Adverts for emulated hardware

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resle
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by resle »

leilei wrote: Mon 16 Dec, 2019 12:39 amI would read about all sorts of GUS-related issues in lots of readmes and etc...
god, the README.TXTs .. I have the exact same memory, every time I would open the mandatory readme file and invariably it would contain a paragraph dedicated to GUS quirks, bugs, lack of support, thirst for goat blood etc.

Sarah you might have ignited a heartbreaking trip down memory lane with those ads, combined with the christmas atmosphere..
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SarahWalker
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by SarahWalker »

leilei wrote: Mon 16 Dec, 2019 12:39 am I never had a GUS. Maybe it's because of this ad. I would read about all sorts of GUS-related issues in lots of readmes and etc... so no regrets.
Same here, I had an SB16 and SB 2.0 back in the 90s. While I do now have a GUS, and in the right game it's excellent, I doubt I would have enjoyed the setup nightmare back then!
(The Voodoo2 ad campaigns here in the US were super aggressive and probably are well-known enough
Not outside the US!
Banshee on the other hand, I only can recall a Monster Fusion page ad in one issue. Voodoo3 wasn't as bad though but did have television spots.
I saw a couple of Banshee ads when looking through mags, much in a similar vein to the V2 ones. Banshee had a pretty short marketing life though, it was dead by about Feb or March 1999; though the cards hung around at retail for ages afterwards. V3 had fairly regular print ads here, along with prominent space in the PC World ads. I don't remember anything on TV though :(

There weren't a lot of graphics cards ads in general. I saw a couple of TNT ones, but the most frequent ones I saw were for Matrox of all people. Mystique, M3D and G200 were heavily marketed here, not that I think it helped sales. The M3D ones are a bit depressing, mainly highlighting the constantly falling price.

Dreamcast incidentally, had both of it's major UK advertising campaigns banned. The first for the '6 billion players' claim (the ASA pointed out region locking was a thing), the other for basic xenophobia in the run up to Euro 2000.
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SarahWalker
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by SarahWalker »

omarsis81 wrote: Mon 16 Dec, 2019 5:08 am
SarahWalker wrote: Sun 15 Dec, 2019 3:29 pm But to finish things on a lighter note here's a Pentium MMX advert.
I thought those guys were used to advertise the Pentium II only
I think they stayed around for the Pentium III as well!
Xanarki
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by Xanarki »

Cool scans. I've been going thru old mags myself, mainly CGW and PC Zone. This is 1 of my favorite Voodoo2 ads, I just like how they managed to cram 80 games in 2 pages.
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Xanarki
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by Xanarki »

Ugh, editing my post screws with the attachments, but a few things I've noticed in that ad.

-They added Interstate '76 three times. The original edition, Nitro add-on edition, and Gold edition. I could've swore the original didn't support 3Dfx, thus the whole reason for the Gold edition lol.
-Today I learned that Outlaws supported 3Dfx. I've played the game for over 20 years, and never knew that. Geez.
-Is there really a difference between enhanced Grand Theft Auto and not? I never tried it.
-I find it funny that Carmageddon 1 is on there. It doesn't actually support 3Dfx; however, a solo member of the game's development team released a patch on his own, so I guess it counts?
-I wonder why they numbered the games like this. Why is Forsaken #1, but Thief #80? Did someone at 3Dfx do their own personal ranking system? If so, damn them for putting Quake 2 at #40 lol.
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SarahWalker
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by SarahWalker »

Xanarki wrote: Mon 16 Dec, 2019 7:11 pm -Is there really a difference between enhanced Grand Theft Auto and not? I never tried it.
It looks like the software version in 15/16/24 bit colour, but faster and with texture filtering. 3DFX GTA apparently only exists because DMA Design were sent a card and hadn't done anything else with it when 3DFX were due to visit a few months later...

The fact that it's DOS based and requires very little CPU makes it good for emulator testing.
-I find it funny that Carmageddon 1 is on there. It doesn't actually support 3Dfx; however, a solo member of the game's development team released a patch on his own, so I guess it counts?
The Splat Pack supports 3DFX IIRC.
-I wonder why they numbered the games like this. Why is Forsaken #1, but Thief #80? Did someone at 3Dfx do their own personal ranking system? If so, damn them for putting Quake 2 at #40 lol.
I keep trying to convince myself that there's some kind of order there, but I think it's just random.

I also think it's a bit cheeky of them to put Messiah there (which would still have been at least a year away), and Prey (which never came out).
Xanarki
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by Xanarki »

Yeah I've looked over it twice, but no pattern that I can see.

You're probably right. I have the CD version of Carma, before the Splat Pack came out, and I had to download the "unofficial" patch for 3DFX.

