Need help for planned dream setup/collection.

[Mantis128]

I have been doing research for a project that I will be working on over the next 10-15 years. Pretty much getting my dream setup.
Now it's insanely unrealistic but I plan to put as much time, effort and money into this as humanly possible and I will not stop until it's done or I somehow die.

OK here goes
I plan to have a long table/desk with two console stands in the middle. One stand will have a Japanese N64 modded for RGB, a 1-Chip 03, Super Famicom modded for CSYNC, Sega Saturn, PS2 and an RGB modded AV Famicom with Disc System attached. All these systems will be plugged into a JP21 GSCARTSW with one output being sent to a RGB monitor (hopefully a XM29 or 20F1U) on the right of the desk and another being sent to an XRGB-Mini. The other rack will have a Neo Geo, Sega Genesis with CD attached, PAL GameCube, RGB modded Turbo Duo all hooked up via SCART with one switch signal going to the RGB monitor and another to a SCART adapter for the Framemeister. If I can get the room for it I'll place a third stand that will have a Japanese GameCube with GBP, US OG Xbox and my PAL Wii hooked up via component into an Impact Acoustic component switcher that will send one signal to a component to D-Terminal adapter for the Framemeister and another to my awesome CRT. I also plan to get a Japanese Dreamcast and Toro that will send one signal to the SCART switcher for the Framemeister and the VGA signal to the XM29.


For modern consoles I plan to have my fat PS3, a PS4 and Wii U all hooked up into a HDMI switcher along with the Framemeister that will go into a splitter that will send one signal to a capture device and another to an audio receiver for surround sound and then to a HD projector. I also plan to get my childhood PAL N64, the Japanese 64 and AV Famicom I plan to get modded for HDMI.

To the left of the desk I want to have a desktop setup to make music and videos and play games on.
MISC: A 3rd Strike and Metal Slug 3 arcade board, NEC PC 9800, N64 DD, SF Satellaview and C64.

What I need help on:
What are the best HDMI splitters?

And what are the best 240 to 100-120 converters?

Also I think it would be best if others used this thread for setup advice.

Edit: Current Plans

Main Setup: NTSC-J RGB and UHDMI mod N64, AV Famicom with DS, and HDNES and RGB mod, CSYNC modded 1-Chip 03 Famicom, JP Sega Saturn, JP PS2, Neo Geo, NTSC Sega Genesis, with CD and 32X, Turbo Duo R all plugged into GSCARTSW feeding two signals to a XM29 and to a XRGB Mini. Japanese Dreamcast hooked up via VGA.

US XBOX OG and NTSC-J GCN with GBP hooked up via component into a Sony BVM D32E1WU.

PS3, Wii U (for use with Wii games too) and Xbox 360 hooked up via HDMI into a monitor or projector capable of full range RGB.

PS4 and beyond hooked up onto 4K monitor

3rd Strike and Metal Slug 3 arcade cabinets

Commodore 128 PC, 98 and Windows 2000 or XP PC

New high end gaming PC.

All audio going into a surround sound receiver.

Bedroom Setup: PAL GCN, PAL N64 hooked up via HD Retrovisions's SNES cables and PSP Go with a few PS1 classics hooked up via component into standard Phillips CRT.

I want to ditch the table idea and go for a large wooden entertainment unit.

[ZellSF]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Useful-Full-3D- ... 236c9b30b2
Best HDMI splitter? Probably not, but it's cheap, can a lot of the time be passive powered, otherwise is USB powered and it removes HDCP. I have 5 of those and they generally are well behaved.

PAL GameCube
Japanese GameCube with GBP

Uh any reason to have two Gamecubes? I would just mod one of them (not that you even need that, Freeloader covers imports). GBP is more suited for PAL Gamecubes if you're outputting to a CRT or a video processor.

