3DO REAL

Catalog Spec

Developer PANASONIC
Release date in Japan 20th March 1994
Media CD-ROM
CPU 32bit RISC processor ARM60 (12.5MHz)
Difinition 256 dots * 240 lines
RAM main:2MB
VRAM 1MB
SRAM 32KB
DMA 24ch
Drawaing Speed 64,000,000 pixel per a minute
Difinition 640 dots * 480 lines
Drawaing Speed 64,000,000 pixel per a minute
Coloring Fuction Maximum 16,700,000 colors (Stimulous colors: 32,000 colors)
Sound DSP (Digital Sound Processor)
List price in Japan 54,800 yen

3DO is the video game standard which 3DO Company advocated in 1993. 3DO Company was established by Trip Hawkins, one of the founders of ELECTRONIC ARTS in 1990. The company announced that here would come the age of multimedia to video game industry. And the company showed the business model that it developed 32bit multimedia video game console as the unified standard and planned to collect the royalties from the third parties companies which 3DO company licensed out to when they developed the title software and the peripheral equipment. In Japan, PANASONIC released its compatible machine “3DO REAL” as a pioneer of 32bit gaming console with sprite and movie playing function in March 1994. PANASONIC defined this products as a home electric appliance named “interactive multiplayer”. Due to the expensive price, the shortage of the titles and the intensified competition in video game industry, PANASONIC couldn’t rival with NINTENDO, SEGA and SONY. As we know, SEGA released SEGA SATURN in November 1994, SONY released PLAY STATION in December. In 1995, for the reason that those new consoles were released, the sale result of 3DO REAL surely was declined. And NINTENDO released NINTENDO64 in June 1996, this was the clincher of the commercial failure, PANASONIC perfectly withdrew from the Japanese video game market.