VOGONS


First post, by dicky96

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I could be wrong about this, but I was thinking about some of the hardware we used to use when I had a computer shop and was building PCs from 1993-2002.... especially the more unusual stuff like CD Writers with Caddies, and these 'Bigfoot' 5.25" Hard Drives that allegedly loaded large files faster because the drive could read more data on a single rotation of the platter.

For some reason I remembered having this 'Real Magic MPEG' card in stock that did some really impressive video effects for the time. We had it running on demo in the shop and only ever sold one PC build with a Real Magic that I can recall, and I can't remember there being anything much you could run on it apart from some demo CD and maybe a game that came with it.

I did a quick google and found some links to 'Sigma Designs Real Magic' and I am certain that was the brand, but if my memory serves me correctlty, the card we sold was an add-on to a regular SVGA card - like the voodoo 2 was - and I couldn't find any info on that one.

I don't remember now if it was ISA or PCI. Back in the day we were building a lot of VESA based PCs with QDI mobos, VGA and Multi-IO cards. We dealt with QDI a lot at the time and I even used to go down to the QDI main UK headquarters near Reading on occasion and meet their Tech Support guys.

I am not sure whether the Real Magic came before or after we switched production to PCI based. Most likely it was PCI.

Can anyone shed any light on that Real Magic card?

Reply 1 of 12, by PTherapist

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The only one I ever remember seeing was the RealMagic Hollywood Plus card in the early 2000s, which was PCI. I don't know about any earlier versions, but with the Hollywood Plus it was pretty much solely used for DVD playback via it's own software. It was technically possible for 3rd party software to make use of the card, but I don't recall ever seeing that done as it only really had a short limited lifespan before PCs got fast enough not to need it.

Reply 2 of 12, by root42

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If it was from the mid 90s it was probably an ISA card like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealMagic

You could play VCDs with it, which were predecessors of the DVD, using standard CD technology and MPEG1 for the codec. As Wikipedia says, there were also a handful of games that supported it.

Note that back then it was still spelled Reel Magic:

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Reply 3 of 12, by dicky96

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Oh yes that is the one! So it was ISA not PCI. And it was an add on to the SVGA card like a the voodoo-2 was. As I said, we only ever sold one rig with one of these fitted, and that was the one we were using to demo in our shop. As it didn't seem popular (and was probably a bit pricey) I didn't bother to get another one in stock. I'll bet they are as rare as rocking horse poo these days but at least I remember using one, any one else ever had one of these? 😊 Does anyone here actually have one??

Reply 4 of 12, by dicky96

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Thanks for correcting to Reel Magic. Now I found a lot if interesting info including a list of games made for these cards

https://ancientelectronics.wordpress.com/2016 … 1-decoder-card/

Reply 5 of 12, by mil

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I have a couple of these cards, they are the newer shorter version with Voodoo 2 like passthrough. I am still missing the older longer version that used the internal VESA-feature connector.

I also have 3 of the 5 games that I know of that actually exists (I suspect the other games rumored were planed and never actually made):

Dragons Lair
Return to Zork (2 are avialble on ebay (not mine))
The Psychotron

Still missing from my collection:
Space Ace
The Horde

Reply 6 of 12, by CrossBow777

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I thought there was a version of Wing Commander III that made use of these cards? I know there was a DVD release of WC3...but I still remember a requirement being an MPEG decoder installed in your computer?

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Midi Modules: MT-32 (OLD), MT-200, MT-300, MT-90S, MT-90U, SD-20

Reply 7 of 12, by Koltoroc

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CrossBow777 wrote:

I thought there was a version of Wing Commander III that made use of these cards? I know there was a DVD release of WC3...but I still remember a requirement being an MPEG decoder installed in your computer?

Never heard of that. However, there is a wing commander IV version on DVD that uses DVD video (MPEG2) and was sold in bundles with DVD drives and decoder cards. You probably remember that one

Reply 8 of 12, by mil

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CrossBow777 wrote:

I thought there was a version of Wing Commander III that made use of these cards? I know there was a DVD release of WC3...but I still remember a requirement being an MPEG decoder installed in your computer?

