|
|
Rise MP6
Posts: 263
 
| The best experience I've had on it was on a Saturn console, I've still got the bloody thing! Shame my telly hasn't got a scart socket then.
I've prolly just pissed everybody off on vogons for dissin' the god of 3dfx!
Bloody wife brought back some throat and chest virus bollox from Christmas shopping, I'm full of it, so I don't bloody care! |
|
| |
|
TM Crusoe
Posts: 618
Location: Hull, UK | The Saturn here might have had more games bought for it if I could only find a Nights controller that wasn't stuck going in a single direction, a shame as they're really comfortable.
To this day I have yet to figure out what 3DFX hardware actually does, other than not really work with anything. Games which claim to support it rarely work, or else require a specific card to do so. Then, assuming you get that far, they won't run well because you need a faster CPU than was reasonably available at the time - to this day, as the performance seems to scale with CPU speed, I'm honestly suspicious of how much the card actually does versus making the CPU do the work - you'd never be able to afford said CPU if you bought both a 3DFX card and the regular video card you'd still need anyway because wasting multiple slots is fun, at the end of all this, assuming you got something to run, the only tangible 'improvement' to see, is that now a game which looked bad now looks bad anyway, but with washed out colors and several tubs of vaseline smeared over the screen. Still can't figure out what all the fuss is over them, they showed up, sucked balls, lagged way behind the others and then died due to repeatedly making poor decisions. The only thing I regret is having no way to record that massive one with a dumb power brick hanging off of it being bent and set fire to years ago, just because it would be so funny to watch the fanboys rage out.
But there's the funny thing; They were widely considered garbage at the time, nobody wanted them, nobody ever had, even the magazines had slagged them off since a little ways after the V2 showed up and everything else went AGP, as well as gained cool features like MPEG2 decoding which 3DFX never had (saving another slot in the process). Basically we disposed of loads of cards due to just one local builder using them, only for the user to invariably want it changing to an ATI or nVidia card (sometimes Matrox), due to the way they were thought of at the time, nobody cared, it was the same as burning garden waste or throwing overly sour milk in the trash. Yeah, you could still drink the milk, but it wasn't really prohibitively expensive to just buy better milk and skip the diarrhea.
Edited by DXZeff 2020-01-13 4:15 AM
|
|
| |
|
Rise MP6
Posts: 263
| Most folk on there seem to agree, which surprised me a bit, maybe all the fan-boi's are up for school in the morning, so away to bed.
I'm not a fan because I bought a pair of V2's when they came out. They cost me a bloody fortune and the makers (Orchid) never released a driver update. In fact the reference ones stopped six months later and I was left relying on the community for updates. That was actually better as they mostly worked. In particular getting them to work with Athlons was only possible thanks to enthusiasts, cock all help from 3dfx, so fuck 'em. I was glad when they went under.
I liked the Saturn, only console I ever have liked. Seemed much more stylish than the tawdry playstation. I always back the wrong horse... even when the winner is a nag!
Edited by tedster 2020-01-13 4:53 AM
|
|
| |
|
Intel P5
Posts: 85
Location: UK | Agree on the above comments on 3DFX cards, especially in today's "collectors" market, a fool and his money are easily parted as they say. Only thing I will say for the banshee and voodoo3 is they make pretty fast and compatible DOS 2D cards for later rigs(Super 7 etc), still not as good as RIVA 128(by far the fastest 2D card I have ever tested to be honest) or TNT though in that regard, but better than your common or garden S3 of the era. As for those pass through cable things, well I recall a pal having one back in the day, underwhelming is the best word I can use... |
|
| |
|
TM Crusoe
Posts: 618
Location: Hull, UK | @tedster; That does surprise me, back when I was allowed over there the fanboyism was out of control. There's a long running joke among some people I talk to about the ultimate Wankware machine, featuring quad Pentium Pro, running Win9x, unlimited Voodoo SLI and an SBLive for unparalleled retrogaming. If the parts were cheap, I'd actually build one just to laugh at it for being so dumb, think I'll just stick with the K5/Mach64 for now, those work, or else drag the K6/Blade T64 out if early Direct3D is required. Seems go yield better 'bang for your buck' really.
