The Exigent Duality
Simplicity - 15:07 CST, 7/23/19 (Sniper)
On one pole there is the 3DO: pre-baked API and custom silicon-- jointly referred to in developer documentation as the "Cell Engine"-- means that making games is a matter of making shared library calls to render your frame, play sound, and so forth; no custom code allowed! And custom code can't be permitted, because crazy assembler hacks would break compatibility across variety of 3DO consoles released by the various hardware partners. It's cool that you get all of these zany effects out of the box, but there isn't much flexibility to do your own thing.

And on the other absolute opposite pole as I found out through some digging yesterday, is the Game Boy Advance: I couldn't find the specs for its chipset, and eventually realized it's because there is no chipset; the GBA is just a CPU in a box! Want to do sound? Include a mod or digital file library in your game, then send the output stream's bits to one of the pair of "digital-to-analog" converters, or DACs, for output to the speaker and headphone jack. Want to do graphics? Write some assembler and draw pixels to the display.

This explains why I've always observed that GBA games vary wildly in terms of graphics style and audio quality; every single game on the system is "roll your own everything"-- quite literally an anti-3DO! Some GBA games use ray casting, some use simple sprite libraries, others draw texture-mapped triangles... some play sample-based music, others use wave forms, the Phantasy Star Collection actually emulates the Genesis's YM2612 and sends that output to the DACs... absolutely crazy!

Of course it's slow to do everything in software, but because the thing was so simple to manufacture Nintendo could sell it for $99! I remember first hand just how impressive it was technically back in 2001, and especially for such a low price.