1-Chip 03, Super Famicom modded for CSYNC

Uh, why? Most people have said the differences in image quality for 1CHIP revisions are pretty negligible, specifically searching for one that needs to be modded (if you even need CSYNC, luma sync is usually good enough) seems a bit pointless and if you're going to get a system modded anyway why not just get a Super Famicom Jr?

JP21 GSCARTSW

I'm not sure, but I believe finding Euro SCART consoles, cables and connectors is easier. What made you decide on JP21?

[Mantis128]

The reason I plan to get so many JP consoles has to do with the 64 and wanting to be somewhat of a collector I originally decided to get a Japanese N64 because I wanted to upgrade to NTSC 60Hz. 60Hz might be a bit too trivial to justify rebying my collection, but I figgered that stuff like different voice tracks, box arts etc while very small reasons on their own all snowball into giving me more reason to rebuy.

The reason for getting a 03 SF is probably more trivial, I simply think it would be neat to have a rare SNES/SF and I like the idea of playing SF games on what I remember the Super Nintendo looking like. If I can't find one for an ok price I'l just resort to a mini or normal 1-Chip. I could mod my PAL 64 and GC but considering buying a working 64 or GCN won't cost you an arm and a leg it's probably easier to just import a new 64 and Cube rather than spend time and money on shipping them to and from a modder. I also want to get 480P from Cube games and I'd rather not waste time messing around with Swiss to force progressive scan on my PAL games. Also another big reason is exclusives. To my knowledge there are quite a few exclusives for the SF and 64 that never came out here, not to mention tons of shmups for the PS2 and Dreamcast. if I'm going to buy Japanese games, why not just buy a Japanese system? Of corse there's the language barrier but I'm slowly but surely learning Japanese and I doubt that I'd need to be fluent in order to play Super Mario World or Cotten 100%. Also games like Ocarina of Time I could probably play with no text since I've been playing them for so long.

[ZellSF]

I don't think anyone asked why you had so many JP consoles. I asked why you're using JP21 cables, what SCART pinout you use is independent of which console region you have.

I could mod my PAL 64 and GC but considering buying a working 64 or GCN won't cost you an arm and a leg it's probably easier to just import a new 64 and Cube rather than spend time and money on shipping them to and from a modder. I also want to get 480P from Cube games and I'd rather not waste time messing around with Swiss to force progressive scan on my PAL game

Don't want to waste time and money on shipping a Gamecube? Maybe understandable by itself, but in the context of a 10-15 year plan? Uh.. you'll have plenty of time and if you want a dream setup, that's what you should do. You will regret adding two more cables and another console to find a place for in the name of saving a few dollars.

While you might not want to force 480p on PAL games (which no one suggested), getting homebrew working is not optional for the Game Boy Player. Official Game Boy Player software is terrible, unofficial software is pretty good.

I actually missed that you were getting two N64s... I actually wouldn't. Can't think of a single PAL exclusive N64 title that's worth it. Hell, this is the entire list of PAL exclusives:

• F1 World Grand Prix 2
• F1 Racing Championship
• Premier Manager
• Taz Express

Now obviously if you have a lot of PAL N64 titles rebuying them would be expensive as hell, but if you have few I would seriously consider rebuying them and getting rid of the PAL N64.

[Mantis128]

I assumed that JP consoles need a JP21 cable.

[ZellSF]

I assumed that JP consoles need a JP21 cable.

No. EURO SCART and JP21 is basically the same thing except the pins are in different order. So you can just change the order in the cable.

So you decide on EU SCART or JP21 based on factors like availability, price and how many converters you need for devices that have a connector directly (no cable to replace) and of course how many cables you already have.

It is however important to never mix up the cables as the different pin order means power is on different pins too and that can kill some equipment.

It's also important to note that while you can use a EU SCART on a JP console or a JP 21 on a EU console, sometimes different regions have different cable types. For a SNES for example, you need a cable (EU-SCART or JP21) made specifically for a US/JP SNES and not one made for a EU SNES.

