And here comes the question... Which one to prefer for 2D performance on a Windows 95 PC? (3D will be a Voodoo1 PCI).

S3 Virge/DX 2MB
S3 Vision 968 4MB (With the added daughterboard, like this one: http://vgamuseum.ru/wp-content/gallery/s3-vis … on_968_side.jpg )

I know the Virge is newer, but it has poorer dark and less sharp display on higher resolutions and less VRAM.

Finding ISA or VL bus video cards with more than 1mb is challenging. You have to, though, if you want to be able to use the highest resolutions and color depths.

GeorgeMan wrote:

And here comes the question... Which one to prefer for 2D performance on a Windows 95 PC? (3D will be a Voodoo1 PCI). […]
Show full quote

And here comes the question... Which one to prefer for 2D performance on a Windows 95 PC? (3D will be a Voodoo1 PCI).

S3 Virge/DX 2MB
S3 Vision 968 4MB (With the added daughterboard, like this one: http://vgamuseum.ru/wp-content/gallery/s3-vis … on_968_side.jpg )

I know the Virge is newer, but it has poorer dark and less sharp display on higher resolutions and less VRAM.

2D performance in Windows is different from 2D performance in DOS. You'll need to benchmark them and find out, but my guess is that the Virge card will be faster. Then again, output signal quality matters more (if it was really important for 2D performance and signal quality in Windows, just get a Matrox card)

My guess is that item was used in Pachi slot game.

Like this
http://www.neogeoforlife.com/forum/viewthread … ?thread_id=1103

ik777 wrote:

My guess is that item was used in Pachi slot game.

Like this
http://www.neogeoforlife.com/forum/viewthread … ?thread_id=1103

Timing doesn't seem right, the S3 Virge/GX dates from 1997, his card seems to be mfg. 1998... that specific pachislo dates from 2006. Unless you mean a 1997-era SNK pachislot machine? Doesn't seem to be any...

ReeseRiverson wrote:

I ended up having a couple of these cards, a while back, and at least have one, and I am wondering if anyone knows anything about it. Best to my knowledge it has a S3 Virge/GX chip. And I can easily obtain Windows 3.1 drivers for it. However I don't know how much VRAM it has, let alone what the features this board provides. 😦

Ya know what.... in addition to the other photos you've taken:
a. use a video BIOS dumping tool to see what it says for version / what the copyright string says. MSD.EXE can pull up some of this in DOS.
b. pop it into a modern PC and get/post the PCI ID string, etc.

I still think it's a Canopus card that's branded SNK, sold around 1998 in Japan to capitalize on SNK popularity. 😀

Well yeah Japanese brand loyalty is a big thing, it's partly how NEC had initial foothold with PowerVR PCX2 there despite being a card developed in England.

Stiletto wrote:

[...]
I still think it's a Canopus card that's branded SNK, sold around 1998 in Japan to capitalize on SNK popularity. 😀

and for what do you speculate the dual LM + heatsinks + huge caps are for? 😕 That's a mini-psu there, certainly not to power the virge.

Stiletto wrote:

Ya know what.... in addition to the other photos you've taken: a. use a video BIOS dumping tool to see what it says for version […]
Show full quote

Ya know what.... in addition to the other photos you've taken:
a. use a video BIOS dumping tool to see what it says for version / what the copyright string says. MSD.EXE can pull up some of this in DOS.
b. pop it into a modern PC and get/post the PCI ID string, etc.

I still think it's a Canopus card that's branded SNK, sold around 1998 in Japan to capitalize on SNK popularity. 😀

I'll pull the card back out for some more pictures soon.

keropi wrote:

Stiletto wrote:

[...]
I still think it's a Canopus card that's branded SNK, sold around 1998 in Japan to capitalize on SNK popularity. 😀

and for what do you speculate the dual LM + heatsinks + huge caps are for? 😕 That's a mini-psu there, certainly not to power the virge.

I want to believe this is actual Neo-geo/Hyper Neo-geo 64 development hardware. As keropi says obviously such an onboard sound amp is at least related to some degree to arcade hardware

Alright, I just posted to Neo-Geo.com and AssemblerGames.com, hopefully someone there will know what this is. To get this answered, gotta (sadly?) go where the NeoGeo collectors are.

There's one person I know of who might be able to answer the question of a Neo Geo developers machine. lingjr from ebay. He sells a lot of rare video game related hardware like that.

Here's his own site

http://lingjr.com/

That feature connector and psu section makes me think this is something a bit more special than just a normal S3 card.
Interesting find - I'd love to know what it turns out to be!

(NeoGeo fan andowner of MVS, AES, Hyper64 & NGPC systems)

megatron-uk wrote:

That feature connector and psu section makes me think this is something a bit more special than just a normal S3 card.
Interesting find - I'd love to know what it turns out to be!

(NeoGeo fan andowner of MVS, AES, Hyper64 & NGPC systems)

The leading theory is currently "liquidated from a development machine" actually, I'm just choosing to play Devil's advocate 😁

Feature connectors are usually used for things like MPEG daughtercards...

sliderider wrote:

There's one person I know of who might be able to answer the question of a Neo Geo developers machine. lingjr from ebay. He sells a lot of rare video game related hardware like that.

Here's his own site

http://lingjr.com/

Nah, the guy who runs NeoGeoDevTeam or whatever its called should know it too 😀

Here's a couple more pictures as I promised!

ah, a Lattice chip on the back and a big one too... now there is really no question that this is beyond a simple pc vga...

keropi wrote:

ah, a Lattice chip on the back and a big one too... now there is really no question that this is beyond a simple pc vga...

What are Lattice chips typically used for? Or for. 😦

-Edit-

Close up of the chip:

^ that chip holds custom code and is typically used to "glue" hardware parts together or control parts that no "pre-made" chip can. Basically it does a custom job designed for this board and it's expansions.
Your typical Virge card only needs the main chip, vram and BIOS. No programmable clpd, no extra video encoder, no psu on board and no expansion port of that size.
I wonder what the search reveals for this card....

Stiletto wrote:

sliderider wrote:

There's one person I know of who might be able to answer the question of a Neo Geo developers machine. lingjr from ebay. He sells a lot of rare video game related hardware like that.

Here's his own site

http://lingjr.com/

Nah, the guy who runs NeoGeoDevTeam or whatever its called should know it too 😀

JMKurtz/Neobitz agrees with my pessimistic guess that it's simply a standard S3 Virge/GX videocard, branded "SNK". He doesn't seem to have heard of it before though.