This is a 3DO Opera (M1) development environment. It is built from a number of components both new and old. The hope is that by making setup more turnkey and bringing documentation and examples into one location it will help facilitate more homebrew on the 3DO.

Components

Compilers

• Norcroft ARM C v4.91 (ARM Ltd SDT2.51) [Build number 130] for Linux
• Norcroft ARM C v4.91 (ARM Ltd SDT2.51) [Build number 128] for Windows
• Norcroft ARM C++ v0.61/v4.91 (ARM Ltd C++1.11) [Build number 130] for Linux
• Norcroft ARM C++ v0.61/v4.91 (ARM Ltd C++1.11) [Build number 128] for Windows

Libraries

• 3DO libraries from Portfolio 2.5 (including Lib3DO)
• cpplib: basic replacement C++ standard library
• Roguewave STL which originally came with ARM C++
• svc_funcs: provides access to kernel functions while in supervisor mode
• svc_mem: example device driver and its library
• example_folio: example Folio (shared library)

Documentation

• 3DO SDK's "Developer's Documentation Set"
• ARM SDT and ARM C++ docs

Tooling

• 3it: trapexit's 3DO Image Tool
• 3dt: trapexit's 3DO Disc Tool
• 3ct: trapexit's 3DO Compression Tool
• modbin: trapexit's recreation of the original SDK's tool by the same name
• 3doiso v0.1 by nikk
• 3DOEncrypt v0.6a by Charles Doty
• MakeBanner v1.0b by Charles Doty
• BMPTo3DOCel v0.6a by Charles Doty
• BMPTo3DOImage v1.0b by Charles Doty
• BMPTo3DOAnim v0.6a by Charles Doty

trapexit's tooling may not always be fully up to date in this repo so double check by visiting the links provided above.

Examples

• 3DO Portfolio 2.5 Examples
• CEL rotation and zoom demo
• Example Folio
• Reading the ROM using svc_mem
• Finding Items at runtime
• Overwriting existing Folio functions

Misc

• 3DO "takeme" CDROM base files from Portfolio 2.5 w/ a swapped out boot_code from Game Guru

Usage

Linux

Make sure you have WINE installed. Some tools are currently only available on Windows.

makefile

1. Get dev kit: git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/trapexit/3do-devkit
2. You can also download a zip file from the GitHub page
3. Enter the directory: cd 3do-devkit
4. Source the environment: source activate-env
5. Run make: make
6. Generates file helloworld.iso

Windows

We need project files for common Windows IDEs.

WSL2

Same as Linux

Media Conversion

images: 3it is a pretty comprehensive tool supporting conversion to and from CELs, IMAGs, Banners, etc. Older tools are included for completeness but should not be needed.

audio: ffmpeg can be used to convert files to AIFF files but to compress them you will need to use the original software for now. See below.

video: Same as audio. Cinepak creation by ffmpeg is not compatible with the 3DO provided decoder. Regardless, new tooling is need to convert files into 3DO supported "Stream" files. https://3dodev.com has a tutorial.

http://3dodev.com/software/sdks#prebuilt_qemu_macos_9_vm

Notes

ARM C++ 1.11 compiler

• ARM C++ 1.11 is a pre-standard compiler. From section 3.10 in the ref guide:
  • Exceptions are NOT supported
  • Namespaces are NOT supported
  • RTTI is only partially suported
  • C++ style casting is only partially supported
  • While technically mostly supported templates can be buggy and complex usage may crash the compiler

Memory Management

ARM C++ 1.11 treats POD (plain old data) and objects differently so POD must be expressly handled/ignored when worrying about object destruction. There are no default destructors for objects either meaning it is not possible to simulate a 'placement delete' to force destruction. obj->~OBJ() will not work unless expressly defined. As a result it is difficult to write generic template based data types. To work around this the STL like library provided removed memory freeing from 'delete' to force its use as a placement delete. Meaning that when wanting to free data from 'new' one should use memory_delete(ptr). That said best to use or create higher level objects to manage such things. Simple versions of shared_ptr and unique_ptr are provided.

There might be a better solution to this problem but after many attempts, including attempting to use the strategy by RogueWave which didn't seem to work, this was settled on till something better could be be done.

TODO

• Project files for popular IDEs.
• Continue to enhance the C++ standard library replacement.
• C++ based 3DO specific libraries.
• Create a new iso building tool.
• Create a new iso encrypt tool.
• More examples.
• Better compiler support. Possibly use CLANG or GCC to generate assembly and translate it to work with Norcroft armasm.
• More languages? If you have a ARMv3 compatible compiler and AIF linker (even if just different versions of Norcroft compilers) please reach out.
• A version of the Opera emulator tailored for development work?

Thanks

• @ArmSoftwareDev on Twitter and Arm Support: for providing me with copies of ARM SDT 2.51 and ARM C++ 1.11. After reaching out to former Norcroft employees, software archivists, and even Bjarne Stroustrup without success finding a copy of ARM C++ from the 3DO era I reached out to ARM directly and they were able to find some copies and offered them to me for this project.
• everyone at The 3DO Community Discord
• XProger (author of OpenLara) who was the first project to use this dev kit

Links

• 3DO Development Repo: https://3dodev.com
• 3do-devkit: https://github.com/trapexit/3do-devkit
• Portfolio OS: https://github.com/trapexit/portfolio_os
• The 3DO Community Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kvM9cQG
• OpenLara: https://github.com/XProger/OpenLara

Donations / Sponsorship

If you find 3do-devkit useful please consider supporting its ongoing development.

https://github.com/trapexit/support