Interview of fans or collectores of 3dfx and ex-workers of 3dfx...

So do you want to go for a more extended interview or should we simply answer the questions you've just posted?

What I'm going to say is going to be extremely rude (on multiple levels), so my apologies for that shall be given beforehand. But I'm still gonna say it.

Your English sucks. Like major league sucks. So I'm going to re-phrase your questions as well, because they just hurt my eyes. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a native English speaker either, no I'm not. So I do make my own fair share of mistakes, but this is still too bad.

So here we go:

a.) Who are you?

A systems administrator with a certain focus on Linux and UNIX systems working for a mining and petroleum engineering university in Austria. Regarding 3Dfx Interactive, I was just a fan of theirs and a gamer using their 3D cards in my younger years.

b.) Which year were you born in (if you agree to tell)?

1980.

1.) What was your first contact with 3dfx?

An old friend of mine and a fellow gamer told me - when we both were still in high school - that "3dfx Voodoo" was the latest shit, and that it'd be amazing, and I simply had to get a Voodoo card, and it's gotta be the Orchid one, because it "clicks", and yeah... I've never heard of it before, and it would be my first contact with any kind of 3D accelerator card whatsoever. That was in early 1997.

2.) What was the first 3dfx graphics card you got?

An Orchid Righteous 3D, so a pretty standard 4MiB Voodoo Graphics, if it wasn't for the awesome relais "clicking" when the card entered 3D mode.

3.) Can you tell us what items you have in your collection at the moment?

I wouldn't actually call it a "collection" in the first place, given how things have just accumulated over the years, as I've rarely sold or thrown away anything. But alright, here we go:

• Orchid Righteous 3D
• Quantum3D Obsidian2 X-24
• 3dfx Voodoo 3 3500 AGP TV
• 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500 AGP
• 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000 AGP HiNT Rev.A 3700 (obtained in 2003 and repaired by Hank Semenec, it was the first card receiving a real review, that I wrote myself for Hard:Overclock, my own eZine back in the days)
• 3dfx Voodoo TV FM
• 3dfx / Interact HammerheadFX (RS232+USB version)

4.) What is your favorite 3Dfx item?

The Voodoo 5 6000. The reason is simple: Because it's a massively impressive piece of engineering.

5.) Are you looking for any items specifically at this time?

No.

6.) Do you have any anecdote?

Besides seeing 8xFSAA on the Voodoo 5 6000 for the first time back in 2003 - only the moment when I'd switched on bilinear filtering in the first 3D accelerated game I'd bought - Moto Racer. It was actually a Direct3D game, but heh. By default, the bilinear filter (the Voodoo Graphics' most prominent feature) was off in the settings. After switching it on - just because I wanted to play around with the options - my jaw dropped so hard, I didn't dare to hit the gas on my motorbike. Maybe I was afraid of the fps, but when I finally did hit it, it was a moment I will just never forget. It was truly that moment when it got to me - that this was an actual revolution in PC gaming. Naturally, I lost that race. But who cares, right?

7.) 3dfx is still alive on the Internet, will 3dfx live for eternity?

No. Because nothing will, not humanity, nor the universe. Everything that has a beginning has an end. And so will 3dfx. Question is only: When will we users allow that end to come?

8.) I collect video games, and I know people who collect movies or music... how do you collect graphics cards?

I do not.

9.) 3dfx was a company desinging graphics cards but... was there anything more? I see a strange aura when I read about it.

That's just because it was revolutionary at the time. You can observe the same thing for the Commodore 64 or the Amiga 500, and to some degree even with the Soundblaster cards on the PC, as those brought us the audio revolution (on the PC) that came well before the 3D revolution initiated by 3Dfx Interactive. Bottom line is: Any company or product that is or brings us a truly disruptive technology is bound to make that product(s) into a legend. That time is mostly over today of course, as PC technology has developed into something so complex, that it's migrated into a purely evolutionary process, not a revolutionary one any longer. Graphics "revolutions" are more subtle these days - think about the deep learning stuff or maybe 3D VR applications. But it's revolutionary stuff that truly burned itself into our minds. So it was probably a good thing to have been born in the 60s - 80s.

10.) Do you know more collectors or fans of 3dfx? Where are they from?

Anywhere. The US, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, go pick your poison. Of course I do know people in that area, but the "collecting" part is not what brings or keeps us together at this time.

11.) How would the world of 3D look like without 3dfx?

"Different"? Yes. "Much different"? Probably no? Maybe Matrox or nVidia or ATi would've become the legends instead of 3Dfx Interactive. Things would've been different. Different technologies might've become the "hot shit" instead of FSAA etc. But would there have been "no 3D revolution" without 3Dfx? No, I think that would've still happened one way or another. 3Dfx wasn't the only company trying to do what they did at that time after all. They just happened to be the first to put out some real, working and reasonably-supported silicon before anyone else did.

12.) In your opinion, what was the key of the success of 3dfx?

Simple. They did the right thing at the right time, in a cost-effective, end-user-affordable way. It's the most beautiful, prime example for a disruptive technology introduction, hands down.

13.) Do you know Quantum 3D or other spin-offs of 3dfx?

Quantum 3D, yes. I've even driven by their headquartes, but I couldn't walk in, as it was a Saturday. Others? No.

14.) What do you think about Rampage?

To little, too late.

15.) Do you know anything about Fear or Mojo?

It's hard to comment on hardware that exists only on paper. So I won't say anything about 3Dfx products that never left the design stage.

16.) What is your opinion about VSA-100? Do you think that the chip was just a big mistake?

The VSA-100 itself was a product of many mistakes 3Dfx had already made at that point in time. The STB deal, the delays, etc. It still shows a lot of promise and a lot of vision, but like Rampage above, it was too little, too late. Even the Voodoo 3 showed this before the arguably much better VSA-100; While some of the tech shown off with VSA-100 was awesome, it had started to fall behind in one of the most important fields: the cost perfomance ratio and wenn, also the raw performance.

17.) In your opinion, what were the biggest mistakes of 3dfx?

The unholy STB deal, which seemingly pissed off a lot of partners, and narrowed 3dfx' distribution options. On top of that: That they did not work with Microsoft more closely, when it came to designing their Direct3D API and when it came to designing the chips in adherence to that API more closely. Both should prove to become neck-breakers for 3Dfx.

18.) What do you think about STB and Gigapixel?

The STB deal was just plain wrong, and GigaPixel came too late to show any real merit? That's how I remember it at least.

19.) Today we have nVidia and AMD, and out of those companies, do you think that any has that kind of spark that 3dfx did?

They simply cannot. In the field of 3D graphics, the time of revolutions is over. Maybe we'll get the next revolution in the field of human-machine interfaces, VR or AI or something else, but with 3D graphics, it's just going to be evoltionary progress from here on out.

20.) We are done, if you want to say anything, now it is the moment.

I think I've said all there is to say on the matter.

21.) Thanks for everything

Thank you.

Edit: Ah! I just thought of two really important additional questions, that should be added! One is about the actual nature of the person being interviewed, as it makes a big difference whether you're interviewing "just" a fan or an actual ex-3Dfx employee and the other is about the persons' age, as it makes yet another big difference as to whether the person was actually there when 3Dfx happened. This is even more significant when you think about how the world of technology has changed, how technology has changed the world, and how people and their understanding of the world and the technology within it has changed as well, over the past decades. People born in the 70s, 80s, 90s. etc. all perceive the world in fundamentally different ways after all.

I've added those respective questions at the beginning of the interview.

I'm a lazy bastard (especially this early in the morning) and therefore I'm just going to copy the modified questions from GAT

a.) Who are you?

