[flashback] Developer impressions of the 3DO/Matsushita M2 platform

[Air Raid]

"It's good, but in comparison to other next-generation systems it's
nothing special. It's going to look like you are playing on another
polygon-based next-gen system. Not a $4 million fight simulator."


"although Sega technicians were reportedly impressed with M2,
they were not sufficiently awestuck to warrant its immediate
implementation into their plans."


"M2 devkits were supplied to Sega in early 1996, with initial work
reputedly concentrating on a
Virtua Fighter 3 conversion for M2's launch.

Sega's M2 project soon fell apart however. 3DO's Trip Hawkins blamed
corporate 'egos' for the collapse, while Sega insisted its engineers
were unconvinced M2 was the breakthrough technology they needed."



"Based upon the demo of 3DO's IMSA Racing the M2
hardware graphically eclipses any currently available consoles
and even manages to do a slightly more impressive job than
even 3Dfx powered PCs"


"According to Povey, it's more powerful than any other consumer level
product he's seen, including PC accelerators. And this view is echoed
by those who have experimented with the console's hardware. However,
until Matsushita reveals its own work on the system there exists a
disparity
between what Matsushita itself claims the console is capable of (Model
3 levels
of performance) and the rather less spirited comparisons from third
parties
of two to three times Nintendo 64's polygon horsepower."


"Based upon the demo of 3DO's IMSA Racing the M2 hardware graphically
eclipses any currently available consoles and even manages to do a
slightly
more impressive job than even 3Dfx powered PCs"


http://www.imagepup.com/up/Vz76_1202348031_SEGAdivorceM2.jpg

http://www.imagepup.com/up/aQfv_1203206823_ng-devsworrym2.jpg

http://www.imagepup.com/up/GV2u_1203209019_ng-m2hitormyth-02.jpg

http://web.archive.org/web/20010420220344/http://www.xent.com/may97/0112.html

 

[Air Raid]

I forgot to mention that I intended this to be a little flashback.
The M2 system was the most hotly anticipated machine of the mid-late
90s. It would've beaten Saturn, PS1, N64 and 3Dfx Voodoo in 3d
graphics performance & quality. some incredible games were being made
for M2 such as D2, IMSA Racing, Power Crystal as well as a rumored
version of VF3.

It was such a pity the M2 was canceled.

 

[Bryan aka R.I.P.]

I forgot to mention that I intended this to be a little flashback.
The M2 system was the most hotly anticipated machine of the mid-late
90s. It would've beaten Saturn, PS1, N64 and 3Dfx Voodoo in 3d
graphics performance & quality. some incredible games were being made
for M2 such as D2, IMSA Racing, Power Crystal as well as a rumored
version of VF3.

It was such a pity the M2 was canceled.

The thing is, it wasn't "canceled" per se, it was just sold off. The M2 based
hardware actually lived a long life in the kiosk industry where it worked to
compete with CD-i and PC based systems.

 

[AirRaid]

The thing is, it wasn't "canceled" per se, it was just sold off. The M2 based
hardware actually lived a long life in the kiosk industry where it worked to
compete with CD-i and PC based systems.

Oh hey, I do realize M2 was used in industrial kiosks. It was also
used in ATMs and vending machines in Japan. In multimedia players
(FZ-21S, FZ-35S) aimed at professionals working in medicine,
architecture, sales.
As well as in Konami arcade games.