Yearning for 1997...

[Sharkzf6]

I just got done posting in another thread and started reminiscing. I was thinking back to ’97 when the first 3dfx based boards were coming out. Man that was cool. And of course, I had to have the best available – Canopus 3dfx with a whopping 4MB of video RAM. The other cards of the day had only 2MB. I could crank out Q2 @ 800x600 at the blistering rate of 25-30 fps. Yes, we OC'd even back then and dropped cpu coolers on the GPUs. Man those were the days…

 

[morningreis]

8 years from now you'll be reminiscing again.

 

[vanilla_guerilla]

yea and i remember 1998 when my bitboys glaze 3d was running those point and click adventure games(blade runner) at 100 fps.....

 

[meatycheesyboy]

Man, I absolutely do not miss the "good ol'" days. The days when you had to waste time rearranging things in you autoexec file so that you could free up that last 1k of extended memory because Wing Commander 3 wouldn't start if it didn't have it available or the days of spending 8 hours downloading the demo of Carmeggedon because it was a whopping 10 meg file and you only had a 2800 baud modem. Those days sucked and don't try to convince yourself otherwise.

 

[vanilla_guerilla]

Man, I absolutely do not miss the "good ol'" days. The days when you had to waste time rearranging things in you autoexec file so that you could free up that last 1k of extended memory because Wing Commander 3 wouldn't start if it didn't have it available or the days of spending 8 hours downloading the demo of Carmeggedon because it was a whopping 10 meg file and you only had a 2800 baud modem. Those days sucked and don't try to convince yourself otherwise.

true, but my abit be6-2 didnt have to be rma'd 3 times and go thru 6 months of bios updates and 5 kits of ram to work correctly. also my voodoo2 sli rig worked on all ganes from day one without special mainboards and updated driver releases. i didnt need a helicopter engine to cool my cpu/gpu either. my rig then ran the games that were available then just as well as my rig now runs the games available now.

 

[meatycheesyboy]

also my voodoo2 sli rig worked on all ganes from day one without special mainboards and updated driver releases. i didnt need a helicopter engine to cool my cpu/gpu either. my rig then ran the games that were available then just as well as my rig now runs the games available now.

I did enjoy the days of passive cooling, I'll give you that. But I think hardware issues were as bad then than they are now. Its been years since I had to know what IRQ a particular device was on so that I could manually change it.

There are pros and cons to both then and now but I definately like now more than then.

 

[dderidex]

I did enjoy the days of passive cooling, I'll give you that. But I think hardware issues were as bad then than they are now. Its been years since I had to know what IRQ a particular device was on so that I could manually change it.

There are pros and cons to both then and now but I definately like now more than then.

So your standards raise, and you complain because of that?

If you don't want to overclock, who says you can't run passive cooling *today*?

One of these guys will passively cool a Socket 939 Venice run at 'stock' speeds just fine!

And, of course, 'back in the day' fanless PSUs were not practical yet, so you'd still get the annoying whine of a 70mm (or so) fan from the PSU even without the CPU fan. So...use one of these with the above CPU cooling, and your system is now FAR quieter than anything in any previous generation.

(Oh, and *also* keep in mind that solid-state storage has only just recently become practical. For amusement, observe. CompactFlash to IDE adapter + 8gb CompactFlash card = completely noiseless PC)

IOW, it's odd to hear complaining about the noise of modern PCs vs "older" PCs given that, for the first time, you can actually build a fully functional system now without a single moving part!!

 

[Sharkzf6]

Haha…you all missed the point. Understand, we had never seen anything like it before, the glide (openGL) 3D I mean. Q2 in “true” 3D with the cool lighting, it was just so much better than anything we had seen up to that point. I guess you had to be there…sigh

 

[meatycheesyboy]

So your standards raise, and you complain because of that?

If you don't want to overclock, who says you can't run passive cooling *today*?

I did enjoy the days of passive cooling, I'll give you that.

Just to nitpick and because I get to quote myself, nothing in my statement above can be called a complaint and nowhere in my statements do I say that I overclock. Fact is, I don't; I'm quite pragmatic in my computer usage these days, that's why I'm running such a low end system; it's all I need for what I do. I am aware that you can passively cool a modern system, but thanks for the links.