A mid 30s male. Born, raised and still living in Switzerland. I work as a technical project engineer and team leader for the railway industry.

b.) What year were you born in (if you agree to tell)?

1982

1.) What was your first contact with 3dfx?

I think it was in the magazine "GameStar" or "PC Games".

One of them had tested the game "POD - Planet Of Death" and I was astonished by the ranking the 3dfx version got. I already had the game and it was sold as a special edition at the "Manor" stores. They're a big french chain of warehouses and were somehow connected to Ubisoft at that time. They sold it for a very low price including the "Special" track that was later added with the "Back to Hell" update.

My Pentium 166MMX by that time had an ATI Rage Pro in it, which was also supported by POD, but the 3dfx Version looked way better, but I couldn't afford a card at that time.

2.) What was the first 3dfx graphics card you got?

A friend of mine got his V2 before me and I spent a lot of time at his place playing all sorts of new, exciting 3D games.
After the V2 came out, a local computer store sold a bulk Diamond Monster 3D for 40.-, that was my first card and actually the only one I ever owned before I became a collector. I never regularly stuck to 3dfx and moved on using Nvidia and ATI in my main systems.

3.) Can you tell us what items you have in your collection at the moment?

At some point I had close to 100 cards, including the entire range of VillageTronic and some Quantum 3D ones.

But there's no inventory left and I sold off my V2SLI and V5 system just this year.

So the only item that is left is a PCI V3 3000 in my only remaining retro/3dfx system (I don't think you can actually call that a collection).

4.) What is your favorite 3Dfx item?

As much as I'm fascinated by some of the madness that came out of 3dfx/Quantum 3D, it's still that Diamond Monster 3D. So many fun hours and overall such a good time. Gaming and overall computers were different back then and there was overall a much more lively community around it.

Of course the V5 6000 is still a very impressive piece of hardware, but I never owned one and therefore there's no personal relation to it.

Maybe a Quantum 3D X-24, that's somehow the only card I'm sort of missing (but getting the Medusa cable with it is a pain in the a**).

5.) Are you looking for any items specifically at this time?

Absolutely not, my time as a collector is over. This goes for computer stuff in general. I only have my main sys aside the 3dfx retro one.

6.) Do you have any anecdote?

Not really. There were several collectors in Switzerland and we knew each other, but nothing out of the ordinary or specially memorable happened.

A weird thing that happened was, that I got a very rare and expensive 4200 in exchange for a V4 4500 (they were quite cheap at the time that happened). A collector in Switzerland got the card from the United States and it wasn't in working order. He also wanted to use it for games and so he traded the card.

I never got it working and sold it a quite a high price, the new owner actually found the issue and got it going.

7.) 3dfx is still alive on the Internet, will 3dfx live for eternity?

Nothing lasts for eternity.

But for as long as the internet in its current form exists, there will be traces of 3dfx.

I think the cards themselfes and the collectors will die out in a couple of generations, they are at a high when it comes to prices at the moment, but this isn't going to last forever.

8.) I collect video games, and I know people who collect movies or music... how do you collect graphics cards?

I stopped doing that a couple of years ago. I had a huge showcase where I presented my cards in a nice way, but I have absolutely no intention to do something like that ever again.

9.) 3dfx was a company desinging graphics cards but... was there anything more? I see a strange aura when I read about it.

They were maybe the first ones who realized, that you have to properly get in touch with games/application developers, that's why they were so succesful in the beginning.

When their first cards came out, this was a massive leap forward in 3D technology and enabled things on a PC that looked like miracles. Maybe it's that "wow" factor and mad things like SLI and cards with multiple graphics chips that make them look special.

I do also believe that the community is a bit special, as you can't find another one like it within the world of "actual" personal computer hardware. Of course there are huge communities in the retro kind of thing, like Atari, Commodore, Sinclair, Acorn and even mainframes. But you never hear about ATI or Nvidia "retro" enthusiasts in a way that you hear about 3dfx.

One thing that you have to keep in mind is, that 3dfx was actually quite a big failure. They only existed for barely 5 years on the PC market, were never able to step into the OEM market and couldn't keep up with their competitors (especially when it came to 32bit colour depth and T&L).

10.) Do you know more collectors or fans of 3dfx? Where are they from?

All over the world. "Knowing" is the wrong word: I know they're there but I only know a handful of them in person and there's only one other swiss guy I'm seeing every now and then.

11.) How would the world of 3D look like without 3dfx?

No idea, but somebody would have come up with it.

Nvidia was already aware, that the approach with the NV1 was a failure and I'm certain, that they would have found their way into today's technology over time without the competition.

3dfx just did the first step and as stated before, they were overtaken by the competition in just a few years.

12.) In your opinion, what was the key of the success of 3dfx?

Being there at the right time, having the right people.

They had the IP to build a cost effective 3D accelerator for games at a time, the technology (especially the memory) was ready for a consumer product.

13.) Do you know Quantum 3D or other spin-offs of 3dfx?

I know of Quantum 3D, I also had some of their cards in my collection. Other spin-offs? I'm actually not aware that there are any that can be called that.

14.) What do you think about Rampage?

Came way too late, same actually goes for the VSA-100.

I am curious about it, especially in combination with the T&L unit "Sage", but that never saw the light of day.

15.) Do you know anything about Fear or Mojo?

I heard their name, that's it.

16.) What is your opinion about VSA-100? Do you think that the chip was just a big mistake?

Too late and not competitive anymore, it was already outdated when it was released.

The only one thing that it had going for it was the famous Anti-Aliasing.

17.) In your opinion, what were the biggest mistakes of 3dfx?

Buying STB and closing the doors for third party board manufacturers.

Many of those don't exist anymore, but at that point in time, they made themselfes a horrible amount of enemies.

There was also no killer product in the pipeline that made it to the market in time, so that decision was/is very questionable.

18.) What do you think about STB and Gigapixel?

I can't really recall what Gigapixel was all about, buying STB was simply a huge mistake.

19.) Today we have nVidia and AMD, and out of those companies, do you think that any has that kind of spark that 3dfx did?

No. They developed they're own technology and by the time 3dfx was bought by Nvidia, they were already ahead.

20.) We are done, if you want to say anything, now it is the moment.

I think I already said enough

21.) Thanks for everything

You're welcome

GrandAdmiralThrawn & ernesto.che

I sent you two a DM guys, it's pretty important..

I am a lazy guy, so I'll do copy and paste:

a.) Who are you?

I am a computer fan from Berlin, Germany.

I think that this just sums it up very well because there is not anything special left behind concerning 3Dfx and me.

b.) Which year were you born in (if you agree to tell)?

1987

1.) What was your first contact with 3dfx?

I played a whole lot of computer games back in my youth and was amazed about graphics and gameplay. Remembering these "glory" days is still fun today. We had a special computer market in the ICC in Berlin back during this days. And a friend of mine finally managed to convince his father to buy a Voodoo 3 3000. Once the card was put in into his computer and we played the first 3D games, we were absolutely amazed about graphics and FPS. The following christmas "my" Voodoo 3 3000 finally arrived. This changed basically everything. The days of slow block graphics were finally gone and graphics on a game console like the PS1 were not better or more fluid anymore. Playing Tomb Raider or NfS III was absolutely amazing.

It was also nice to mention the Voodoo 3 at school. Everybody was like: "Wow cool a Voodoo"

2.) What was the first 3dfx graphics card you got?

I think I mentioned that before...Don't know where...?

3.) Can you tell us what items you have in your collection at the moment?

- Voodoo 2 SLI

- Voodoo 3 2000 PCI (still running in a Pentium III system)

- Voodoo 5 5500 AGP

- Voodoo 2 TMU tray (24 unused Voodoo 2 chips)

Not much left...some Quantum 3D cards would be nice.

