3DO
<company, games, standard> A set of specifications created and owned by the 3DO company, which is a partnership of seven different companies.
These specs are the blueprint for making a 3DO Interactive Multiplayer and are licensed to hardware and software producers.
A 3DO system has an ARM60 32-bit
RISC CPU and a graphics engine based around two custom designed graphics and animation processors.
It has 2 Megabytes of
DRAM, 1 Megabyte of
VRAM, and a double speed
CD-ROM drive for main storage.
The Panasonic 3DO system can run 3DO Interactive software, play audio CDs (including support for CD+G), view Photo-CDs, and will eventually be able to play Video CDs with a special add-on
MPEG1
full-motion video cartridge.
Up to 8 controllers can be daisy-chained on the system at once.
A keyboard, mouse, light gun, and other peripherals may also some day be hooked into the system, although they are not currently available (December 1993).
The 3DO can display
full-motion video, fully texture mapped 3d landscapes, all in 24-bit colour.
Sanyo and
AT&T will also release 3DO systems.
Sanyo's in mid 1994 and AT&T in late 1994.
There will be a 3DO add-on cartridge based on the
PowerPC to enable the 3DO to compete with Sony's
Playstation console and
Sega's Saturn console, both of which have a higher specification than the original 3DO.
The add-on is commonly known as the M2 or Bulldog.
It should hit the shops by Christmas 1995 and will (allegedly) do a million flat shaded polygons per second.
3DO Home (http://www.3do.com/).
Usenet newsgroup: news:rec.games.video.3do.
