Killing a rumor about the 3DO Blaster and some other stuff \ VOGONS

Killing a rumor about the 3DO Blaster and some other stuff

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First post, by furan

Posted on 2018-10-11, 16:41

furan Offline

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I got a 3DO Blaster running last night.

First, let me dispel the rumor that an exact model of CD-ROM drive is needed. It just needs to be a drive that speaks Panasonic/Creative (remember there are 2 or 3 interfaces, IDE, Panasonic/Creative, and Mitsumi? I think). I have it working with a 4x - maybe that will cause a problem with some game, but I haven't seen one yet.

Second, if you are having trouble getting video, it's important to know how that VESA feature connection works. The connection has two "modes" - in one, you listen to the analog R/G/B signals. In the other, you get 8 bits of color information, with the card running in 8 bits. A lot of later cards skip running the 8 bit data lines to the feature connector especially if they have an internal RAMDAC.

The latter is what the 3DO Blaster requires. They sample the VESA feature connection for their chroma key color and use that + hsync/vsync to know where to inject their analog signal. This is probably because sampling just the analog signal for the colorkey would require supporting a wide range of a particular color (remember, they are windowed). The software hints at supporting a 16bpp screen as well as 8bpp, but I can't figure out how that would work with the VFC in 'digital' sampling mode.

If you are having trouble with video, go with a good old standby, like a Cirrus Logic card. But don't worry so much about having that *exact* CD-ROM drive. The B model works, the 4x model works, etc.

Last edited by furan on 2018-10-11, 17:08. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 7, by bjwil1991

Posted on 2018-10-11, 16:45

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Fancy case there, man. Love the front panel speaker controls.

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Reply 2 of 7, by keropi

Posted on 2018-10-11, 16:46

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Thanks for the info! Now all we miss is 3do blaster cards 🤣
It is nice to find that the drive restrictions are not so strict.

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Reply 3 of 7, by furan

Posted on 2018-10-11, 16:48

furan Offline

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bjwil1991 wrote:
Fancy case there, man. Love the front panel speaker controls.

Thanks - the speaker controls were separate - a rare release from Teac in Japan, meant for karaoke support in a PC and to be hooked up to external speakers. I desoldered the original wiring in the case and added wiring for the amp because I like the VU meters 😀

Last edited by furan on 2022-07-05, 15:42. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 4 of 7, by furan

Posted on 2018-10-11, 16:49

furan Offline

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Also maybe I can say that the 21" SUN monitors that have a 13w3 connector often have a VGA connector too, and that VGA connector is multisync (some forum posts say it's not, but it does every res I throw at it). Mine is the GDM-5410. My Amiga 3000t likes driving it through the monitor’s 13w3 port using a VGA adapter, too (A3000 has the scan doubler or whatever it’s called built in, with a VGA port on the back).

Reply 5 of 7, by Notackan

Posted on 2022-05-27, 05:14

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I see you got it working. I recently got a 3do blaster as well and I’m wondering how do I get the cdrom outside of the 3do player? I installed the cd rom drivers but it’s only compatible with my soundblaster which it’s not hooked up to. I have the 3do blaster set up for 260h and have no problem playing 3do games but can’t play any other cd in windows. I set my soundblaster to 220h and tried changing the config and autoexec but didn’t have any luck. I even tried changing the io to 260 on the AWE32 but it just froze at the autoexec. Any ideas?

Reply 6 of 7, by kitten.may.cry

Posted on 2022-05-27, 07:59

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bjwil1991 wrote on 2018-10-11, 16:45:

Fancy case there, man. Love the front panel speaker controls.

Sick azz case.

Reply 7 of 7, by Notackan

Posted on 2022-06-04, 20:48

Notackan Offline

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Notackan wrote on 2022-05-27, 05:14:

I see you got it working. I recently got a 3do blaster as well and I’m wondering how do I get the cdrom outside of the 3do player? I installed the cd rom drivers but it’s only compatible with my soundblaster which it’s not hooked up to. I have the 3do blaster set up for 260h and have no problem playing 3do games but can’t play any other cd in windows. I set my soundblaster to 220h and tried changing the config and autoexec but didn’t have any luck. I even tried changing the io to 260 on the AWE32 but it just froze at the autoexec. Any ideas?

Oddly enough it seems to be working now. Though now the control pad won’t work! I must of changed something in the config.sys.

Here’s a question though. Has anyone took a VCD addon for the 3do and tried to make it into a daughterboard for the blaster? I haven’t really seen the chip that’s in the add on but it would be interesting if someone could look into it.

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