4.) What is your favorite 3Dfx item?

Hard to tell. I really love the Voodoo 5 6000 because the design was and still is simply mind blowing concerning this card was designed for the consumer market.

I also like the Quantum3D Mercury brick. What's that? Four Quantum3D Obsidian2 200SBi video boards with a total of eight Voodoo II chipsets with 96 MB VRam configured for massive parallel operation. These "bricks" were usually bundeled with the Quantum3D Heavy Metal GX+ Mercury Systems and were used for visual simulation and training applications such as professional flight simulators.

5.) Are you looking for any items specifically at this time?

No. Just looking around and if something interestings pops up for a reasonable price I'll maybe go for it.

6.) Do you have any anecdote?

As a kid it was absolutely neccessary to visit Vobis (a computer dealer in Germany) while I was in the city. I loved the pack-art of the Voodoo 4 and Voodoo 5 and always dreamt of the cards. One day I bought a Gamestar and had mini pizza at a mall. While eating the pizza, I read that 3Dfx went bankrupt...It was really sad. There were still these nice boxes at Vobis...how could that be possible? How could it be possible that the company that "changed the face of computer graphics" went bankrupt?

7.) 3dfx is still alive on the Internet, will 3dfx live for eternity?

3Dfx will live as long as the fans are allowing the "company" to exist. I think the name 3Dfx will outlast the current retro boom at least.

8.) I collect video games, and I know people who collect movies or music... how do you collect graphics cards?

I do not collect them anymore. I like to use my cards but it currently lacks some space for additional PCs.

9.) 3dfx was a company designing graphics cards but... was there anything more? I see a strange aura when I read about it.

3Dfx changed the face of 3D graphics. Forever. Nothing more to mention.

10.) Do you know more collectors or fans of 3dfx? Where are they from?

I know a lot of them via the internet...I guess that's not what one would concern as "knowing".

But anyway they are from:

- Germany

- Austria

- Switzerland

- Spain

- USA

11.) How would the world of 3D look like without 3dfx?

That's a difficult question. During the peak of 3Dfx there were a lot of different graphics card manufacturers. Most of them had some really interesting ideas on how a "gaming card" should look. Even nVidia hat some nice ideas with their NV1. PowerVR, Rendition, Matrox and ATi had also interesting concepts.

Maybe one of them would have finally made it with a ground breaking concept. But I think that the development would have been slower and the market today would like different.

12.) In your opinion, what was the key of the success of 3dfx?

The key success was the radical concept of a 3D only graphics card which still needs an additional 2D card. Decreasing prices on EDO-Ram finally blazed the trail for 3Dfx. The idea of the easy to use API Glide was also quite groundbreaking.

13.) Do you know Quantum 3D or other spin-offs of 3dfx?

Yes, what about Primary Image?

14.) What do you think about Rampage?

Impressive idea. And obviously somewhat close to market-ready. Could have been the next big deal of 3Dfx. Sadly to late.

15.) Do you know anything about Fear or Mojo?

Only rumors.

16.) What is your opinion about VSA-100? Do you think that the chip was just a big mistake?

VSA-100 was a great chip with amazing FSAA abilities but without T&L which was the key marketing word (and not more than that because the use of T&L was quite little in first place) for companies like nVidia or ATi or the press during this time.

Various delays and poor marketing of 3Dfx resulted in the final desaster.

17.) In your opinion, what were the biggest mistakes of 3dfx?

The STB deal was ok but maybe a bit to expensive . But the decision related to this deal to stop selling the graphics chips to third party companies was probably the first coffin nail to the Final Doom.

18.) What do you think about STB and Gigapixel?

I do not have any memories concerning these companies. STB was able to produce graphics cards on their own in Mexico. The Gigapixel deal was all about know-how and human ressources I believe.

19.) Today we have nVidia and AMD, and out of those companies, do you think that any has that kind of spark that 3dfx did?

No. It's all about money today. Everytime, everywhere. No real connection to the gamers out there. No funny advertisements anymore (just check them via youtube if you want to). And it is more difficult to develop any groundbreaking technology.

20.) We are done, if you want to say anything, now it is the moment.

Yeah...I am exausted too. I am gonna have a coffee now.

Sorry about my English.

21.) Thanks for everything

Well, thank you!

Just don't overdo it. Being asked too much in too short a timeframe becomes tiring, and makes people less likely to want to contribute further, if this gets drawn out too much. It's the same with surveys that are simply too long - when that happens, participators are more likely to just drop out in the middle, so you may want to make this concise and remove redundancies from the questionnaire.

a.) Who are you?

I am a guy that runs and owns sever al communties within the 3dfx community and outside it.

Co-Owner of the x-3dfx community as Obi-Wan KenobiV6K
Founder & Owner of the Aircraft Model Collecting Community (A.M.C.C.)
Founder & Owner of Nova's Jedi Academy, a game community for Primal Carnage, Primal Carnage Extinction & SCP Secret Laboratory
Founder & Owner of Info & Collections of Dinosaurs & Minerals Mainly for Dino & Mineral collections but also paleontology people that run Dino stores or amusement parks
Senior Moderator at 2CPU(dot)com
Supporter of the official Boeing 747 Fan Club
Veteran Member of the New Jedi Order in the UK
Just a major Star Wars fan for that part.
And I love SKA music from The Skatalites, Mr. Review, The Beatbusters & mark Foggo's Skasters & Trance music by DJ Tiësto & Armin Van Buuren.

Many varied interests from my end

b.) Which year were you born in (if you agree to tell)?

1976

1.) What was your first contact with 3dfx?

Was back in 1995 when I Needed a 3D Add on card to play games that required the 3Dfx Glide API at first I found it annoying since why not an API all cards could use, and it seemed I needed to save up and work hard to get me a3Dfx Glide 3D Add on card.

2.) What was the first 3dfx graphics card you got?

That would be the Diamond Multimedia Monster 3D PCI 4MB which used the SST-1 chipset meaning Sellers Scott Tarolli 1, which became the Voodoo Graphics also what people now call Voodoo1, this was the solution of all such issues gaming at 30 fps was a reality. And yeah this is when my 3dfx life began. Can't recall the exact date tho.

3.) Can you tell us what items you have in your collection at the moment?

Quantum3D Obsidian2 X-24 --> The best Voodoo2 SLI setup in a 2 in 1 design.
This card even manages to out pace most casual 2-Way V2 SLI setups, it's V2 SLI on steroids.
X-24's were around 749 USD at the time in 1998 and could be bought in USA only, my card was a free gift from my old friend "venturi" from the 2CPU(dot)com community.

The Obsidian2 X-24 is my favorite 3dfx card of all time even liked it more than the Voodoo5 5000's& 6000 I had back in the day I used to collect cards, it's ideal and runs all my glide games perfectly @ 1024x768x16 with 3Dfx Glide API

The other 3dfx card I have is a Compaq 3dfx Voodoo3 3500C TV-Out AGP 16MB, always handy if I ever wanted to use it but for now it's just a backhand card. Voodoo3 has the best image quality when it comes to all 3dfx boards and mainly for that reason I still have it.

4.) What is your favorite 3Dfx item?

Quantum3D Obsidian2 X-24 of course, even that it came from an old best friend it's just not something everyone has or still uses, the Voodoo5 6000 AGP 128MB Rev.A 3700 is an other favorite of mine but sadly I don't have this card anymore, sold it during my Dark Times something I should never of done, but no one and nothing can ever turn that back, the capitalism and the capitalist ruined everything.
You can check out my X-24 system here:
Avenger M99 Gets an Upgrade from P3/E 650 to P3/EB 933!

