Vetz, thanks to you I've tracked down a video game I used to play when I was 4 or something. It's Havoc! I had no idea it was a game I used to play, even after watching your video and a video review. It did remind me of something, but I wasn't sure. For some reason I found it online and downloaded it to give it a try, as it does seem like a good game.
When I was about to run the game, I recognised the icon on the shortcut. I knew I had seen it before somewhere...
And then, holy hell... The moment I went to the main menu with the spinning logo and menu music it all came back to me. Installing a demo from some demo disc (we used to have tons of those, my father was a subscriber to Chip Magazine) and playing that game.

I can't thank you enough, you have given me a night of nostalgiagasm 😜 and I didn't even expect it. I might even get my hands on an S3 Virge just to play this game on the best looking version. The game runs a bit too fast though, how did you slow it down to a playable level?

You're welcome 😀

I didn't use anything to slow it down in my video. I don't know what system you're playing it on, but I recorded it at my 1.4ghz (but clocked down to 1ghz) PIII-S 440bx machine. If I need to slow down DirectX games I use the CPUgrabber utility.

I don't really see how you enjoy this game beyond nostalgia, I thought it was pretty bad gameplay wise with singleplayer not being more than basic skirmish missions and had not aged well. These kind of games were popular during the mid 90's with Fury 3, Scorched Planet, Terminal Velocity, Hellbender and of those I've tried I liked Terminal Velocity the most (though there you're flying).

If you're gonna play it on the S3 Virge, get a S3 Virge GX2 card. It is the fastest one. The video is recorded with a DX card and having a bit more frames pr second will help 😀 I plan on releasing the S3 Virge version as a patch when I get time 😀

Also Tomb Raider should be here soon. After that I'm keen on doing Mechwarrior 2 😀

vetz: As I have said before, it is a great show. So forgive me for this.

F2bnp: fine let us talk straight turkey. Shut up, just because I was monumentally blind for a moment. Then it does not allow you to fucking piss me off. Cause I am so motherfucking tired of such bullshit from you, and anyone who loves the game. Cause you are bloody behaving like a brat. Man the fuck up ! Cause I am doing that !

What's up with you? You're the one who's making a fuss about it.
I merely pointed out that Vetz had already talked about doing Mechwarrior 2 a few posts above yours. You just posted to insult me afterwards, I didn't even comment on it until days later YCH uploaded a fitting picture. And now you come back with even more insults.
Why do you treat me this way 😜?

Edit: I was browsing AssemblerGames and I stumbled upon this:
http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthre … ll=1#post617463

Wow. I suppose that's directed at me? 🙄

New episode: Assault Rigs

API(s) in this comparison:
ATICIF
Software

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZna8WXC4ds

It's been a while since the last episode came out. I said I would do Tomb Raider, but I've run into some issues.

1. Capturing 800x600 from the ATI Rage version of Tomb Raider is a problem, either I get black screen, poor performance or glitches. Since this is a Windows port I need to test more ATI drivers and find one that gives everything (performance, capture and no glitches)
2. Been busy with Mist of Pandaria 😜
3. And making this list: 3D Accelerated Games List (Proprietary APIs - No 3DFX/Direct3D)

So in the meantime I just figured I would give Assault Rigs a shot. Assault Rigs was developed and published by Psygnosis in 1996. It is a tank game where the point is to get through a lvl picking up gems and power ups while shooting enemies. The ATI Rage version is a Windows port of the game while the normal retail PC version is MS-DOS native. The DOS version got its share of criticism as it was considered an inferior version compared to the Playstation. It promised 640x480 resolution in 16bit color, but only delivered 320x200 in the end. The ATI version is superior with higher resolution, mipmapping and texture filtering, but according to reviews from 1996 it didn't run very well on the first version of the ATI Rage chip, especially not in 640x480. Though in this video I show it running on a lot better hardware than was available at the release of the game.

vetz, nice work! I'm watching every single episode now. And what is the nice music piece playing during the opening and closing sequence? I like that music too.

New episode: Mechwarrior 2: 31st Century Combat

API(s) in this episode:
Glide
PowerSGL
S3D
ATICIF
MSI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWzWdwj9NvU&feature=g-high-u

Malik wrote:

vetz, nice work! I'm watching every single episode now. And what is the nice music piece playing during the opening and closing sequence? I like that music too.

Thanks. The music is from Teque, the same guy who did the 3Dmark 2000 demo music. Song name is Glaze 3D (free download available online if you Google)

Awesome, can't wait for the bonus videos!
Great job once again vetz.

That MW2 video's great, makes the differences out and clear.

