Can you try running the game under DOS?

The Tomb3DFX works fine with Voodoo 2, and do not require an external ovl file, but needs environment variables. Try using a batch file from a Static link game here if they don't match: Voodoo 2 DOS Glide compatibility matrix. Loading environment variables in your Autoexec.bat and some in your game.bat file and run it all from within Windows could be the cause of your trouble. I've successfully run DOS 3DFX games from within Windows, but I've always had all the environment variables in the game.bat file.

For the Tombrush.exe you should NOT use enviroment variables. It's not a statically linked executable, but is looking for an glide2x.ovl in either C:/Windows or in the game folder. Do you have an .ovl file in any of those folders? You wrote .ogl above you see. You also need a ovl file that is not too old. I'd recommend trying version 2.5 (you can find it in old driver releases on falconfly.de)

If everything else fails, then FastVoodoo2 drivers are known to create some compatibility issues, I'd avoid them unless you are going to run only newer games and/or have mismatched cards for SLI and instead use the official 3DFX drivers. Even DOS games directly from Windows can be affected. You can circumvent this by manually installing an older .ovl file in either gamefolder or Windows directory, or just run directly from DOS as thandor suggested.

I used the patch from the topic linked in the post above me, just running Tomb.exe from the linked patch under DOS and it works great with my Voodoo 2

Looks like that file download you tried is the TOMBRUSH.EXE I have, the Voodoo Rush version. Even without environment variables, that file still restarts my PC.

To attempt to run this in pure DOS, I will have to go through the laborous process of enabling CD-ROM and MOUSE support in pure DOS mode. Please be patient while I work through all of that.

Ok, I've configured HIMEM, MSCD0001, and had to download MOUSE.COM from somewhere to get all of that straightened out. Now, DOS loads high with 613KB free of Conventional Memory, everything loads from way up higher - which is always cool. Both CD-ROM and Mouse work (verified mouse with Carmen Sandiego game).

Used my tomb.bat file for 3dfx and the game started, played the first two scenes (Eidos and CORE) and actually gave me the main menu with the 3D icons and Lara on the back. But when I went to load up my save file from yesterday (played using the software engine from within Windows), the icons swirled towards the center, but stopped about 1" apart and the computer become completely unresponsive - except for the CD music playing in the background still. I had to hit the PC's reset button to restart the thing.

So then I tried the tombrush.exe with nothing else. I got the EIDOS and CORE logo/vids, then it crashed back to DOS with an error saying this:

Tomb Raider (c) Core Design. Jun 01 1997 10:07:02

ERROR: Cannot initialize FMV player

C:\TOMBRAID>_

So...we're further along, but still not out of the woods yet.

Did you try a new game on the 3DFX patch? Savegames are not known to be cross compatible.

For the voodoo rush patch, in pure DOS do you have the glide2x.ovl file in your windows directory (must be C:/Windows, or else you must have PATH directory specified) or in the game folder? If yes, which version are you running of this file? If you have a Voodoo1/early version of this file it will not work unless you have the environment variables to force the card into Voodoo 1 mode, but this is not necessary if you have a newer one. The most compatible version of ovl file is version 2.50.

See https://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/%22E … vU/XdG6fLGnIVYJ, same error, glide2x.ovl problem

The above post seems pretty promising, but did you try the actual file from that .zip in the linked thread? For me the executable replaced tomb.exe not tombrush.exe (though the zip is tombrush.zip) I guess there's a chance the file could be slightly different/updated

For reference I am using the original Tomb Raider (not unfinished business) on a Pentium 233MMX, running Win95 but that shouldn't make any difference as I've only run it from DOS 7.1

The zip file had a file labeled tomb.exe. I renamed it tombrush.exe when it behaved exactly like another Voodoo Rush file I found on another website - even the bit size of the file was exactly the same. I rename the files so I know which ones are for which card and to keep them separate.

I don't know why you got so many issues.

Tomb Raider is straight forward to get going. 3dfx patch for V1, rush patch for V2 and newer. It should just work. Though I've never tried SLI with DOS games because a single V1 is enough to run Tomb Raider perfectly.

