3dfx system - wich one?

[CesarDRK]

Hi all.

I already have a decent PC for day use (Core i7 920 @ 3.8ghz + 6gb DDR3-1600 + Radeon HD5850 1gb), and i know i can play most games with dosbox, glide wrappers and other emulators/patches and stuff.

But since i have a few pieces of hardware laying around i was thinking of building an old 3dfx gaming rig, to play the games the "way it´s meant to be played"...

Basically i want to play some 3dfx games and some really old dos and other win9x games, so i guess WinXP would not cut it.

I have two rigs available and the other pieces of hardware to build then.
I was thinking on using only the voodoo 3, because its newer, faster and supports
larger screen resolutions. Guess voodoo1 compatible games run ok on the voodoo3 right?
Wich system should i go for, wich operating system (win 95? win98se?)
and drivers (official or 3rd party available here)?

The hardware i have:

[Rig 1]
AMD Atlhon XP 1700+ Thoroughbred-B @ 1.66ghz (133 x 12.5)
Asus A7V133 (Via KT133)

[Rig 2]
Intel Pentium III 600mhz @ 798 (133 x 6)
Asus P2B-F (Intel 440BX)

[Other Hardware]
Voodoo 3 3000 PCI
Voodoo 1 PCI
NVIDIA Riva TNT2 m64 AGP
Trident 9440 PCI
Triden 9680 PCI
Creative Sound Blaster Ensoniq AudioPCI (CT4520 i guess)
Creative Sound Blaster 16 ISA
Various 128mb/256mb SDRAM 133/100mhz Sticks
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 40gb

[pierrickuk]

As often, the answer is in the question... (and probably many times in this forum).
However, this being Friday, having 10 idle minutes before finishing work, and being in the mood, here's my suggestion: make 2 systems.

First:
[Rig 1]
AMD Atlhon XP 1700+ Thoroughbred-B @ 1.66ghz (133 x 12.5)
Asus A7V133 (Via KT133)
Voodoo 3 3000 PCI
OS: dual boot win98se/win xp

Second:
[Rig 2]
Intel Pentium III 600mhz @ 798 (133 x 6)
Asus P2B-F (Intel 440BX)
NVIDIA Riva TNT2 m64 AGP
Voodoo 1 PCI
OS: DOS and win95

Or make 2 in 1:
[Rig 1]
AMD Atlhon XP 1700+ Thoroughbred-B @ 1.66ghz (133 x 12.5)
Asus A7V133 (Via KT133)
NVIDIA Riva TNT2 m64 AGP + Voodoo1 on screen 1
Voodoo 3 3000 PCI on screen two
OS: Multiboot DOS, win95, win98, winXP


You will find that the early glide games will be very happy with your voodoo1, especially under DOS.

You might also want to grab a CRT screen for the voodoo1, or a 4/3 flat screen.
I've tried many voodoos with quite a few motherboards: I could have done with a CRT screen many times as my TFT went out of sync. However, a good flat screen can work.

As for enjoying the games the most, my advice is to start with XP. If it works, then play and enjoy; if it doesn't, then win98. This will get you through the vast majority of glide games on windows.

For the real early windows ones, try win95.
For the dos ones, DOS.

Keep several versions of the glide files in separate, well labeled folders. If a game "should" work but doesn't, COPY the files in the game folder, where the exe file is and try again. This is particularly useful in case you put 2 voodoos in the same box; it's worked fine for me with a v5500 and v2-sli.

DOS:
There are a couple of program that can emulate a CD from an iso file (a la daemon tools), but for DOS. I've used them with ISOs from screamer2 and screamer rally. One of them is called FakeCD. I don't remember where I got them, but google is your friend. Read the instructions and do the copying in windows (mount iso in daemon tools, copy content to "virtual cd" folder, run the dos utility in a window), then go back to dos and voila (more or less, we can discuss this later). Oh some dos tools there: http://sta.c64.org/dosprg.html

That's all I can think of now. You'll find a lot of good info on this forum; use the search function.

Happy new year

[CesarDRK]

Well.. I´ve paused this back in the day, but recently got it back on track.

