3DO ZONE Forums

Okay, thinking about it, I swear I saw a picture of the 3DO memory expansion here a couple days ago. I had heard that they were going to release one, does anyone have specs for it? How does it work? Is it only compatible with the Panasonic unit? I am also assuming that the unit plugs into the machine, so where? This was something I so wanted back in the day and never had the pleasure of seeing, so help me out here guys.

T2KFreeker wrote:Okay, thinking about it, I swear I saw a picture of the 3DO memory expansion here a couple days ago. I had heard that they were going to release one, does anyone have specs for it? How does it work? Is it only compatible with the Panasonic unit? I am also assuming that the unit plugs into the machine, so where? This was something I so wanted back in the day and never had the pleasure of seeing, so help me out here guys.

I am getting one. But it isn't new. I think compatibility will be limited to the FZ-1 (The Panasonic front loader machine)

If memory is an issue try using the 3DO Guru. You can compress and manage stuff stored in memory much better than the standard 3DO Memory management utility.

The picture is in this thread:

http://cdinteractive.co.uk/3do/forum/viewtopic.php?t=53

Yeah, that was the picture, thanx'.

You can compress the 3DO memory with the Game guru? Sweet! I now have a reason to open mine up, but before I do, please clarify that that is what you are talking about.

T2KFreeker wrote:Okay, thinking about it, I swear I saw a picture of the 3DO memory expansion here a couple days ago. I had heard that they were going to release one, does anyone have specs for it? How does it work? Is it only compatible with the Panasonic unit? I am also assuming that the unit plugs into the machine, so where? This was something I so wanted back in the day and never had the pleasure of seeing, so help me out here guys.

It plugs into the back.



Game Guru compresses saves? Well thats rather nifty. Will the compression do any damage to the saves themselves. Compression isn't always the best solution. I've heard people having problems when compressing Panzer Dragoon Saga saves on the Saturn and others having problems with Dreamcast memory units that held twice as much space due to compression.

The Game Guru is a very nice piece of software. You can do many things with it. And yes, you can compress saved games into smaller files, and then when you wish to play that saved game you obviously decompress said saved file. You can even select between different compression formats
The two formats are GGC and 3DO. The GGC routine offers better compression but takes longer to accomplish than the 3DO routine.
With the Game Guru you can also make a copy of a file. This may seem like a curious feature at first, but it allows the user to modify the coding of a saved game without the danger of damaging the original save.
You can also assign logical names to your saves, like "Wolf Lv5".

Also, for those of us with the Game Guru, if at the main menu you select "Enter Code" and select the "GameGuru.CFG" file, and then enter "IHAVETHEVIDEO2" and press C you will be taken to a secret video made by the Game Guru team that is about 3 minutes long.

Well, you convinced me, goodbye shrink wrap!

The only probelms I've ever had w/Game Guru compression, is that some save files simply can't/won't compress. I haven't encountered this often, but it has happened. The most recent time was w/my save file for Virtual Staduium Baseball. It wouldn't compress, so I had to delete it to make room (takes up quite a bit of space) And no, the fact that it is a Japanese import isn't a factor (I think) cause I've also noticed this with an occasional NTSC disc as well.

Nevertheless, a top notch problem!

It could be that some games already have compressed saves. Trying to compress an already compressed file doesn't accomplish much!

My post reveals my technical ignorance ... I didn't know that. Maybe that is what I've encountered w/my Game Guru. Thanks for the heads up.

Hmm, just would be nice because games like Road Rash have HUGE save files on the 3DO.

Well, what are the offers for a 3DO Memory Unit?

Drax

Gir Draxa wrote:Well, what are the offers for a 3DO Memory Unit?

Drax

I have no clue. I know I would never be able to offer ebay money for it, that's for damn sure!

I don't think you can use Game Guru with the Memory Unit, so I'd keep it srink wrapped if I were you!!! If anyone has managed this then let me know as mine isn't compatible with the Game Guru.

The main drawback with the Memory Unit is that it doesn't allow games to access the files directly, so it's best use is for backing up saved files of games you want to resume at a later date withough clogging up the 3DO memory.

fish wrote:I don't think you can use Game Guru with the Memory Unit, so I'd keep it srink wrapped if I were you!!! If anyone has managed this then let me know as mine isn't compatible with the Game Guru.

The main drawback with the Memory Unit is that it doesn't allow games to access the files directly, so it's best use is for backing up saved files of games you want to resume at a later date withough clogging up the 3DO memory.

While it is true that you cannot directly access the Memory unit via the Game Guru software, you can of course use the 3DO console as an intermediary to first process the files with the Game Guru, save them on the console, and then use the Memory units disk to then transfer those files to the Memory unit. A bit of a hastle maybe, but man you can sure get a lot of saves stored on the memory unit this way by first compressing them with the Game Guru and then transferring them to the Memory unit

I need a copy of the disc. I have the hardware but mine never had the CD. Can anyone burn me a copy of the disc or put an iso somewhere?

WOW! One of the members sent me the disc image (only 3 megs) but this unit.... it's MASSIVE! I mean I turned it on and looked at what there was and thought "Ok same as the 3DO's NVRAM, good size" then I hit the P button where is says Switch and there are 8 memory banks, EIGHT! This has so made my day, well this and OlderGames. You guys ROCK!

d"oh i missed this thread

actually I saw a memory unit for sell on either Ebay or Amazon (amazing huh but yea amazon has 3do stuff on occasion) and it went for like 56.00 bucks

T2 (and this will be the ONLY time i ever say something like this) but honestly I wouldn't open it, this is the 1 and only time I can ever think of being able to say this (and please I mean no offense or want to open up a bucket of flame) but you could honestly download an image of it and still keep yours NIB..that is if you haven't already opened it....if i'm too late then I apologize ;(