3DO ZONE Forums

Hi. I've got a 3DO FZ-10 in absolutely mint condition, has hardly been used and in perfect working order. I had 21 games all of which load fine except for Quarantine which I really wanted to play as it was one of the first 3D sandbox games and wasn't released on the PS1 so I never played it when it was first available. Although the disk didn't have any more than a couple of light marks, I assumed it was the disk and have bought another copy of the game. The replacement was in worse condition but was from a reputable retro games seller and was tested as working fine. Today, I unbox the 3DO, set it up ready for a couple of hours of gaming and **** me this one does the same thing as the last one and won't load.

I put the disk in, switch on and 3DO logo appears with the laser making a few whizzing noises as it usual, then a much smaller and fainter 3DO logo appears, a couple of louder laser noises then quiet for a few seconds. Next the system resets itself and the big logo appears and tries to load again. It'll repeat this indefinately, so I've got two copies of a game that were both sold in good faith as working, one in better than average condition both tried on a console that is 'low mileage' and loads everything else absolutely fine.

I couldn't find any info online and was curious if anyone on here experienced any problems with just the one game not bootin' up??

I'm in West Oxfordshire if anyone is close by and can try the game disks for themselves. Thanks, Rick.

Actually, Quarantine was released on the PS1, under the title "Hard Rock Cab".

Unfortunately, I'm of no help as far as your main problem goes.

Thanks Martin, I didn't know that. I do know Hard Rock Cab wasn't released in the UK unfortunately for me I suppose I could get an import but my chipped Playstation is long gone.

It's a long shot, but have you tried clearing some space in the NVRAM? I'm wondering if the game checks for free space, but won't boot if there isn't enough. That's purely a guess though.

^ Thanks. Is the NVRAM the internal memory? If so, yes I deleted all the game saves and such with no success to loading the game.

Does Way of the Warrior work on that machine??

Happy new year..

I've never owned a copy of Way of the Warrior to test it on but so far Quarantine is the only game that won't load..

OK, next question, is this an FZ-10-E?? Flip it over and have a look on the bottom...

Cause if it is, that is the issue right there, and Way of the Warrior wont load either.

It is an FZ10-E.. That's really odd, was it a hardware issue that won't let these run or somekind of fault??

Thanks, I'll make sure I don't buy way of the warrior either.. Anyone want to buy Quarantine?? I have two copies, one disk only but I could photocopy the manual, one full long box version (Please note won't work on a 3DO FZ10 'E')

Yep, it wont run Way of the warrior that is for certain, i didnt know Quarantine was another it wont run, if there is a list of what a PAL Goldstar 3DO wont run, that will be the same for your FZ-10-E. Its a PAL issue with some games apparently, but i dont know for sure if that is the real reason.

The worst thing about the E models is the fact they dont fill the screen... There is a boarder all the way around, and its not even centered!! I dont own the one i have here, belongs to a mate, but i put it through the Faroudja scaler and then i can adjust the amplitude on one of my CRT projectors... Cant do that on a TV though....

I did read that there was little in anti-piracy on the 3DO given that the game licences were so cheap (hence them having to profit on the console making them expensive) so perhaps the goldstar and later panasonic versions had something in them to try and detect a r.e.a.l. game cd (do you like what I did there?) and maybe what it looks for is missing in some games...

Bloody great really!

You're right about the border, I assumed it was a normal PAL display as the systems are multiregion but from what you say I guess the FZ1 and earlier FZ10's have a better screen size.

Thanks for the info, at least that puts my mind at rest as my 3DO is in exceptional condition and hoped it wasn't developing a fault internally.

No on the first bit, its only the "E" version cause its PAL. The "E" i have here is an earlier model than the straight up FZ-10 NTSC unit i have.

Again, screen size, nothing to do with the date of build. Its all to do with the way they got the machine to encode the video signal into PAL. All the late NTSC consoles still fill the screen, and all the early PAL Panasonics still have the boarder all the way around. NTSC is also a multi regional format, it is used in USA as well as Japan. PAL is a better format, the colour reproduction is better, and the possible resolution is also better, at 625 TVL for PAL against 525 TVL for NTSC. Makes a HUGE difference on a 120 inch 4:3 screen.

The issue with some games consoles and some games on other consoles is they are not taking advantage of the extra PAL resolution, hence the boarders.

In the case of the PAL 3DO "E" models, the standard output resolution is 768x576i, however the image is still only the same as the NTSC resolution of 640x480i, which is why you see a boarder all the way around the image, instead of just top and bottom like you do on other machines.

Third bit, no worries, any time I think your machine is pretty safe

Actually, my understanding of Quarentine is that it doesn't work in ANY version of the FZ-10. I've had the game for years, & was never able to play it on my FZ-10 out here in the States. Bought it at Best Buy, & all the games look perfect, so I'm sure it's NTSC.

Finally a few years ago I got the old FZ-1 & Quarentine works flawlessly in that. I don't have a Goldstar, so I can't comment either way. As for Way of the Warrior, I don't own it, but, for some reason I seem to recall owning it BITD when I first got my FZ-10, & I remember playing it, however, my memory is fuzzy. I'll have to track that game down again, didn't really care for it, but, I am a fan of Naughty Dog.

In any case, I can confirm it's a hardware issue, not your software. A similar thing happened with Golden Axe: The Duel on Saturn. I bought the game, but it would not play on my Saturn. I bought it at Game Dude, & they confirmed that it worked just fine on their Saturn right in front of my eyes. I forget what the deal is, other then that there's some model of the Saturn that just doesn't run the dang game....& it so happens that, that's the model I own!

Not true, cause ive loaded it up here years ago and watched the intro on my Japan FZ-10 machine. Way of the Warrior also worked on it.

Wierd, then there's something up with US & EU systems, but not the JP's. Maybe the one's outside Japan got some cheaper materials in to cut costs is all I can figure. And yeah, I could sware I had Way of the Warrior working on my FZ-10 as well, just not Quarentine.

No, they are the same hardware. Made in the same factory even, and on the same assembly line.

Are you guys sure it was nothing to do with added anti-piracy? I read that the 3DO could play almost anything and only later were the consoles made just to 'look' for something on the CD that supposedly all games had, to tell if it were an original game. Naturally if Quarantine and Way of the Warrior had been unique in being genuine copy games not having this 'thing' that the console reads first? Just a theory..

Come to think of it, I could not get Quarrantine to load on my FZ-10 either. It's possible it was my disc, but it looked flawless. I've still yet to obtain another copy to test it out.

On a side note, Way of the Warrior does work on my system.

I think I have had 2 copies of Quaretine, as I'm pretty sure they let me replace the first one. So, neither worked on mine. It's been years now, but I remember mentioning it to someone "in the know" & they just plainly said it doesn't work on FZ-10's, which is part of the reason I got an FZ-1.

The one i used was a copy, i downloaded the .iso and put it on a disc.

Maybe I should try ripping mine & burning it to see if that works for some reason.

Try downloading it instead and see if you can find a different revision to what you have

I think I have had 2 copies of Quaretine, as I'm pretty sure they let me replace the first one. So, neither worked on mine. It's been years now, but I remember mentioning it to someone "in the know" & they just plainly said it doesn't work on FZ-10's, which is part of the reason I got an FZ-1.

I know first hand that Quarantine works on an FZ-10. That was the only model I'd ever owned and I played the bejeezus out of that game when I was a kid. If my parents had seen it, they probably wouldn't have let me keep playing it though....