I am playing the old Tombraider-Games with my Powermac G3. Works with V1 V2 and V3.

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

I don't know why you got so many issues.

Tomb Raider is straight forward to get going. 3dfx patch for V1, rush patch for V2 and newer. It should just work. Though I've never tried SLI with DOS games because a single V1 is enough to run Tomb Raider perfectly.

From what I can tell, a Voodoo2 is overkill for Tomb Raider 1. This is a "try and see if you can" thing - it isn't some all-consuming, the-world-is-going-to-end scenario for me. I'm sure Tomb Raider 2 and 3 and stuff will use the Voodoo2 perfectly fine.

I did get Star Wars Rogue Squadron 3D running fine, but I don't have an analog controller, only a 10-button digital one. It makes getting gold medals virtually impossible, silvers are already a nightmare to try to get...bronze is fairly easy.

Also got my copy of Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption to install. Turns out when I burned an image of Disk 2 from the internet, it was actually MISSING the vampire.ini file the game requires to copy. How the hell did that happen? Anyway, I made a straight DATA CD using files from both disks and it installed fine from that copy. While I was at it, I also re-burned my Quake 1 and Turok 2 CD images (BIN/CUE) onto a single disk and they work fine now, instead of the Data disc + music disc I've been using for those games. I swear to all that is holy, I hate BIN/CUE file format because nearly everything out there that can burn it properly wants you to buy their sh*t for $50. ISO images are burnable by Windows natively.

Any other games I should be looking out for with GLIDE? I've got Tomb Raider, Turok 2, Quake 1&2, Unreal, Final Fantasy 7&8, Star Wars: [Rogue Squadron, X-Wing, X-wing VS Tie Fighter, Flight School] (all those are Star Wars), Half-Life, .... I think that's all I have.

On my P233MMX I've also got Resident Evil 1 & 2, though RE1 was a chore to get working with my Voodoo2, and the original Turok which runs beautifully. Also for DOS Screamer 2 is a lot of fun

Nipedley wrote:

On my P233MMX I've also got Resident Evil 1 & 2, though RE1 was a chore to get working with my Voodoo2, and the original Turok which runs beautifully. Also for DOS Screamer 2 is a lot of fun

One of my favorites, and don't forget screamer rally. Screamer one is fun too but no 3d support.

Windows won't tell me what version the Glide2x.ovl file is, but when I pull up properties on Glide2x.dll, I get a version number 2.56.00.0459. Don't know if this helps at all.

And I have two systems. The first is the first, the Windows 98 system. The hardware specs are listed in the original post.

I also have this system, but in parts in a box. I don't have an empty ATX case to build it in except an uber-modern case and I'd rather have an older beige type case. I'm looking into finding one second-hand.

CPU: Pentium P54C 200MHz (non-MMX version)
Motherboard: Micronics M55HI+ (running at 66MHz FSB)
RAM: 64MB 72-pin EDO RAM (~16MHz???)
PCI1: ATI Rage IIC PCI 2MB (PN 109-61800-00 Copyright 1999???)
PCI2: Diamond Monster 3D II 8MB
(all other slots are empty)
HDD: Maxtor 20.4GB (using drive overlay software to overcome MB's 8GB limit)
OS: Windows 95 OSR2

I guess I could put this one together in a sort-of test-bench style for testing. I've heard that having a too-fast CPU will prevent Tomb Raider from detecting the 3dfx hardware properly. Maybe testing on the slower system will resolve that? And it removes the SLI thing from the equation.

Why do I keep torturing myself to get this game to work on hardware it wasn't designed to work on?! /facepalm

Try the later OVL's, starting with V3.03. They handle faster CPU's better.

Tomb raider being old, won't use the systems Glide2x or ovl files anyway, it's a DOS executable, as long as you've installed the 3dfx drivers they should put the correct environment variables into your autoexec.bat file and allow Tomb Raider (with the correct .exe file) to run with the voodoo hardware

Depends on whether you're running the Voodoo Rush or the Voodoo Graphics executable, as noted earlier.

firage wrote:

Depends on whether you're running the Voodoo Rush or the Voodoo Graphics executable, as noted earlier.

