a 3DO sequel
Posted: 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. "
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. "