Time for Nostalgia

The year was 1998. It was Christmas time and I had just received my very outset figurer, an AMD K6-ii running at 333MHz. Little did I know, from that day frontward, my life would be inverse forever.

I of the offset such changes was my shift in focus from panel games to PC gaming. A few months later getting my PC, I added a Diamond Monster Two 3D graphics carte powered by the 3Dfx Voodoo 2 chipset. It was an absolute screamer and took my gaming experience to a whole new level. We know how the story played out for 3Dfx, the graphics company that dominated the nascent 3D graphics industry for a few years in the late 90s.

Having a specialized 3D API was arguably both the highlight and the downfall for 3Dfx. The Glide API combined with Voodoo hardware truly enhanced the gaming feel and during the short few years that Glide reigned supreme, several games based its 3D implementation solely in this proprietary API.

Diamond Monster 2 3D graphics card

If y'all are old enough, odds are y'all endemic a 3Dfx menu and played some of these games. Let united states take you a trip down memory lane and recollect some of the all-time games e'er that used Glide.

Notation: This feature was originally published on 05/28/2013. We have revised and bumped it considering we still yearn of the glorious days of 3Dfx. Role of our #ThrowbackThursday initiative.

Quake Ii

id's Quake II released in late 1997 fix a whole new standard for beginning person shooters. A wide array of weapons, option-ups and enemies fueled this game, making it a favorite amid millions of gamers. Single player fashion was acceptable, but the real highlight was network play. Players could battle against others via IPX and TCP/IP over the internet. This is one of the first Glide-based games I played and boy did it await bang-up.

Carmageddon 2: Carpocalypse Now

Carmageddon Ii came out in Nov 1998 equally a sequel to the wildly popular original title with the same proper noun. The object of the game was simple: destroy anything and everything in sight! Ok, perhaps it wasn't as uncomplicated as that, but carnage was one of the primal elements of this racing / driving game.

Players competed in races with three unlike ways to win. You could pass through all of the checkpoints before the other racers, you could win an result by destroying every competitor'south vehicle, and players could earn a victory by killing every pedestrian in a given stage. Due to the game's graphic nature, information technology earned a Mature rating from the ESRB, but that didn't stop virtually people (myself included) from playing this game hours on end.

Interstate '76

Released in 1997 by Activision, Interstate '76 plot focused around the investigation of a private army of autovillians and when the chief character's sister is murdered, you lot are left with the task of finding out what actually happened... and seeking revenge.

Gameplay took identify from your armor-clad, hopped upwards Piranha as y'all hit the road (or desert) and boxing with other decked out vehicles. This game reminded me a lot of the Twisted Metallic series every bit information technology shared many of the aforementioned themes.

Tomb Raider

Ah, Lara Croft, easily the nigh popular female video game character of all fourth dimension. Tomb Raider opened the door to the popular series of cavern-exploring, puzzle solving fun. Tomb Raider proved to be a winner across the lath: gameplay, controls and graphics were top notch for its time. The hitting series has spawned several games and fifty-fifty ii movie releases starring Angelina Jolie -- a reboot third movie is slated for release in 2022.

Tomb Raider running on a 3Dfx GPU at 640x480 (above) vs. the aforementioned game running at 1024x768 on Glidos and loftier-res textures (below)

Diablo Ii

Blizzard'southward Diablo II remains to this 24-hour interval one of my favorite games of all time. Released in 2000, you could select from 5 unlike characters to brand your way through the game as either an Amazon, Paladin, Necromancer, Sorceress or Barbarian. Players must traverse through iv acts in their pursuit of Diablo, Lord of Terror. Along the way, gamers must also boxing with several other boss-fashion enemies. Diablo featured single and multiplayer modes and offered great replay value thanks to the utilise of randomly generating monsters and item drops.

Virtua Fighter 2

Known for its breakthrough graphics, Virtua Fighter 2 was the sequel to the pop arcade fighting game with the same name. VF2 was released in Sega arcades in 1994, ported to the Saturn in 1996, and so establish its way to PC screens in 1997. A major graphical achievement for its time, and so much that some of the ported versions that appeared on console systems had to be redesigned in 2D. I personally retrieve dropping off quarter after quarter into the arcade machines. The franchise has withstood the test of time to an extent. The latest iteration in the franchise chosen Virtua Fighter five Last Showdown was released in 2022 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Resident Evil

The original Resident Evil was commencement released for the Playstation in 1996 and ported to the PC a year later as 1 of the first to use 3Dfx'due south Glide API. Resident Evil has been billed every bit the start "survival horror video game" by many, setting the bar high for others to follow. The game allowed players to control two characters, Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield, each with their own pros and cons.

Resident Evil was ane of the scariest games I played equally a teen and offered a wonderful storyline. Developers used pre-rendered backgrounds, assuasive for much higher level of particular. Perhaps the most unique characteristic of the game were the camera angles used, which gave players the feeling of being in a movie.

Need for Speed 2: Special Edition

Need for Speed II: SE added support for 3Dfx Glide bringing a ton of visual upgrades and making the gameplay much, much smoother. The second championship in the Need for Speed series offered much of what the outset did: hot exotics and a wide open road. But also several changes such as "simulation" or "arcade" fashion. I've never been a huge fan of arcade driving games, as I rather experience the real thing, only this was one of the few exceptions, NFS II was a great game.

MechWarrior ii: 31st Century Combat

MechWarrior 2 was released past Activision in 1995 for MS-DOS. Later releases added support for various APIs, including Glide in 1996. The game takes place in the yr 3057 and pits players in control of giant robots (mechs) on either The Wolves or the Jade Falcons clan. The single player game featured 30 missions (15 per squad).

A multiplayer way was besides bachelor using NetMech, which allowed for several different modes and up to viii players per game. Mechwarrior 2 was a very successful game and was eventually ported to the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Vi

Where games similar Unreal and Quake 2 took an arcade twist on gameplay, Rainbow Six was about being tactical. Rainbow Vi put gamers in command of a SWAT team, allowing you lot to programme your mission in advance. Once a mission started, you controlled i of the team members and seeked out the bad guys (Tango's).

Rainbow Six adhered to reality closer than most shooters -- meaning you could die from but a few gunshots rather than existence able to withstand rocket attacks. The game besides featured a great multiplayer interface. I remember teaming up with a friend and completely destroying the competition. Ahh, the memories!

---

3Dfx and Glide may be a matter of the past, but the games and expert times are not to exist forgotten.

There are several Glide emulators available (nGlide, Glidos) that will allow y'all to relive them on modern computer hardware, if just for the nostalgia factor. Did you accept any favorite first-gen 3D games?