True That,

I should elaborate, Tomb Raider 1 with the Voodoo Rush patch on voodoo II cards(even with SLI) works under Windows 98SE without the ovl or dll files in the tomb raider dir or path specified.
However not under pure DOS.
I have yet to try the Voodoo 3 with Tomb Raider under 98SE but I expect it'll be the same as the Voodoo 2.

Under pure DOS from my own testing, the rush patch needs the .ovl file only, This works with Voodoo2, Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo 3 3000, however there's a lock up when entering the inventory, have seen claims that different versions of the Glide2x.ovl may fix this but have not tried many.

My Voodoo 3 arrived today so was able to play around with that, still waiting on a new Banshee and a Voodoo 1 card to arrive.

Well, I "test-bench"ed the Pentium 1 system just now and I have access to Windows 95, all the files, but I don't have a separate IDE CD-ROM drive to plug in, so no loading/testing Tomb Raider. What I can tell you is that Quake 1 runs perfectly fine, smoothly at 640 x 480 x 16 and I verified it's the Diamond Monster 3D II card because I had to manually switch the VGA cable over to get the picture.

CONFIG.SYS
DEVICE=C:\Windows\himem.sys
DEVICE=C:\Windows\EMM386.exe NOEMS I=B000-B7FF
DEVICEHIGH=C:\Vide\VIDE-CDD.SYS /D:MSCD001 /P:170,15 /L:US
DOS=HIGH,UMB
LASTDRIVE=F
NUMLOCK=ON

AUTOEXEC.BAT
SET SOUND=C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\CTSND
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P300 T6
SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E

DOSSTART.BAT
LH C:\WINDOWS\CTCM
LH C:\mscdex.exe /D:mscd001 /l:D
LH C:\Windows\Command\mouse.com

So, right now, even with the Diamond Monster 3D II drivers installed (downloaded the official driver install package off of the internet and burned to a CD-R a lot earlier this year when I first set up the system), there ARE no environment variables...like, anywhere. Then again, I never tried installing Tomb Raider onto this system. I'm tempted to pull out my P3 system and borrow the CD-ROM drive from there for a while for testing purposes.

I've been trying to find on-line the required environment variables to make the Voodoo2 act like a Voodoo1 (for Tomb Raider). I was going to set up a BAT file to run them all on the off-chance I want to play that particular game, but I can't find anything other than a master list of all environment variables for either Voodoo1 or Voodoo2 cards. It doesn't tell me which ones I need.

Ok, so I put an optical drive on my system as a slave and booted into Windows 95. I can see the CD-ROMs. So I installed Tomb Raider 1 Unfinished Business using all defaults, verified the Sound Card works, and then copied over both tomb3dfx.exe and tombrush.exe from Phil's Computer Labs website, as well as the Glide2x.ovl and Glide2x.dll files from within C:\Windows. Using the Display Settings tab, I can see that the WinGlide 2.x Driver Version is 2.50.

Without adding any environment variables to the files above, I get the same exact results both times using both tomb3dfx.exe and tombrush.exe. The ATI Rage IIc outputs the EIDOS full-screen logo, then plays the CORE animation. Then, when it should switch over to the Voodoo2 card, the game crashes directly back into Windows with this in the CMD window:

Tomb Raider (c) Core Design. Feb 11 1997 11:44:24

ERROR: Cannot initialize FMV player

So....same boat. We've resolved the too-fast CPU by downgrading the whole system from a 600MHz Pentium III on a 100MHz FSB system to a 200MHz Pentium P54C on a 66MHz system running only 60ns EDO FPM RAM.
We've resolved the Voodoo2 SLI being an issue by changing the whole system over to a single Voodoo2 card. Quake confirms that the Voodoo2 card is working perfectly.

So, we're left with either environment variables and a reboot while crossing our fingers...or this game simply refuses to use anything later than a Voodoo1 card.