Gone but Not Forgotten: 3Dfx Interactive

[erek]

gdonovan @trevormacro

"3Dfx pulled the trigger on a $186 million acquisition of graphics IP provider GigaPixel in March 2000 in an effort to help get products to market faster but it proved to be too little, too late.

Shortly after the first Voodoo4 products hit the market later that year, 3Dfx's creditors initiated bankruptcy proceedings. With few options, 3Dfx waved the white flag in December 2000 and sold most of its assets to Nvidia. Nearly 13 years later, 3Dfx's founders reunited for an oral history on the company hosted by the Computer History museum. It's an admittedly lengthy piece although if you've come this far, what's another two and a half hours?

And if you’re in the mood for a bit of retro gaming, you’ll be happy to learn that second-hand Voodoo-based video cards are readily available through outlets like eBay. They’re a bit more expensive than you likely would have guessed (nostalgia will cost you), but they’re up for grabs if you’re in the market."

https://www.techspot.com/article/2067-3dfx/

 

[Aurelius]

I never ended up with a 3dfx card -- I had a Rendition V1000 card at first (I was playing 3D-accelerated Quake before the GLQuake crew!), then went to ATI and NVIDIA gear. I don't quite have the same attachment, then, although I definitely remember the heady days when someone with a Voodoo 2 SLI setup was a rockstar.

 

[/dev/null]

I never ended up with a 3dfx card -- I had a Rendition V1000 card at first (I was playing 3D-accelerated Quake before the GLQuake crew!), then went to ATI and NVIDIA gear. I don't quite have the same attachment, then, although I definitely remember the heady days when someone with a Voodoo 2 SLI setup was a rockstar.

I had a Verite V1000 as well before my 3dfx voodoo and I played vQuake as well Thanks for the memories...

 

[Factum]

Those 1996 $299 would be $500 today...and then you still need to buy a graphics card...

 

[cybereality]

I loved my Voodoo 3000 card. I also thought Glide had the best graphics back then.

I recall playing Forsaken I think it was, the colors and lighting on that were sick.

 

[Youn]

3dfx will always live on in our hearts, remembering those very exciting times when 3d graphics really took off. GLquake with it's transparent water, smooth texture filtering, hi res/fps... feels like just yesterday. No other time has made such a huge leap in graphics in such a short amount of time, and maybe never will.

 

[whateverer]

I had a Verite V1000 as well before my 3dfx voodoo and I played vQuake as well Thanks for the memories...

Yeah, had good times playing vQuake on my v2200. Was the first PC gae with a respectable implementation of edge AA.

Then the modding community embraced WinQuake (no native port), and Rendition was suddenly old news. I jumped on a Riva TNT, and embraced our32-bit future.

Played HalfLife 800x600 on that beast, then got through Quake 3 at 640x480 at 32-bits.

 

[Factum]

3dfx will always live on in our hearts, remembering those very exciting times when 3d graphics really took off. GLquake with it's transparent water, smooth texture filtering, hi res/fps... feels like just yesterday. No other time has made such a huge leap in graphics in such a short amount of time, and maybe never will.

My biggest moment was Unreal...it really was a new game when running with proper 3D.

 

[Deleted member 204526]

I loved my Voodoo 3000 card. I also thought Glide had the best graphics back then.

I recall playing Forsaken I think it was, the colors and lighting on that were sick.

The same. When I first loaded up UT99 on my new Voodoo3 3000, it was nirvana.

 

[alxlwson]

My first GPU was a VooDoo 4 4500. Was having issues with Diablo 2 overlay map. Blizzard said I needed a GPU with some feature that I can't remember, and suggested the 4500. Went down to Circuit City and picked it up with my saved allowance.

 

[DooLocsta]

The memories, I had the Diamond Monster 3D 4MB -> Creative Labs 12MB -> 2x Creative Labs 12MB SLI -> Obsidian X-24 SLI. I wish I would have hung on to all of them

 

[YeuEmMaiMai]

lol don't you mean Nvidia? because that is who bought them

 

[DogsofJune]

I wish I hadn't sold the pair of Voodoo 2's I had. They were pretty nice addition to the Tnt card for some games

 

[arestavo]

When I was young and impressionable, I fell for the AMAZING box art on the Voodoo 5 5500, even though it wasn't as fast as the Nvidia counterpart (found that out this year when looking around some old forums). I had to downgrade to Windows 98 from NT 2000 as they didn't have any 2000 drivers. Sad days.

 

[Wat]

I gave away my v5 5500 and the abit motherboard I used with it. I can't remember the processor I used with it. Pretty sure was a slot 1 celeron, after the 300a. It socks to get old.

Still have a pci banshee for troubleshooting purposes.

 

[aeonrevolution]

Back then I remember not having the remotest clue about what I was really buying. I just know that Best Buy had a nvidia card that was in my price range and it managed to play Half Life. Pretty sure I fell for the packaging art too lol.

Also had a stock Acer computer that barely played Lords of the Realm 2. Half Life 1 was a solid 3-5fps, but I think I still played the first level.

 

[Mazzspeed]

Love this HL2DM map:

 

[DejaWiz]

I ran dual V2 12MB cards for the longest time, then finally upgraded my primary to a TnT2 32MB. When I fired up Kingpin using only the TnT2, it became evident that 3Dfx had fallen behind. I seriously did consider going with a V5 5500 since I was so vested into the 3Dfx/Glide ecosystem, but decided on the GeForce2. I was not disappointed in my decision, especially since it was but a mere few months later that 3Dfx ceased to be.

 

[aeonrevolution]

That was it! My first video card was a Geforce 2.