3DO ZONE Forums

A sticky dedicated to the memory of something that never happened. The Panasonic 3D0 M2.

I remember picking up the very first issue of Next Generation magazine and gawking at all the gorgeous tech displayed in its glossy pages ... the Jag, the 3DO, the speculation that Sony would be sued for "dumping" the PSX in America ... etc ...

I had just bought the 3DO and Next Gen debuted at almost the exact same time. I believe it was that issue that had a great M2 write-up with screenshots of demo renders.

The funny thing about it though was that it was only a few months later that I bought a 486DX2 to play Doom and Rise of the Triad, and once I got into the BBS scene, Dwango, and the Internet, the entire premise of a console hooked to the TV with no modem or online play seemed silly to me, so I stopped console gaming altogether for probably 3 or 4 years.

I was still wondering when EB was going to get the M2 in almost a full year after the project had been officially scrapped.

I still regret not buying a 3DO Blaster to this very day. Anyone have one they want to sell me?

So, does anyone have pictures they'd like to share?

http://fz1-3do.blog.co.uk/2006/08/14/d2~1039876

Yeah, I've seen the D2 pics on 3DOKids blog & also on YouTube. How about shots of IMSA Racing, Power Crystal, or some of the Konami arcade games? I'd also like to see some shots of the 2 kiosk units. I've scanned some pics myself, so hopefully I will add them soon

Have you checked the Konami Total Vice pics here?

http://www.1up.com/do/my1Up?publicUserId=5702004

The link just comes up blank for me ...? But I have seen Total Vice pics, just not on this site.

Everything would be cool.



the ever hopefull - 3DO Kid.

I remember when Resident Evil came out on PSX and admit to being pretty jealous. Then I got the 3DO mag and it had a pretty big spread on the M2. then my friend was getting pretty envious and was starting to regret getting his PSX!!! During that brief time it looked like 3DO was going to be back on top again, and had the machine been released I think it would have, especially if they released the add-on version as well as the console itself. Why Matsushitsa canned the project (as a console at least) after paying $$$ for it is beyond me!

3DOKid wrote:Everything would be cool.



the ever hopefull - 3DO Kid.

I agree, don't tease, let it all hang out . . . er, so to speak, that is.

Here's my kiosk unit along with a proto controll pad:

Cool pic! This is the unit that plays dvds in I am correct. Do you have the original model? Also, other than the Chevy vehicle disc program and the architecture one (forgot the name) are there any other known applications available?

Trev wrote:This is the unit that plays dvds if I am correct.

Yes, it's an FZ-35S 1H1-M with a DVD drive and a 20 GB hard disk (there were a lot of variations). The most advanced piece of M2 hardware that was ever build. And the only unit that can (theoretically) play all M2 software, even the arcade games.

Trev wrote:Do you have the original model?

No idea what you mean, sorry.

Trev wrote:Also, other than the Chevy vehicle disc program and the architecture one (forgot the name) are there any other known applications available?

There were a lot of car dealership discs, not only the one from Chevy. The architecture program was called "vizHouse". I have some flyers for other software, but I don't know if any of it ever saw a release...

The original model was the FZ-21S and it did not include a dvd drive. I'd love to see scans of any and all flyers that you have

That's what you meant with "original model"... The FZ-21S wasn't really the original model, though it depends on your definition. Anyway, no, I don't have an FZ-21S. Currently not worth the money for me, as I can do much more with the FZ-35S. The FZ-21S is a nice unit to put in a showcase, but that's it...

Give me a few minutes and I'll upload some more photos and scans.

Sweet photos! Even thought the later models were more advanced w/dvd & such, I always thought the earlier models looked nicer (much more like a video game console) Thanks for the pics!

Nice pics man. I loved the M2, even though I never got a chance to actually play the damn thing! Talk about a total bummer here. I really wish that it would have released, even if only limited, then there would at least be a chance to get something out of it, as well as some games to be seen as well!

I clicked on the link, but this was all I got...

The video you have requested is not available.

I've never had toruble w/Youtube before...

Trev wrote:I clicked on the link, but this was all I got...

The video you have requested is not available.

I've never had toruble w/Youtube before...

I have - it takes a while for Youtube to present the video. Give it time.

Trev wrote:I clicked on the link, but this was all I got...

The video you have requested is not available.

I've never had toruble w/Youtube before...

same here, almost 12 hours to update?

The video you have requested is not available.

If you have recently uploaded this video, you may need to wait a few minutes for the video to process.

Greetings,

You know that is a curiosity. It took about 30 minutes for it to post and it worked fine last night. However, this morning, about 1/2 of the videos posted in the last 12 hours have a hard time loading.

Wonder what the beef is.

Drax

Gir Draxa wrote:Greetings,

You know that is a curiosity. It took about 30 minutes for it to post and it worked fine last night. However, this morning, about 1/2 of the videos posted in the last 12 hours have a hard time loading.

Wonder what the beef is.

Drax

ive never uploaded anything to youtube, but maybe there is a server problem?
is there a place like a youtube forum to find out if there are problems going on?

Good Q. I don't do much with it myself, but the service is free.

Drax

Greetings again,

Well it's working now, so enjoy!

Drax

...

I'm speechless.

I've got a high-res version of that video (captured by Madroms), which also has correct colors (the car is red, not orange ). I can upload it if anyone is interested.

That looks fantastic - thanks Drax! Was it actually running on the M2 or, as with some original 3DO demos, running on an equivilent powered systems? (i.e. I bunch of high-end Macs)

It was pre-rendered on an SGI system using Alias|Wavefront software.

Looks like your video is having the same problem as when I posted mine.

There were so many prototype demos, I would love to have seen the M2 versions. G-Police and Iron & Blood would have rocked so hard. I believe the FPS that you mention though was supposed to be a quasi-sequel to Escape from Monster Manor, at least from the screen grabs I've seen. We'll see when the video plays if it's the same as the stills I've got.

Drax

Gir Draxa wrote:[...] Iron & Blood would have rocked so hard.

I don't think so. The PlayStation version was probably the worst beat'em up ever (or maybe the 2nd worst, let's not forget Rise of the Robots ). But there was no work done on the M2 version anyway, all screens were mock-ups.

Gir Draxa wrote:NEXT GENERATION did a writeup on it, calling it IRONBLOOD, which included backgroundless (or minimally detailed backgrouds) characters (not just those 2 you see all over the web), and a few concept art pieces.

I know, I've read that issue of NextGen. But again, all screenshots were mock-ups. The M2 version never had a developer. Take 2 tried to hire Studio 3DO to do the game, but Studio 3DO did not agree and so the M2 version got canned before a single line of code was written.