DOS Games That Support 3Dfx Voodoo

There are a lot of Windows 98 games that support 3dfx Voodoo cards and their GLide API, but these aren't covered here. This article will focus on the DOS games.

It's good to quickly remember the timeline. The Voodoo Graphics, a.k.a. Voodoo 1, arrived in 1996 when we were still playing games in pure DOS but there was also a gradual move to have games natively running in Windows 95. 3dfx' first combined 2D/3D card, the Voodoo Rush, arrived in 1997 and it was basically pretty poor. The Voodoo2 arrived in February 1998, and the follow-up to the Rush, the Voodoo Banshee came out slightly later that same year.

What this means is that broadly-speaking, any GLide game that arrived from the start of 1998 and beyond was designed for Voodoo2, while earlier games only natively supported the Voodoo1. There are some exceptions though.

A Voodoo 2 card isn't automatically backward-compatible with a Voodoo 1 card, but some pre-1998 games can be made to work (by setting some environment variables and/or installing a patch) that can get a Voodoo2 running as if it were a Voodoo1. In some cases, these games benefit from the Voodoo2's extra performance and in a few cases the games even work at the Voodoo2's higher resolution!

Some of these environment variables are shown here:

Environment Variable	Purpose
SET SSTV2_GRXCLK=90	Sets the graphic clock rate (in MHz).
SET SSTV2_FT_CLK_DEL=0x4	Sets the speed at which the Frame Buffer memory can be accessed.
SET SSTV2_TF0_CLK_DEL=0x6	Sets the clock delay on Texture Unit 0
SET SSTV2_TF1_CLK_DEL=0x6	Sets the clock delay on Texture Unit 1
SET SSTV2_VIN_CLKDEL=0x1	Sets the clock delay on the Video-In
SET SSTV2_VOUT_CLKDEL=0x0	Sets the clock delay on the Video-Out
SET SSTV2_TMUMEM_SIZE=2	Sets the amount of texture RAM (overrides GLide autodetect setting)

To see a full list of the environment variables, I recommend you head over to MDGx 3dfx Voodoo + Voodoo2 Environment Variables.

The Voodoo Banshee is apparently the hardest card to get older GLide games working on. If it works on a Banshee, it will most likely also work on the Voodoo 3 and beyond.

For pure DOS use, games don't require any drivers to work (they're built into the game), but if you're trying to get an individual game running with a 3dfx card it wasn't designed for, you will in most cases need to change environment variables like the above and more.

One of my visitors, Michał Dec, also pointed out that there are cases where a game will support other GLiDE-compatible cards, e.g. later Voodoo cards, as long as you provide the game with the correct GLIDE2X.OVL file. Examples of this are Grand Theft Auto 1, which has been tested using this approach and works on both a Voodoo 1 and Voodoo 5500, and the Carmageddon Splat Pack. Neither required changing any environment variables to make it work. He will be testing more games using this hack shortly!

DOS GLide Games

	V1	V2	V3+
Archimedean Dynasty	X	X
Battle Arena Toshinden
Battlecruiser 3000AD
Blood	X	X
Burnout: Championship Drag Racing		X
Carmageddon		X
Descent II		X
Dreams to Reality	X	X
EF2000	X
Extreme Assault		X
Fatal Racing (OEM)	X
Grand Theft Auto		X
Ignition	X	X
Jet Fighter III Platinum	X	X
Jet Fighter: Full Burn		X
Lands of Lore 2: Guardians of Destiny
NASCAR Racing 2		X
NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition
Prost Grand Prix
Pyl
Redguard: The Elder Scrolls Adventures
Screamer 2		X
Screamer Rally		X
Starfighter 3000 (OEM)
Tie Break Tennis 98
Tomb Raider		X
UEFA Champions League 96/97		X
VR Soccer 96 (OEM)
Whiplash	X
X-Car: Experimental Racing

Also remember that 3dfx only brought out SLI (Scan Line Interleave), i.e. the ability to install two 3D cards and daisy-chain them together, with the introduction of the Voodoo2. When trying to get a Voodoo2 to run Voodoo1 games, some of them will support SLI while others will not.

Archimedean Dynasty

Designed to run on: Voodoo 2
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

This game requires v2.5 of glide2x.ovl.

 

Battle Arena Toshinden

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: No

Requires revised settings, but will run on a Voodoo 2 and even offer an increase in frame rate to 60 fps.

 

Battlecruiser 3000AD

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 after applying an official V2 patch for the game.

Blood

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Runs once you've changed configuration settings for V2, but is unstable.

Burnout: Championship Drag Racing

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 after applying an official V2 patch for the game.

Carmageddon (Splat Pack only)

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will run happily on a Voodoo 2 with a patch.

Descent II

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will run happily on a Voodoo 2 with a patch.

Dreams to Reality

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: No

Will not work on anything apart from a Voodoo 1.

EF2000

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will run happily on a Voodoo 2 with a patch.

Extreme Assault

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will run happily on a Voodoo 2 with a patch.

Fatal Racing

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: No

Will run happily on a Voodoo 2 with a patch.

Grand Theft Auto

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 after applying an official V2 patch for the game. Can run at the higher resolution of 800 x 600 with a V2.

Ignition

Designed to run on: ?
Works in SLI Mode: ?

Jetfighter III

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 without any settings changes.

Jetfighter Full Burn

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 after applying an official V2 patch for the game.

Lands of Lore 2: Guardians of Destiny

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 without any settings changes.

NASCAR Racing II

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 without any settings changes.

NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 after applying an official V2 patch for the game.

Prost Grand Prix

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will not run on anything apart from a Voodoo 1.

Pyl

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 after applying an official V2 patch for the game.

Redguard: The Elder Scrolls Adventures

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 after applying an official V2 patch for the game.

Screamer 2

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 with a patch that changes configuration for V2. Use S23DFX.EXE.

Screamer Rally

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 without any settings changes.

Starfighter 3000

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 with a patch that changes configuration for V2.

Tie Break Tennis 98

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will not run on anything apart from a Voodoo 1.

Tomb Raider

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 with the Voodoo Rush patch.

UEFA Champions League 96/97

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 with an official patch that changes configuration for V2.

VR Soccer 96

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 with a patch that changes configuration for V2.

Whiplash

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: No

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 with a patch that changes configuration for V2.

X-Car: Experimental Racing

Designed to run on: Voodoo 1
Works in SLI Mode: Yes

Will work happily on a Voodoo 2 with an official patch that changes configuration for V2.