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. Usenet newsgroup: news:rec.games.video.3do. Last updated: 1994-12-13