For a dream setup you're going to need to do a whole lot more research, but hey, you said 10-15 year project and I got my first retro console 5 years ago and I've learned a lot of this since then. I think I'll actually recommend you watch My Life In Gaming's RGB Master Class series (not perfect, but a very good introduction).

[Mantis128]

MLiG is actually where I got a huge ton of info from along with Phonedork's PVM videos.

Thanks for the info on JP21 and SCART. Unless their impossible to find/too expensive I might go with JP21 since it would probably save me having to get a SCART adapter for the XRGB.

[PascalP]

I would recommend Scart over JP21 because of availability, that just makes life easier
(At least in Europe)

The other question you asked which has not been answered yet:
And what are the best 240 to 100-120 converters?

These are considered the best, I use them as well for my Japanese Candy Cab:
http://www.airlinktransformers.com/japa ... onverters/
http://www.airlinktransformers.com/amer ... onverters/

I also have a small one like the 50VA version for my NTSC consoles, I use 1 of these and connected a US power strip to it for multiple consoles.

[Mantis128]

Ok I've been preoccupied with study but I've come to the decision to just go with SCART.

I'l definitely keep my childhood N64 and Cube, too much nostalgia. What I will do is get the CRT I have now and make a 2nd very small setup in my room so I can occasionally play my old games in bed or something.


Some new questions.
What good homebrews are there for the NES/Famicom? I want to get a NES Powerpack or Everdrive but I don't want to pirate games, and I don't want to spend $100+ on a cart that's just gonna be used for the 240P Test Suit and Bad Apple video rom.

I need to get a new up to date PC ASAP not just for media but also for study. If I want to play old pre Windows VISTA games on an old VGA monitor in 480P or lower, could I use a new Windows 10 Desktop as an all in one solution or is it better to get an old Windows XP or 2000 PC?

If I get a PVM or BVM what is the best way to get sound? Would it be best if I somehow got the sound directly from the monitor into external speakers, or should I get SCARTS with external RCA cables and plug them into a receiver?

The 3rd Strike cabinet will probably be the major or final boss. So this is planning WAY ahead, but is there a place that sells plain, empty arcade cabinets with nothing in them? Pretty much a bare canvas.

What would be the best way to get the 3rd Srtike board to display on an RGB monitor, and how would I go about plugging in the controls? I want to use re-skinned Madcatz aracade sticks fitted in since I love the feel of my PS3 one, but I'm not sure on a USB connection, not to mention it would probably be way cheaper if I just bought the parts separate. Is USB fine or should I go for something else?

[ZellSF]

I need to get a new up to date PC ASAP not just for media but also for study. If I want to play old pre Windows VISTA games on an old VGA monitor in 480P or lower, could I use a new Windows 10 Desktop as an all in one solution or is it better to get an old Windows XP or 2000 PC?

Well, obvious thing first: if it's going to be your main PC for media and study, you don't really want an old outdated PC. Most (99%+ if you ask me) old Windows games can be made to run on a modern Windows 10 PC with some work.

A modern PC would also allow you to play newer games and will have more processing power to emulate systems you don't have (including old computers). Getting a decent modern PC should be prioritized over setting up one for old games.

Also, NT is the big compatibility breaker. If you want a PC for old games, Windows 98 is where you want to be. And you do not want that for your media/study computer.

What good homebrews are there for the NES/Famicom? I want to get a NES Powerpack or Everdrive but I don't want to pirate games, and I don't want to spend $100+ on a cart that's just gonna be used for the 240P Test Suit and Bad Apple video rom.

If you want to be 100% legit (waste of resources if you ask me) then you can buy a NES cartridge dumper, dump your own roms and use the Everdrive to play translations. Personally not a fan of playing story-driven 8-bit games, but if that's your thing it's probably worth it.

[orange808]

I need to get a new up to date PC ASAP not just for media but also for study. If I want to play old pre Windows VISTA games on an old VGA monitor in 480P or lower, could I use a new Windows 10 Desktop as an all in one solution or is it better to get an old Windows XP or 2000 PC?