And my Report for what I did for the entire 3dfx communities regarding the Vodooo5 6000 & 5000 series here from 2002 to 2009 at EVGA Graphics:
https://forums.evga.com/3dfx-Voodoo5-6…s-m2185131.aspx

5.) Are you looking for any items specifically at this time?

No not anymore, that is past tense, something I left behind a while ago.
I prefer to collect diecast scale 1:200 Boeing 747's or some AMD Radeon boards tbh like these dual chip boards:
Radeon HD 6990
Radeon HD 7990
Radeon 295 X2
Radeon Pro Duo aka Fury X2 Gemini

Those four would be nice to get

6.) Do you have any anecdote?

Hmm don't know what this word means or how to reply to it sorry.

7.) 3dfx is still alive on the Internet, will 3dfx live for eternity?

No idea it's rather crumbling if you'd ask me it's more about large money amounts 3dfx it's self has died for me generations ago, event he communities I am part of or the ones i run rarely anything new 3dfx wise really pops up, it's more about over priced sales and people selling the cards for large amount of coin and I disgust it, for that one reason I am happy I quit collecting, it's simply unaffordable and I blame all them cancerous capitalists for all of this, leaving out the worthy collectors that actually deserve the cards over these stupid rich kids overclocking and applying stupid water coolers or 4 slot air coolers to them.... Most know who I am referring to.
As co-owner of x-3dfx things have gone silent for some time now.

8.) I collect video games, and I know people who collect movies or music... how do you collect graphics cards?

Well I collected games as well well Descent & Freespace in specific also having the world's largest Descent/Freespace game collection in the world, you can view it here at Descendent Studio's:
https://descendentstudios.com/community/topi…ace-collection/
If collecting anything even if it's graphics cards, Dinosurs, Model aircraft, Orchids, Minerals shells or even games Contacts is the one key to get you to the items that have highest of value's you need to know inside people or contacts to those that can gt you the rarest of items.
And it takes time and a shit ton of patience to get to these area's and that goes for all kinds of collexctions no matter the specific items you are collecting.

9.) 3dfx was a company designing graphics cards but... was there anything more? I see a strange aura when I read about it.

3dfx were the pioneer of 3D accelerated graphics and the baseline in visual effects on the PC platform and professional market Quantum3D that being for example. Thanks to 3dfx others like ATi/AMD & NVIDIA even Intel have used technology and 3D effects 3dfx started off with as even games of today use T-Buffer related effects like Motion Blur, Depth of Field, Super Sampled Full Scene Anti Aliasing, Soft Shadows , Soft Reflections, Alpha Blending, SLI & CFX as in Multi GPU Rendering, 3dfx's Scan Line Interleave was the start of that all NVIDIA's Scalable Link Interface, NV-Link & ATI/AMD's CrossFire XPress all comes down to the same thing but on improved levels.

10.) Do you know more collectors or fans of 3dfx? Where are they from?

Hmm there are everywhere:

The Netherlands
Belgium
Luxembourg
France

Spain
Portugal
United States of America
Hawaii
Canada
Australia
Malaysia
China
Japan
Switzerland
Austria
Germany
Finland (Sumoiland xD)
Poland
Russian Federation
Ukraine
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Croatia
Slovenia
Italy
New Zeeland
Israel
South Africa
Mexico
Brazil

But yeah almost everywhere and no I won't name them all,mainly for privacy protection;)

11.) How would the world of 3D look like without 3dfx?

Other companies like Matrox,S3, NVIDIA, ATi, PowerVR & SiS would of found a way, and the things 3dfx discovered would of been discovered at a later time ATI, Matrox, S3 & PowerVR were to me the most demanding along side 3dfx. so even if 3dfx didn't exist they would of used their own methods to make things work, NVIDIA would of bought or stolen others tech and made it theirs, still surprised how they managed lol, a shame in many ways imo, never liked NVIDIA after watching this video it all made more sense:

Nvidia - Anti-Competitive, Anti-Consumer, Anti-Technology by Adored TV.

12.) In your opinion, what was the key of the success of 3dfx?

The Glide API with the use of a simple but expensive 3D add on card was the healing for all pixelated worries a solution that worked and didn't require too much rocket science, this is what made 3dfx their fame, Voodoo 1 & Voodoo2 were their best ever products even though Voodoo2 SLI was their most revolutionary ever well to me anyways, hence being a X-24 fan myself

13.) Do you know Quantum 3D or other spin-offs of 3dfx?

Primary Image & Ethans & Sunderland.

14.) What do you think about Rampage?

Would of been a grand master's piece of engineering and it was, but Rampage was a little too late sadly, although 3dfx started bleeding when they used more than 50% of the Rampage design team to work on Banshee and the next neck breaker was when they declined all the AIB's like Diamond, Creative Elsa etc to make 3dfx boards, instead they went on making and selling the cards they created themselves under their own brand 3dfx.

This too was an other neck breaker, the Voodoo 3, 5 and later released Voodoo4 were all gap fillers for Rampage's release the Voodoo5 6000 would of been great if they had it stable in Q2 of 2000, but this too didn't happen, eventually all that was fantastic became their own hell.

15.) Do you know anything about Fear or Mojo?

Only rumors as others have mentioned, same goes for Sage, some say the chips were made, but so far no one could prove it.

16.) What is your opinion about VSA-100? Do you think that the chip was just a big mistake?

VSA-100 was pretty okay but by lacking Transformation & Lighting effects as in T&L and then lacking of DDR memory interface and needing 2 VSA-100's to keep up with one GPU from NVIDIA the NV15 which was used for the GeForce2 GTS /Pro Line of cards and the later released NV16 which was used for the Geforce2 Ultra and the R200 for the Radeon 8500 the VSA-100 even on a Quad Chip Voodoo5 6000 had hard times beating things single GPU solutions that offered much better 3D effects ATi's R200 was my favorite as it came with Shader Model 1.4 and Vertex Shader 1.4 the first and only in it's kind to have that in advantage over everyone else.

VSA-100 would of been great if it was released in Q2 of 1999, it would of had a better chance then.

17.) In your opinion, what were the biggest mistakes of 3dfx?

Many things like delaying Rampage using 60% of the Rampage devs to work on banshee, letting go of all the AIB's and making their cards under their own name only even they had a few AIB's Power Color being one of them.

The took everything under their own hands and expanded too rapidly, buying over companies like STB costs way too much money even it did them good to some extent, the 55 week long delay to get the Voodoo5 6000 stable also lost them tons and tons of coin, in the end they bled themselves to death, if being literal.

18.) What do you think about STB and Gigapixel?

Dunno never got too much involved with STB.

But Gigapixel? Well the Voodoo5 6000 was the first graphics card to break the 1 Gigapixel per second barrier as in 1.33 Giga Pixels per Second, kinda of funny looking back at that now my Sapphire Nitro+ AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Limited Edition MK II does 104.3 Giga Pixels per second

so 104.3 divided by 1.33 = 78.4

Meaning my RX Vega 64 LE MK II is around 78.4 times faster

How time has evolved right Week 37 Year 2000 to Week 07, 2018.

19.) Today we have nVidia and AMD, and out of those companies, do you think that any has that kind of spark that 3dfx did?

AMD & NVIDIA do have some sparks, but mainly when it comes to Image Quality and effects AMD wins here easily.

3dfx used such as FSAA, Motion Blur Depth of Field Rendering NVIDIA also has these but with lower image quality, to them Speed is more of importance. Overall I prefer AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) / formerly named ATi (Array Technology Industy)

Other than that it is all about money these days prices are obscene compared to back then, hardware quality is also lots less these days all to spare money for mass production in china thus lower quality parts and solder is used current average lifespan of new gen hardware is 2 to 3 years maybe 4 at max.