I wonder how big of a clusterscrew a Q3A episode would do, with unofficial ways of getting all the cards working (i.e. using minigls from Crime Cities, the only way Q3 can render "correctly" on a PCX2 for example)

Great comparisons, keep up the good work. Especially liking some of the transitions between the cards 😀

The amount of work you put into this videos is amazing! Good job!

leileilol wrote:

That MW2 video's great, makes the differences out and clear.

I wonder how big of a clusterscrew a Q3A episode would do, with unofficial ways of getting all the cards working (i.e. using minigls from Crime Cities, the only way Q3 can render "correctly" on a PCX2 for example)

Thanks 😀 A Q3 episode would be interesting, but where to I cut the line? It will be pretty insurmountable to include every card that came out between 1996 and 1999 in a video. Have to scale it down somehow.

Especially liking some of the transitions between the cards

I try to include it as much as possible. It was easy to do in for instance NASCAR Racing with a ingame intro/demo and a replay system. It depends on the game. With Mechwarrior 2 it was harder. No ingame cutscenes and no way to do benchmarks/replays. All footage is me playing the game.

The amount of work you put into this videos is amazing! Good job!

Thanks again for the support 😀 Yeah, the workload has gone up on the episodes compared to the first one, but I feel I gotta do it properly. Though this means I can't do as many episodes quite as fast.

Next videos will most likely be:
- The two bonus videos for Mechwarrior 2, one including comparison between DOS, PowerVR, Battlepack and Titanium versions.
- Wipeout for ATI Rage (yes I finally got hold of a copy! and omg is this port good compared to the DOS release)

Videos are very well done - clear and high-quality... keep it up!

Just one question: any particular reason for switching to a widescreen format in the latest vids? after all, the games are 4:3, and youtube letterboxes that ratio just fine... but when the video itself is widescreen, it gets letterboxed yet again on non-widescreen monitors (creating a big black border on all 4 sides).

VileRancour wrote:

Videos are very well done - clear and high-quality... keep it up!

Just one question: any particular reason for switching to a widescreen format in the latest vids? after all, the games are 4:3, and youtube letterboxes that ratio just fine... but when the video itself is widescreen, it gets letterboxed yet again on non-widescreen monitors (creating a big black border on all 4 sides).

People actually still use 4:3 monitors on their newest systems? I haven't thought about that issue tbh. Isn't this issue just present when you are playing the video in fullscreen? The main reason why it was 4:3 from the start was because I didn't know how to do a "slide in" transition in a widescreen movie with 4:3 footage properly in Sony Vegas, but I've since figured out how to do this without the image coming sliding in from the edge of the screen.

I switched to widescreen since it enables me to more efficiently use the height and width of the screen when doing side by side comparisons. The intro and credits also gives me more space to work with and it looks better when played in the native 1280x720 large player on Youtube.

vetz wrote:

New episode: Mechwarrior 2: 31st Century Combat […]
Show full quote

New episode: Mechwarrior 2: 31st Century Combat

API(s) in this episode:
Glide
PowerSGL
S3D
ATICIF
MSI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWzWdwj9NvU&feature=g-high-u

I have to admit, for many of us this was the game that really resurrected our interest in 3D APIs other than Glide, OpenGL, and Direct3D due to the very well known GeoCities website from back in the day.

(although POD for me was a close second - as a POD gamer from way back I always wondered about all those patches on Ubisoft's website)

Great job!

New episode is out: Wipeout on the ATI Rage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG3hd1humM0&feature=g-high-u

Please note that English is not my native language and this was a test episode with the narration. I am not entirely sure if it was the correct thing to do, so it will probably be kept to a minimum in future videos.

Your English was perfect. Not only that but the the narration was really interesting and it really added to the video in my opinion! 😀

That ATI Rage version of Wipeout is incredible! I've got the game on PSX, PC and even Xperia Play, but it looks sooooo much better! A shame there was never a Direct3D version of that game!

Hey Vetz, great video as always. I too think the narration adds to your video. Your accent may not be awesome and you did make a few mistakes, but that is to be expected, I think that with practice such things will easily go away. The important thing is you didn't stutter anywhere and you didn't make serious mistakes in terms of grammar.
Keep it up 😁!

New episode is out, number 13: Battle Arena Toshinden

Cards used:
Creative 3D Blaster PCI
Orchid Righteous 3DFX Voodoo 1 PCI
Diamond Edge 3D 2200 (Nvidia NV1) 2MB PCI
Matrox Mystique 4MB PCI

API(s) in this episode:
CGL (Creative Graphics Library)
Glide
MSI (Matrox Simple Interface)
NVLib
SVGA software

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Zqy5BZQ1E&feature=g-high-u

Next episode will be about a very special PowerVR game 😉