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Gaming with 3DFX, PowerVR and early graphics cards

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    #16
    Originally posted by Team Andromeda View Post
    The days when so many so-called PS exclusives were also on the PC. Never heard the PS generation back then, say I don't need a console and just game on the PC for better GFX and frame rates. LOL.
    You have to let these things go TA...

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      #17
      Originally posted by wakka View Post
      You have to let these things go TA...
      What goes around, comes around :P

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        #18
        Originally posted by Cepp View Post
        Biggest issue with the PC versions for me was finding a decent controller. It was rough going for a long time. Even today I stick to using PS1 to USB adapter on my Windows 98 PC.
        I still have some of my old Windows sidewinders pads, they were decent. The biggest issue for me was just how easy it was to plug the console into the TV, compared to a PC.

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          #19
          I also used the Sidewinder range back then. Still have one of the pads somewhere. The force feedback steering wheel was amazing at the time and the flight stick was good too.

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            #20
            Originally posted by Team Andromeda View Post
            Still have that set up too.
            It's about time you upgraded.

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              #21
              Originally posted by Leon Retro View Post
              It's about time you upgraded.
              Still running Windows 98 SE too LOL. That to me was the best version of windows until windows 10

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                #22
                Originally posted by CMcK View Post
                I also used the Sidewinder range back then. Still have one of the pads somewhere. The force feedback steering wheel was amazing at the time and the flight stick was good too.
                Never had the wheel, but the flight stick was awesome

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                  #23
                  Originally posted by Team Andromeda View Post
                  That to me was the best version of windows until windows 10
                  I prefer to use Windows 7 for its XP vibe, seeing I don't game on my PCs. I have used Win10 though and liked it.

                  Hated Windows 8.
                  Last edited by Leon Retro; 20-12-2019, 22:27.

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                    #24
                    I think my fave ever PC will be my Duron 750mhz running at 1ghz with windows 2000.

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                      #25
                      Our first 3D card was a Matrox Mystique, was pretty cool at the time, it came with a special version of Mechwarrior 2 that used some extra features, was really blown away at the time, but we eventually got an Orchid Voodoo 2 to work alongside it for glide games.

                      Voodoo 2 cards scales really well, you can really ramp up the cpu, I have built a few Windows 98 machines using fast Athlons or socket 939 CPU’s, my current setup has a Socket 775 Q9650 with GeForce FX 5950 and 2 Voodoo 2 cards in sli for Glide.. complete overkill but fun to play around with!

                      I

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                        #26
                        Little fun fact for people. Back then, the 3D cards all had their own APIs and interfaces; so we've already mentioned GLide for 3Dfx, but there were others too, as well as early support for OpenGL and Direct3D, which often had to pass through abstraction layers to get the best features out of each card.

                        This created a problem where 3D cards almost became like consoles; the manufacturers played a zero-sum game where they paid companies to give better/earlier support to their cards.

                        This led to unfortunate situations where some technologies nearly got left behind. S3's cards had support for higher quality/optimised textures, by a technology called S3TC (S3 Texture Compression), which was udoubtedly better than others, but S3 weren't on top as far as cards were concerned. However, Microsoft bought this technology and rolled it into DirectX, renaming it to DXTC, and this format is still used in Direct3D games today (which is a fair chunk of all 3D games).

                        Direct3D, in part, was a way to try and standardise the way graphics worked in the same way that DirectX standardised a bunch of other stuff.

                        Didn't stop nVidia trying the same thing years later, though!
                        Last edited by Asura; 20-12-2019, 21:00.

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                          #27


                          I remember non-PC magazines raving over the Banshee card and saying it did great things at an attractive price. Seemed like quite a breakthrough card at the time.

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                            #28
                            Originally posted by vanpeebles View Post
                            I think my fave ever PC will be my Duron 750mhz running at 1ghz with windows 2000.
                            I enjoyed an Athlon 1800 for a few years, then the Wolfdale for quite a while. Also, when I got a GeForce 4 it was really impressive, so that's the GPU I have fondest nostalgic memories of.
                            Last edited by Leon Retro; 20-12-2019, 22:48.

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                              #29
                              Originally posted by Leon Retro View Post

                              I remember non-PC magazines raving over the Banshee card and saying it did great things at an attractive price. Seemed like quite a breakthrough card at the time.
                              That's the card I popped into my good lady's PC at the time. Nice to have integrated 2d and no pass through cable but the cut down 3d portion wasn't much cop if you wanted anything over 800 x 600. Thank goodness CRTs were flexible with resolution.

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                                #30
                                Originally posted by Leon Retro View Post
                                I prefer to use Windows 7 for its XP vibe, seeing I don't game on my PCs. I have used Win10 though and liked it.

                                Hated Windows 8.
                                Didn't like Vista or Windows 8 .I loved Windows 98:SE . Think Windows 10 is good too

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