By using low quality parts and a card breaks just after the warranty, this is how they keep earning their money by forcing the customers to buy new products.

20.) We are done, if you want to say anything, now it is the moment.

Hmm Always in for some Cappuccino's HAH XD

21.) Thanks for everything

Yaas thanks too doh

Sighs.. I had to do it in 2 parts due to the lame limitation of 10.000 chars

01.) When do you begin to collect stuff of 3dfx? What did you cause this?

My 3dfx collecting days started after I joined x-3dfx in Q2 of 2002.

02.) When do you begin to collect stuff of Old-PC? What did you cause this?

Mainly interest, it's the main thing why people collect anything really.

03.) Can you say how it was 3dfx in your country? Any anecdote?

back then I saw it as normal hardware like I saw a S3 Virge /Savage or a NVIDIA Riva 128, TNT/TNT2 or an ATI Rage 128 Ultra , Rage Fury MAXX or a Matrox Millennium G200 or G400MAX. Every brand had their cool looking models.

04.) Can you say me what do you feel when you open and test the card?

There was a certain kind of excitement just wondering will it rock or will it suck at the games I will play, mainly teh technology improvements it had during it's day was always one of the prime aspects I was interested in even how simple the solution was for what it was made to do, run 3D accelerated games with its own API named 3dfx Glide API. Mainly the Simplicity of Function to play games with 3D accelerated gameplay without much fuss. Like Boeing, less fuss than Airbus that kind of thing

05.) What games do you tests the first time?

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II

Star Wars: X-Wing Versus Tiefighter:+ Blanace of Power

Quake III Arena

Unreal Tournament Game of the Year Edition 1999 + Operation Na Pali Single Player Mod

Unreal + Return to Na Pali V 2.25F best stable version for 3dfx Glide users and LAN support.

Descent 1 &2 with DXX-Rebirth 0.58.1 with SFFT modified by ps47 (an old friend of mine & dborca from 3dfxzone.it)

Descent 3 1.4

C&C Red Alert2 + Yuri's Revenge + Purple Alert Mod 4.28 ( my faved 2D RTS game)

That is about it really.

06.) What cards do you have of others companies (nvidia, s3...)?

Mainly ATi/AMD, Matrox & S3 , sold all my NVIDIA boards, I don't support Anti-Competitive companies that like and created toxic garbage like GPP....

07.) What cards of others companies is your favorite? Why?

That would be my three current generation AMD Radeons

Sapphire Nitro+ OC AMD Radeon R9 Fury PCI-E 4GB 4096Bit HBM | 3584 GCN 1.2 Cores GPU = AMD Fiji Pro

Sapphire Nitro+ AMD Radeon RX 580 Special Edition PCI-E 8GB 256Bit GDDR5 | 2304 GCN 4.0 Cores GPU = AMD Ellesmere XTX (Polaris 20 XTX)

Sapphire Nitro+ AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Limited Edition 2nd Release PCI-E 8GB 2048Bit HBM2 | 4096 GCN 5.0 Cores GPU = AMD Vega 10 XT

I am also an AMD Red Team supporter, so All RED here!

Here that Letter AMD Mascot Ruby sent me:

08.) I know that there are too many drivers, what do you prefer or use?

For 3dfx? Mostly the latest of the current driver type.

For my X-24 I used the latest drivers offered on NuAngel's website for my V3 3500 I use SFFT Alpha 41 modified by ps47.

For my Radeons I stick to AMD Catalyst Adrenalin 18.2.2, if a driver works it's mostly okay for me

09.) For other hand, when did you start to look for forum o group of 3dfx or Old Pc? And why?

Forums are handy for solving problems or showing other members there your collections and the item types you interest in if it's Voodo5 only or all kinds of cards, but also to see what others have gathered , collected etcetera.

Also ideal to sell or trade cards with friends or members from such places.

10.) Now, do you prefer to contact with others 3dfx/OldPC fans Social Network (twiiter/fb), Forum (http://3dfx.pl/voodooalert), or messaging APP

(Telegram/Whattapp)?

Just at x-3dfx Facebook or here via Voodooaler.de's DM service, both are fine thanks

11.) Can you talk us how do you start with x-3dfx?

x-3dfx was founded by LancerXSeven, LittleGirl, BOingball, Val Pathern and ElMoIsEviL

I joined x-3dfx in early 2002, around 2003-ish x-3dfx.com & x-3dfx ezboard were made the driver team had certain quarrels, BOingball & I ran x-3dfx.com as where the others went to the ezboards.

Around 2006 x-3dfx.com was hacked, we lost some data but thankfully BOingball & Reid Campbell (x-3dfx.com & 3dfx.com domain owner) had backups of most files, in 2009 x-3dfx.com was up and running again, but activity died off sadly, in 2012 I think it was I joined x-3dfx on Facebook and somewhere in 2013 I was made Admin and later Co-Owner of the place as for keeping it active and alive with 3dfx content and other things. I may be wrong here and there since my memory is very flaky.

12.) Can you say me more info about Primary Image? I would like to write about them. I know this:

http://www.thedodgegarage.com/3dfx/primary_image.htm

No idea about those guys, my interests were very selective mainly 3dfx Voodo3, 4 & 5 Rampage & Quantum3D wise the AALchemy , Mercury & Obsidian 2 line of cards.

13.) Can you say me more info about Ethans & Sunderland? I would like to write about them.

Hmm looks like I got confused there they made Quad chip ATi Radeon 9700 & 9800 Pro cards, my bad I had a concussion a few years aop, many things I knew are long gone after that.

14.) If you want to talk more about 3dfx, you want to advise people, or you want to talk with ex-worker about me I will be very grateful.

My friend Declan W. from x-3dfx would like an interview, as he wondered why he was never asked.

After I explained him that you made a global post at x-3dfx about willing to do interviews of x-3dfx members, I then tagged his name in my reply at your post @ x-3dfx.

15.) Thanks for your Help!

Sure anytime

a.) Who are you?

I’m an IT Tech from Germany, I manage all things IT for several small- to midsized companies.

b.) Which year were you born in (if you agree to tell)?

1983

1.) What was your first contact with 3dfx?

I’m not quite sure, must have been around 1999, maybe 2000. To my shame I have to admit that I got into PCs in general very late, in the 3dfx era I was into console gaming (SNES, N64, PS1). I could only afford an ancient used PC (Pentium 1 133 in 1998(?)) as my first machine) I didn’t get extra money from my parents for that, so it was a big Investment It only had 2D graphics, some 1 or 2MB PCI cr*p card

2.) What was the first 3dfx graphics card you got?

It was a SLI Pair of 12MB Gainward Voodoo 2s, I still own them

They were in an used PC that my father got from someone at work. By that time I already got a Pentium II 400 (again ancient for the time, the top CPUs already were just under the 1GHz mark). It had a Riva TNT onboard, which I teamed up with the SLI pair and maaan how much smoother UT99 ran That was my fave game at the time and since then I certainly loved Voodoos

3.) Can you tell us what items you have in your collection at the moment?

Luckily I have an excel spreadsheet containing certain parts (graphics cards included), so:

Out of a total amount of 279 Graphics Cards, there are 90 3dfx cards and most of them are Banshees (56 different(!) cards). That should be the most complete Banshee collection worldwide to my knowledge. Several years ago I sold a big part of my 3dfx collection, If I would have kept everything, I should be around 130 3dfx cards I think.

I have at least one system per 3dfx Voodoo Series running, exept Rush (too useless) and Voodoo 4 (pretty redundant to V3 and the V3 has more flair to it). So yes – I do collect – but I use a fair share of the cards. For example I have 7 V2 SLI systems, that’s 14 cards alone

4.) What is your favorite 3Dfx item?

