Messages have been posted by Robert Huebner <huebner@convex.com> and E. Kontei <Crvrsx.4uu@cbnewsl.cb.att.com>
Mosaic page by Michel Buffa <michel.buffa@cmu.edu> (me); I just made the content easier to read.
The Creative labs 3DO Blaster will be released in full version, eg: with CD-Rom, Sound Blaster and 3DO Blaster. It will also be released in a version for people who already own a 2X CD-Rom and 16 SoundBlaster.
A: Yes, I guess it does. Your VGA out goes into the 3DO card and comes out to the monitor. Is that what you mean?
Q: Can you be using your PC while the game is going?
A: Definitely. If you boot from Windows. The card places only a very small load on the computer's CPU.
Q: Can you also run start it from DOS?
A: Yes. But cannot resize or multitask. And no particular advantages to using DOS (not faster or anything)
Q: Do you play it in a MS-Windows window?
A: You can.
Q: Is that window a fixed size of 640x480?
A: No. It can be any size and will scale the X and Y accordingly. You could play Total Eclipse at 640x50 if you wished. (but good luck)
Q: Where do you save the games ? On Hard Disk ?
Saves of games are to NVRAM just like Panasonic. Not to disk. Creative Rep said you cannot hack the 3DO hardware from the PC, but that doesn't mean no one will figure something out..
Q: So you are saying it's not going to be windows based? or is it?
A: All the demos run at the SCES show that I saw were under Windows but the rep said there would be a DOS-based driver as well. So the short answer is you won't need Windows if what he was saying proves correct.
Q: Also, I'm kind of unclear as to what I'll need to buy for this card.... I have a Creative Labs SB16ASP with Waveblaster and Omni-CD (DoubleSpin) is that all I need (besides the 3DO card of course) or will I need something else?
A: The soundcard bit was the most confusing. The rep said the thing only needed some card capable of mixing in the DSP-generated sound, but some press releases talk about 16-bit soundcards as a requirement. Here's a sample of the double-talk and confusion from Creative's 1-page 'fact sheet':
A: As for the CD-ROM, it seems you can use either Creative's drive or one by Panasonic.
Creative's # is 1-800-988-5227