 

[RogueTrip]

true, but my abit be6-2 didnt have to be rma'd 3 times and go thru 6 months of bios updates and 5 kits of ram to work correctly. also my voodoo2 sli rig worked on all ganes from day one without special mainboards and updated driver releases. i didnt need a helicopter engine to cool my cpu/gpu either. my rig then ran the games that were available then just as well as my rig now runs the games available now.

I blew up 2 BE6-II motherboards just trying to O/C back in the day, they won't even post! Oh those were fun days, but also remember the K6-2/K7 days not only being a shitty performer to the P2, but the Apollo chipset, bad AGP implementation, I remember being so pissed about my MSI K7 Pro board only being able to run AGP 1x! when AGP 2x/4x was the norm! Then the MSI board started failing cause of bad caps! OH how many people where pissed about the VIA 4in1 drivers?! i know i was.

I still have a K6-2 550mhz, Nvidia TNT 16mb AGP, Monster Voodoo 1 4mb pc just to fire up and play old games on since new software isn't compatible with the older games

 

[ThreeDee]

I remember back when I was plugging in my battery powered Mattel gas station into some little rechargable cars and watching them go roundy round on my little track at incredible framerates ..
my eyes >any video card

now those were the days (the whole diaper thing and wetting the bed sucked tho)

(that was back in '73 tho)


[H]

 

[Commander Suzdal]

I remember back when I was plugging in my battery powered Mattel gas station into some little rechargable cars and watching them go roundy round on my little track at incredible framerates ..
my eyes >any video card

now those were the days (the whole diaper thing and wetting the bed sucked tho)

(that was back in '73 tho)


[H]

Oh, yeah! Those rocked! We didn't have much money and we lived in a trailer house out in the country, but my dad's sister worked for Mattel in southern cal, so we got Hot Wheels stuff for Christmas a lot. Those electric hot wheels were like magic, at least until the rechargeable batteries in them wore out. But then you could fall back on the "gas station" that concealed spinning rubber wheels that gripped each side of the car and shot it down those groovy orange plastic tracks. Good times!

 

[IceDigger]

Back in the day, games were actually fun though

 

[Happy Hopping]

BAck in those days, I bought a 20" Sony GDM-20SE2, I thought that screen was big. Move fwd. to 2004, after I fixed that POS once, I thought, how can I put up w/ that tiny screen all these years?

 

[.::MAGE::.]

I will have to agree games were seemingly more fun then than the current crop of crap they throw out.

 

[prtzlboy]

yea and i remember 1998 when my bitboys glaze 3d was running those point and click adventure games(blade runner) at 100 fps.....

ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111onehundredeleven111111111

Can't believe no one has caught this one yet

vanilla_guerilla you are a sly devil.

 

[MooCow]

I thought the Canopus Pure 3D had 6MB of RAM and the others only had 4MB of RAM, ie Monster 3D and Orchid Righteous 3D or something like that...

And then came the first sight of aftermarket card coolers, and they were such a bullshit rip off, who made it... like Laguna cooling system or whatever, they tried to sell a $2 fan for like $50

 

[DrDebug]

1974.
When I was playing Lunar Lander on a PDP11/05 GT 40.

Vector graphics, green on black, 4 button control.

Those were the days!



Not.... It was a great time and a great game, but I am looking to the next 5 years, when I have my quad core opteron, 8 GB ram, and graphics cards that can deliver Hollywood quality special effects in realtime.

 

[MrMonty]

I thought the Canopus Pure 3D had 6MB of RAM and the others only had 4MB of RAM, ie Monster 3D and Orchid Righteous 3D or something like that...

It was something like 2MB frame memory or something and 4MB graphic or texture memory, where everyone else was 2/2.

Anyway, I still have mine. Kept the orignal box and foam to store various stuff in. Does anybody buy this kind of stuff for nostalgic purposes? I never threw it away since I think paid $187 for it. I may even have the Matrox Millenium I had it paired up with. Remember guys, the Millenium came with a whopping 2MB which I upgraded ($50 I think) to 4MB. It's too damn hard to just send that stuff to the landfill.

