Can Virtual PC software on a 500MHz G3 with a Voodoo2 board do PC games at reasonable speeds?

The good news is that Connectix Virtual PC 2.1 supports 3Dfx. The bad news is that even with a Voodoo2 board, the game speed is below the "jerky to the eye" threshold of 16 frames per second.

The minimum frame rate is important to know. Even if the average is above 16 frames per second, Unreal will still appear jerky if the minimum drops below 16 frames per second. I tried turning off special effects but it didn't help Virtual PC very much.

CONCLUSION: It's a good thing Apple has decided to "woo" game developers. Virtual PC is NOT an acceptable way to address the shortage of Mac games.

• Testing was done on a G3/350 "Yosemite" with the PowerLogix G3/466 ZIF upgrade set to 500MHz and 2:1 cache ratio (250MHz). The Game Wizard 3Dfx (Voodoo2) board from Other World Computing was installed.
• Version 2.1.3 of Connectix Virtual PC was used. The procedures on page 77-78 of the manual were followed to insure that Windows 98 "saw" the Voodoo2 board.
• Version 1.0 of Unreal installed on both Mac OS and Windows 98.
• The "timedemo.u" document was placed in Unreal "System" folder (courtesy of XLR8YourMac) which calculates and displays average, minimum and maximum frames per second. The test used was the Castle Flyby that comes up at startup. To get the average and minimum frames per second, you press "~" and enter "summon timedemo.timedemo" as soon as the castle flyby begins. Then press "~" to open up the full screen again.

  Many thanks to those who assisted me with advice and test equipment:

• PowerLogix for the use of the 466MHz G3 ZIF upgrade.
• Connectix for the evaluation copy of Virtual PC 2.1.
• Beta team at WestLake Interactive, home of Unreal
• Ian "Nicad" for the use of his G3/350 Yosemite Mac.

  NOTE: MicroConversions has closed its doors as of May 27th, 1999. The Game Wizard 3Dfx (Voodoo2) board is still being sold by some resellers (see Hot Deals). Supposedly, the remaining inventory is being sold to a company called iWonder Inc.

  Consult Absolute Mac, Deal Mac and my Hot Deals page for best prices on the above products.