This is just an honest question, nothing ment by it (I'm also sitting here drinking, and visiting this site and at the moment have nothing else to do), but I do have to wonder, why do we support cards that were made by a company that is now four years under? Just curious. If I didn't like 3dfx or own any of their cards, I wouldn't be here posting. I am. I own a V2 (that is actually made by 3dfx), a Voodoo 3, a Diamond Banshee card, and a V5 5500 AGP card. I like the cards and the visual quality, but I also own a 256 meg 9600 Radeon Pro card as well and that's in my main box. So the question is, why am I still drawn to these damn pages?  :)  I really don't know other then the small community that still believe in the cards. I mean realistically are we hoping for some type of resurection of 3dfx or are we all basking in the olden days? No offense, by now most of us have upgraded, I mean come on, we're gamers. We want and need the fastest frame rates, the clearest pictures, the outstanding graphics. The V5 was a great card at the time, but it doesn't cut it now. I'm just asking why we still use these cards. That's all. Like I said, if I didn't like the company or their products, I wouldn't still be visiting this goofy ass site (you do have to admit, that some of this is funny as hell). Don't take this more then just general curiosity, because that's all it is (face it, I know some of you guys are very sensitive to the 3dfx cause  ;D) I just like reading what you guys are posting and throwing in a comment of my own when I can. I'd like to hear why this forum is still up and why you guy continue to post here. Have fun guys.

Later
Jand

wrote on 15.06.04 at 04:11:23:

why do we support cards that were made by a company that is now four years under?

I can't speak for anyone else but do admit a fondness for 3dfx cards... Of course I remember when a 4 meg 2d card was the height of graphics power and still remember the first time I viewed a V1 in action over a buddies house... it was a Orchid V1 running Descent II and was the most stunning thing I ever saw.

I purchased one the next day.

Someone else mentioned it before- The jump from what was to 3dfx V1 was a lightyear leap in graphics quality that frankly hasn't been matched but is in some cases getting close.


Quote:

So the question is, why am I still drawn to these damn pages?  :)

I collect them myself, I consider it a harmless hobby and have spent my money in worse ways and people collect worse things... In a way it's a tribute to what was.

It's a pity 3dfx went under, the hardware was good but in the end they went under due to bad managment and a marketing war they didn't understand.

Quote:

I mean realistically are we hoping for some type of resurection of 3dfx or are we all basking in the olden days?

Again I can only speak for myself but I enjoy a certain esprit 'd corps that prevail among 3dfx owners... It was there in the old days and still persists to this day.

3dfx was a fun company to watch and own a product and deal with. There was a certain attitude there that was appealing that other companies lacked.


Quote:

No offense, by now most of us have upgraded, I mean come on, we're gamers.

Yup- I have a sweet new gaming box with a ATI 9800 Pro in it, with dual Canopus Voodoo II's.

My daily "work" box has a V5500 in it, for the work I do it's fast and the drivers are still great and work 10 times better then the cluttered Nvidia crap I was running for a while.

I could not even change the gamma for video in the detonator drivers without screwing up everything else! Nice work.

Hmm...you made your point by yourself methinks! ::)

1. Visual quality - 3dfx cards KICK ASS with this! ;D

2. GLiDE API - it may be old, but the GLiDE equivalent games in comparison to the same game running in D3D or OGL, GLiDE just LOOKS better! 8)

3. We like the hardware - there sure is some WEIRD 3dfx hardware out there, but that's what makes it SPECIAL (e.g. Quantum Mercury - DROOL!) :P :o