There are several. The Voodoo 5 6000 being certainly one of it. I own one since 2004 and it’s just an insane beast. Holding one in your hands is something special. The sheer size alone is awesome, not to speak of the gaming performance and image quality for older games.

But I also love the Quantum 3D 100SB-4440. What quantum built there back in 1997 (!) was just nuts. When you look at old benchmarks it just outperformed everything by at least 100%, including Voodoo Grapics of course.

And out of the „standard“ hardware I certainly like V2 (SLI) the most. You can put them into any old machine and have Glide Support next to another cool old school 3D Accelerator. It’s just perfect and the Voodoo 2 has plenty of performance to offer. The last „complete win“ chip from 3dfx in my opinion.

5.) Are you looking for any items specifically at this time?

Nope, I „finished“ collecting 3dfx years ago (luckily). Today you just can’t afford to do that if you don’t have the income of a hollywood star or so I have everything I want in that department, atm I’m looking more for newer parts.

6.) Do you have any anecdote?

A little fun one, yes

When I had my little Pentium 1 Hellmachine and absolutely no idea of hardware whatsoever, I tried tons of game demos and bought magazines with old games etc. I once tried to install (well THAT at least worked) and start a demo of Incubation. I had no idea what it was, but the splash screen looked awesome. Sadly it bugged me with a error message at startup that a strange thing called „glide“ wasn’t found.. I had absolutely no idea what it wanted from me

7.) 3dfx is still alive on the Internet, will 3dfx live for eternity?

Eternity is a long time… I’m sure it will be remembered for quite some time still – but not to the extend like it is today. When the youtube-retro-hypetrain went by and the ebay sellers don’t find more victims to rip off it will be reduced back to small communites like this one. But future generations? The kids of today and moreso tomorrow (I fear) will have even more tech around them and even less knowlegde and interest of the function behind it. And with that of course, where it came from.

8.) I collect video games, and I know people who collect movies or music... how do you collect graphics cards?

Actually I collect games, movies and graphics cards (among other things)

I just like to use, watch, listen to etc. stuff from my youth that I wasn’t able to buy or use or wasn’t aware of. Or revisit some of that good stuff. „Entertainment“ of today is not mine for the most part.

9.) 3dfx was a company designing graphics cards but... was there anything more? I see a strange aura when I read about it.

They were just enthusiastic about what they were doing and had that certain humor. Also they had credit from the gamers, because the games looked awesome and ran smooth, they had credit from the game developers because the delivered an easy to use, slim and standardized API to work with. That’s a situation that can’t happen today anymore. 3D was pretty much new and well executed from the get-go, if we leave out the few pre-3dfx 3D acceleration „attempts“.

10.) Do you know more collectors or fans of 3dfx? Where are they from?

Well over time I of course met several members of this forum, but apart from that – no, not in person.

11.) How would the world of 3D look like without 3dfx?

I think not all that different. Maybe certain other companies would have lasted a little longer though. In a strange way I think it’s 3dfx’s fault, that nVidia became so strong so fast. nVidia is a very ambitious company and I think the strength of the early 3dfx hardware made them research&develop faster (and more successful; if you can look how existing, powerful hardware works [or „does things“ might supposedly be enough in these early years], that should be helpful..). If that extreme pressure, that nVidia developed, wasn’t there or just less, some other companies might have been competetive for a longer time. Who knows.

12.) In your opinion, what was the key of the success of 3dfx?

Having a functioning, strong product with a competetive price at the right time. The gaming industry wanted true 3D, they delivered.

13.) Do you know Quantum 3D or other spin-offs of 3dfx?

I know Quantum 3D, that’s about it.

14.) What do you think about Rampage?

Very cool product (at least the bigger Spectre models with Sage Unit), but I doubt the multichip cards would have been very cost effective in the long run. I really hope the were complete, working Spectre 3000 (ore 4000) cards and benchmarks to see if the performance is like expected. But well,.. not even the Sage chip existed in Silicon.

15.) Do you know anything about Fear or Mojo?

I’m sure I read about them years ago, but I don’t remember anything. And since not even Spectre Cards were finished it’s kind of irrelevant.

16.) What is your opinion about VSA-100? Do you think that the chip was just a big mistake?

To me it wasn’t, but it just came much to late and therefor was way too slow. If you release a card without TnL (which was promoted as killerfeature like crazy by nVidia) than it at least has to be faster than the competition. Or your marketing works. Or both.

17.) In your opinion, what were the biggest mistakes of 3dfx?

To kick out Board Partners after Voodoo 2 and produce their own cards. And for that part – the acquisition of STB to do that.

18.) What do you think about STB and Gigapixel?

My memory about Gigapixel is somewhat faded, but the STB Deal was definitely wrong.

19.) Today we have nVidia and AMD, and out of those companies, do you think that any has that kind of spark that 3dfx did?

Not really.

20.) We are done, if you want to say anything, now it is the moment.

I think all is said

21.) Thanks for everything

Thank you

1.) Who are you (if you agree to tell)?

I am from Germany and was recently a long-term student, with a proud number of 28 semesters. Now, like many of my fellow citizens, I am allowed to get up early every morning and go to work. I am working as a civil engineer at a German authority.

2.) Which year were you born in (if you agree to tell)?

1984

3.) What was your first contact with 3dfx?

In 1999, I wanted to buy a graphics card for my then PC (by the way my first, a Celeron 500 ^ ^) and faced an unsolvable task. Because I had no idea then. A friend of mine recommended me either a TNT2 for a lower budget or a Voodoo3 3000 with more performance but more expensive. This was my first contact with 3dfx. Unfortunately it did not become a Voodoo3 at the time, but a TNT2. At that time, as a student, I simply did not have the money.

4.) What was the first 3dfx graphics card you got?

The first real 3dfx card I bought was a Voodoo5 5500 in 2001 (or early 2002) on ebay. 3dfx did not exist anymore at this time. But since I was informed about Voodoo3 back in 1998, the topic has not let me go and the Voodoo5 fit perfectly with my AthlonXP 2000+ including the ASUS Board A7V266-E. I still have the Voodoo5 today and it's up and running and running.

5.) Can you tell us what items you have in your collection at the moment?

You can take a look at my page:
http://www.glidegallery.com.nu
Although I have not updated since 2011, but it should be believed only 2 or 3 cards have been added since then.

6.) What is your favorite 3Dfx item?

There's a darling among every generation of 3dfx cards, but if I'm just going to name an item, it's the pink box of the Voodoo4 4500 MAC version.

7.) Are you looking for any items specifically at this time?

I would like to supplement my collection with a Voodoo5 6000. I'm annoyed that I did not buy a card when I was offered one. But that's also years ago, that was around 2003. But 900 euros were then too much money for me and I wanted to do the driving license. From today's perspective, that was clearly a mistake * ggg *

8.) Do you have any anecdote?

I do not know if it's one, but when Operation Flashpoint came out, we played the game more often at LAN party. But always under the option DIRECT3D. With the switch to Glide, Operation Flashpoint looked all the better, especially the shadows, that it really hurt me again that 3dfx and the Glide Engine are now history and buried.

9.) For how long do you think the 3dfx following will stay alive on the internet?

Forever! Sure, the circle of those who will hold up the memories of 3dfx will be smaller. However, just as everyone remembers Henry Ford and the industrialization of automobile manufacturing, technology interested people will remember the pioneering feat in 3D related to the company 3dfx.

10.) How do you collect graphics cards?

Through friends who offer or give me a card. In addition, I still use the forum here and of course ebay.

