[itgoon]

The Voodoo was, very literally, a game-changer. The difference in quality between Quake and GLQuake was astounding.

Just a few seconds of gameplay was enough to get someone to make the purchase.

[Crinus]

The two main issues that GLQuake has over software one are that the textures are squashed down to the nearest power-of-two and lightmaps are clamped in the "0..100%" range whereas the software rasterizer has a (sort of) "0..200%" range. You can see this in the comparisons in the site where bright areas are dulled.

Modern source ports have fixed both issues though (FWIW i recommend Quakespasm)

[xenospn]

Same with PC speaker vs SoundBlaster.

[BuckRogers]

If you only had or experienced IBM-compatible PCs. If you started on a Commodore or Amiga, the PC speaker to Sound Blaster/Adlib shift was more akin to just catching up. I wasn't completely happy until the 486 era because of this.

The Voodoo1 4MB which I had back then as well, was unprecedented. I agree that the Sound Blaster was great (in isolation against older x86 PCs), but 3dfx was the first standout example of the fruit in the IBM-compatible space, and a clear demonstration in the gaming sense as to why it took over the market.

[armitron]

The first standout example was VGA and games that fully took advantage of it. I was an Amiga user but AGA was too little too late and architecturally a disaster for certain games (DOOM, Quake). Even games like Monkey Island and Indiana Jones were a lot better on VGA than Amiga.

The game that did it for me was Privateer vs Elite II. I had to get a PC after I saw it. It was crystal clear the Amiga could not compete.

[mhd]

I think the equivalent of the Voodoo in the soundcards-space would've been the Gravis Ultrasound. In both the evolutionary and soon-to-be-forgotten sense.

PC Speaker vs. Soundblaster is more EGA vs VGA, something much more profound. And beneficiary to the gaming space, as opposed to early 3D, which basically ruined all the things for quite a while...

[armitron]

Not even close. PC Speaker vs Soundblaster is Hercules (monochrome) vs VGA. You could never go back, same as 3dfx.

GUS was better than sb pro/sb 16 but a lot of games didn't take advantage of it and once AWE32/64 arrived, GUS was dead in the water.

[mhd]

Going back to 2D was my sincerest wish back then, when they tried shoehorning everything into 3D. There was no reason back then for having e.g. jump and runs, adventures or RTS games in 3D. It worked fine enough for FPS, which is why that genre dominated so much back then.

And yeah, I knew that the GUS only enjoyed a very short-lived popularity, just like Voodoo cards when the Geforces etc. showed up. Okay, maybe the popularity at its height wasn't quite equal, but the next 3D fads are quite a few steps down (e.g. PowerVR or the first Matroxes).