My FZ-10 console

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Saffron
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My FZ-10 console

Post by Saffron » Wed Feb 18, 2015 6:36 pm

Hi! I wanted to show my newly acquired 3DO.

I was looking for a console who was compatible with everything, so I ended buying this japanese FZ-10. Support for CDR was very important since I want to run my homebrew games, for now looks like it reads everything without any problem.

Image

And... with this RGB mod I think this console is now the definitive version of 3DO :mrgreen:

Image

After trying a 3DO for the first time in my life I was very surprised at both the sound/image quality, even with the composite output it looks great. It's a pity this console was a failure, the architecture is very cool, reminds me a lot to the commodore Amiga (what a surprise, coming from the same guys :P).

Well, looks like I'm going to spend some fun time, between playing and programming this little beast. :mrgreen:
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a31chris
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Re: My FZ-10 console

Post by a31chris » Fri Feb 20, 2015 7:28 am

oh yeah it's an awesome system.

How good at 3D are you? Would you be good enough to convert something like Quake II, or at least the engine over to the 3do?

The engine is being optimized and ported for the Atari Falcon. A far less capable machine(not including memory) than the 3do.

Just curious.
What came after the Jaguar was the PS1 which for all it's greatness, ushered in corporate development and with it the bleached, repetitive, bland titles which for the most part we're still playing today. - David Wightman

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Saffron
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Re: My FZ-10 console

Post by Saffron » Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:47 pm

I haven't programmed in the atari falcon, but looking at the hardware I suspect that in fact it is a more suited machine for Quake II engine, since you can use the DSP as a second processor and the "GPU" is also programmable. BTW it sounds cool, I'll take a look at that project.

I've just started with 3DO but from what I've seen you only have available the ARM60 to do everything, if you want to take real advantage from the machine, you must stick to the cel engine to benefit from the dual "GPUs", that means working with a quad rendering engine, so porting Quake II would end like most PSX to Saturn ports.

I prefer to start from scratch and develop my own 3d rendering engine. It would be more fun and also will give better results. Anyway I'm currently working on an iso tool, and after that I will try first some 3D rendering benchmarks to start getting some real numbers of what can be done with the 3DO.
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blabla
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Re: My FZ-10 console

Post by blabla » Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:56 pm

Cool but i wish i could get one that's not expensive or a goldstar !
There are crazy expensive here in France, it's like paying for a new console at launch !
You lucky bastard
How good at 3D are you? Would you be good enough to convert something like Quake II, or at least the engine over to the 3do?
The engine is being optimized and ported for the Atari Falcon. A far less capable machine(not including memory) than the 3do.
Something like Quake would require lots of works and it requires using assembly to get decent speed.
I'm not sure he's that good at ARMv6 assembly...
Memory shouldn't be a problem though, especially since the 3DO can accept 16 colors and 64 colors cels so
you can actually store a decent ammount of textures. (Unlike the PS1 or the Saturn)

But honestly, why porting something like Quake when he (or she) could work on an original game for 3DO ?

But i forgot, only saffron can answer your question.

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Re: My FZ-10 console

Post by Saffron » Fri Feb 20, 2015 8:18 pm

blabla wrote:Cool but i wish i could get one that's not expensive or a goldstar !
There are crazy expensive here in France, it's like paying for a new console at launch !
You lucky bastard
:mrgreen: thanks. These last years prices in all retro computing and gaming have raised a lot. It was a lot cheaper hobby when nobody cared about old videoconsoles :roll:
Something like Quake would require lots of works and it requires using assembly to get decent speed.
I'm not sure he's that good at ARMv6 assembly...
Memory shouldn't be a problem though, especially since the 3DO can accept 16 colors and 64 colors cels so
you can actually store a decent ammount of textures. (Unlike the PS1 or the Saturn)
But honestly, why porting something like Quake when he (or she) could work on an original game for 3DO ?
Surely programming in asm can help your math calculation loops, but it's more a matter of not being able to directly program the video co-processors, the ARM60 isn't powerful enough to do all the math and render the scene in enough time. And having two graphic processors sitting doing nothing is a crime.

If you want an acceptable speed you need to use the cel engine, which means you need to convert the Quake II engine into a entirely new engine based on cel rendering, which means that in the end you will program an entirely new engine that just happens to load quake II files. And if you don't do some kind of preprocessing of the files to get a better suited format for the 3DO, it will be mediocre at best. So unless you want to play or view a clunky version of Quake II in the 3DO, I think there's no reason for doing it.

I think an original engine would be better both in practical and fun terms :D

About creating a game, well that's an entirely different beast. It takes a big amount of time and polishing to get a game done, so that's why I'm focusing on doing technical demos and prototypes.

pd. it's she :wink:
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a31chris
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Re: My FZ-10 console

Post by a31chris » Sat Feb 21, 2015 1:05 am

Saffron wrote:pd. it's she :wink:
That's absolutely awesome. I thought most female game programmers disappeared in the 80s. Carole Shaw and also the creator of Centipede and who was the Electronic arts coder?
What came after the Jaguar was the PS1 which for all it's greatness, ushered in corporate development and with it the bleached, repetitive, bland titles which for the most part we're still playing today. - David Wightman

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Re: My FZ-10 console

Post by zetastrike » Sun Feb 22, 2015 4:09 am

Nice find! I'd love to have an FZ-10. I love my FZ-1 but I can't help but not trust an early 90s motorized CD tray (thinks of Sega CD model 1 *shudders*). Plus the built in memory manager must be useful.

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Re: My FZ-10 console

Post by Saffron » Sun Feb 22, 2015 12:23 pm

The memory manager does help, but it's in japanese :mrgreen: anyway even with a rusty japanese like mine you can navigate easily... it's a pity 3DO didn't had memory cards or hdd, after only three savegames I've already get into memory problems :evil:
a31chris wrote:That's absolutely awesome. I thought most female game programmers disappeared in the 80s. Carole Shaw and also the creator of Centipede and who was the Electronic arts coder?
There's still women in programming, although I wish there were more people like Corrinne Yu, Jeri Ellsworth or Limor Fried (yes, I also love electronics). And from the 80s there's still people doing games, like burger becky :D
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a31chris
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Re: My FZ-10 console

Post by a31chris » Mon Feb 23, 2015 5:12 am

That's it! Anne Westfall! Whatever happened to her? The Archon programmer.
What came after the Jaguar was the PS1 which for all it's greatness, ushered in corporate development and with it the bleached, repetitive, bland titles which for the most part we're still playing today. - David Wightman

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Re: My FZ-10 console

Post by a31chris » Mon Feb 23, 2015 5:15 am

And why didn't anyone think of getting the rights to cool adventures like Bard's Tale for the 3do? Or Daggerfall? I never owned a commodore and always wished Bards Tale had come out for the Atari 800XL.
What came after the Jaguar was the PS1 which for all it's greatness, ushered in corporate development and with it the bleached, repetitive, bland titles which for the most part we're still playing today. - David Wightman

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Re: My FZ-10 console

Post by zetastrike » Sun Mar 01, 2015 11:32 pm

I just got a Japanese FZ-10, but it has a display problem. Here's a thread I made detailing it:

http://www.3do.cdinteractive.co.uk/view ... =25&t=3627

If anyone knows anything about this kind of issue, please let me know!

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Re: My FZ-10 console

Post by zetastrike » Mon Mar 02, 2015 4:22 am

Update in my FZ-10 troubleshooting thread. Please check it out and tell me what you think!

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