Oh well...
This day had to come one time or another, and I often thought it had already come in 2002 and 2003 (luckily always proven wrong by skilled Programmers and people with a Vision)

At least things were achieved, that a year ago noone would have thought possible

IMHO the Hardware now does as good as good can do, and I'm sure everyone agrees that thanks to the excellent work done on the Drivers, our good old Voodoo's really stretched out further than any other 3D Hardware that ever existed.

I do hope though, that the Direct3D Sector continues improving just like OpenGL (MesaFX) Sector did, so that all 3dfx Cards can offer their owners the best 3D experience possible.

The Voodoo2's Texture RAM unfortunately does not double in SLI, only the  Framebuffer does.

So a Voodoo2 12MB SLI will still have only 8MB of total Texture RAM available, Voodoo2 8MB SLI only 4MB respectively.

I used a few Quantum3D Images here :
http://www.falconfly.de/identify-3dfx.htm

Another good Link :
http://www.thedodgegarage.com/3dfx/

Basically, those were 3dfx Chips built onto special Hardware developed by the Quantum3D Corporation.
It allowed (for example) to have Voodoo1 SLI (!) on a single Card, they've built Voodoo2 SLI on a single Card, made a Voodoo2 AGP or the mighty Mercury (massive SLI).
The Quantum AAlchemy (VSA-100 based) was the most massive SLI System ever built with 3dfx Hardware.

Basically very exclusive (and expensive ) Designs, that in their respective times were undispited performance Kings of all 3dfx Cards.
Due to their pricing, not many were ever built or sold, thus they are very rare pieces of Hardware, and make for excellent Collector's Items.

Agreed, XGI definitely needs a chance to establish itself.

However...
I sure wish they would have supplied Ear Plugs together with their Volari Duo V8 Ultra.

The noise level of that beast is a full-blown (yet completely unnecessary) catastrophy

...with the Reactor 1.06.52beta

News & Driver Download :
http://www.volarigamers.com/viewtopic.php?t=520

Screenies were posted here :
http://www.volarigamers.com/viewtopic.php?t=514

Yes, the GeForce2 GTS was among the first Cards that had a powerful enough T&L Unit to become somewhat useful (compared to Software T&L).

But 3D Mark 2001 still being about the only "Game" that supported it at its time, albeit of limited usefulness... What made this Card a success, was its raw Bandwidth.

I've had excellent results with the ASUS A7V-266E, A7V-333 (1x/2x/4xAGP Version, not CD/CE-Stepping) and a Shuttle AK35-GT2.

That Shuttle Board even runs an AthlonXP 3000+ with an updated Bios (no tweaks needed, stock FSB166 works perfect).
The A7V-333 also has (limited) FSB166 capabilities thanks to a Bios-Update, but not always stable at "Turbo" Performance Setting, thus losing a few % performance at "Optimal" Performance Setting.

I guess that's as good as it gets for a 3dfx AGP Card

*lol*

The Voodoo3 was a very competitive Card, excellent 16bit performance (at ~22bit Quality thanks to the unique POST-Filter), and Glide compatibility.

I've seen the TNT's and TNT2's suffer, with their owners frantically trying to play Unreal Tournament at acceptable performance (and with inferior Image Quality at the same time)...

32bit ?
At that time no Card had the performance to make real use of it; 32bit Rendering was a marketing hoax roughly until the TNT2 Ultra's appeared. (at that time, it finally allowed for slightly better Image Quality vs. 22bit 3dfx rendering, but at the price of much lower performance )

Stencil Buffers ?
The only time I have ever seen a TNT class Card make any real use of it, was after Creative releasing their "Stencil Shadows for Unreal 1" Patch.
After that, pretty much nothing was ever heard of that feature again (although it looked very good).

What's your next argument, Hardware T&L at that time ?
...seen that in action from GeForce2MX Users; their Athlon 900MHz was able to perform Software T&L 3 times faster than the GPU's Hardware T&L (and 3D Mark 2000 being the only "Game" available to see it in Action at that time *lol* )

...nothing but marketing hoaxes those days, but the Magazines fell for it, the Users fell for it. But in Games, the Voodoo's simply often looked and played better.
(During LAN Patries, everytime I've had people come to my Monitor to witness the Visual Quality; many GeForce owners asked me why the Images on my Screen looked so much better and more vidid, and what Card I had. My answer : 3dfx Voodoo5 5500. I had to do alot of tweaking on their machines to make their GeForces run better; faster it usually was in the end, but never looked as good)

The PowerVR Kyro2 was (surprisingly) the only competitor those days, that had the same (if not a tad better) Image Quality and equal or slightly higher performance; really an excellent piece of Hardware...
---------------------
About the Release of the Voodoo4/5 I must partly agree, did not fully live up to their expectations at the delayed time they were released. But that's plain old history, the rest we know...
Still, they had unbeatable advantages, if only put to the right use by someone who knew what he was doing

Indeed, that looks darn impressive.

