Click here for auction (http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=8156312429). I ordered two, even though I don't think I'll ever find any media to play :)
Unreal. I bought four, but now that I think about it I have no idea why. =)
10 bucks says it's fake.
So, what do you do with it? Throw it through store-front windows?
I think you fix all the design flaws by mutating it into a mini-itx htpc:
http://mini-itx.com (http://mini-itx.com)
I kind of needed a nice case to rebuild MSX2+ with all the nifty addons :)
Ok, somehow I've received only one of two units I've ordered, and here is what I found out:
- M2 unit is very light and very small. About the size of PS2. Much smaller then Xbox;
- unit came with a black 12x Panasonic OEM DVD-ROM drive (SR-8586 (http://panasonic.co.jp/mke/en/device/storage/dvd_rom/sr_8586_b.html)), made in September 2000 and set as master IDE device;
- motherboard (http://tht.net/~aoboroc/img/img_0067.jpg) is very spartan (http://tht.net/~aoboroc/img/img_0068.jpg), and comes with about ten chips, and four out of ten seem to be DRAM;
- hard drive is a regular 20GB UDMA33 Quantum Fireball (LCT15-20) with single large empty FAT partition with no volume label;
If you turn on the unit, it outputs "Please wait" for about 3 seconds, then it prompts "Please insert the disk". I tried feeding it with DVD Video, but it didn't chew it up, so probably it only runs some M2 specific titles. The power supply is not ATX-inspired like PS2/Xbox, it's a simple AT-like PSU with a power up toggle switch.
This is all for now :)
Previous message is mine. In addition I would like to add Panasonic FZ-35S specs from manual:
- built-in CD-ROM or DVD-ROM
- optional superdrive (1.44MB/120MB IDE floppy drive) or IDE HDD
- PowerPC602 CPU (66.7MHz), motherboard has place for second CPU
- 16 MBytes of SDRAM and 128 KBytes of battery backed SRAM
- Video out: RGB (VGA 640x480) or S-Video/Composite NTSC, 16 mln colors
- 16-bit PCM stereo output
- two serial ports for modem and / or touchpad
- PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports
- DB-25 parallerl port
- proprietary DB-9 controller port
- 1 expansion slot for optional network card (I don't have it)
- weights about 7.7lbs (3.5 kg)
And here are the stickers from IDE HDD and DVD-ROM:
(http://tht.net/~aoboroc/img/m2hdd.jpg)
(http://tht.net/~aoboroc/img/m2dvd.jpg)
Man, I thought the 3D0 died long before the year 2000. I thought it was that crappy thing between the saturn and the playstation. Werent there some awful zelda video games made by digital photography?
The September 2000 manufacture tag annoys me.
Hey, what if this was a prototype Nuon sort of system that just happened to use M2 hardware? That would explain the DVD drive.
- I don't think that getting a nice brand-name 12x DVD-ROM that works fine with PC is annoying;
- no, it's not a prototype NUON, it uses PowerPC CPU, not the custom Aires 3 core;
- 3DO died in 2004, but they quit hardware business after selling M2 technology to Matsushita in 1998 and concentrated on making games: mostly Might & Magic Heroes series (acuired with New World Computing) and infamous Small Soldiers;
- FZ-35J is not a DVD player and/or game console. It is based on M2 technology, originally developed by 3DO as a next-gen 3DO gaming console. Panasonic bought this technology and decided to nix all consumer product ideas, based on it. It wasn't a big loss, trust me. People who played M2-based arcade games from Konami told that M2's 3D performance is more in line with Playstation rather then something like Dreamcast;
A new fact: the hard drive in this unit is quite special. It's a 20GB IDE hard drive with a non-standard 4400 RPM, which (according to Quantum sales pitches) provides superior noice characteristics
I think that's worth the money for the drives. Too bad it's well past closed.
QuoteMan, I thought the 3D0 died long before the year 2000. I thought it was that crappy thing between the saturn and the playstation. Werent there some awful zelda video games made by digital photography?
Atom, I think you're refering to the Phillips CD-I machine that came out before the 3DO. They had a deal with Nintendo to produce licensed games for their machine, and yes they were totally ass! :D
Dhau, out of curiousity did you try playing original 3DO software on your M2? I think I remember Next Generation magazine saying it would be backwards compatible.
That's strange, I saw a panasonic "Interactive Media Player." I didn't see anything M2, except that it said that it played M2-CDs and DVDs. What are those, anyways?
I wrote this, then I esxamined the article more closely. I thought that the 3DO was an arcade system...?
Quoteit said that it played M2-CDs and DVDs. What are those, anyways?
I wrote this, then I esxamined the article more closely. I thought that the 3DO was an arcade system...?
May I please refer you to this post (http://nfg.2y.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=458), specifically part one.