Odd you should mention Orchid, because the official drivers for their V1 card tend to do nothing but BSOD with some 3DFXOGL.DLL message or other, still don't feel as though much is being missed by not using it versus using software mode or plugging in a D3D card of some type.
The Saturn I like far more than PS1 as a console, but the library is lacking. What people forget, though, is that the PS1 library was mostly trash too, it's just that everyone seems to have forgotten about the countless bargain bin reskin games that were released on it and only talk about the good ones. Out of its entire library the only things I can be bothered with are 4x4 World Trophy and Mad Panic Coaster, unfortunately I know of no equivalent on Saturn, nor on N64, but I'm glad I had the N64 back then as it did at least get some good titles released on it, probably more so than the other systems did. It has F-Zero X for a start, so that kinda makes it win by default even if the console itself is kinda ugly.
@CyrixInstead; Never saw such compatibility, DOS games don't work very well on it even if they run reasonably quick, there's always issues with the palette or the mode not being supported. Fans try to tell me that my card is broken, but others tested the same things on theirs and found the same issues, suggesting they just don't work right and their support for those modes is broken.
Obviously I'd sooner be stuck with a RIVA/TNT, the only thing that bugs me with those is the dirty picture output on them, the signal quality is noticeably rough. It's not really bad and I can live with it, but you can't help but feel they could have done better. Some of the later Rage 128 cards (Pro, Fury) seem to hold their own quite well in 2D, which probably isn't surprising as the Mach64's weren't as bad here as people like to make out they were and the core probably had a clock increase by the time the 128 Pro/Fury cards arrived. Admittedly, I'm still rather fond of that Blade T64 though, thus far it's run everything that's been thrown at it (until its limits are reached, it's not exactly gonna do well with games written for later DirectX versions), it even plays Blood II without any issues and might just be the only card I know of to do this. It also doesn't crash on Quake III, the only down-side being that my K6 is too slow to play it, not that I'd really want to play that anyway, but whatever.
In all honestly I'd sooner take an S3 for its abilities with software rendering than anything 3DFX made, both options have piss poor 3D capabilities but one is markedly cheaper and more reliable, as well as having better drivers, which makes the decision easy.
To this day it still amuses me to remember the local pirate man who swore by PowerVR, dragging it with him some way into the 2000s. PowerVR didn't actually seem terrible, especially in later implementations, but it always seemed to be in the wrong place. Thin it did well in embedded applications later on, that seemed more fitting for it, also the Dreamcast had one.
I also still get a laugh out of that guy who argued extensively in my comments section that the K6-2 was no longer being made and wasn't around in the early 2000s, especially in Eastern Europe, despite mine coming from Eastern Europe and there being several close-up shots of the chipset with an August 2000 bin date on it. Then again, they probably came from the increasingly large crowd who say we all hooked our Mega Drives up via RGB/SCART in the early 90s instead of using the shitty RF lead that came with the system, usually on a beat up old portable TV with dodgy sound, which couldn't get Channel 5 and had no SCART socket anyway.
Edited by DXZeff 2020-01-13 5:33 PM
|
|
| |
|
TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| tedster - 2020-01-13 2:25 AM
I've prolly just pissed everybody off on vogons for dissin' the god of 3dfx!
Don't feel bad. Personally I like V1 better than any other Voodoo card. Mostly because I can play NFS2-SE.
All the other games, I really don't care for 3dFX anymore. Yes, they were fun, yet I get more from far more powerfull stuff.