I'm glad you caught Prey, forgot about that. I never played the "final 2006 version." I don't think an earlier build ever got released. It's a shame, since KMFDM is one of my favorite bands and they had a few songs in it.

Speaking of cancelled games, I looked at the picture again. First off, #18. Gruesome Castle. I didn't recognize it so I looked it up. Yep, another failed project. At least a demo came out for that one it seems. Also, did #2. 10-Six actually ever make it out of beta? I remember that game dropping off the radar.

Then, I noticed #19. Ground Effects by Angel Studios? I tried doing a search, and I came up with absolutely nothing. I know that Angel later became a division of Rockstar Games, and prior to that, they did quite a few games. But judging by that 1 screenshot, it looks like some sort of racing game. Maybe it's a beta Midtown Madness, before Microsoft approached the company and changed up the game?

EDIT: I wonder if that's suppose to be a couch in that photo? See https://www.unseen64.net/tag/angel-studios/
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leilei
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by leilei »

Xanarki wrote: Mon 16 Dec, 2019 11:43 pm 10-Six actually ever make it out of beta? I remember that game dropping off the radar.
It did actually come out in February 2000 and it did in fact work on the 3dfx Voodoo2 back then. I haven't checked for any post-closure revival projects to see if that's still working in PCem. Heck I don't know if any of the other fan-maintained closed online games are still working on V2 either (EQ Classic, Allegiance, Wulfram, etc.)

I'd think Ground Effects might've evolved into PS2's Smuggler's Run... just guessing here. Smuggler's Run felt like an unfinished PC game ported over unoptimized with long loading times. It does have snow terrain and a red truck...

StarCon's oddly there. That was a canned PSX reboot that no one asked for.
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gen_angry
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by gen_angry »

I have a few gaming and comp magazines from the mid 90s stashed away somewhere at my parents, will have to fish them out at some point. I do have a few scans from Commodore though:

Commodore Ad 1989

More Commodore, 1989

Even more Commodore, 1989

They had IBM PC clones out, not sure why they went under so hard and quickly - especially having such success with the C64.
SarahWalker wrote: Mon 16 Dec, 2019 5:49 pm Same here, I had an SB16 and SB 2.0 back in the 90s. While I do now have a GUS, and in the right game it's excellent, I doubt I would have enjoyed the setup nightmare back then!
The amount of times Creative rebranded and repackaged their SB16 line would make Intel proud. I had their original one as well (I think, it had a volume control on the card slot itself). Non plug-and-pray, had to set the address, IRQ and DMA with jumpers on the board. I think I was the only kid at my school that knew how to do it lol (even if I didnt know what an IRQ was, just that it had to be this setting and needed these lines in AUTOEXEC/CONFIG).
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SarahWalker
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

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gen_angry wrote: Tue 17 Dec, 2019 6:07 pm I have a few gaming and comp magazines from the mid 90s stashed away somewhere at my parents, will have to fish them out at some point. I do have a few scans from Commodore though:

Commodore Ad 1989

More Commodore, 1989

Even more Commodore, 1989

They had IBM PC clones out, not sure why they went under so hard and quickly - especially having such success with the C64.
Because post-1985 they were run by idiots who asset stripped the company? On The Edge is a great read for what happened there.


Back on subject, a very dry Creative ad from July 1992. Wonder if anyone wrote in and kept the free information pack?
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SarahWalker
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by SarahWalker »

Going back to Commodore, here's a July 1993 advert for the 386SX machine I just added. This is pretty close to the end for them, I think only the CD32 launched between the time of this advert and Commodore going bust the following April. The 386SX machine is pretty obsolete by this point (hence the 'VERY LIMITED STOCK' sign, they're obviously clearing out old stock) but the 486 doesn't look too bad for the time, even if you do get charged separately for DOS 6.
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by SarahWalker »

It's not 100% the same machine (GDC 212M vs GT212), but the Goldstar machine Greatpsycho just added is probably pretty similar to this ad. Someone is clearly having fun with DTP, does it really matter if you can read the text or not?
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

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leilei
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by leilei »

Is it time to give this a bump? Have a slight itch to post this aforementioned US TV spot for the Voodoo3. It's an old low bitrate video though (probably a direct ancient .mov upload), i'm sure there's some massive mid-99 TBS/TNT commercials only VHS digitization that has this in there. The games shown are Heavy Gear II, Wheel of Time (yet to be released), NHL '99, Turok 2, Jane's WWII Fighters, Driver, and Turok 2.
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by SarahWalker »

Still can't believe 3dfx did TV ads...

