Panasonic Video CD Adapter (FZ-FV10)

Summary

The Panasonic 3DO consoles FZ-1 and FZ-10 are — as are the equivalents of Goldstar and Sanyo — equipped with a CD drive, but unable to decompress MPEG-1 data streams for video CDs. Panasonic therefore introduced the Video CD Adapter as hardware additions: for the console FZ-1 the Video CD Adapter FZ-FV1 (and later an update FZ-FV1A) and for FZ-10 the FZ-FV10. The addition was plugged into the console, in the case of the FZ-1 rear and the FZ-10 right. Visually, there is such a fairly closed image, whereby of course the additions are not hardware-compatible. In addition, FZ-FV1 / FZ-FV1A needs an external power supply of 10 V and another difference shows the inscription “Adaptor” on the packaging of an FZ-FV1, which was later corrected in “Adapter”.

With the adapters, the 3DO consoles were able to play MPEG-1 encoded video CDs, making 74 minutes of film and sound possible. A few games, especially in the adult genre, use video sequences to expand “games”. The console complement is related to the Philips Digital Video Cartridge (22ER9956). Samsung also presented its own 3DO console at CES in Chicago in 1994, which was intended to play VCD films directly, but which never saw the public.