Jump to content

Creative 3DO Blaster


Recommended Posts

I don't have one of these, don't know if it would even work with a modern PC.  But if anyone has any knowledge of it, I'd like to know--does playing 3DO Doom through a PC via the Blaster make it any faster?  I'd love to see video of it in action.  I found one video where someone runs it for like 5 seconds in a small screen size and it looks good, but that's not enough.

 

It would be hella intriguing to see this version of Doom actually run well without tweaks on legit period software.  Might make it look like less of a mistake.

Share this post


Link to post
19 hours ago, rabidrage said:

I don't have one of these, don't know if it would even work with a modern PC.  But if anyone has any knowledge of it, I'd like to know--does playing 3DO Doom through a PC via the Blaster make it any faster? 

The 3DO Blaster was a pass through ISA card that worked from within Windows 3.1. On paper, it should allow for all 3DO games to be playable on PC.

 

A few things however, stood in their way as this blog piece shows :

  • The price tag. the Blaster costed as much as a full blown 3DO system. Back in an era where a 486 PC would still be 1500 bucks, this was a hefty add-on.
  • Creative made the fantastic decision to only allow one particular model of their CD-ROM players to be compatible with this. Without it, the 3DO Blaster is simply not useable.

3DO Doom played on a Blaster would not make the game any better, because the 3DO Blaster is an entire 3DO on a card. The PC hardware is not used in anyway as a co-processor but to integrate it all neatly within Windows 3.1. So performance should be the same as on a 3DO console - Because the Blaster is simply a 3DO console in ISA card format.

 

In retrospect, the 3DO Blaster is a predecessor of some sorts to a GPU and technologies like CUDA - Cores that offload the PC by doing general processing themselves. But back in the 90s, things were a lot more expensive, and 3D was just on the rise. By limiting itself to a particular CD-ROM Player, Creative actively released the Blaster dead on arrival.

Share this post


Link to post
20 hours ago, Redneckerz said:

Creative made the fantastic decision to only allow one particular model of their CD-ROM players to be compatible with this.

Creative being Creative, as usual.

Share this post


Link to post
On 6/10/2020 at 2:55 PM, rabidrage said:

I don't have one of these, don't know if it would even work with a modern PC.  But if anyone has any knowledge of it, I'd like to know--does playing 3DO Doom through a PC via the Blaster make it any faster?  I'd love to see video of it in action.  I found one video where someone runs it for like 5 seconds in a small screen size and it looks good, but that's not enough.

 

It would be hella intriguing to see this version of Doom actually run well without tweaks on legit period software.  Might make it look like less of a mistake.

 

 

I own one, and can tell you that Doom runs as crappy as on all other 3DOs. The 3DO Blaster won't run on modern systems for  various reasons. First, on modern standard motherboards you won't find an ISA slot to plug in the blaster card. And second, it is very unlikely that you can run Windows 3.1 on a modern PC, but the software you need to run 3DO games on the blaster is only available on Windows 3.1. Maybe it would run on Windows 9x as well, i haven't tried that.

 

To build a system with a 3DO Blaster today is a serious task. Not only that you need the card and a specific CD-ROM by Creative Labs (CR-563-B), as stated before and all the cables, some of which aren't available for more than 20 years. You need a graphics card with a Feature Connector on board to pass the graphics from the 3DO blaster to the graphics card, and a soundcard with an analog cd audio connector.

Share this post


Link to post

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...