Get best of the week

Console ghost. Panasonic M2

Now it’s hard to believe, but in the middle of the fifth generation there was a force that could withstand both the power of the Nintendo 64 and the invincibility of the Sony PlayStation.

And I'm not talking about Sega Saturn, whose sun was rapidly setting over the horizon, and especially not about Sega 64X, rumors about which were far from the truth, and not even about Dreamcast, whose specifications have not yet been approved. No, all of the above faded before a real generation bulldozer, which threatened to become the most technologically advanced gaming device by the fall of 1996.



Indeed, it was then that Matsushita, after a year of bravado and empty promises, planned to release the most powerful 64-bit machine - the Panasonic M2.

Judge for yourself, two central 64-bit PowerPC processors 602 with a frequency of 66 MHz each surrounded by ten video, sound and graphic coprocessors produced 1 million polygons / second, resolution 640x480, supported the MPEG-1 video standard and 32-channel 3D CD quality sound. Laboratory tests confirmed the readiness of the platform for the most demanding operations with 3D graphics, providing complete superiority over the enemy: 3 times over the Nintendo 64 and 7 times over the Sony PlayStation. Sounds tempting, doesn't it?

And what if I tell you that Matsushita, being one of the developers of DVD technology, already in 1996 mastered the power to produce 4-speed DVD-ROM specifically for the needs of Panasonic M2! And this, sorry, 4 (!) Years before the advent of PlayStation 2.Why, even working prototypes of the console were already equipped with 8 MB of RAM and memory cards to save up to 32 MB! I note that Nintendo 64 only after 2 years allowed itself a similar generosity of 8 MB of RAM, because its addon 64DD required additional resources ...



But even an arbitrarily powerful system, like air, needed powerful games.

So, in the name of work on UMK3, Return fire 2, Road rash M2, Rock & roll racing 2, Mechwarrior 2, Need for speed II, Killing time 2, Battle sport 2, Army man, Soviet strike, Gex 2, D2 and others Williams, Konami, Capcom, WARP, Interplay, Studio 3DO, EA and other developers joined the M2 project.


What can I say, the "big M" to the start of sales of the Panasonic M2 thoroughly prepared! Devkits M2, developed back in Studio 3DO in 1995 and brought to the absolute perfection of Matsushita in 1996, were sent to all the major players in the market. And the whole subsequent year 1997, the gaming press was very supportive of M2, maintaining a lively interest among gamers and developers.

It would seem that all the alchemical components were in place, the proportions were observed, even the release time was verified before the moment. But first, the fall of 1996, the Christmas boom, quietly passed, then the first half of 1997, until, finally, the Matsushita company officially canceled its decision to enter the console war on the fifth generation barricades. So in cold-blooded and samurai style, the "prenatal" life of the console, almost changing the world, was heartlessly interrupted. Sparingly, without tears, almost imperceptibly ...



Born as an add-on extension to the first 3DO family, car No. 2 was not allowed to incarnate into a separate platform under the 3DO M2 label or in the form of Panasonic M2. It seemed to the inexperienced gamer that Matsushita had betrayed the interests of 3DO fans, magazine critics vied with each other to prove that after the failure of Panasonic 3DO, Matsushite was completely useless to compete with Sony and Nintendo. But, that the first, that the second were greatly mistaken. Contrary to the widespread opinion about Matsushita’s financial weakness, I’ll say that for 1996 the company’s income was commensurate with Sony, and in some articles even exceeded ...

Still, the reason for the cancellation of the Panasonic M2 was in a different plane.

Let me remind you that the release of the system was constantly shifted from the second half of 1995 until the middle of 1997. During this time, the final specifications of the Panasonic M2 underwent significant changes, but DVD technology was still too expensive to produce a console at a competitive price of $ 199-249. For example, the retail price of the first DVD players started with a bar of $ 700 (!), So Big M did not want to repeat the experiment with a starting price of $ 699.But the most important thing was that insiders of Matsushita learned impressive details about the upcoming 128-bit Sega answer, the answer to the entire fifth generation at once. Soberly assessing her prospects, Matsushita did the only thing true for a large corporation. And she was right. A year after the official cessation of all development for the M2, Sega Dreamcast blew up the gaming market, revealing the capabilities and potential of the 6th generation consoles.
Only in 2001, Matsushita again recalled itself in the console field, first creating a drive and data carrier for the Nintendo GameCube, and in 2006 and 2012 for Wii and Wii U, respectively. But this was a different story, a story without risk, without innovation and revenge ...

More articles:


All Articles