The FreeDO FAQ

• How To Use Freedom Emulators
• How To Use Freedom Emulator Iso
• How To Use Freedom Emulator Pc
• How To Use Freedom Emulator Windows 10

maintained by awright69 with input from FreeDO developers
First, the obligatory copyright notices:

FreeDO, an emulator for Panasonic - 3DO Interactive Multiplayer running on the Windows OS. Download all FreeDO files for free! A freeware emulator for Windows. PocketPC and MacOS X versions are also planned. Freedo.org at Press About Us. SourceForge.net: FreeDO 3DO Emulator Project - Support.Open Source Sir Arthur's Den.The Emulator Zone - FreeDO.

How To Use Freedom Emulators

3DO, and their respective logos, Interactive Multiplayer, Portfolio, Toolkit,and others we may not be aware of, are trademarks or registered trademarks ofThe 3DO Company in the U.S. and other countries.
FreeDO is copyright (c) 2002, 2003 et.seq by participants of the FreeDO project.
Document History
2002/4/17 - first release.
2002/4/18 - minor additions, typo corrections.

How To Use Freedom Emulator Iso

2002/10/1 - major revisions, more info on our project

How To Use Freedom Emulator Pc

2003/4/17 – beta release update(one year FAQ anniversary!)
Dedication
This FAQ is dedicated to the awesome 'fathers' of the 3DO: DavidMorse, RJ Mical, and Dave Needle, and many others atNTG/3DO who really tried to make this thing a go: Trip Hawkins (you tried, man,you had the vision and tried to see it through), Phil Burk, Joe Buczek, Andy Finkel, Leo Schwab,Dave Platt, and many, many others.
Contents
I - Introduction and Platform FAQs
II - FreeDO Project FAQs
III - Non-FreeDO (but related) FAQs
I - Introduction
The FreeDO (closed-source) project exists to bringabout an emulator or simulator capable of playing content originally made forthe now-defunct and no longer commercially available 3DO InteractiveMultiplayer, a 32-bit video game console that was licensed to manufacturers anddevelopers, and marketed worldwide in the early to middle 1990s. For related FAQs on this console, see http://www.essi.fr/~buffa/videogames/3do_faq2.4.html,http://www.classicgaming.com/museum/faqs/3dofaq.shtml.
II - FreeDO Project FAQs
Q. How did the FreeDO project get started?
A. awright69 got the inspiration to form the FreeDOproject in early 2002 after his wife, a former 3DO gamer, persuaded ( somewould say nagged ) him into finding and buying a used Panasonic FZ-1 and somegames for it on eBay. awright69 fondly remembered playing some of the cooltitles then available for the system in-store, and after looking at the qualityof the console he’d purchased secondhand, which was ahead of its time in manyrespects, he decided to form FreeDO to enshrine and memorializethe hard work of the visionary folks at NTG (and ultimately 3DO Corp) throughemulation. Being the mentally feeble type he is, and not having the extensiveelectronics and C/Assembler programming skills required to undertake such atask, awright69 floundered around for a few months studying the work that hadbeen done a few years prior by troosh in Russia and kashi in Japan. awright69 had alsomanaged to contact 2 other authors of previous 3DO emulation projects, but wasunable to get any useful information out of them, and they were unwilling orunable to assist for fear of legal problems.
Then, one day in early April 2002, a mad genius named felixlcontacted awright69 and offered to lead the coding. With felixl'sfierce determination, and pulling together some other coders (troosh and jsammons) who sharedthe vision and skill, the FreeDO project has takenform in code. Within weeks, the first CELs beganbeing displayed, code snippets began running on felixl'score app, and the coders have been building on it ever since.
Q. But what is the FreeDO project for? I can stillbuy 3DO equipment through the secondary market (auctions, used game dealers,etc.)
A. Look, 3DO consoles are no longer commercially available. The market wasrather unceremoniously dumped (some would say dumped on) by 3DO in 1996. We certainlysee no potential for lost sales to 3DO due to the creation of this emulator,because there are no sales to be made. 3DO could care less about the console orthe market it left behind. We are aware that there is a large secondary marketfor 3DO and software; however, our aim is to preserve the legacy of the consolefar after the hardware is no longer working. CD-ROM drives and joysticks do notlast forever, and it's not like you can just go out and buy replacements atyour corner store. There will always be people who will want to have the actualhardware, and the emulator is not going to be a perfect substitute for it. It'smore of a hobby, a passion, a love of seeing just how it can be done ratherthan an exercise to destroy primary or secondary markets.
Q. What happened to the Open-Source FreeDO Project,located at http://freedo.sourceforge.net?
