Give The 3dfx Test A Shot (September 23, 2005)

[ChrisReid]

Last month we reported about Zeckensack's Glide Wrapper and its ability to allow modern video cards to run Prophecy and Secret Ops in 3dfx mode. At the time some people had difficulty running the 3dfx Test. Theo discovered a tip that has helped some people get the test running. After downloading and installing the wrapper, run its Configurator and try the 3dfx Test. Make sure you right click on WCP3DFX.EXE, go to the Compatibility tab and enable Windows 98 compatibility mode, or else the game will definitely crash in Windows XP. If you still encounter an error, rerun Zeckensack's Configurator and try lowering the texture memory amount.

Texture memory: You can select 2MB, 4MB, 8MB or 16MB. Generally more is better, but there are two possible reasons to go with less. First, some games use, um, interesting texture management schemes that do not work well with the wrapper and the OpenGL driver behind it. These tend to run smoother with less texture memory. Second, games that were not designed to handle large amounts of texture memory may simply crash. There have never been real Voodoo I boards with more than 4MB of texture memory, so this kind of "bug" was impossible to detect in that era.

Many of us have vivid memories of lucky Wing Commander fans splurging on the $150 Pure 3D Voodoo 1 card with 6 megabytes of memory. Nobody ever needed the card for any other game (besides Secret Ops), but everyone was happy to spend the money to get the best Wing Commander experience possible. The 3dfx Test was everyone's first taste of the exciting Vision Engine that was in the works. Although it's almost eight years old, the game is tons of fun and still looks amazing today.

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Score as many kills as possible before the clock reads 5:00. Click "Discuss" below and post your high score!

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Original update published on September 23, 2005

 

[LarkInFlight]

Thx

Thanks guys! I have my Wing 5 working again on my modern coputer! But I still have my 486SX ready to play with Wing1 and Wing2 . I`ve never liked playing udner Dosbox with those games! Thanks again!

 

[LarkInFlight]

And I forgot to add.. Big thanks to the programmer who made this program. I have my I-war 3dfx working again! I was thinking about buying 3dfx voodoo 3 card and now I don`t have to! "GOOD!" as IceMan would say

 

[ChrisReid]

Thanks guys! I have my Wing 5 working again on my modern coputer! But I still have my 486SX ready to play with Wing1 and Wing2 . I`ve never liked playing udner Dosbox with those games! Thanks again!

Both ways work great, but the DOSBox one is the best for me. It lets me use my killer new USB joystick, multitask in #Wingnut, and take screenshots for stuff really easily.

 

[LarkInFlight]

Well, write what You want I don`t like to play it under DosBox, I had speed problems (sometimes too slow, sometimes too fast, You know). I tried to configure it properly but it wasn`t possible on my computer, so I bougt 486sx(It was quite cheap). The problem was solved Now I must find a way to make my Archimedean Dynasty running with 3dfx under Win XP. Does anyone know how to do that?

 

[ChrisReid]

Not beyond loading the wrapper and setting the game in compatibility mode. I never had any problem adjusting speeds at all. You just hit Control+F11/F12 and you can simulate anything from a a 486sx to a Pentium 100 with a couple button presses. You'd only need to really change anything in WC1 and SM1 too, since the games had frame rate limiters after that and you'd pretty much just leave them at a set number of cycles.

 

[LarkInFlight]

Archimedean Dynasty is a Dos game, so I have a problem with even starting it uder windows xp (with compatibility of course). And with the Dosbox I tried to ajust speed but I`d have to do that in game when the situation changes (when more Cats appear or something) because the game slows down. I prefer playing it under 486, it is stable. I really think that it is better, perhaps You should feel the difference

 

[LarkInFlight]

Uhhh. by the way.. what joystick do You use "ChrisReid"? I use Saitek X45, its the best I`ve ever used! I just love to play simulator games with it! I`m curious, have anyone of You played IL2 Szturmovik? Nice simulator. I ask because I am a pilot myself. Just LOVE to fly!

 

[ChrisReid]

Archimedean Dynasty is a Dos game, so I have a problem with even starting it uder windows xp (with compatibility of course). And with the Dosbox I tried to ajust speed but I`d have to do that in game when the situation changes (when more Cats appear or something) because the game slows down. I prefer playing it under 486, it is stable. I really think that it is better, perhaps You should feel the difference

Oddly enough, I have played Wing Commander on a 486. It isn't really much more or less stable.

Uhhh. by the way.. what joystick do You use "ChrisReid"? I use Saitek X45, its the best I`ve ever used! I just love to play simulator games with it! I`m curious, have anyone of You played IL2 Szturmovik? Nice simulator. I ask because I am a pilot myself. Just LOVE to fly!

I use the Logitech Freedom 2.4. It's the smoothest joystick I've ever used.

 

[Scrotor]

Heh

Wadda ya know, my advice did work. I downloaded the 3dfx test and tried it out. Pretty neat.

Theo/Scrotor