Not a lot of Banshee ads, but it did have a very short commercial life. Here's the Maxi Gamer Phoenix. I love the questionable choice to other cards to compare against.
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SarahWalker
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by SarahWalker »

Creative on the other hand got lazy and tacked the Banshee onto an existing V2 ad.
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by SarahWalker »

And here's a PC World ad showing what 3DFX _wanted_ Christmas 98 to look like. Techworks kicked off a V2 price war around this time and the Banshee and V2 ended up the same price.
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

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Here's a double page V3 ad from around launch time. Obviously 3DFX were retailing their own boards by this point so the marketing and product image are much more focused. Funny, I don't remember many (if any) V3 ads after this initial push.
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by SarahWalker »

Of course immediately after posting that I find another V3 ad. This is technically cheating as PCem doesn't emulate the 3500, but I think the 'family' shot makes this one count.

Note the Unreal Tournament screenshot - UT was reviewed in the same magazine I got this ad from. Can't believe this was 21 years ago...
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by SarahWalker »

Unlike the Banshee, V3 has a very long commercial life, which you can trace through PC World adverts. Here it is at launch, at the top of the graphics world.
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

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The competition soon showed up though.
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by SarahWalker »

By Christmas it was mostly selling in budget form as the 2000, with the 3500 putting up a not entirely convincing fight against the TNT2 Ultra. Notice that PCW is offering cheap games with the 3500 in an attempt to sell it.
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by SarahWalker »

By Spring 2000 it was essentially the end of the road, with PCW vainly trying to sell '3dxf' cards against the GeForce 256, and the V5 just around the corner...
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by SarahWalker »

Except that of course it _wasn't_, with the 3000 still available in early 2001. 3DFX's closure meant that no new stock was forthcoming though, and the V3 disappeared from retail shortly after this, after nearly 2 years on the market.
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by SarahWalker »

I did want to post a Pentium II advert btw, but I only have PC Zone magazines from that era (1997), and Intel seem to have decided to market the Pentium MMX to gamers instead. If anyone does have one of the P2 print adverts, please post it here!
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leilei
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by leilei »

Looking through CGWs in 97, i've only seen a Pentium MMX ad in from April to June 97. November 98 had a late Pentium II ad (to promote the defunct SoftwareForPCs.com site (which was changed to intel.com/software in later prints), the alien grunt is coming out of a slot 1 P2. This would be for the next few months, and then Pentium III ads starting in Aug 99.

(There's been some P2 machine ads in 97 CGWs, I was specifically looking for Intel's own ads. Was tempted to post Gateway D6-233's ad with prominent Pentium II logos but that had an unemulated PowerVR card involved (often the early P2 OEM compromise), and all of the computers are 440LX-based at this point anyway.)

Source: CGW #172, cgwmuseum
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leilei
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by leilei »

as for Banshees, the Diamond Monster Fusion had this for a while. The most frequent Banshee advert i've seen. The Fusion's clocked higher than what's emulated though (115mhz supposedly)
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omarsis81
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by omarsis81 »

I remember this ad for the Pentium II because it was funny
Was it seen in the UK too?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as_oVHXKQQ4
tk421
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by tk421 »

Thanks for posting all of these great PC ads from the 90s. Back then having one of these great games was often good enough for a whole year or more. This being said, I did not even try X-Wing Alliance until about 2012.

I never liked Star Wars Episode 1 the Phantom Menace PC game, but I loved Episode 1 Racer. I did not even try these games before PCem.

For me, any episode 1 content worked great for years on the game Jedi Knight.

Buying a PC back in the 90s must have been a hard choice. Personally, I never doubted the value of the Pentium MMX. The one I had lasted for many years until superseded by the later generation Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz HT.

In 1997 I am sure many people wondered if they should buy the Pentium MMX, or the Pentium II which often ran at similar CPU clock speeds. "Hmmm... Should I buy the Pentium 233 MMX or the Pentium II 233?"

Chances are the P233 MMX was good enough for almost any win98 task up to about 2001 or 2002. PCem proved that the p233 MMX worked very well when combined with the Voodoo 2. Looking back to 1997, I wonder if the Pentium II Klamath had upgradability options, namely the Pentium II Deschutes. If so, that may have been the better investment than the P233 MMX.

EDIT: I should have read the development github page with all the new commits before posting here. The word is

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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leilei
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Re: Adverts for emulated hardware

Post by leilei »

A 440LX board from 97 could take a Deschutes 300 and Celeron 300A, but can't clock them up above that much (at least on my board)

Don't forget how popular AMD K6 and Cyrix6x86MX were as budget alternatives that also had the (then very marketed) MMX technology. Software Quake were their achilles' heel sure, but the 3d card fever happening at the same time made that issue irrelevant pretty fast.

Banshee didn't get TV advertising, but did show up in an early '99 episode of Computer Chronicles
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