Sure V3 are fun and all, yet I think TNT2-Ultra and Matrox G400-Max are way more fun. |
|
| |
|
TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| CyrixInstead - 2020-01-13 3:25 PM
Agree on the above comments on 3DFX cards, especially in today's "collectors" market, a fool and his money are easily parted as they say. Only thing I will say for the banshee and voodoo3 is they make pretty fast and compatible DOS 2D cards for later rigs(Super 7 etc), still not as good as RIVA 128(by far the fastest 2D card I have ever tested to be honest) or TNT though in that regard, but better than your common or garden S3 of the era. As for those pass through cable things, well I recall a pal having one back in the day, underwhelming is the best word I can use...
For dos. Give me one of the following instead of anything else..... Wait... I already have them. :-D
- S3-Trio64v+
- S3-Virge325
- Cirrus Logic CL-5446 (I actually have two of the 5446)
However. They are all PCI, so for VLB I use S3-805, that is way faster than most Cirrus Logic VLB's, and if we are talking ISA slot, then I go for my trusty high end Tseng ET4000 card. It is an Orchid ProDesigner IIs card. These cards are all for when I run MS-Dos 6.22 and not Win98se. When running Win98se, then I am not running any Dos software, as I like to keep things seperated by the OS that I am running. When running Win98se, then I use the following cards: TNT2-Ultra, Matrox G400-Max, GF2-GTS, GF3-ti200, GF4-ti4200 or Radeon-9600. What card I use, all depends on what CPU that I am running.
Edited by Brostenen 2020-01-13 7:57 PM
|
|
| |
|
TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| DXZeff - 2020-01-13 7:26 PM
Odd you should mention Orchid, because the official drivers for their V1 card tend to do nothing but BSOD
Hmmm.... I usually use official 3dFX referance drivers for my Orchid V1. Works like a charm, and I am only holding on to my Orchid V1, because I want to play NFS2-SE one or two times a year. Else the card are mostly not in use at all. |
|
| |
|
Rise MP6
Posts: 263
| I don't think I actually used the official Orchid drivers that came with my V2's. I'm pretty bloody sure they were a dx5 version! I was just really pissed that there was no support for a product I'd paid through the nose for. Even the glory of seeing "shiny floors" in Unreal 1 didn't make up for the torment of getting them to work with my "shiny" new Athlon CPU, when I got it.
To be fair. The pass-through cards could work, sometimes, and when they did they could be glorious. See LGR's vid showing Tomb Raider 2 on the Voodoo 1, compared to software rendering. I think they only got that though because so many games supported their, otherwise, shitty products.
But the benefits were short lived and could have an adverse effect on your 2D experience. Especially if your card came with one of the cheap arse pass-through cables some of them churned out with. |
|
| |
|
Rise MP6
Posts: 263
| So, I had the first five Tomb Raider games in my Steam library. Bought for a fiver in one of their sales! I'd have been better off using the "fiver" to pay a wino to punch me in the face, it'd have been less painful.
Out of all the games, only TR III would allow me to map its stupid controls to my Logitech Dual Action game pad. The other four refused to, even acknowledge, directional controls. Well, TR5 almost worked but the cow would, inexplicably, set off running on her own at random, killing herself. Thick bitch! I kinda felt like impaling myself on spikes myself.
I suppose I can always play TRIII now, when I'm too cheerful and want to make myself really depressed.
Why the hell won't the others work tho? They are essentially the same bloody game? |
|
| |
|
TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| Bought a mint condition Nintendo Wii, with two controllers and two nunchuck's and the stand for 5 US Dollars. (including shipping)
Wii sports came along with the console, and it was even factory reset. |
|
| |
|
Rise MP6
Posts: 263
| Bought a Dell 19" monitor, off Amazon for 25 quid posted. Comes with a free keyboard and mouse! For the price, I'm expecting top quality items!
We'll see when "Hermes" have finished kicking the parcel to my house... |
|
| |
|
Intel P5
Posts: 85
Location: UK | DXZeff - 2020-01-13 5:26 PM
@CyrixInstead; Never saw such compatibility, DOS games don't work very well on it even if they run reasonably quick, there's always issues with the palette or the mode not being supported. Fans try to tell me that my card is broken, but others tested the same things on theirs and found the same issues, suggesting they just don't work right and their support for those modes is broken.
