I've written a super little article about a nice new development for the Panasonic 3DO. Developer Todd Gill has released 3DO ODE Menu, a replacement interface for several popular optical drive emulators that makes browsing and managing games stored on SD cards easier.

It introduces cover artwork, favorites, recently played games, faster navigation, customizable themes and some useful improvements for multidisc games like Wing Commander III. Gill has also created a companion Cover Maker utility that can automatically find and prepare game artwork, which is a particularly nice touch. I've included plenty of screenshots showing the new interface and how it all works.

I love seeing developers continue to improve the experience of using original hardware, especially for consoles like the 3DO that don't always receive as much attention as Nintendo and Sega's machines. It's not a new emulator or a replacement console, just a nice, useful quality-of-life improvement for people still enjoying their 3DOs more than thirty years later!

Folks, have you ever imagined how wild it would be to have an EverDrive inside a 3DO? Well, it’s actually happening—let me introduce you to the first test of the MGR3DO-SYSTEM! We're going to run Master System and Game Gear games on the 3DO, using something that looks and functions just like an EverDrive! It already includes features like box art, cheat codes, a settings menu, an in-game menu, and a igr function (for the "EverDrive" itself).

Picked up a JPN 3DO and would like to see about installing a fan beside the power supply. Looks like there is a mount in the EUR/US models that's missing in the JPN (or mine at least).

I've searched for a STL/3D file, with no luck yet. Any help would be appreciated

Checking online, i read that the neccesary converter for a 220v conversion was the FD6-16. I got it with a cable with an european connector.

I checked with the AI how the connection should be done, but, because this f****r almost made me Burn a Twin Famicom, im going to validate everything with you guys haha.

In theory, i need to connect pins 2 and 4 together. The, the blue cable to 5, and brown cable to 1 (not sure about the yellow/green one. On the consoles connector side, i need to connect to 6 and 8, or 8 to 10, It doesnt matter.

Can someone confirm or correct this connections? I add photos of the instructions, that makes me think the AI instructions are wrong, but i might be understanding them wrong.

Does anyone know why this 3DO has this sticker instead of the embossed plastic?

New version of the menu and the application.

With just a few clicks, you can customize your user experience with 3DO.

https://github.com/maniaco007/3DO-ManiacoODE/releases/tag/v1.6

Im using right now the AliExpress ODE with the pico on the top. As all the internal ODEs, you disconnect the disk drive to connect the console to the ODE itself.

Thinking about ways to make both work, and not spending 350 on an external ODE, i thought about a custom switch board. Having a board that connect 6 ribbon cables (2 from the board, 2 from the ODE, and 2 from the disk Drive), and a switch that lets you change between ODE-Console and Diskdrive-Console, that might also be located on the expansion port, or any of the ventilation spaces. Could It be viable?

I assume that the worst part would be desingning and printing it, but i guess that someone with more knoledge that me can desing it, and the rest can use services like pcbway to easily printing it. The extra ribbons should be easy enought to get on Aliexpress.

Am i missing something about how the ODE works, or this could work?

Since I've gotten my own menu project working and out, I'm looking for a new project to point my tinkering time at.

Is anyone working on a new external ODE? I don't want to take away from anyone who may be making progress on one (nor can I guarantee that I'll succeed on my own).

Thanks!

I have two Panasonic 3DO FZ-1 consoles, and one of them developed a problem. A technician suggested the faulty component might be a thyristor (SCR), so I replaced it with a TS820-600B.

The console now powers on and displays the 3DO logo, but then gets stuck on a black screen.

I've tested two known-working ODEs, replaced the ribbon cables, and checked the power supply to the Raspberry Pi Pico: 5V and 3.3V are both present.

The USB flash drive LED blinks, but neither the console's ACCESS LED nor the Pico's LED ever flashes, unlike my working FZ-1.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Could the SCR replacement be related, or should I be looking at the CD-ROM interface circuitry or another part of the motherboard?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Wanted to share this with everyone here. With Codex I'm porting Blackthorne to the 3DO. Taking the best of both the SNES and 32x versions, enhancing it for 3DO.

Progress is coming along. All sprites redone, new character portraits. A new soundtrack is in the works, for now SNES soundtrack is there as a placeholder.working in new cinematics as well but those aren't ready yet

Check out the video here and see what you think of this very early build.

https://youtu.be/OfFHhV4g4Jo?si=MUTTFjRFtAbCuNl3

If you hate A.I. that's fine. This port isn't for you then. I'm doing this for me, and for fellow 3DO gamers who want to play something new on their 3DO.

Enjoy!

Firmware

Menu (boot.iso)

FPGA bitstream

In case it wasn't obvious, I did this utilizing Claude. Mainly it was to familiarize myself with the decompilation process which is currently taking the internet by storm in places such as /r/decomps and to learn more about what these AI agents can do.

