3DO's M2 Hardware Revealed

Thanks to NFG Games for their new feature on a rare Konami arcade board using 3DO's M2 hardware. This hardware was intended to be a home-based console successor to the much-maligned 3DO console during the late '90s, but, as the article explains, "The M2 chipset shown was basically over-hyped vaporware. The actual chipset never made it into any console, and aside from three or four arcade releases and one ridiculous real estate viewing system the M2 was basically quietly forgotten." These photos of the hardware itself, plus screenshots of the Konami 'Polystars' arcade game running on it, show that "...the hardware was nothing special for the time, and the only released games bear all the hallmarks of early 3D games: flat shaded polygons with minimal textures."

Comments

Marketing

[patch-rustem]

From the article:

Even if it were all that 3DO promised, without the support of top-notch developers and savvy marketing it would still have failed - the Dreamcast is proof enough of that.

I'm guessing that the Phantom marketeers are happy about the hype they're getting here.

i actually owned a 3DO

[johndoejersey]

and i loved it to pieces, however the range of games never ranged above the typical fifa/madden/nhl type games which could be bought for any other console.

Thats plus the 400 uk sterling price tag probably didnt help either...

How did 3DO manage to do it twice?

[carndearg]

I remember some of the hype surrounding both the original 3DO and this piece of kit. Looking back at it all it amazes me that they managed to get a lot of people all excited about their products not once but twice! How on earth did their hype merchants do that!

I remember people spreading doom and gloom in the Amiga world before the original 3DO came out, aparently it was going to kill all other formats or something:) As if Commodore needed any help killing the Amiga.

Still, it is interesting to see that this particular piece of vapourware made it out in some form. Another "What if..." of computer gaming history sees the light of day once more.

Re:How did 3DO manage to do it twice?

[SophtwareSlump]

I remember a lot of hype at the time was for being the first real console that had 'broadcast quality' graphics. For instance, in Madden they had renders of all the stadiums in the pre-game screen. Sounds like a little detail, but at this point in gaming, people were used to seeing 256 color Sega CD full motion video.

A lot of the other hype with the 3DO (not sure about the M2, all I remember is Trip Hawkins deeming it as the savior) was due to support from Electronics Arts. Even with EA, it still died a horrible death along with the Jaguar and CD-I.

My friend had a 3DO, and we really did have a great time playing Return Fire (an RTS game), Road Rash and the original Need for Speed. Anybody else remember that annoying actor they had playing your opponent in Need for Speed? If I ever see that guy on the street, he's getting clocked. I was pretty disappointed when I played the sequels and he was no where to be found. There were some absolutely awful games at launch.. I can't remember the names of them, but Crystal Dynamics was leading the charge of poopware.