Well, obvious thing first: if it's going to be your main PC for media and study, you don't really want an old outdated PC. Most (99%+ if you ask me) old Windows games can be made to run on a modern Windows 10 PC with some work.

A modern PC would also allow you to play newer games and will have more processing power to emulate systems you don't have (including old computers). Getting a decent modern PC should be prioritized over setting up one for old games.

Also, NT is the big compatibility breaker. If you want a PC for old games, Windows 98 is where you want to be. And you do not want that for your media/study computer.

What good homebrews are there for the NES/Famicom? I want to get a NES Powerpack or Everdrive but I don't want to pirate games, and I don't want to spend $100+ on a cart that's just gonna be used for the 240P Test Suit and Bad Apple video rom.

If you want to be 100% legit (waste of resources if you ask me) then you can buy a NES cartridge dumper, dump your own roms and use the Everdrive to play translations. Personally not a fan of playing story-driven 8-bit games, but if that's your thing it's probably worth it.

Yep. Right now, you almost have to keep a Windows 98 machine running a 3dfx voodoo card. Games from the late 90's and early 00's are hopeless on Windows 7, 8, and 10. My XP machine only runs Cubase now. My Vista machine is a paperweight.

Get a Windows 98 machine running an original Athlon processor. Try to find a 1ghz unit (but 700mhz will probably do). The Voodoo 2, 2000, 3000, or 3500 will do. Avoid the Voodoo 5000, the card took a step back in performance to deliver worthless 32 bit color and antialiasing (given the performance sacrifice). I would also avoid the Nvidia cards; they were pretty, but 32 bit color doesn't matter when you're dropping frames.

[Mantis128]

Of coarse I wouldn't get an old PC for study. I simply figured I could also get a cheap 2nd hand PC for retro PC gaming.

I need to get a new up to date PC ASAP not just for media but also for study. If I want to play old pre Windows VISTA games on an old VGA monitor in 480P or lower, could I use a new Windows 10 Desktop as an all in one solution or is it better to get an old Windows XP or 2000 PC?

Well, obvious thing first: if it's going to be your main PC for media and study, you don't really want an old outdated PC. Most (99%+ if you ask me) old Windows games can be made to run on a modern Windows 10 PC with some work.

A modern PC would also allow you to play newer games and will have more processing power to emulate systems you don't have (including old computers). Getting a decent modern PC should be prioritized over setting up one for old games.

Also, NT is the big compatibility breaker. If you want a PC for old games, Windows 98 is where you want to be. And you do not want that for your media/study computer.

What good homebrews are there for the NES/Famicom? I want to get a NES Powerpack or Everdrive but I don't want to pirate games, and I don't want to spend $100+ on a cart that's just gonna be used for the 240P Test Suit and Bad Apple video rom.

If you want to be 100% legit (waste of resources if you ask me) then you can buy a NES cartridge dumper, dump your own roms and use the Everdrive to play translations. Personally not a fan of playing story-driven 8-bit games, but if that's your thing it's probably worth it.

Yep. Right now, you almost have to keep a Windows 98 machine running a 3dfx voodoo card. Games from the late 90's and early 00's are hopeless on Windows 7, 8, and 10. My XP machine only runs Cubase now. My Vista machine is a paperweight.

Get a Windows 98 machine running an original Athlon processor. Try to find a 1ghz unit (but 700mhz will probably do). The Voodoo 2, 2000, 3000, or 3500 will do. Avoid the Voodoo 5000, the card took a step back in performance to deliver worthless 32 bit color and antialiasing (given the performance sacrifice). I would also avoid the Nvidia cards; they were pretty, but 32 bit color doesn't matter when you're dropping frames.

Ah, so that's why Touhou can never just sit on 60 FPS for me.

