10,000th! Who will it be? - Quake2-Ware is going to have its first 10,000th hitter! Who will it be? It might be YOU!

-Virtigo

Quantum3D has announced plans for a Voodoo2-based graphicsboard - Code-named "Obsidian2", the second generation of Quantum3D's Obsidian family of realtime 3D graphics accelerators will employ advanced configurations of the Voodoo2 chipset to achieve new levels of absolute 3D performance as well as maintain the Obsidian family's industry-wide lead in real-time 3D price/performance. Targeted for volume shipment by mid-1998, the Obsidian2 products are being designed to compliment Quantum3D's current Obsidian product family.

"Our current 100SB provides a great preview of what Voodoo2 portends--which is simply unparalleled realtime 3D performance," said Quantum3D vice-president, and 3Dfx founder, Ross Smith. "The 100SB's parallel `Voodoo-1' chipset implementation produces about 2.4 Gigabytes per second of dedicated 3D graphics bandwidth--which is about the same as the 2.2 Gigabytes per second that a two texelfx Voodoo2 implementation will produce. And of course, this performance hasn't been lost on a number of affluent Quake fans who want to dispatch their opponents at frame rates and resolutions that their less fortunate friends will only get to experience in HyperWare's Obsidian-equipped arcade systems or on consumer level graphics boards sometime next summer."

And in an unprecedented move to protect customers investments in Obsidian and Voodoo graphics technology, Quantum3D also announced it is implementing a "trade-in" program. If you've already purchased a consumer-level Voodoo Graphics based board or entry-level (and/or mid-range Obsidian series products), Quantum 3D will allow you to trade 'em in for a more advanced Obsidian real-time 3D graphics accelerator. Owners of Obsidian 50-2200, 50-2220, 50-4220, 50-4440, Diamond Multimedia Monster3D, Orchid Righteous3D, or other competitive "3D-only" Voodoo Graphics-based products will be eligible to receive as much as a $200 rebate when they trade-in their board(s) towards the purchase of Obsidian3DS or Obsidian 100SB series products. In addition, Quantum3D announced it would be implementing a similar trade-in option for customers who desire the new Voodoo2-based Obsidian2 realtime 3D graphics accelerator. Further information on the current trade-in program offer will be posted on the Quantum3D website.

Details of the Obsidian2 trade-in program will be announced in early 1998, concurrent with the announcement of the commercial availability of the Obsidian2 product.

Pure3D review is in Boot as well - I went further in to my boot magazine today and guess what graphic card they reviewed, Pure3D!  They gave it a 9 and called it a KICK ASS PRODUCT, Quake2-Ware agrees.

More Old news - I added more to the old news so if you need some stuff from a while ago go in a read it.

I love BOOT - Not only does Boot Magazine help me get Info on some of the products I review but they review some of the best hardware around. Anyway I was reading the Lust List and for the Pentium II 300Mhz this is what they said:

Wheather your knee-deep in Quake2, or rendering high-res 3D Studio Max 2.0 files, nothing can compare to the glory that is the Pentium... (more on page 60 of Boot issue 16)

Cool that they put Quake2 in there :)

-Virtigo

Voodoo Technology - Inside 3Dfx's out-of-the-way booth lurked the latest forthcoming 3D games running under Voodoo 2. Armed-and-playable games include Incoming (which earns the award for the most-overused demo of the show), Epic Megagame's Unreal, and Microsoft's 3D Baseball. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was also running amok, with Voodoo 2 side-by-side against nVidia's Riva 128 and Rendition's V2100.

Quake-powered first-person shooters were alive and well. boot tried its hands at alpha versions of Sierra's Half-Life, which showcased intense AI techniques including enemy guards that kick you if you get too close, and lob grenades if they discover you lurking under crawlways. Under Voodoo 2, Half-Life was fast as hell, although the uber-aggressive enemies tended to spank us a lot faster than we expected. An early build of Activision's SiN was also present, with GLQuake and Quake II running at excessively fast frame-rates.

With all the triple-A titles, there were a few surprise Glide-specific games from smaller developers vying for attention. Among those included Martian Movers, a first-person futuristic racer than had absolutely no terrain-redraw and ran at liquid fast frame-rates, as well as an beautiful underwater SVGA shooter that was moving more than 50 thousand triangle scenes well past 30fps. Said 3Dfx's Brian Bruning, "these technology demos show what we want developers to do with Voodoo 2."

-Virtigo

#q2w on irc.quake2.com - I got my IRC channel in irc.quake2.com so if you must talk with me I will probally be there or pop in and say hello.

Pure3D Drivers -Whoo, new Pure3D Drivers released! If you own one (as I do), get yourself over to the Canopus Website now and go get em! Includes the new Glide drivers and a few bug fixes.

-Virtigo