4. You are obviously slightly P!SSED...as can be seen from the rambling in your post! ::) ;)

Nuff said! 8)

hmm hmm hmm, well really i cant think of any other computer item (as 3dfx items) that generate this much continued interest, part due to how good they where in their hey day, part due to there marketing (still cant get over there great retail boxes) and maybe part due to the fact they became the underdog and even thou they gave up in the end (but not till they came up with some wild stuff) they will still survive as long as we are here (and other forums) talking about them, using them and trying to upgrade them in anyway possible to keep them going, and i have owned other cards, i had a geforce2, 3 and 4, the 2 i gave to an old friend, 3 burned and crashed and 4 didnt give me any performance for what i paid, so i decided to get a v5500 (already had a v4500) to see what i could play and i realized, i enjoy alot of my so called older games, and i still get to play bf1942, and i realize i now spend as much time or more in the forums as i do gaming, and im happy about that ;)

Very recently i traded my fleet of 3dfx cards into a few others [namely a Hercules 3D Prophet 8500] and i stay here just for the fun of it.. i suppose..

i mean.. the whole 3dfx community [which counts no more than 10000 people] is just a great bunch of people, raging from non-paid developers that basicly try to keep up to everyone's dreams, to people like falcon and patience who own practicly every card that has the 3dfx logo on it.

You got a point though, anyone who tries to 'run' [as opposed to crawl, if at all] games on 3dfx cards nowdays is simply delusional, in all due fairness, the ever-so-mighty V5 6000 [aka V6] can't touch the toe nails of the Radeon 7500 when it comes to modern performance.
and people actually pay upto 2700$ for the V6, while a Radeon7500 costs what? 20$?

So i don't think it's really the performance that keeps people here, rather the meaning of 3dfx, back in the days, and now. [read that a couple of times if you don't get the *meaning* bit]

I've always had a 3dfx part in my main PC,  being on a rather low budget. Each 3dfx card has been an upgrade for me, and look at the pattern :

1999 : voodoo1
2000 : voodoo2
2002 : voodoo2 SLI
2003 : voodoo5 5500  (just a year ago :))

That's why I have a voodoo5 in my main box (it cost me 50€ in new condition,  and I think it was better buy than a geforce 4MX 440SE  :))

it still offers brilliant quality in Mafia or UT2003, and it's largely enough to play CS at 100 fps, so I'm quite pleased.

THE game who will make me upgrade to a 9700 pro or 9800 pro is Doom 3.

until that, I'm interested in all these amateur drivers and software, just because I always run a 3dfx card ;D

Well, from my point of view :

It's mainly because the end of 3dfx came unexpectedly for most Users, and simply the way the company was literally crushed.

Add alot of deception, lies, and really unacceptable behaviour from NVidia at that time, and you're perfectly set to have all reason to support those Users.

What made 3dfx special :
- always was a company with the 'cool factor'
(excellent relationship to their Users)
- most people did their first 'real' steps into 3D Accelerated Gaming with 3dfx
(e.g. they ran GLquake for the first time, and instantly knew their Hardware was worth every penny, as it was perfect )

If it was any other company that went under those days, I'm sure almost noone would have cared much about investing time into free support and extending the Hardware's usable lifespan like this.

Everyone's comments and contributions here add together to produce a justified answer as to why 3dfx is still alive.

I agree with every single one, because I believe these are the people that keep 3dfx alive.  This kind of loyalty and closely knit community helps to make everyone stand up and take note that 3dfx still has a presence today among many gamers. :)

For me, like gdonovan said (I think it was actually me that made the reference to this in the first place  ;D), the 3dfx Voodoo chipset was the most largely evolutionary advance in 3D arcade computer game graphics. There is no denying it.
There has never been such a huge leap in this area.
Ok, so we've had our pixel and vertex shading technology improved and the memory bandwidths are on the up, but none of these compare to the jump from your old ATI 2Mb 3D Rage Pro (which would stretch to 512x384 @ 25 fps for DFII; Jedi Knight :-[) to the Orchid Righteous 3D (running in an amazing 640x480 16bpp in a smooth Glide API running any game at 60fps! :D)
Every gamer who exxperienced the difference had to go out and buy one! ;)  Today, I see the Radeon 9800 and I think "Yes, I'd love one, but I can manage without one".  The Voodoo was a must have! A neccessity! ;D

When my dad and I went to buy my first PC for Christmas (back in '96) I knew NOTHING about computers.  I was 16.  I had just got out of the console area and wanted to try something different. Plus I needed something to help me with my homework (or so that's what my dad thought!  ;))
We got lumbered with an ATI 2Mb 3D Rage Pro.  At the time I didn't know how good the machine would be at playing games, but they also had another machine on show.  It was running Moto Racer on an R3D, and the graphics looked brilliant!
I asked the guy if our PC would be like that and he laughed saying:
"No, that has a Voodoo chipset graphics card inside.  Having that would cost you a LOT more!"