[Mantis128]

Ok, I think I've finally got everything planned out for now. A couple of final questions regarding VGA/D-Sub. Is there a good powered VGA switcher available? And what would be the best way to get a VGA signal to a HD display? I was thinking of VGA to HDMI into the XRGB-Mini but I've heard the Framemeister doesn't do a good job of upscaling HDMI content. Also, the XM29 is my long term goal but they're pretty rare. Is there a good, less rare multisync monitor that can do 240P up to 1000 x 800?

[Guspaz]

The Voodoo 2, 2000, 3000, or 3500 will do. Avoid the Voodoo 5000, the card took a step back in performance to deliver worthless 32 bit color and antialiasing (given the performance sacrifice). I would also avoid the Nvidia cards; they were pretty, but 32 bit color doesn't matter when you're dropping frames.

There was no Voodoo 5 5000, maybe you're thinking of the Voodoo 4 4500? That was a stripped down Voodoo 5 that only had a single chip. The Voodoo 5 5500 had two chips in an era where SLI (different acronym than today) scaled pretty linearly, so the Voodoo 5 5500 is nearly twice as fast as the Voodoo 4 4500. It'll reportedly outperform the GeForce 2 GTS with third party drivers, but in either case, it totally blows the Voodoo 3 out of the water (in both 16-bit and 32-bit colour modes), while still giving you Glide support.

The Voodoo 4/5 was a market failure due to its inability (at the time) to keep up with cheaper nVidia cards, but nowadays the Voodoo 5 is the fastest card you can get if you want to be able to play Glide games.

EDIT: For comparison, Anandtech's benchmarks have the 3500 doing UT at 1280x1024 in 16-bit at 29 FPS, while the 5500 does it in 32-bit at 41 FPS, and in 16-bit at 55 FPS. That was using the official drivers, I'm taken to understand that community efforts since then has improved on that, although I don't know if that was just for OpenGL/D3D rather than Glide, which UT was.

[orange808]

The Voodoo 2, 2000, 3000, or 3500 will do. Avoid the Voodoo 5000, the card took a step back in performance to deliver worthless 32 bit color and antialiasing (given the performance sacrifice). I would also avoid the Nvidia cards; they were pretty, but 32 bit color doesn't matter when you're dropping frames.

There was no Voodoo 5 5000, maybe you're thinking of the Voodoo 4 4500? That was a stripped down Voodoo 5 that only had a single chip. The Voodoo 5 5500 had two chips in an era where SLI (different acronym than today) scaled pretty linearly, so the Voodoo 5 5500 is nearly twice as fast as the Voodoo 4 4500. It'll reportedly outperform the GeForce 2 GTS with third party drivers, but in either case, it totally blows the Voodoo 3 out of the water (in both 16-bit and 32-bit colour modes), while still giving you Glide support.

The Voodoo 4/5 was a market failure due to its inability (at the time) to keep up with cheaper nVidia cards, but nowadays the Voodoo 5 is the fastest card you can get if you want to be able to play Glide games.

EDIT: For comparison, Anandtech's benchmarks have the 3500 doing UT at 1280x1024 in 16-bit at 29 FPS, while the 5500 does it in 32-bit at 41 FPS, and in 16-bit at 55 FPS. That was using the official drivers, I'm taken to understand that community efforts since then has improved on that, although I don't know if that was just for OpenGL/D3D rather than Glide, which UT was.

As I recall, the Voodoo 5 handled everything in native 32 bit internally, so the performance increase at 16 bit is surprising. PowerVR did this as well.

Also, Voodoo 5000 is a bit of an exotic card. I would expect driver issues with older games. 3dfx didn't directly implement OpenGL, so you're counting on their driver patches to make games work properly. Given that the card was a new design--versus the Voodoo 2/3--3dfx had their work cut out for them. It was hard to do that when they simultaneously released the Voodoo 5 and started laying people off.

The Voodoo 3 is compatibile and common.