I think that was Wing Commander IV, and it needed an MPEG2 PCI card. The ISA Reelmagic/Realmagic cards are only MPEG1.

The Creative Encore DVD-ROM kit was:
Creative DXR2 PCI MPEG decoder
Creative DVD drive
Wing Commander IV
CLAW

You can learn more about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amhqdbj0vpQ

And you can learn more about the Reelmagic ISA MPEG1 cards here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcbJdNONj8M

Reply 9 of 12, by Uka

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mil wrote:

Return to Zork (2 are avialble on ebay (not mine))

Where??? 😀
I have been searching for it - ordered the only one I could see on eBay more than two months ago, but it has never got to me, and the seller could not prove that he sent it and issued the refund...

I was able to buy a boxed (not jewel!) version of 'The Psychotron' though. And currently trying to make it work...

Were you able to run this game under Windows 95/98? I do not have the original ReelMagic card - only REALmagic XCard (which is a PCI MPEG2 etc. card and should not work anyway) and REALmagic Ultra II (which is ISA and should probably work). I can even watch the movies in 'The Psychotron', but the game sometimes crashes in Windows 98. But the drivers I can install is only 32-bit version, - I have no idea how to force the 16-bit drivers installation in Windows 98.

Reply 10 of 12, by Uka

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The driver pack for ReelMagic/REALmagic cards on Vogonsdrivers is certainly incomplete.

I can share my collection of those drivers by Sigma Designs!
https://archive.org/details/sigma-design-drivers
Here I include only those for ISA cards. Out of these I have only ReelMagic Lite, Maxima and Netstream 1, so I have not tested Ultra and Maxima Pro.

1. ReelMagic and/or ReelMagic Lite:
1.10 (28.03.94);
1.11 (05.04.94);
2.01 (03.08.94);
2.01F (03.08.94) - these are for FullVideo branded cards by Digital;
2.20 beta (08.11.94);
2.20 (16.01.95);
2.21 (15.05.95);
2.30 (12.06.96) - for REALmagic 1 or REALmagic 2;
2.30L (12.06.96) - for REALmagic Lite.

2. REALmagic Maxima.
2.30_3.1 (12.06.96) - for Windows 3.1;
2.30_95 (01.07.96) - for Windows 95.

3. REALmagic Ultra.
2.30 (25.04.96);
2.33 (11.04.97);
4.00 (12.09.97) - this set is probably incomplete;
4.40 (23.02.98) - Windows 9x only (no DOS).

4. REALmagic Maxima Pro.
2.34 (20.01.98);
4.40 (23.02.98) - Windows 9x only (no DOS), not sure if it is complete.

5. REALmagic Ultra II / NetStream 1.
2.35 (16.04.98);
4.40 (23.02.98) - Windows 9x only (no DOS), not sure if it is complete;
4.51 (14.12.98) - Windows 9x only (no DOS).

Reply 11 of 12, by vetz

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I got the category created on Vogonsdrivers. My intention was to upload all the drivers I've acquired for all Sigma Designs products (see Sigma Designs RealMagic complete productlist, supported games and drivers), but I've been busy and haven't got the time to sort it all out and upload. Many thanks for your list, I'll check and see if I was missing any of those.

I see I have some drivers that is not in your list as well (for instance Windows NT 4.40 and 4.51 and v 2.34m for Netstream 1/Ultra II as well as WinNT drivers from Maxima and later).

3D Accelerated Games List (Proprietary APIs - No 3DFX/Direct3D)
3D Acceleration Comparison Episodes

Reply 12 of 12, by Uka

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Well, I did not collect Windows NT drivers, as I am not sure anyone would be interested in them today 😀
And I have some later PCI cards (and drivers) as well, but did not include them, as they are useless for running RM-exclusive MPEG games.

Will take a look at your list! I also have composed a similar 'RM product list' a couple of years ago.