Monty

 

[Hvatum]

... when there weren't nostalgic people filling up computer forums because the computer industry was so new there was nothing nostalgic to be about!.

So, yeah I guess I yearn for 1997 too, but for a different reason than all of you

*sigh* I guess I'm going to have to find a new hobby like nanotechnology or something

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I just got done posting in another thread and started reminiscing. I was thinking back to ’97 when the first 3dfx based boards were coming out. Man that was cool. And of course, I had to have the best available – Canopus 3dfx with a whopping 4MB of video RAM. The other cards of the day had only 2MB. I could crank out Q2 @ 800x600 at the blistering rate of 25-30 fps. Yes, we OC'd even back then and dropped cpu coolers on the GPUs. Man those were the days…

LOL... not to knock ya, but you're worthy of the n00b label - the Canopus Pure3D had 6MB while other Voodoo 1s had 4MB. I should know - still have a Pure3D, Pure3D II, Voodoo 3 3000 and Spectra TNT 2500 in their boxes

 

[H-street]

Nothing beats the Orchid Righteous 3D with its mechanical switch..

i loved hearing that thing click on when you started a glide game..

i think i still have my V1 somewhere too...

 

[Riptide_NVN]

Nah. My Orchid ProDesigner II was better.

 

[sitheris]

Ahhh...I remember switching from Software to hardware rendering when I got my Voodoo Banshee for christmas.

Being an avid quake 2 player at the time, my jaw literally dropped when I saw Q2 in hardware-rendered mode.

 

[Riptide_NVN]

The first time my jaw really dropped was when I exited the Vortex Rikers in Unreal for the first time and saw that waterfall. With my V2 SLI system, in 1024x768.

 

[LordBritish]

Yes, i miss 4 color CGA graphics from 1983.

Here's Ultima 2 for you kiddies.

That game was the shizzle back then.

I'm an old fart - lol.

 

[Dan_D]

true, but my abit be6-2 didnt have to be rma'd 3 times and go thru 6 months of bios updates and 5 kits of ram to work correctly. also my voodoo2 sli rig worked on all ganes from day one without special mainboards and updated driver releases. i didnt need a helicopter engine to cool my cpu/gpu either. my rig then ran the games that were available then just as well as my rig now runs the games available now.

That's a DFI thing. Just one more reason why I don't like their boards. I've never had to RMA a motherboard in my own personal machine. I've also owned a lot of motherboards. I typically buy Asus. A few other brands, but Asus primarily and I've never had such issues.

The first time my jaw really dropped was when I exited the Vortex Rikers in Unreal for the first time and saw that waterfall. With my V2 SLI system, in 1024x768.

Yes, that was a badass game.

 

[Yoshiyuki Blade]

My jaw dropped when I saw the Unreal Engine 3 tech demo around the time the 6800 Ultra was launched. In fact 3D over the years has impressed me. When I first saw full 3D games, it was during the times of the Playstation and N64. For the longest time, I thought to myself "3D will never look as good as 2D", and I've thought that way until the next gen came about. When the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube came out, I saw for the first time 3D objects that looked similar to (now outdated) prerendred FMVs of the previous gen, if not better. When I saw the Soul Caibur II demo I thought too myself "now it's 3D's time to shine", as I figured that it was no different than 2D (2D took some time to look nice too). Now it's looking better and better, but the games as of late hasn't been very great. I missed the times where I didn't think about graphics, and just about the game.

As for prerendered FMVs, it's also gotten extremely impressive. When I saw the FF: The Spirits Within demos around either '99 or '00, I was like "Man that looks real!". Now we see realistic computer-generated graphics all the time. Seeing it slowly enterin real-time is pretty awesome though.

 

[MikeP]

First time my jaw dropped was when I got the Monster Voodoo 1 4 mb card on its first day in stores. At the time it was amazing. True 3d graphics.

People seem to forget the huge piles of problems "back in the day" with software mainly. When was the last time you saw the blue screen of death? Windows 3.11, 900 baud modems..etc. No thanks.

