Real3DOPlayer - RetroBIOS¶
Technical notes
Android package ru.vastness.altmer.real3doplayer, closed source, published by the author of the Phoenix Emulation Project and reached by ES-DE through its REAL3DOPLAYER find rule. The build read here is app-release.apk of 2019-11-19, taken from real3DOPlayer_free_1.0.32.zip on the author's own site, carrying the certificate sha256 336dca7bf758d4d4d3e31783a1cb3f777cf0f0791ff6b1a8bbf698892f8860a9 (C=RU, L=Tula, O=AltmerSoft, CN=MAXIM GRISHIN): versionCode 33, minSdk 14, targetSdk 23, seven ABIs. Java line numbers below are jadx output of that build and native addresses are its arm64-v8a library; the armeabi-v7a library carries the same strings and the same constants. The decompiled tree published as BoUnCe587/Real3DOPlayer was rejected: it is signed with the AOSP test key a40da80a59d170caa950cf15c18c454d47a39b26989d8b640ecd745ba71bf5dc.
One system is emulated, 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, in libphoenixcore.so behind a JNI bridge (NativeCore.java:6-51). The library names itself "PhoenixEmuProject core 2.8.21" and builds the console out of MADAM, CLIO, SPORT, CD-ROM, BIOS, FONT-ROM, FMV-ROM and NVRAM devices.
The user points the app at one directory holding both the discs and the ROMs, shown as "Current ISOs and BIOS path". countGames lists it, keeping the extensions bin, cdi, img, iso, nrg and rom, and offers every file to three adapters in turn: CD image, then BIOS, then font ROM (0xdd390-0xdd9e0, dispatch at 0xdc43c). An external launcher can instead pass explicit paths through the intent extras rom, cd and font, which become the config keys ext-rom, ext-cd and ext-font (MainActivity.java:469-471,412-414).
Nothing is recognised by name. A ROM candidate is measured, and a file of 3 MB or more is dropped before it is read; the remainder is scanned on four byte boundaries for the RomTag signature 01 5A 5A 5A 5A 5A 01 00, and the 0x84 byte header at that point is read back. The null terminated string at header offset 0x28 is what sorts the file: "rom" fills the BIOS list, "rom2" the font list, and "fmvrom" is compared for but never requested (0xaa0e0-0xaa350). Running that scan over the published 3DO dumps sorts every system BIOS into "rom" and every kanji dump into "rom2", the 512 KB arcade ROM and the 933636 byte FZ-1 font included.
The BIOS is the one file the app refuses to run without: an empty NativeCore.nameOfBios() raises "BIOS not found." and returns instead of starting the emulator, and at startup it raises "Select 3DO directory on SD card with BIOS and CD-images." (MainActivity.java:539-543,583-584). Nothing gates on the font ROM.
The md5 of the loaded BIOS is compared against a48e6746bd7edec0f40cff078f0bb19f, the Panasonic FZ-10 PAL ANVIL dump, and the outcome is passed as one construction argument of the device set (0x8eea0-0x8ef58, again at 0x916c0-0x916f4). It selects behaviour for that dump and is not an acceptance test: acceptance is the RomTag. Four further md5 constants (5df7f21286290b2b4e9bd939f747f985, dacffcf51e54e76b68fb62ec73faff42, 0da811a327361f9a3d7dca63ad503f30, 2536bf786f05af221038313a3e28f9aa) are all compared against the md5 taken for the CD-ROM device, so they identify game discs rather than firmware.
The FMV-ROM device is built but can never be fed: the ROM adapter is only ever constructed for tags "rom" and "rom2" (0xdc4e8, 0xe9784, 0xe98bc), the frontend registers only Library/CD-ROM, Library/BIOS and Library/FONT-ROM (0xe965c, 0xe9794, 0xe98cc), and no ext-fmv key exists.
Files the app makes for itself, in its storage directory rather than the scan directory: nvram.bin, the 32 KB console save area, erasable from the interface; configs.xml and settings.ini; save states; and the controller maps. madam.bin and clio.bin name 2 KB and 64 KB regions of the emulator's own state blob and are reached only in mode 2 (0x8ce8c-0x8d064).
2 files | 1 required, 1 optional | 2 in repo, 0 missing
panafz10e-anvil.bin required in repo
3DO system BIOS ROM
- System: 3do
- Size: max 3.0 MB
- Validation: size
- Source:
Real3DOPlayer 1.0.32 MainActivity.java:100-101,MainActivity.java:539-543,MainActivity.java:583-584,MainActivity.java:412,MainActivity.java:469,libphoenixcore.so arm64-v8a 0xaa0e0-0xaa118,0xaa140-0xaa1b0,0xaa218-0xaa27c,0xdc43c-0xdc53c,0xdd228-0xdd2e0,0xdd390-0xdd908,0x8f6f0-0x8f71c - Platforms: bizhawk, lakka, recalbox, retroarch, retrodeck, retropie, romm
- Config key:
ext-rom - Any 3DO system ROM is accepted, under any name and from any directory the user picks. The file is measured, then searched on four byte boundaries for the RomTag signature, and it is taken as the BIOS when the header names itself "rom". A file of 3 MB or more is rejected unread. The emulator will not start until one is found, and the interface lists it above the discs.
panafz1j-kanji.bin optional in repo
3DO kanji font ROM
- System: 3do
- Size: max 3.0 MB
- Validation: size
- Source:
Real3DOPlayer 1.0.32 MainActivity.java:413,Real3DOPlayer 1.0.32 MainActivity.java:471,libphoenixcore.so arm64-v8a 0xaa2e8-0xaa34c,0xdc4d0-0xdc52c,0xdd9dc-0xdd9e0,0xe98bc-0xe98cc,0x8f74c-0x8f780 - Platforms: lakka, recalbox, retroarch, retrodeck, retropie, romm
- Config key:
ext-font - Found by the same scan of the same directory, and taken as the font when the RomTag header names itself "rom2". Held in its own list and mapped into a second 1 MB window of the machine. Japanese titles draw their kanji from it; the emulator starts and runs without one, and the core carries GRAFERR_NO_FONT and GRAFERR_BADFONTFILE for that case.
Generated on 2026-08-23T16:12:06Z