Kudos to Daniel for making this work out, I guess noone would have expected those good old Cards run a Game, that can hog a Radeon 9800pro down on occasion (albeit on 'slighty' higher detail that is)

Looks like OpenGL is becoming (already is?) the best supported API for our Voodoos by now

Since I got one of those now, some close-up Images :




HiRes Images (1600x1200)
http://www.falconfly.de/img/IBM_Voodoo4-2_4200_Front.jpg
http://www.falconfly.de/img/IBM_Voodoo4-2_4200_Back.jpg

It certainly looks quite different from this only other Voodoo4-2 4200 I've seen so far, and (unfortunately) I have been unable to get it to work with any Driver I've thrown at it (yet, a few are still left for testing)...

I'm not 100% sure, but IMHO at least the PC Flasher has an Override Feature, that will basically let you flash anything you want.

Did you test the Mac Flasher for advanced Options, to see if an Override Switch possibly exists there as well ?

(you might have to use some Form of Commandline to manually access it, e.g. launch it with a /? or -help Option)

Hm, Homeworld 2 is known to be quite Problematic on anything that does not have the NVidia Label on it :p

I got the Game as well, and eventually just had to give up trying it on a Radeon 9700pro (after trying several Drivers and Patches), since the sucker did always crash at one Point, no matter what

When it ran, it often exhibited either severe Performance issues, or (above mentioned) random Rendering Artifacts. Took quite a while of experimenting to get rid at least of those, since I could not reproduce them every single time.

Okidok, since it might be of interest to others as well, I additionally post it here

Quantum 100SB Pass-Through Cable PIN-Out Description

Lower Row : 2 Pins

Left = HS >> Pin 13 on 15 pol. D-Sub
Right = DDC >> Pin 12 on 15 pol. D-Sub

Center Row : 3 Pins (2 Left, one free, 1 Right)

Left = VS >> Pin 14 on 15 pol. D-Sub
Center = Blue >> Pin 3 on 15 pol. D-Sub
Right = ? >> Pin 5 on 15 pol. D-Sub

Upper Row : 3 Pins

Left = DDC >> Pin 15 on 15 pol. D-Sub
Center = Green >> Pin 2 on 15 pol. D-Sub
Right = Red >> Pin 1 on 15 pol. D-Sub



Note -
Since I haven't got a Cable built for myself yet, I can't confirm that everything is correct.
But IMHO this is as good as it gets; getting the Details from a former official Quantum3D Reseller company was my best bet

Hm ?

What connector exactly are you takling about?

Apart from the Analog Monitor 15pin-RGB, there should be only a Feature Connector (all Voodoo5 Cards) and the Industry Standard DVI on the MacVoodoo5.

https://www.3dfxzone.it/dir/3dfx/voodoo5/bios.htm

With the 1.18 LCD enabled PC Bios, you should be able to simply plug-on your favorite TFT Monitor, and you're set, no pinout or hassles involved (?)

If you have a normal PC Voodoo5 PCI and wonder about the soldering markings (maybe thinking about simply connecting wires to those), note that the PC Voodoo5 PCI is missing a Chip (which the Mac Voodoo5 has) to drive this Connector ( Silicon Image SiI 164CT64 , CB9485.0ABC )

Well, I personally never had Problems (with any Version) when I was running Win98SE.

And just recently, I used it to see the Matrox Parhelia Reef Demo on a Radeon as well (this time Win2000).

IMHO, the Program is extremely stable, and for as long as a Game has been tested to work (or simply works with it and the Options you gave it), I've never seen it crash once.

Might be your Win98SE Installation, and of course (by nature) it will only work with DirectX8/9 Games (not sure, but IMHO you need DX8 or DX9 installed of course).

Are you sure it is not the Games that actually crash ?
(which is absolutely possible, if not all requirements are met and only partially bypassed by 3DA)