11.) 3dfx was a company of graphics cards but... is was anything more? I see a strange aura when I read about it.

At that time it was just a graphics card manufacturer for me. Of course, 3dfx still surrounds the fog as a legendary 3D pioneer.

12.) Do you know more collectors of fans of 3dfx? Where are they from?

Personally, until now I have only met Eisfuchs and Strauchdieb, here from the forum. Otherwise there is a lively exchange of information and experiences of the 3dfx friends here on the forum instead.
At this point, I'm really looking forward to the 3dfx LAN Party in November with Gold Leader and the others here from the forum.

13.) How would the world of 3D without 3dfx?

To make a statement over here would be pure speculation. I mean the development that has launched 3dfx with the first Voodoo card and the Glide Engine is without a doubt a pioneering achievement. However, I believe that sooner or later the other manufacturers like Matrox, ATI or Nvidia would have followed a similar path. But 3dfx was the first one!

14.) In your opinion, what was the key of the success of 3dfx?

The WOW effect, once you have considered a game scene in the former render path and then switched to Glide.

15.) Do you know Quantum3D or other spin-off of 3dfx?

I only know Qantum3D.

16.) What do you think about Rampage, Fear or Mojo?

Rampage was the dream / desire of 3dfx to get rid of the power crown of Nvidia again. At that time, the VSA-100 chip was released too late, and I think Rampage would have come much later. 3dfx clearly lost touch with the competition and Rampage would not have caught up with that. Rampage remains in our minds the holy grail that would have taken 3dfx past everyone again. Basically, I'm glad it's the way it is now. Otherwise we would not have any legends, just losers.

17.) What is your opinion about VSA-100?

From a technical point of view, surely other users here in the forum know for sure better. From my side, I can say in summary, too late and did not keep what he had promised. But without the VSA-100 we would not have the excellent 4X antialiasing that even the Geforce2 had in its place.

18.) What In your opinion, what was the biggest mistakes of 3dfx?

3dfx wanted too much at the same time. In my eyes, it was the termination of the board partners, without which the Voodoo 1 and Voodoo 2 were certainly not the success and distribution in the market, as we know it. And that's exactly what I thought was lacking in market penetration, starting with Voodoo3 and presiding over Voodoo4 and 5.

19.) What do you think about STB and Gigapixel?

I think the acquisition of STB was a mistake. Although this acquisition fit into the concept of 3dfx at the time, to make the hardware itself in the future, but as described above, this was not the way in the right direction. This clearly baffled the board partners, who now turned to ATI and Nvidia.
The Gigapixel deal goes in my opinion in the right direction and is strategically not necessarily to be regarded as wrong, because it was here, above all, the know-how for future chip designs. But in purely economic terms, it was a wrong decision as the deal in March 2000 was $ 186US million above the financial leverage of 3dfx and eventually led to bankruptcy in December 2000.

20.) We are done, if you want to say anything, now it is the moment.

My thanks go to the 3dfx community here in the forum and worldwide, who maintain the legacy of 3dfx.

When do you begin to collect stuff of 3dfx? What did you cause this?

To be honest, I don't remember that exactly.

Must have been around 2002/2003. Like I said before - I totally missed most PC hardware in my teen years but was instantly into it, when I had my first - and even more - my second PC. By the time I had my second machine, I got several hardware parts from several sources, just started building, testing out, exploring and bam - before I knew it, I was knee deep in hardware and started collecting specifically early 3D accelerators, not only 3dfx. But 3dfx was more the focus, because... sexiness

When do you begin to collect stuff of Old-PC? What did you cause this?

Oops sorry, I think I answered this with the question before

To add something: in hardware history there was so much awesome stuff released (especially in the nineties), you automatically come across cool stuff all the time when you try to find the actual hardware that you are looking for at the moment. Or do research on. Or talk about with others in forums etc.

Can you say how it was 3dfx in your country? Any anecdote?

At the time 3dfx was alive and kicking I didn't know them.. just like any other PC Hardware related stuff

Can you say me what do you feel when you open and test the card?

The V5 6000? That's a really long time ago, I certainly remember that I was fairly nervous when I installed it for the first test

The card is known to not support every motherboard, is limited to 3,3V AGP and if you pick the wrong system to install it into, your HINT

bridge chip goes up in smoke in no time

So yeah, I can remember THAT situation. "Known good" setup with an Asus P3B-F, but still the finger on the bridge chip for at least a minute

What games do you tests the first time?

The first test was UT99, I don't remember if I tried more games on the first test.

What cards do you have of others companies (nvidia, s3...)?

I have cards of pretty much every (chip-)manufacturer that built chips capable of 3D rendering. At least the high end chip of every manufacturer and generation (that's what I started collecting first), sometimes complete line-ups of a chip generation. Up to around 2006/2007 I think.. after that I'm not complete yet

What cards of others companies is your favorite? Why?

I love rendition cards, because you can't make Quake 1 and 2 look better than they render it on their own API.

I know that there are too many drivers, what do you prefer or use?

For my V5 6000 I use the latest Raziel Evolution drivers, never had a problem with them.

For my Voodoo 2 setups I use the FastVoodoo drivers.

For other cards I stick to the last official drivers from 3dfx.

For other hand, when did you start to look for forum o group of 3dfx or Old Pc? And why?

Pretty much directly in the beginning, during research mainly of the V5 6000. I did not specifically look for a forum, but I landed at voodooalert.de pretty soon and stick around there since 2004.

Now, do you prefer to contact with others 3dfx/OldPC fans Social Network (twiiter/fb), Forum (http://3dfx.pl/voodooalert), or messaging APP (Telegram/Whattapp)?

I don't use any social media stuff. I'm solely active on the vooodooalert.de forum and voodooalert IRC channel.

Sometimes hardwareluxx.de forum (only the "nostalgiedeluxx" subforum, which is related to old hardware), as well as every now and then vogons.org, but these are only used to read, I don't really feel as "a part" of these communities.

You said "I was into console gaming", why do you change to PC?

I did not exactly shift over, it was more of an addition. Console gaming then feaded more and more over the years, but I still have a huge collection of around 200 console games heaps of peripherals and a bunch of consoles od course. I never sold one

Can you send a photo of your room/cave? I read "I have 7 V2 SLI systems, that’s 14 cards alone" and I imagine a castle hahahaha.

Sure, here is a gallery of it: https://abload.de/gallery.php?key=bcAg9HNM

Where do you want to release the interviews?

Hey kaiser77_1982,

sorry for being so late, I took the lastly phrased questionary from the 1st post and corrected them by grammar and orthography. Well, my English is not perfect, but yours is...hm...interesting (I don't want to take the same words as GrandAdmiralThrawn ). Maybe someone remembers All Your Base Are Belong To Us?


1.) Who are you (if you agree to tell)?

A guy from Eastern Germany (~Dresden), formerly known as GDR (German Democratic Republic), called "soggi" who's interested in and collects retro stuff, especially x86 PC stuff (including BIOSes, game Patches and other Software).


2.) Which year were you born in (if you agree to tell)?

1984 (George Orwell says hello).


3.) What was your first contact with 3dfx?

I can't remember exactly. Maybe I first noticed 3dfx in the German gaming magazine "GameStar" in late 1998, maybe it was when I watched a friend playing "N.I.C.E. 2" supported by his new Voodoo Banshee!? The latter was quite impressive, textures looked soft and the gameplay was so smooth, there was no stuttering at all.


4.) What was the first 3dfx graphics card you got?

My very first 3dfx video card was a Voodoo3 2000 AGP, priced at 209,- DM - if I remember correctly.


5.) Can you tell us what items you have in your collection at the moment?

Because this all is about 3dfx, I will only list my 3dfx items - else this list would be extremely large.

