The 3DO, or its full name, the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, is part of the first generation of home game consoles which is where cartridge games began to be dropped in favour of the CD format.
This brings its own changes with emulation as you will now deal with CD images, rather than ROM dumps of cartridge games.
If you are searching a 3DO emulator, then look no further, I have recommendations for the PC, Mac & Android devices for you.
3DO Emulator For Windows PC
4DO is renowned for being one of the top 3DO emulators on Windows PCs and it’s certainly my favourite.
A fork from the FreeDO emulation project, 4DO offers some excellent features including CPU overclocking and resolution upscaling, all desirable features for the modern retro gamer.
There are a few games here and there that have the occasional glitch, but officially, 4DO is still being supported, so I can assume that this will only continue to improve with time. 4DO is a great emulator for Windows PCs and will certainly please fans of the 3DO.
4DO Features Include:-
- Save States
- Auto Load Previously Played Game
- Smooth Image Upscaling
- Double Resolution Rendering
- ‘Hqx’ Post Processing Up To 4x
- Increase Clock Speed Settings
- Audio Buffer Settings
- Controller Input Configuration (Up To 6 Players)
- Screenshots
3DO Emulator For Mac
The best way to play 3DO games on Mac comes in the form of the Opera core for RetroArch.
Opera is actually a Libretro port of the 4DO emulator and benefits from many of the same features listed above. With it being a RetroArch core, it is really easy to get hold of. Simply go to download cores in RetroArch and search for ‘The 3DO Company – 3DO (Opera) and install the core.
Take note of these 3DO BIOS files that you will be required to obtain in order to play games. A 3DO BIOS file will need to be copied to the ‘systems’ folder of the RetroArch installation, just use the one for the region you wish to emulate.
3DO Emulator For Android
Like with the Mac, the 3DO emulator of choice for Android users is also the Opera core on RetroArch. RetroArch on Android devices is, without doubt, the easiest way to dive into a world of nostalgia, all available in the palm of your hands.
You can obtain the required 3DO BIOS files by doing a quick search online for the files detailed in the RetroArch Libretro documentation here.
The Opera core for RetroArch has a decent amount of options specific to the 3DO core, including the ability to overclock the CPU to make games run quicker as well as the usual built-in RetroArch display options to cool filter effects to your games, such as CRT scanline effects which really help older games appear less blocky.
As a retro gaming & retro computing enthusiast, I enjoy sharing help guides and about retro gaming in general, when I have the spare time to do so!