Things changed a bit, and i have built two computers:

[Monitor]
Samsung 750B 17" LCD (1280 x 1024 @ 75hz)

[Rig 1]
Gigabyte GA-8I865GM (Intel 865G)
Intel Pentium 4 650 @ 3.4ghz (200 x 17)
1GB (2x512) DDR400 Dual Channel
Creative Sound Blaster Ensoniq AudioPCI
3DFX Voodoo 3 3000 PCI 16MB
40GB 7200RPM IDE HDD
SO Windows XP

[Rig 2]
Asus P2B-F (Intel 440BX)
Intel Pentium III @ 600mhz (100 x 6)
384MB PC133
Creative Sound Blaster 16 ISA
NVIDIA Riva TNT(2?) Vanta LT AGP 16MB
3DFX Voodoo 1 PCI 4MB
40GB 7200RPM IDE HDD
SO Windows ME

Well, talking about Rig 1 first.
The Voodoo 3 works ok with Windows XP, but i think the W9x drivers are better. Some (not so old) games give me some errors or won´t start. I´m considering going W9x with it also, any suggestions?

Talking about Rig 2.
About the SO, i´ve choose the Windows ME for the better/easier network and mass storage USB support, because W98 doesn´t have it. Should i be ok with the ME?
By the way, the SB16 ISA is INCREDIBLE ! I was using an newer card before but this simply blows it away, compatibility is near flawless with all games i´ve tried, especially older dos games.
The Voodoo 1 is good, but for some slightly newer games (Voodoo Banshee/2 era) the car is somewhat SLOW. I was wondering, how can i switch to the Vanta LT (wich should be faster) in that case? All games seem to work only with the Voodoo 1 ! Like Unreal Gold, GLQuake, and others. Is it possible to play those with the Vanta in W9x without removing the Vooodoo card/drivers?

Thanks in advance.

[Nightbird]

Hi,
About the rig 1 :
With a Voodoo 3, i would go for Win9x.
You say that (I quote you) "Some (not so old) games give me some errors or won´t start".
What game ?
The card is 16 Mb memory and 16 bit color rendering limited so it can't run any "modern" game.
With XP, i would go for a Voodoo 5.

About the rig 2 :
Win9x would be better because of its Dos mode and pierrickuk explained very well : "early glide games will be very happy with your voodoo1, especially under DOS".
Voodoo 2 (Sli if possible) would be a better choice for "modern" Glide games.

[CesarDRK]

The game i was talking about is the Call of Duty 1 demo (Q3 engine?), it gave me OpenGL errors and won´t start. Should work without issues...

About the Rig 2... Voodoo 2 would be nice, but i don´t want to buy any more new hardware at the time.
I guess the best solution is to have the Voodoo 1 and the Voodoo 3 in the same machine, and exchange GLIDE dll´s to switch between then, right?

[goriath]

You are wrong about CoD.
The game has been developed around the Quake3 Team Arena core (id Tech3 engine) but it has been highly modified then.

Minimum system requirements tell of 3D hardware accelerator card required with 100% DirectX 9.0b compatible, 32MB and hardware T&L-capable video card with latest drivers.

There aren't any clues to make me think the game could run with a Voodoo3 out of the box.

Source: http://support.activision.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/Call-of-Duty-Minimum-System-Requirements

[CesarDRK]

Thanks for the info! I thought COD1 used the Q3 engine, wich the V3 supports without trouble.

About the topic.. I´m considering moving the V3 to the Rig 2 and leaving the Rig 1 for newer games (maybe getting a more modern AGP card).

So the Rig 2 should be:

[Rig 2]
Asus P2B-F (Intel 440BX)
Intel Pentium III @ 600mhz (100 x 6)
384MB PC133
Creative Sound Blaster 16 ISA
3DFX Voodoo 3 PCI 16MB
3DFX Voodoo 1 PCI 4MB
40GB 7200RPM IDE HDD
SO Windows ME

So by installing both cards all games would run with the V3 directly right? If i want to play a DOS game with the V1 i just copy the glide files to the game folder, is that correct?

Btw, is there any V1 only games list? Or compatibility chart for the V3? I find some for the V2, but i don´t know if it´s the same for the V3...

Thanks in advance.