a 3DO sequel

Post by **Bas** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 11:23 am

A very interesting feature in Games(TM) magazine about the successor to 3DO this month...

from the web:
"Two years after the release of 3DO, the company began working on t's successor. At first M2 began as 64 bit add-on for 3DO systems. The concept was initially developed by the same people responsible for the first 3DO system (called Opera). Later around 1995, 3DO sold the
technology to Matsushita and left the hardware market. The Japanese electronic giant worked on the base of that system to produce a better technology called M2. At first this technology was to be sold as a videogame system in June of 1998, but Matsushita felt the market was not ready for another videogame console, and changed their game plan.

Matsushita / Panasonic finally released M2 later on that same year. The technology was remade into a TV-based interactive multimedia player that was geared towards corporate businesses for use in Public Information and Display Terminals, Sales Promotion and Exhibit
Presentations, 3-D Viewing, Educational and Training Kiosks, etc.

The Panasonic M2 Interactive Media player came in two versions. The FZ-21s was a more sleek and compact version that featured a 4X CD-ROM (Plays M2-CD's, as well as VideoCD 2.0) and a PCMCIA Type III slot for use with modem, ethernet, memory, hard drive or other compatible
PC card devices. The FZ-35s is the more high end featured model that features a DVD-ROM drive for increased content storage capability, as well as expanded input/output device connectivity, expanded SRAM, a built-in Infrared Receiver, LS-120 SuperDisk, Flash Memory, Modem, or LAN card.

It would have been interesting to see what the M2 could have done videogame wise. Sadly, it remained a multimedia device. "

Post by **Devin** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 9:29 pm

Look at those controllers, quite a striking resemblance to the N64 peripheral wouldn't you say!!

Post by **Bas** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 12:51 pm

yeah well perhaps 3DO was more ahead of its time!

The same thing with the first CD-i gamepad which shows great resemblance with the SNES controller, don't you think?

Post by **Devin** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 11:14 pm

True... plus CD-i had the first "Air-Mouse" AKA the Peacekeeper Revolver perhaps the next evolution is arguably the Revolution controller

Post by **Bas** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 11:18 pm

That Peacekeeper is indeed a nice piece of technology. The way how it works automatically explains why one would NEVER be able to connect another lightgun to the cd-i player (an initiative of TerraTron).

Captain J · Post by **Captain J** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 7:13 am

i actually own the fz-35s model and a prototype controller for the m2 but sadly no software for it

it is very cool, and has a dvd drive, i can boot it up to the title screen but thats about it!

greenday · Post by **greenday** » Tue May 09, 2006 1:46 pm

Thats a sexy looking bit of kit !

WindowsKiller · Post by **WindowsKiller** » Tue May 09, 2006 2:14 pm

Captain J wrote:i actually own the fz-35s model and a prototype controller for the m2 but sadly no software for it it is very cool, and has a dvd drive, i can boot it up to the title screen but thats about it!

Well, the FZ-35 was a kiosk system after all. All there was for the FZ-35 is some kind of car catalogue and a 3D architecture software. Both are impossible to find, don't believe people who claim to have either one or both titles, they usually don't...

Borman · Post by **Borman** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 10:59 am

I had the FZ-35s for a brief period of time, and had the Chevy Kiosk disk along with it. Other then that, I gave up and sold it, though I have pictures of a retail unit on the front page of my site right now

Post by **Devin** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 8:37 pm

Nice site. Like the use of the SNES Icon and the pixel pushing P onto a PlayStation P!

Ruekov · Post by **Ruekov** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 11:58 pm

M2 chispet is present in some arcade machines. The history is very similar to "jaguar" ancestor named "Phanter": Money money money

WindowsKiller · Post by **WindowsKiller** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 10:23 am

Ruekov wrote:The history is very similar to "jaguar" ancestor named "Phanter": Money money money

The history is completely different and not about money at all. If it would have been about money, they surely wouldn't have released the system in 1998 in form of the FZ-21S and FZ-35S. The problem was software; whenever they wanted to release the system, not a single game was ready for release. That's why they gave up in the end and released it as an "Interactive Media Player" instead of a gaming machine.

@Captain J: You don't want to sell your M2 prototype controller, do you?

Post by **Bas** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 3:22 pm

The problem was software; whenever they wanted to release the system, not a single game was ready for release.

Still an issue about money

. It all depends on the budget you want to invest in it... Money & Marketing, with the right strategy they could have brought it to the market with success, both 3DO and CD-i. They could...

WindowsKiller · Post by **WindowsKiller** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 3:25 pm

Nope, most software companies thought that the M2 would not be successful and so only a few took the risk to develop games for it. Of course, you can break that down to money as well, though it's a different thing in my opinion.

Post by **Bas** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 3:27 pm

Come on, Philips also had to fund its 3rd party products, Microsoft did it a lot to give the marketing a boost, everyone has to do it. It's ALL about money.