Obviously I'd sooner be stuck with a RIVA/TNT, the only thing that bugs me with those is the dirty picture output on them, the signal quality is noticeably rough. It's not really bad and I can live with it, but you can't help but feel they could have done better. Some of the later Rage 128 cards (Pro, Fury) seem to hold their own quite well in 2D, which probably isn't surprising as the Mach64's weren't as bad here as people like to make out they were and the core probably had a clock increase by the time the 128 Pro/Fury cards arrived. Admittedly, I'm still rather fond of that Blade T64 though, thus far it's run everything that's been thrown at it (until its limits are reached, it's not exactly gonna do well with games written for later DirectX versions), it even plays Blood II without any issues and might just be the only card I know of to do this. It also doesn't crash on Quake III, the only down-side being that my K6 is too slow to play it, not that I'd really want to play that anyway, but whatever.
In all honestly I'd sooner take an S3 for its abilities with software rendering than anything 3DFX made, both options have piss poor 3D capabilities but one is markedly cheaper and more reliable, as well as having better drivers, which makes the decision easy.
To this day it still amuses me to remember the local pirate man who swore by PowerVR, dragging it with him some way into the 2000s. PowerVR didn't actually seem terrible, especially in later implementations, but it always seemed to be in the wrong place. Thin it did well in embedded applications later on, that seemed more fitting for it, also the Dreamcast had one.
I also still get a laugh out of that guy who argued extensively in my comments section that the K6-2 was no longer being made and wasn't around in the early 2000s, especially in Eastern Europe, despite mine coming from Eastern Europe and there being several close-up shots of the chipset with an August 2000 bin date on it. Then again, they probably came from the increasingly large crowd who say we all hooked our Mega Drives up via RGB/SCART in the early 90s instead of using the shitty RF lead that came with the system, usually on a beat up old portable TV with dodgy sound, which couldn't get Channel 5 and had no SCART socket anyway.
To be honest, I never did really extensive tests with any later AGP cards in DOS so stuff for late games such as Blood(something I'm only aware of, but have never played or owned) or that kind of stuff is totally beyond my experience, by compatible, I was meaning commander Keen scrolling and similar! I did some years ago play with a lot of early 3D cards( in 3D mode), Chromatic MPACT2, 3Dlabs Permedia 2, S3 TRIO 3D2X, Savage 4, 3DFX Banshee and Voodoo 3, Trident 3D Image, 3D Blade Turbo, Power VR KYRO, Matrox Mystique, G100, G400 and such along with the nVidia RIVA 128, TNT etc. Truth is it was an amusing curiosity as the cards at that time could be had for pennies and I was curious about the technology that sparked that early period of graphics hardware and the differences each had from the next(back at that time games and 3D were nothing to me, a PC was a word processor and email reader and little else, I was still using a winchip and windows 3.1 then, hey, who has time for games or stuff? So for the most part I missed all that stuff when it was new  . I'm not really all that keen on 3D games anyway, I prefer old arcade titles and stuff from the 8 & 16 bit consoles and older home computer platforms to actually play. That and older point and click adventures like the Lucas Arts and Legend stuff on PC.
Truth be told my most played system is the Famicom and Super Fami, I spend a fair amount of the year in Japan, and those platforms are super common and really easy and incredibly cheap to get software for, I've played a good bit of Saturn too, another very popular platform over there, a friend of mine has a pretty big collection he has been gathering since it came out, he never felt the need to upgrade.
|
|
| |
|
Intel P5
Posts: 85
Location: UK | tedster - 2020-01-15 6:11 PM
Bought a Dell 19" monitor, off Amazon for 25 quid posted. Comes with a free keyboard and mouse! For the price, I'm expecting top quality items!
We'll see when "Hermes" have finished kicking the parcel to my house...
