[quoteurl=http://www.vnroundup.com/index.php?item=articles/3dfx]3dfx Goes On A Rampage
Background
Ever since the demise of 3dfx on December 15, 2000, there has been great speculation on what 3dfx could have done if they were still in the market. What if they had another year? Would the infamous Rampage bailed them out of financial turmoil?
A little primer here: (for those of you that don’t know), 3dfx was the biggest pioneer in 3D gaming on the PC. Their Voodoo 3D accelerator revolutionized PC gaming, making it a viable platform able to compete with console systems of its day. Sure, 3dfx wasn’t the first to offer 3D acceleration on the PC, but they were able to make it more mainstream than ever before. With the release of the Voodoo Graphics chipset (and later the Voodoo2) 3dfx had put a headlock on the then-feeble competition. Everything in 3dfx-land was dandy until some questionable business decisions came into play following the release of the Voodoo2.
Many are not aware that 3dfx’s infamous ‘Rampage’ (next-generation) graphics chip was scheduled to be released immediately following the Voodoo2. During this time 3dfx acquired STB, and was over-going a transition in which they would be working with new employees, and manufacturing video cards in-house (rather than selling graphics chips to third-party board manufacturers).[/quoteurl]
Background
Ever since the demise of 3dfx on December 15, 2000, there has been great speculation on what 3dfx could have done if they were still in the market. What if they had another year? Would the infamous Rampage bailed them out of financial turmoil?
A little primer here: (for those of you that don’t know), 3dfx was the biggest pioneer in 3D gaming on the PC. Their Voodoo 3D accelerator revolutionized PC gaming, making it a viable platform able to compete with console systems of its day. Sure, 3dfx wasn’t the first to offer 3D acceleration on the PC, but they were able to make it more mainstream than ever before. With the release of the Voodoo Graphics chipset (and later the Voodoo2) 3dfx had put a headlock on the then-feeble competition. Everything in 3dfx-land was dandy until some questionable business decisions came into play following the release of the Voodoo2.
Many are not aware that 3dfx’s infamous ‘Rampage’ (next-generation) graphics chip was scheduled to be released immediately following the Voodoo2. During this time 3dfx acquired STB, and was over-going a transition in which they would be working with new employees, and manufacturing video cards in-house (rather than selling graphics chips to third-party board manufacturers).[/quoteurl]
