s3 trio64v+

it's a best seller for a reason

Recommend the Hercules Dynamite S3 based cards....has fast memory...look nice and perform well 😁

> s3 trio64v+

These are VBE 1.2 though

Re: "These are VBE 1.2 though"

I see. My aforementioned Stealth card is I think VBE 2, so I was hoping to get a S3 VBE3 card. (Perhaps they don't exist? Should I just make do with "Display Doctor"?)

Thanks a lot.

There are still the S3 VIRGEs

This may help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S3_Graphics#Grap … ics_controllers

There is UNIVBE too.

ViRGE is VBE 1.2 too. There is UNIVBE and the S3VBE TSR to use though. Even without VESA 2.0, they are still more compatible than plenty of cards with 2.0 and 3.0.

swaaye wrote:

ViRGE is VBE 1.2 too.

There are ViRGE with VBE 2.0
I have a S3 ViRGE/DX with Matsonic sticker on the rom chip and 4MB in 4 soldered chips

Would you recommend using UNIVBE? Is it good (for either DOS and/or Win9x)?

Also, how about the S3VBE TSR? Actually, do you have a download link for this please?

Thanks a lot, from Robert.

retro games 100 wrote:

Also, how about the S3VBE TSR? Actually, do you have a download link for this please?

S3VBE (and lots of other good stuff) can be found in this wonderful thread.

Amigaz wrote:

Recommend the Hercules Dynamite S3 based cards....has fast memory...look nice and perform well 😁

You meant "Hercules Terminator", right? 😉
AFAIK the Tseng-based cards got the "Dynamite" label, whereas "Terminator" usually indicated a S3 chipset.

BTW, I have a Hercules Terminator/Video (S3 Trio64V+) which has a really bad VGA signal (fuzzy picture above 800x600). Could be a defective card though.
My "ExpertColor" Trio64V+ produces a sharp picture up to 1280x1024.

5u3: in how many bits of colours ? I am just checking something , because what I am after is some cool idea, which is based on some old forum thread. On some other forum, which I will post if I get the bit depth .

Anyway here is the thread, it is named "Modern 2D console", the only thing that killed the thread was a blatant fucking moron, who gave it some serious negative karma. But it was an awesome thread.

http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13490

WolverineDK wrote:

5u3: in how many bits of colours?

Most S3 Trio cards have 2 MB memory, that results in the following bit depths:

24bit (Truecolor) up to 800x600
16bit (Hicolor) up to 1024x768
8bit (256 colors) up to 1600x1200

WolverineDK wrote:

http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13490

Decent thread, but that dude who talked endlessly abt the 'portable dc' idea was a off the planet.

Meanwhile the www.beaglebox.com would be a great solution for an open portable device and it can do (relatively simple) 3D too. It's also pretty darn cheap, has a great programmer's background and is easily powered from 5v source.

dh4rm4, there was a reason why I went through the roof with him. Since I believe we both are talking about ShadowLayer. The other people in the thread had some good ideas, I would say my posts made some sense too. At least I was trying to think in some constructive way when it came to the idea of a modern 2D console.

Exactly. I appreciated your ideas and attempts to keep the whole concept open and on track. It's sad that much of the conversation of the internet doesn't "stay on topic".

retro games 100: sorry for hijacking your forum thread just a tiny bit. But it was because I was asking about the bit depth, and it got me thinking back in time.

😀 That's ok!

OP: I went through this same exercise. See old thread here:
Best DOS video card?

Even though I decided upon the Matrox G400 card then, which I still have, I changed it over to a Voodoo 3 3000. It has great 2D quality (like the Matrox), fast DOS support and VBE 3.0. There are some very old games that don't work with it, but those usually required a specific card like S3, Tseng, Paradise, etc if they don't have VESA support. Any game that old can run in DOSBox, so to me a good *later* mode DOS machine + Win98 was more important.

If all you care about is DOS, DOS and DOS, then the S3 Trio64 or Virge variants were the best. If that's *too* old for you, or you must have an AGP card over PCI, then the Voodoo 3, 4 or 5's are good, and have Win9x drivers to boot. If you must have Win 3.1, then the S3 or the Matrox G400 may be a good choice. If you are looking for a 486 era DOS machine with ISA or VLB, then the Tseng ET4000 series were very good. I owned several Diamond Speedstars back then.

Sorry, I know others will recommend an early model NVidia board, but I cannot. Fast, but worst clarity of any board to date that I have ever used. ATI's were equally problematic. Funny how times have changed.