Good luck! Hermes can be very HIT & miss I picked up a Dell 2209 WA monitor a little while back to go with my i7 from a graphics design place that was getting rid of old hardware locally for a tenner, they had 20 of them, turned out to be a really nice screen, IPS and great colours, hot running bugger though and it uses some juice(52w according to Dell, my 43
inch Samsung plasma is only 80w!) but as I'm using it with the i7 I guess it's a match for dreadful efficiency! Age correct spot on too!
https://www.cnet.com/reviews/dell-2209wa-review/
Anyhow I'm well happy for a tenner!
Edited by CyrixInstead 2020-01-16 5:08 PM
|
|
| |
|
Rise MP6
Posts: 263
| Nice one! I always try and grab the IPS screens too and Dell ones are usually pretty good. It'll save you needing a heater on too!
I've not had a parcel delivered by Hermes that hadn't already been opened! I'm probably lucky that I don't buy desirable items. |
|
| |
|
Intel P5
Posts: 85
Location: UK | Brostenen - 2020-01-14 9:13 PM
Bought a mint condition Nintendo Wii, with two controllers and two nunchuck's and the stand for 5 US Dollars. (including shipping)
Wii sports came along with the console, and it was even factory reset.
great stuff and an utter bargain! I'm really fond of the Wii it has some great games and is really good for emulating the older Nintendo games too. To be honest at that price it's worth owning for Mario Kart alone, the amount of fun we have had with that game justified the original price never mind 5 euro. |
|
| |
|
TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| CyrixInstead - 2020-01-16 7:48 PM
Brostenen - 2020-01-14 9:13 PM
Bought a mint condition Nintendo Wii, with two controllers and two nunchuck's and the stand for 5 US Dollars. (including shipping)
Wii sports came along with the console, and it was even factory reset.
great stuff and an utter bargain! I'm really fond of the Wii it has some great games and is really good for emulating the older Nintendo games too. To be honest at that price it's worth owning for Mario Kart alone, the amount of fun we have had with that game justified the original price never mind 5 euro.
I am more like, playing Wii-Sports is for me. The tennis game in that compilation is all I need. Yet my woman wanted a Wii for like ever. When speaking of racing games, then I have never really gotten into Mario Kart at all. Not even on other consoles. I was given a SNES about a year ago, and it went straight to my children's house, were they live with their mother. If I have to play a racing game, then it will be NFS-Porche-2000, Viper Racing or Gran Turismo. Actually... More like Gran Turismo 3 on PS2. That game rule. I have however found a copy of Wii-Play for cheap on eBay. It is fun to fish and to ride cow's. |
|
| |
|
TM Crusoe
Posts: 618
Location: Hull, UK | @Tedster; Can you even move around in that control mapping menu? It seems random as to whether it will actually let you select and change them or not, I never figured out why, though it's pointless obviously due to the afore mentioned problems with it being more like a second bind than a remap.
@Brostenen; I really do need to get some games for that Wii I was given, really hope they don't mandate motion controls too much as this building is far too small for that.
@CyrixInstead; Seems common for LCDs to use a lot of power, I never believed the whole thing that they were more efficient due to the fact I never once measured this as being the case. Of course it doesn't matter because the only LCD I have in use is a shitty 19" Dell that has the worst response time and color reproduction I've ever seen (Put it this way, the 2-line display on my CZ-1 is faster), so I use it as a video preview screen; if it looks passable on that, it should look passable on anything. Again I'm left wondering why the whole industry dropped the ball around 2006-2009, everything from CPUs, to monitors, to keyboards and mice suddenly went shit and we still haven't quite caught back up yet, the companies making these things will also actively lie to you if you question them about it, monitors in particular. |
|
| |
|
TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| DXZeff - 2020-01-17 2:00 AM
@Brostenen; I really do need to get some games for that Wii I was given, really hope they don't mandate motion controls too much as this building is far too small for that.
