Minor Correction - 3DO
I would like to quickly write about something I mentioned in previous articles. On some occasions, I have discussed the 3DO and referred to it as the “Panasonic 3DO”. There have been times when I have tried to explain the 3DO to friends and I say “It was made by Panasonic”, which is wrong.
I am aware that this is not the official name of the console which is “3DO Interactive Multiplayer Console”. Many people prefer calling it the “3DO” for obvious reasons.
Until I discovered that Star Control II was ported to this console, I was not aware that this console even existed.
Here is some trivia if anyone is interested:
- Panasonic does not own the 3DO console. It is a set of technical specifications created by The 3DO Company, who are now bankrupt. Panasonic, GoldStar and Sanyo have used these specifications to create their own console. Some people have used this as an example of how it's not possible to have a "one console generation" in the future.
- There is no player 2 port on these consoles; any additional controllers must be daisy-chained into the first controller, which has a secondary port.
- The 3DO company profited from royalty-fees from video game and console sales.
- The 3DO was released before PlayStation. Not only was the PlayStation more powerful, it was much cheaper. The fact that the 3DO was still expensive and had less games made the PlayStation even more appealing.
Creating technical specifications and collecting fees is fairly common today; this is how companies such as the DVD Consortium and the Blu-Ray Disc Association continue to make money to this day.
Hopefully, these facts will be interesting and I am sorry for the 3DO confusion. It’s hard to find accurate information about video games and consoles, especially if it’s about something old!
