<
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://3do.com/).
Usenet newsgroup:
news:rec.games.video.3do.
(1994-12-13)