console to be launched in major gaming markets, such as the USA and Japan, with the Amiga CD32 being the first to be launched, in this case in Europe. The technical part of the 3DO consisted of a 32-bit ARM60 RISC CPU, a math coprocessor, two 16-bit color GPUs, with a resolution of 640x480, 2MB of RAM, 16-bit stereo sound at 44.1KHz, a digital signal sound processor and a 2x CD-ROM drive. The console was relatively successful in the USA, even though it was sold for three times the market price for a new console. Other countries where it sold well were Japan, South Korea and Russia. Despite this, it was unable to compete with the 16-bit consoles, much less with the 32-bit giants Saturn and PSX when they hit the market in 1994. Despite this, it had some great releases, such as well-made ports and the beginning of franchises that would later become popular among its competitors.

3DO Games

Among them we have Alone In The Dark, Bust-a-Move, Casper, Doom, Dragon's Lair, Flashback, Gex, Night Trap, Casper, Phoenix 3, Samurai Shodown, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Theme Park, Wolfenstein 3D, among others. In addition, we had racing games, such as Crash 'n Burn, Quarantine (quorentin), Need For Speed, Road Rash, MegaRace, Autobahn Tokio. Sports games, such as Fifa International Soccer, Madden, PGA Tour Golf, ESPN Let's Play and Slam 'N Jam. Adventure games, such as Johnny Bazookatone, Captain Quazar, Out of This World, Casper, The Horde. Anime games, such as Yu Yu Hakusho, Sailor Moon, Doraemon and Shin-Chan. Puzzle games, such as Puzzle Bobble, Trip'd, Icebreaker, The Incredible Machine. Fighting games, such as Primal Rage, Rise of the Robots, Way of the Warrior, The Eye of Typhoon, Ultraman Powered. Shooting games (or first-person shooters), such as Mad Dog I and II, Crime Patrol and Who Shot Johnny Rock?, also released for the Sega CD, as well as Drug Wars and The Last Bounty Hunter, all in the famous FMV, Full Motion Video, that is, games that interact with real movies. Shooting games, but not FMV, we had Jurassic Park Interactive, PO'ed, Demolition Man, and the aforementioned Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. Shmups, such as Burning Soldier, Starblade, the Shock Wave series, Star Fighter, Armageddon and others, all in the warship style, similar to the classics After Burner and Star Fox. And RPGs, such as Battle Blues, Seal of the Pharaoh, Blue Forest Story, Lucienne's Quest, Slayer.

3DO Blaster

In 1994, the company launched the 3DO Blaster, an ISA video card (old PC input for video and sound cards) that reproduced the console's original hardware. It worked in partnership with the computer's CD-ROM and was compatible with Windows 3.1. On the PC, you could also capture the game's screen. It was the only device that was developed to work inside a computer. The card came with two VGA outputs for PC monitors and one output for the 3DO controller. Despite its innovation, it was soon discontinued. 

Panasonic 3DO, Gold Star 3DO and Sanyo 3DO

In 1994, Panasonic's console had another version released at a cheaper price, known as the FZ-10. Other companies launched the console around the world, such as Gold Star in South Korea in 1994 (with three more versions released later) and Sanyo in Japan in 1995. Japan is where it had the most releases (Panasonic and Sanyo). Despite existing in several countries, it never had region locking, even helping in the creation of homebrews for the hardware.

Samsung DMB-800

The console was discontinued in 1996, and in its three years of existence it sold over 2 million units. After its closure, the 3DO Company sold its hardware, known as Opera, to Samsung in 1997, which released it that same year under the name Samsung DMB-800, also serving to play VCDs and play karaoke. The device was discontinued around 1998/99.