Well... I never jump around anyway, when I play Wii. It is the upper body that I am moving. You need to get games, as it is an awesome little machine.
I found a copy of Wii-Play on eBay, and bought it. There are a fishing pond game, some air hockey and a cow riding game.
As for me...
I swapped the VIC-II 6569-R1 with an VIC-II 6569-R5 in my Breadbin 250407 Revision B, to get way better picture. The menu-text in Epyx WinterGames are now readable and everything is ultra sharp, for an C64 that is. Then I heatsinked the various chips. I just need to figure out a way to add some active cooling now. My breadbin is beginning to get really awesomme now. I have had it recapped back when I got it, and now with the new VIC-II and heatsinks, then it is working like a beauti. However, I need to fix the scrolling bug that are on my machine. It is a question of having the D-Ram swapped with an S-Ram solution. And I probably will look for a different case as well, or spraypaint the one that I already have. As it is a bit too yellow for my taste.
Edited by Brostenen 2020-01-17 2:56 PM
 (IMG_20200117_123618451.jpg)
 (IMG_20200117_131811982.jpg)
Attachments
----------------
 IMG_20200117_123618451.jpg (300KB - 391 downloads)
IMG_20200117_131811982.jpg (617KB - 377 downloads)
|
|
| |
|
TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| Just had a 45 minute Wii sports session....  |
|
| |
|
TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| I recieved some beefy heatsinks in the mail today. So I installed 4 of them on the CPU in my homemade Amiga500 Desktop machine.
The reason was that the Ram/IDE-Adaptor/Controller that are installed between the CPU and motherboard, makes the CPU really hot.
These babies are extremely effective. After an hour of watching Amiga500 Demo's the CPU is still cold to the touch.
 (500-Desktop-CPU-HeatSinks.jpg)
Attachments
----------------
500-Desktop-CPU-HeatSinks.jpg (563KB - 374 downloads)
|
|
| |
|
Rise MP6
Posts: 263
| Well, got my Dell monitor today, so I reckon eight bloody days to be some kind of record. I've had stuff arrive from China quicker! They just dumped the box on my doorstep and buggered off, good job it was dry out today then, arseholes!
|
|
| |
|
TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| tedster - 2020-01-24 2:08 AM
Well, got my Dell monitor today, so I reckon eight bloody days to be some kind of record. I've had stuff arrive from China quicker! They just dumped the box on my doorstep and buggered off, good job it was dry out today then, arseholes!
Well.... It is not as bad as here in Denmark. One of my co workers at the recycling center, were I am working one day a week. Had to send out invitations for him and his wifes 50 year wedding day party. After nearly 3 weeks, a couple of the letters with invitations, have not yet arrived at their destination.
A letter cost 1 pound and 13 pence to send, and if you pay 2 pound and 15 pence on top, they "promise" to have it arive the next day. Yeah... I call them bullshit on that, as I have tried, and it took 3 days to arrive. Just imagine paying over 3 pounds to send an invitation. And if you want 25 to 35 guests present at the party. That is a lot of money.
Anyway...
3 freaking weeks, and the invitation for your 50 years wedding party have not even come through.
Edited by Brostenen 2020-01-24 12:29 AM
|
|
| |
|
Rise MP6
Posts: 263
| Aye, it's the same here. We used to have two post deliveries a day now I'm lucky if I get two a week.
That monitor I got is pretty nice, for an LCD anyway. It's a Dell 1914s with an IPS panel and a built in USB hub. Colours and response time are brilliant. Can't fault it for the price. |
|
| |
|
Rise MP6
Posts: 263
| Today, I've been messing with Rudy Loew's memory patch for win9x. It works a treat and I've now got a gig in the ME machine!
He recently passed away but his family has left his work available on-line for us all. He made some fantastic stuff to help use more modern hardware with win9x.
https://rloewelectronics.com/distribute/
Today's games include "Lords of the Realm" an old Sierra game.
Edited by tedster 2020-01-26 2:37 PM
|
|
| |
Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
