I used the full version bundled with my Creative TNT2 card. According to the manual/readme its the retail version (no words about any OEM changes).

System:
AMD K6-III+ @ 500mhz
Epox Socket 7 motherboard, latest BIOS. MVP3 chipset
128MB SDRAM
G400 16MB (I don't own a G450)
AWE64 Value

I installed the latest drivers found on Matrox's webpage.
I then installed the game, no issues, standard installation path (C:\Program Files\...)
Tested the game, only got the PowerVR card in the Display Adapter selector, but the game ran fine 😀
Copied over the patch files into the directory. Tried to run the game, but crash to desktop.
Opened Setup and saw only PowerVR card could be selected, so I figured it was messing stuff up. Powered down and removed it.
Back into Windows the G400 finally recognized by Setup as a Display Adapter.
Selected 1024x768 16bit, everything else checked. Sound Miles Fast 2D. Game starts up with AMD K6 screen 😀
After some more testing when I tried to select 32bit color it crashes to desktop. Dunno what causes this, could be drivers.

EDIT: Regarding 32bit color and Matrox G400 I see alot of other people are complaining about crashes in Expendable on Google Groups.

Darn you Rage / Matrox! This kept me up all night

Vetz thank you! It was indeed the colour mode. It needs to be 16 bit 😵

vetz wrote:

Opened Setup and saw only PowerVR card could be selected, so I figured it was messing stuff up. Powered down and removed it.

Couldn't you have just simply unchecked "Enable PowerVR HAL" in the PowerVR Tab in Display Properties?

leileilol wrote:

vetz wrote:

Opened Setup and saw only PowerVR card could be selected, so I figured it was messing stuff up. Powered down and removed it.

Couldn't you have just simply uncheck "Enable PowerVR HAL" in the PowerVR Tab in Display Properties?

I tried that, but it had no effect.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Darn you Rage / Matrox! This kept me up all night

Vetz thank you! It was indeed the colour mode. It needs to be 16 bit 😵

Heh, I know the feeling ,)

Will you try and figure out the 32bit issue? An earlier driver might work better.

vetz wrote:

Will you try and figure out the 32bit issue? An earlier driver might work better.

Thing is I found ZERO references about the colour mode online. Maybe it simply doesn't work with 32 bit?

But yes, I can try an older driver but the 450 is newer so not sure how far back I can go.

I got some G400 cards incoming now (a bit redundant, but what can you do) and will document this issue on my website and via a video. I shall mention all you helpful friends 😀

Ok it seems 32 bit mode works in 640 x 480 and 800 x 600. Of course I had to always try 1024 x 768 😵

I think this concludes the issue. The limits with the EMBM patch seem to be 1024 x 768 in 16 bit colour and 800 x 600 in 32 bit colour.

Without the patch you can go all the way to 1600 x 1200 in 16 and 1280 x 1024 in 32 bit.

Sweet! thanks for doing the research :p
Most of the youtube posts were made while I was at work, so I wasn't that much of a help.

But yes! that's exactly how I remember the game. 😀
Still looks nice in my opinion.

Hehe that's why VOGONS is so awesome.

A big THANK YOU to every who helped!

The copy of the game that I have came with my G400. I always understood it to be version modified specifically for the G400.

collector wrote:

The copy of the game that I have came with my G400. I always understood it to be version modified specifically for the G400.

Cool!

Another question for everyone. Does the texture compression work with the G400? The readme mentions the S3 cards in particular but I believe later cards eventually all adopted S3TC?

Do any later Matrox cards support EMBM, or is it only offered on the G400/G450?

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

Do any later Matrox cards support EMBM, or is it only offered on the G400/G450?

Are the G550 and Parhelia AGPthe the last AGP card or are there others?

I will soon be able to test the 550 but haven't looked at other cards.

If anyone knows a good summary table that shows all the Matrox cards and differences that would be helpful.

Judging by a quick Ebay search, I believe the Parhelia was the last AGP card they made.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

If anyone knows a good summary table that shows all the Matrox cards and differences that would be helpful.

For a start:
http://www.512bit.net/matrox.html
http://pclinks.xtreemhost.com/video_tnt.htm

Thank you! I will digest this 😀

Matrox used to be my graphics card of choice. I had a Millennium II, the G400, a G450 and I inherited a Parhelia.

More weirdness...

I have another Matrox card and I thought it was a G550 because it's half-height and with a DVI port. But turns out it is a G450 DVI.

Now get this. The card does all the resolutions with EMBM patch enabled!

Another difference, in the Expendable Setup dialogue it doesn't show 0 x 0. 0 bit colour as default. But remembers the last resolution. Might be a driver bug...

But yea, 1280 x 1024 at 32 bit with EMBM is fully working. Slow as heck, but nevertheless. 1280 x 960 is recommended however. Doesn't vertically stretch the image.

I remember this being packaged along with my G400, but I unfortunately I've lost the related disc.

Would love to see more of these early 3d cards supported by DOSBox, though I know the devs are loath for it to become a WinBox.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

More weirdness...

I have another Matrox card and I thought it was a G550 because it's half-height and with a DVI port. But turns out it is a G450 DVI.

Now get this. The card does all the resolutions with EMBM patch enabled!

Do the cards have the same amount of memory? If one has 16MB and the other has 32MB that might be an explanation.
With 1024x768x4x3 bytes used for frame + Z buffer texture memory begins to get less with 16MB. And I suppose bump mapping will need additional texture memory. Usually AGP texturing will help but maybe that's not the case here.