Personally, I wouldn't run a graphics card that: introduced a new architecture, failed to gain market share, and had limited support from a dying parent company. 3dfx was herroraging money and staff when they should have been getting behind the Voodoo 5.

The Voodoo 5's selling point was antialiasing, anyway. Unfortunately, it didn't have the horsepower to actually use its pretty features on real world games.

Nice idea. Not enough speed to use the features. Limited support and janky drivers.

Meh.

edit: Pull the passive heatsink off your Voodoo 3, use some thermal paste, install a fan, and overclock. The ram will bottleneck things, but the drivers do not show artifacts or crash from overclocking. Heat is the only real issue--and that's a pleasant rarity.

[Guspaz]

As I said, the Voodoo 5 5000 doesn't exist, they never released it. There was only the Voodoo 4 4500 and the Voodoo 5 5500.

The non-native OpenGL was true of all 3dfx cards, so if you want cards to run Glide-only games, that isn't a factor: it's true of all cards.

Driver support isn't a major issue at this point, as there has been extensive third-party work after 3dfx went bankrupt. I doubt anybody still using those cards is using the stock drivers at this point.

If you want a fast OpenGL/Direct3D card from the era, get a GeForce 2 GTS. If you want the best experience for Glide-based games like Unreal Tournament, you'll be better off with the Voodoo 5 5500 than any Voodoo 3. There are more than a few games out there that only offered 3D-acceleration over Glide, and a lot more that were clearly Glide-first, like UT. Those games are the only real reason to get any Voodoo card. Another option is to just use a Glide wrapper for your Glide games, because it's probably less trouble to configure Glide wrappers for Glide games on an nVidia card than it is to configure OpenGL ICDs for OpenGL games on a 3dfx card. There are people who still do this on modern machines: I believe that Diablo 2 still looks a lot better in Glide mode than Direct3D mode.

The VSA-100 (the chip behind the Voodoo 4/5) was not a new from-scratch architecture. It was derived from the Voodoo 3. As AnandTech put it, "the VSA-100 doesn’t appear to be much more than a Voodoo3 with support for a few new visual features and 32-bit color rendering support"

[orange808]

As I said, the Voodoo 5 5000 doesn't exist, they never released it. There was only the Voodoo 4 4500 and the Voodoo 5 5500.

The non-native OpenGL was true of all 3dfx cards, so if you want cards to run Glide-only games, that isn't a factor: it's true of all cards.

Driver support isn't a major issue at this point, as there has been extensive third-party work after 3dfx went bankrupt. I doubt anybody still using those cards is using the stock drivers at this point.

If you want a fast OpenGL/Direct3D card from the era, get a GeForce 2 GTS. If you want the best experience for Glide-based games like Unreal Tournament, you'll be better off with the Voodoo 5 5500 than any Voodoo 3. There are more than a few games out there that only offered 3D-acceleration over Glide, and a lot more that were clearly Glide-first, like UT. Those games are the only real reason to get any Voodoo card. Another option is to just use a Glide wrapper for your Glide games, because it's probably less trouble to configure Glide wrappers for Glide games on an nVidia card than it is to configure OpenGL ICDs for OpenGL games on a 3dfx card. There are people who still do this on modern machines: I believe that Diablo 2 still looks a lot better in Glide mode than Direct3D mode.

The VSA-100 (the chip behind the Voodoo 4/5) was not a new from-scratch architecture. It was derived from the Voodoo 3. As AnandTech put it, "the VSA-100 doesn’t appear to be much more than a Voodoo3 with support for a few new visual features and 32-bit color rendering support"

The 5500 gave me issues. I'm sorry you can't google that, kiddo.

Did you own a 5500?

There's a massive Voodoo 5 community that wrote great patches? Maybe. I spent some time helping keep the last QWERTY phone running CyanogenMod. For all the community effort, we were never 100%. Never did figure out the GPS and compass bugs.

Did NVidia open source everything?