5x Voodoo1 (unknown 4 MB, Diamond Monster 3D 4MB, Orchid Righteous3D 4MB, 2x A-Trend Helios 3D [black PCB])
1x Voodoo Rush (Jazz Adrenaline 3D), unfortunately defective
7x Voodoo2 (unknown 12 MB, Gainward Dragon 3000 12MB, InnoVision Mighty 3D II V3 12MB, Creative Labs 3D Blaster Voodoo2 12MB, Diamond Monster 3D II 8MB, Diamond Monster 3D II 12 MB SLI)
1x Voodoo Banshee AGP (ELSA Victory II-A16), maybe defective
1x Voodoo3 2000 AGP
2x Voodoo3 3000 AGP
2x Voodoo3 3500 PAL
1x Voodoo5 5500 AGP including original box with modified cooling
1x original box (including all accessories) from my first 3dfx card (V3 2000 AGP)


6.) What is your favorite 3Dfx item?

Altogether it's the Voodoo3 3000 with 5.5ns RAM. Why? It has an exchangeable coole with push pins, no extra power connector and you can easily install a sandwich cooling (because it has no SMD parts on the backside) to oc it to 200 MHz (or more). In my Opinion the V3 3000 AGP is the real "straight edge" Voodoo.


7.) Are you looking for any items specifically at this time?

No, I never did - except when I was searching for a V3 2000 replacement back in the days and for a V5 5500 AGP some years ago.


8.) Do you have any anecdote?

Many! But I think you only want to hear the 3dfx related ones? OK...I have some, this will be a longer answer.

I was involved in video gaming since ~1990. First there were some simple games I played via television (from GDR, if I remember correctly), a couple of years later something like "Prince of Persia", "Lemmings", "Monkey Island 2" and some other 386er/486er games hit my ground and it was so fascinating to play these games when I was at my uncle's/aunt's home. The ~same time I got my own C64 with datasette (yes, no floppy) - a present from my uncle - and I could play nice games on my own via television. A few years later my neighbor had a Amiga (500 I think) and we played "Kick Off 2", "Speedball", "North vs. South", "Street Fighter", "Mortal Combat", "Wings of Fury" and many more. This partially overlaps with the time when we played "Lotus III" and some other games on a 386er at another friend's home. In late 1998 we got our own PC and I tried to play some demos and games, but espacially the 3D games didn't run very well - I/we played games like "TOCA 2", "Viper Racing", "FIFA 98", "GTA2" and so on. Then the above mentioned friend (with his Voodoo Banshee) came along with "Half-Life", which was running so bad on our ATI Rage IIC, and the words "buy a Voodoo". So in late 1999 I bought a Voodoo3 2000 AGP and put it into the K6-2 333 system. Exactly this was a major impact to me - it was like "WUUHHAAAOOOHHH". I saw games running very smooth, no stuttering, looking so soft and having no problems with bilinear filtering, alpha blending or something like that - astonishing! This was a new dimension of gaming! I have to say, I don't know much about current gaming on PC or game consoles, but I did much more a decade and more ago - I never had this feeling again in connection with 3D games or computer graphics.

Another story... After having my V3 2000 for some weeks or months, I thought maybe I can oc it. Did it. On LAN gaming at a friend's home I got undefinable stripes and after clocking back and some restarts I decided to open the computer's case. OK...the passive cooler dropped. So I let the case open and put a ventilator (which was available, fortunately) besides. After the session I brought it back to the dealer and they had no replacement for me, I got my money back. So maybe this was my contribution to 3dfx' death. Today I would repair it myself and I would say the bad cooling solutions for the Voodoo3 - especially the glued cooler on the Voodoo3 2000 (without push pins) were another nail in the coffin of 3dfx.

Without my V3 2k I had to fall back to my ATI Rage IIC...until i got my Voodoo3 3000 AGP from eBay, end of the year 2000. This time I thought "do it properly". Long story short - I put a fan to the cooler, put coolers to the RAM and finally put a cooler including fan to the backside of the Avenger chip glued with a thermal pad (this was possible because there were no SMD components). With this cooling I was able to raise the clocks from 166/166 to 200/200 MHz, over 200 MHz the RAM refused to work correctly.


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9.) For how long do you think the 3dfx following will stay alive on the Internet?

I really don't know, today's people also collect coins from BC (before Christ) and that's more than 2k years ago. Maybe in the future getting working components to build a 3dfx PC will be a problem and thereby the interest will cease in general.


10.) How do you collect graphics cards?

I put them into boxes (carton). Some kind of showcase would be nice, but is too expensive and needs too much space. Or what did you mean by "how"?


11.) 3dfx was a company of graphics cards but...was it anything more? I see a strange aura when I read about it.

For fans or collectors it's always more. For example, it's a flashback to the good old days when you were a teenager or even a child and something really touched you. Even if you know you can't turn back time, you hold on to your memories, the experiences you made and the fun you had back in the days, in your youth. Sure, you're haloing/glorifying the past by this. In conclusion it is hard to explain to somebody who wasn't there back then.


12.) Do you know more collectors or fans of 3dfx? Where are they from?

I "know" the guys from voodooalert.de, the very most of them are from Germany. I'm no declared 3dfx freak so I don't see the need to connect to 3dfx guys all over the world.


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13.) How would the world of 3D look like without 3dfx?

I don't know, I don't have connections to parallel universes where I could ask. Maybe slightly different, but not too much.


14.) In your opinion, what was the key of the success of 3dfx?

They provided hardware to do some adorable 3D gaming/simulation and convinced video cards manufacturers and at the end of the day the users (gamers).


15.) Do you know Quantum3D or another spin-off of 3dfx?

Despite I know Quantum3D for putting together some SLI stuff in the past, until now I didn't know it's a spin-off of 3dfx. I don't know any other spin-off of 3dfx.


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16.) What do you think about Rampage, Fear or Mojo?

Would have been nice...maybe...but if they would had have success, maybe 3dfx would be today what nVidia actually is!? And that's nothing good or freaky from my point of view...


17.) What is your opinion about VSA-100?

Afterwards it would be nice, if it were a AGP 4x chip - so you could put Voodoos with VSA-100 into newer motherboards, but hey.

Back in the days the VSA-100 was not as bad as acknowledged by the press. This time it was the same referring to T&L like one year ago with Avenger (Voodoo3) referring to 32 bit rendering - the feature was barely used by actual games and/or was not performant. I remember, the gaming press was really biased those days, despite Avenger looked really good in 16 Bit (with postfilter) and VSA-100 had a good AA to play in low resolutions. Both had a very good image quality in 2D/3D, not to compare with nVidia at this time.


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18.) What were the biggest mistakes of 3dfx in your opinion?

The biggest mistake was to stop delivering chips to former partners like Creative, Diamond, Gainward and so on. Another mistake was, that they did nothing (not enough at least) against this early adopter feature madness (32 bit rendering, T&L, ...). They also failed to get a big (!) step into the OEM market with their high quality in 2D. Another big mistake was to deliver the Voodoo3 series without an active cooling (as described at 8.).

19.) What do you think about STB and Gigapixel?

The STB deal could be a good thing if 3dfx also would have delivered their GPUs to third parties (mentioned above). They could have produced OEM products via STB and sold their value products for gamers via third parties. Gigapixel I didn't know by now.


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20.) We are done, if you want to say anything, now the time has come.

Not really. 3dfx has gone and I'm proud to were a very little part of it...it's like remembering to drive a Trabant or even a Wartburg in Eastern Germany 30 years ago when you had to wait ten years to get one. Good times.


21.) Thanks for everything!

No problem, you're welcome! All your Voodoos are belong to us!

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best regards

soggi