This might be pre-1997 but Im bad with dates- Airwarrior was the only online game at all and was on a pay by the hour subscription. $5.00 per hour and more if you had a faster modem and yes, we paid it. Compared to that Tribes was a revelation.

 

[sitheris]

Compared to that Tribes was a revelation.

Tribes is quite possibly the game that "did it" for me and got me really hooked on gaming. We used to spend countless hours at school after-hours playing clan matches from the computer lab

 

[PhoS]

I still have my voodoos

 

[Skanks]

Man, I absolutely do not miss the "good ol'" days. The days when you had to waste time rearranging things in you autoexec file so that you could free up that last 1k of extended memory because Wing Commander 3 wouldn't start if it didn't have it available or the days of spending 8 hours downloading the demo of Carmeggedon because it was a whopping 10 meg file and you only had a 2800 baud modem. Those days sucked and don't try to convince yourself otherwise.

I miss the good old days, they don't make Wing Commander games anymore

 

[MooCow]

Man, I absolutely do not miss the "good ol'" days. The days when you had to waste time rearranging things in you autoexec file so that you could free up that last 1k of extended memory because Wing Commander 3 wouldn't start if it didn't have it available or the days of spending 8 hours downloading the demo of Carmeggedon because it was a whopping 10 meg file and you only had a 2800 baud modem. Those days sucked and don't try to convince yourself otherwise.

Well in terms of that its true, but we went through all that trouble because games were "just that cool". Games were fucking awesome, but bandwidth was fucking terrible, and unreliable (ie, line noise, and CRC errors).

 

[Hvatum]

I miss the good old days, they don't make Wing Commander games anymore

dude no one is stopping you from playing them if they are so great...

 

[tdg]

Pfft, 3DFX card. I started out in the days where a 1 MHz CPU, 64K of system RAM did everything you needed, didn't even need a dedicated video card, nevermind video RAM. Of course rendering little white blobs on a black background to play PONG didn't need much in the way of hardware.

The good old days for sure, I still have all my old systems and consoles, but I wouldn't trade new hardware to have those days back

 

[ZenOps]

Ultima VI rocked... 256 colour at 320x240 based on 2D sprites. I still have it on 5 1/4 inch floppies.

The biggest upgrade for me was a 9600 baud to a blazing 33.6 and then to a 56K that was more like 44K.

Yup, I used to handload everything in autoexec.bat so that every k of memory under 1meg was available.

 

[Riptide_NVN]

I miss the good old days, they don't make Wing Commander games anymore

Yeah that was an excellent game as well. And a genre that is unfortunately close to death.

Getting things to run back in the "old days" was more of a challenge with the 640K barrier to contend with. That said I've still seen BSOD. See it quite often actually, because there is a bug in Forceware 81.xx that doesn't like my system for some reason. So the BSOD is still there unfortuantely.

 

[rhexis]

i remember my first computer i ever had. it was an acer 486dx2 running at 66 mhz. it came with 4 megs of ram which i soon upgraded to 8 megs for the low price of $137. ram in the early 90s was more expensive than gold i think.

 

[BBA]

Man, I absolutely do not miss the "good ol'" days. The days when you had to waste time rearranging things in you autoexec file so that you could free up that last 1k of extended memory because Wing Commander 3 wouldn't start if it didn't have it available or the days of spending 8 hours downloading the demo of Carmeggedon because it was a whopping 10 meg file and you only had a 2800 baud modem. Those days sucked and don't try to convince yourself otherwise.

Dude...your time scale is off a bit:

Back in 1997 I had windows 98, Quake 2 and a two way cable modem at 3-6 Mb/s. The sad thing is my computer is better now but my internet speed keeps getting worse and worse.

1997...Those were the best days of lan parties I have ever had. I only wish I could take this PC back to those days.

 

[Sharkzf6]

LOL... not to knock ya, but you're worthy of the n00b label - the Canopus Pure3D had 6MB while other Voodoo 1s had 4MB. I should know - still have a Pure3D, Pure3D II, Voodoo 3 3000 and Spectra TNT 2500 in their boxes

Actually, though I may be worthy of the noob label, it was so long ago I forgot (I'm 45), but, yes, all are correct, it had 6 while the others had 4, thanks for the correction...may I have another...