[Guspaz]

The 5500 gave me issues. I'm sorry you can't google that, kiddo.

Did you own a 5500?

No, though I did own a Voodoo 3 2000 PCI, so I'm pretty familiar with the 3dfx ecosystem of the day. The V4/5's VSA-100, being based on the Voodoo 3, wasn't all that different. I don't recall it being any more troublesome back in the day than the Voodoo 3, which was itself pretty troublesome. MiniGL drivers were a pain.

There's a massive Voodoo 5 community that wrote great patches? Maybe. I spent some time helping keep the last QWERTY phone running CyanogenMod. For all the community effort, we were never 100%. Never did figure out the GPS and compass bugs.

Did NVidia open source everything?

In a sense, yes. Shortly before the acquisition, they officially opensourced the Glide API, and released the internal specs for the Voodoo 2 and 3. Some time later, the full source code to the Voodoo drivers conveniently "leaked". Nvidia's official response to this was to completely ignore it and pretend it never happened, so the leak was either intentional by 3dfx, or nVidia, or they saw no benefit in doing anything about it.

Anyhow, this opened the door to proper third-party driver development. Admittedly, I've not kept up on the latest and greatest from that community. IIRC a primary focus back then was Windows XP compatibility, which was never offered by the official drivers. It looks like development continued until around 2007.

[orange808]

The 5500 gave me issues. I'm sorry you can't google that, kiddo.

Did you own a 5500?

No, though I did own a Voodoo 3 2000 PCI, so I'm pretty familiar with the 3dfx ecosystem of the day. The V4/5's VSA-100, being based on the Voodoo 3, wasn't all that different. I don't recall it being any more troublesome back in the day than the Voodoo 3, which was itself pretty troublesome. MiniGL drivers were a pain.

There's a massive Voodoo 5 community that wrote great patches? Maybe. I spent some time helping keep the last QWERTY phone running CyanogenMod. For all the community effort, we were never 100%. Never did figure out the GPS and compass bugs.

Did NVidia open source everything?

In a sense, yes. Shortly before the acquisition, they officially opensourced the Glide API, and released the internal specs for the Voodoo 2 and 3. Some time later, the full source code to the Voodoo drivers conveniently "leaked". Nvidia's official response to this was to completely ignore it and pretend it never happened, so the leak was either intentional by 3dfx, or nVidia, or they saw no benefit in doing anything about it.

Anyhow, this opened the door to proper third-party driver development. Admittedly, I've not kept up on the latest and greatest from that community. IIRC a primary focus back then was Windows XP compatibility, which was never offered by the official drivers. It looks like development continued until around 2007.

That's funny, because I remember Creative Labs yanking their Glide support after Nvidia sued them.

[Guspaz]

That's funny, because I remember Creative Labs yanking their Glide support after Nvidia sued them.

No, you remember 3dfx suing Creating Labs about their Glide wrapper, which was intended to run Glide software on Creative's nVidia cards (TNT/TNT2 at the time). That was before the bankruptcy/buyout. After nVidia bought 3dfx, they would likely have had the opposite position on the matter. And the Glide API was also the part that 3dfx actually officially opensourced, so any Glide wrappers written after that point wouldn't even be in a legal grey zone, they'd be straight up legit.

[orange808]

That's funny, because I remember Creative Labs yanking their Glide support after Nvidia sued them.

No, you remember 3dfx suing Creating Labs about their Glide wrapper, which was intended to run Glide software on Creative's nVidia cards (TNT/TNT2 at the time). That was before the bankruptcy/buyout. After nVidia bought 3dfx, they would likely have had the opposite position on the matter. And the Glide API was also the part that 3dfx actually officially opensourced, so any Glide wrappers written after that point wouldn't even be in a legal grey zone, they'd be straight up legit.

Fair enough. I've slept since then. Regardless, it's nice to know there is some source floating around.

Haven't tried any Glide wrappers in a long time. I'll have to take your word for their quality.