A. While I (awright69) would have liked to have kept the project open, I wasshown by felixl that we couldn't legally do this. The3DO architecture is very well isolated by cryptographic protections in hardwareand software, and also by patents and IP laws which prevent the public discloseof much of its inner workings, and revealing those would have left the projectfar too open to legal action. While it can be argued that the 3DO or itstechnologies are outdated, patent and IP law simply does not allow for that. (Thanks to ewhac forpointing that out. You’re right, I was naïve.) If someone wants to find a wayto do this without stepping on anyone's legal toes, please go ahead. The FreeDO open-source page will remain only as a marker forhistorical purposes, with a link to the closed source page, and no code ormethods from the 3DO or this project was ever, or will ever be, hosted there.
Q. Isn't it possible that your product will encourage piracy or cause the 3DOused game market to shrink or collapse? (This was actually asked; no, we do nothave large egos)
A. It is our intention for users to be able to play the titles they ownthemselves, not to encourage piracy or shrinkage of this active and dedicatedsecondary market. We are aware of the potential of abuse, but we see no way tocurb it. Pirates are going to do what they are going to do, regardless of anyactions we could take to prevent it. Of course we do not condone piracy,especially piracy for profit, in any way. Also, there are methods by which wecan detect and disable running of CD-R copies, if we choose or are told to doso by copyright holders.
Q. Are you going to need any kind of ROM or BIOS from the 3DO console to makethe emulator work? Will your emulator use protected code from the originalconsole?
A. We are not going to use ANY 3DO original code in our project at all when itis released. We may reference it (require that it be provided in file form) inthe final implementation; therefore, it is possible that we may require usersto obtain the ROM from their own machines, but we will not provide orincorporate it. We are not saying that you _will_ have to use a ROM; it isstill too early in development to tell whether all Toolkit and BIOS functionscan be implemented without it. So it’s really hard to tell at this point. Butit is our intention to try to avoid having to use this ROM at all; in otherwords, to emulate the functions of the BIOS, bypassing the need for itcompletely.
Q. Is there a time table for release?
A. The first betas were relasedApril 17 2003. We anticipate that we’ll be in limited beta for the nextfew weeks, then general beta after that. As for the emulator attaining “release” quality, as evidenced by the following milestones:1 – stability, 2 - accuracy and 3 - compatibility, it’s anybody’s guess
III - Non-FreeDO (but related) FAQs
Q. I want to develop games for your emulator, or for commercial consoles, orboth. Where can I get the rumored 3DO SDK?
A. You can't get it from us. You will have to find or buy it yourself. Isuggest the local software developer's trash can. ;-) If you do not like thesmell of garbage on your body, just call 3DO and order a development station.They will be glad to sell you one for around US $15000. Seriously.Last time we talked to them, that's the going price.
Q. OK, I dumpster-dived (or was strange enough to spend the money to buy adeveloper station), obtained the SDK, and wrote a game/demo/application, evenburned a CD with the game/demo/application on it. But it won't play in my 3DOconsole, or in your emulator! I found out that games need to be encrypted so itcan be authenticated for play on regular consoles (or your emulator). Can youguys encrypt it so I can sell/give away/lease/rent it?
A. No! We are not in the business to encrypt 3DO discs. For the up-front sum ofUS $70000, plus the current royalty or $3 or $6 per disc, the 3DO company willbe more than happy (I am sure, ecstatic) to encrypt your disc. Again, seriously.
Q. Can you give/burn/lend me a copy of XXXX game? Do you know where I candownload it? Are there ftp sites for old games?
A. No! No! I don't know! We are attempting to make this project work usingsoftware and hardware that we OWN, things we have in front of us. We are not inthe piracy/distribution/warez business, and we do notcondone these actions. You will have to find this junk, if it exists, foryourself.
Q. Where can I buy/lease/rent 3DO games? Where can I buy a 3DO console?
A. Look in your local telephone directory or news outlet for advertisements ofused video game dealers. There are 3 separate dealers of used games in a10-kilometer radius of where I live, and 2 of the 3 sell and/or rent 3DO usedgames. So they are not that hard to find. Second, try online auction sites suchas ebay or yahoo auctions. There are many peoplebuying and selling a variety of common and hard-to-find software and hardwarethere.
Q. I found/stole/bought the 3DO SDK! But I do not have a Macintosh to run thedevelopment software on, yet I would like to use the emulators available forthe Macintosh to do so. Can you give me a Mac emulator or ROM?
A. No! I personally, legally own ARDI's excellentExecutor emulator; this one needs no ROMs. I also own actual Macintoshes, whichcan be had for less than US $20 on online auction sites. You should do the samething. FOr the record, Basilisk II works well withthe SDK as well, for all tools that do not access the NuBusoptical 3DO interface card (because it obviously is not present on your PC)
Q. Can you give me (name other illegal stuff)?
A. No! Find or buy this stuff yourself. Leave us alone to develop this emulator!

How To Use Freedom Emulator Windows 10