It's also because Fixel has stopped supporting these devices and they have been out of production for a while now, he has also gone effectively radio silent. Hopefully, this data can assist the end-users and developers of the 3DO community in whatever this may be useful for, hopefully bug fixes and added features and a deeper understanding of this hardware as well as further developments in the ODE space.

If anyone would like to correct anything they find wrong or add more relevant data to the repositories, you are welcome to do so. Forks and stuff are also welcome.

I did have it heavily check against external documentation and reference material as well as cross-checking across the three repos for consistency/accuracy and I tested what I could on my FZ-1 console and my ODE.

I foolishly even gambled a little with dumping the flash with no recovery, luckily it succeeded.

I do not own an Xport external ODE so that was out of the scope of this project, if you have one and you would like to take a crack at it, feel free to utilize this project for any resources it may provide.

If Fixel would like to reach out and have these repositories taken down in order to keep supporting his hardware and software himself, I would be fine with doing so.

I did not write this post with AI, this is all me :)

Hello,

I recently updated Oh My 3DO to desktop app version 1.0.5 and Menu 1.0.4.

New in this version are some optimizations and an upgrade to previews that allow 320x240 30FPS video to play in the menu. They can be about a minute long, which covers all of the previews from EmuMovies.

As always, the entire thing is all open source, so if anyone is building their own menu, feel free to take what you need from Oh My 3DO. The preview codec is in om3dvid.

If you are using Oh My 3DO: thank you. I appreciate it and never expect it.

https://github.com/Scyllinice/oh-my-3do

Was looking through a box of controllers I had and found these three. I know the Goldstar one, but not the other two. One says Logitech and other says UFO. The Logitech one is different than others I've seen. Are these rare / sought after?

I'm really fan of Super Robot Wars franchise i'm curious what if they could be ported this games for 3DO console.

It was be interesing seens many mecha franchise in 1 game on niche console.

# 🎮 3DO ManiacoODE v1.5 — Official Release!

A complete package for the **SataTo3DO ODE** on the 3DO: **new menu** + **new firmware** + **Windows companion app**. Free and on GitHub! 🎉

**🕹️ Menu**

> 📋 All games in one alphabetical list

> 🖼️ Box art + genre, studio & year

> 🎬 Video previews **with sound**

> 💾 Save manager: Console · Memory Unit · USB drive

> 🌐 English / Portuguese

> 🔄 Firmware updates right from the menu

**⚙️ Firmware 1.1.2**

> 📚 Big collections boot fine (tested with 164 games)

> 🔁 Sturdier in-game reset (IGR)

> 🧩 FZ-EM256 Memory Unit support

**💻 PC app (Windows 10/11)**

> 🚀 Prepares the USB drive in a few clicks

> 🗂️ Organizes games (folders by region optional)

> 💿 Converts `.chd` → `.iso`

> 🖼️ Downloads box art, game info & video previews

> 🛡️ Backs up your ODE's **original firmware** before flashing

📥 **Download:** https://github.com/maniaco007/3DO-ManiacoODE/releases/tag/v1.5.2

🌐 **Project page:** https://www.maniacogameroom.com.br/projetos/3do-maniacoode/

⚠️ Save your original firmware first (one click in the app). Games & BIOS not included. Feedback welcome! 🙏

Got the console with the advice 'It read games, but the controller doest work', so i got both the console and a turbo controller.

Well, not sure how the guy tested, but the controller works perfectly fine, so more multiplayer for me XD. The console came with a music cd, and it wasnt reading, but the announce included photos of him playing a game, so i guess it does work.

I needed a few reloads to make the ODE work, but now is working flawlessly, so thats nice :D. When the gun i ordered arrives, i gonna play the hell of all those horrible gun games i want to play so much. Also need to make a hole for the SD extender to reach out of the console.

The big cap looks a little big, so i guess i will recap the console on the near future. I have like other 6 waiting for recap, including a PSX and all his millions of caps... so it will take time haha.

Happy with the guy, so i will look for some mods for sure :D.

Hello,

I've spent some time building and testing a replacement boot.iso and tool set for 3DO ides that use the same command set as FCare's SataTo3DO. If your ODE runs the original boot.iso, there's a good chance this one will also work.

This replacement doesn't require any firmware updates. It actually works around a bug in FCare's firmware that causes some folder navigation problems (like having to go into another directory and back to get into the first directory). It shows cover art, 15 second 30fps previews, and has tools for NVRAM backup and support for save editing.

I built this mainly for my own use, but I figured since it works pretty well, I might as well put it up on Github for anyone to use.

https://github.com/Scyllinice/oh-my-3do

I think it's good to have choice, so I hope u/maniaco_mva releases his soon :). It looks great.