that seems to be a part of an arcade machine or something... have you tested it? does it output a VGA signal?

Yea SNK was into arcade stuff 😀

keropi wrote:

that seems to be a part of an arcade machine or something... have you tested it? does it output a VGA signal?

It came out of a machine I had that ran Windows 95, and a 200MHz Pentium Pro.

It uses the same exact drivers my S3 Virge/DX uses on Windows 3.1 with out issue.

interesting... it's kind of ugly 🤣 and half of the card is unused in a normal pc but if you plug it in and run Scitech Display Doctor it will report the amount of VRAM accurately

I wonder what the empty space at the back is for? Some kind of custom ASIC?

bjt wrote:

I wonder what the empty space at the back is for? Some kind of custom ASIC?

Dual Virges maybe? 🤣

sliderider wrote:

Dual Virges maybe? 🤣

I always wondered if that was for a dual graphics card setup like the 3DFX cards could do. 🤣

There's at least one Virge/DX card out there that uses dual GPUs to support multiple monitors. Can't find a picture at the moment, here's the thread.
http://www.3dfxzone.it/enboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1814

[EDIT] Another:
http://www.alinc.com/stb-mvp-dual-virge-dx-gr … 269489-001.html

I'll ping my arcade contacts but this might have only been a SNK-branded video card for the Japanese market, meant to be installed to upgrade a PC. At the moment, I'm not aware of any SNK ArcadePCs...

Verification needed: how many pins is that edge connector, please? Also, what's the reverse side look like?

[EDIT] Also, the PCI bracket... VGA out, S-Video out, RCA video in, RCA video out... audio in, audio out? Is that what I'm seeing?
If so, that means the edge connector is likely a video/VESA feature connector. Our current guess would be for an MPEG daughtercard.

Stiletto wrote:

Verification needed: how many pins is that edge connector, please? Also, what's the reverse side look like?

[EDIT] Also, the PCI bracket... VGA out, S-Video out, RCA video in, RCA video out... audio in, audio out? Is that what I'm seeing?
If so, that means the edge connector is likely a video/VESA feature connector. Our current guess would be for an MPEG daughtercard.

There's only one 3.5mm jack. What you see next to it, is a potentiometer, so if that jack is for audio, then it may be a volume control? Definitely does have an S-video style connector, two RCA connectors... they didn't appear to be marked.

However I'll get you the details when I get home where it's at. More pictures to go with it. 😉

Current thinking:
"They either licensed their logo to someone else or they got someone to stick their logo on some cards to make some quick money."

In other words, a simple PC upgrade kit.

I'll wait to hear from my Japan contacts, but I don't think it's anything other than this. Still, perhaps a driver package still needs to be found that supports all the features of the card.

[EDIT] Here's another, different SNK-branded card. Says it's made by Canopus.
http://www.retropc.net/yasuma/V2/PC/GA/PCI/neo_ac_sys.html
http://www.d1.dion.ne.jp/~pdc/webcache/videochips/neo.html

I don't think that's a simple pc upgrade vga... all those transformers / big caps on the upper right side serve something else... probably the hardware that plugs on the pins on the top... these things have no place on a pc virge card 🤣

Unless it's got an amplifier for the audio output, if that's what the 3.5mm jack is for...? Just my thinking. 😳

I suppose I could try the video out jacks to see if they actually do anything with the basic S3 Virge drivers I have.

I think that some audio/video card connects to the expansion above and activates the extra outputs... but test it and see what happens 😀

Not sure that is an arcade card. SNK's arcade machines basically used Neo Geo hardware with a multi-cart adapter.

sliderider wrote:

Not sure that is an arcade card. SNK's arcade machines basically used Neo Geo hardware with a multi-cart adapter.

Yes. I know. 😀

- Stiletto
- long-time MAME project assistant/researcher
- all your base are belong to me

Stiletto wrote:

[EDIT] Here's another, different SNK-branded card. Says it's made by Canopus.
http://www.retropc.net/yasuma/V2/PC/GA/PCI/neo_ac_sys.html

According to this page, these cards (S3 Vision 964-based, but it probably applies to your S3 Virge/GX card as well) were probably intended for development machines, and were leaked to the market by the time of SNK's bankruptcy. (April 2001).

oh yeah... dev machines... makes sense

No wonder they've stuck to 2D........ 🤣