We never got the Orchid Righteous and I eventually forgot about it, until the Voodoo2 came out in late '97. I bought a Creative 12Mb and a 2nd one 3 months later. Those cards were my first Voodoo experience and I loved every minute of them! They lasted me right up until summer 2001.  They played every game at super fast framerates all the time! That's how good they were! :)

Still using the 3dfx cards is more nostalgia for me now, and going back to the old retro games and playing them with the best hardware around at that time to support them!

It is a shame that 3dfx went the way they did.  Given them another chance and a different strategy during their dark time and I am certain they would have come out head and shoulders above the rest! I mean look how early they developed blueprints for the Rampage technology! 3dfx were no slouches!

I love everything about 3dfx and always have (from the technology to the marketing retail boxes) and that dies hard!

Speaking of marketing, i think Visiontek got 3dfx' marketing guy or something.. just check their product descriptions..


Quote:

--quoting their product page of the XTasy 9100-- ASS KICK'n graphics performance XTASY 9100, powered by ATI's RADEON 9100 VPU with128MB or 64MB DDR memory gives BITCH'N EYE CANDY! TRUFORM technology makes stuff more rounded and natural-like, while HYPER Z™ II saves bandwidth for better performance in your more demanding sit-e'ations ATI's SMOOTHVISION, anti-aliasing, kicks the CRAP out of visual distortion resulting in smoother looking images. HI-RES 32-bit, 3D gaming up to 2048x1536 means when 'intense applications' come out to play, XTASY 9100 says: "BI-A-TCH! GO MAKE ME A SAMWICH!!" FREAK'N COOL Visual Effects SMARTSHADER uses DirectX® 8.1 for AWESOME lighting effects. The 9100 supports DirectX® 8.1 and OpenGL® 1.3. ATI's CHARISMA ENGINE II fronts 'Transformation and Lighting' (T&L) at 62.5 million triangles per second. PIXEL TAPESTRY II, 3D rendering engine, powers an unbelievable 2.4 gigatexels/second for awesome fill rates at 32-bit HI-RES. TAPP'n in to TWO Monitors & DVD ATI's HYDRAVISION supports ol'school CRT monitors and flat panels, while VIDEO IMMERSION II enables integration of UNBELIEVABLE digital video stuff, including advanced de-interlacing for FREAK'N AWESOME video quality. YOU JUST connect to a digital flat panel and dig crisper images and ease yo' eyestrain pain!

Definetley sounds like something from a 'powered by 3dfx' box :p

It does have the terminolology doesn't it?  :)

I think a lot of vendors benfitted from 3dfx 'Words or wisdom' and  I see a lot of the same artistic styles on many boxes that undoubtedly originate from the 3dfx Voodoo2/3/4/5/TV series (noticeably the eyes or face art).

Excellent! This is what I was looking for, just general comments on why we still use our Voodoo's. I loved the company and the cards at that time, still do, it's why I still visit this site, but it was interesting to see why you guys still come here. Thanks guys.

3dfx was a special company, its attitude to customers were different - not like "buy this card, we need your money" but "we made something and want to offer you for pleasure". 3dfx's commercials for example are just amazing, look of VooDoo box'es is cool - i guess this is what keeps me to 3dfx. btw i really enjoyed surfing http://web.archive.org/ archives gathering all info about 3dfx. I found there a pic "Join the coolest company on silicon valley" and it reminded me what keeps me to 3dfx :)