Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools • Hacker News Board

Re: Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools

#21

Post by 12_throw_away » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 6:05 PM UTC

SilverElfin wrote: post #3

I love the names and branding of that era. Technology today is far more advanced but it doesn’t have that same excitement for consumers.

I agree, but can't tell if it's the nostalgia speaking. Like, I just went and tried to figure exactly what model of PowerMac my Voodoo card was plugged into, and just got a dangerous rush of nostalgia for model names like "PowerPC 8600" - which is an objectively very boring name but I think it meant something profound to me at one point in my life.

Re: Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools

#22

Post by Aloha » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 6:57 PM UTC

bojan wrote: post #17

ashwinnair99 wrote: post #7

The Voodoo cards had no right to look as good as they did for their time. Someone rebuilding one from scratch is exactly the kind of project HN was made for.

I keep my Voodoo3 2000 with the idea to frame it, but I still haven't found a good way to do it.

You should just find a good shadow box for it, it'll look good

Re: Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools

#23

Post by Tsiklon » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 7:36 PM UTC

Tangentially related, that screenshot of Screamer 2 caught me off guard completely, I loved that game to death, and I feel I was the only one of my friends to have played it. Tremendous handling model and superb music.

Re: Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools

#24

Post by ismail » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 7:43 PM UTC

sejje wrote: post #2

My first video card. Getting it working in linux in ~1999 was really not easy, especially for a teenager with no linux experience. My networking card wasn't working either, so I had to run to a friend's house for dial-up internet access, searching for help on Altavista. Very cool project. Way above my head, still!

My first as well, getting drivers working on *nix I. The mid 90’s.. was always a fun challenge.

Also had the issue with modem, paging through the manual figured out the initialisation string

AT&FX1

Re: Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools

#25

Post by TapamN » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 8:03 PM UTC

Oof. The gamma on that screenshot.

If you want to see what it's supposed to look like, copy the screenshot into GIMP, go into "Color, Levels" and in the "Input Levels" section, there should be a textbox+spinner with a "1.00". Set that to 0.45.

Re: Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools

#26

Post by sejje » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 8:26 PM UTC

Venn1 wrote: post #6

sejje wrote: post #2

My first video card. Getting it working in linux in ~1999 was really not easy, especially for a teenager with no linux experience. My networking card wasn't working either, so I had to run to a friend's house for dial-up internet access, searching for help on Altavista. Very cool project. Way above my head, still!

I exhausted my teenage savings to buy the Voodoo 1 due to the Linux support. Granted, I was running Red Hat at the time so the installation consisted of installing what, two RPMs? Played a lot of Q3 and Unreal on that card.

I wound up getting it working out-of-the-box with Mandrake Linux. I bought a copy at the local Office Max.

I believe I tried redhat, but had issues with that as well. I never went back to it--moved to debian and never looked back.

Re: Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools

#27

Post by covercash » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 9:06 PM UTC

ashwinnair99 wrote: post #7

The Voodoo cards had no right to look as good as they did for their time. Someone rebuilding one from scratch is exactly the kind of project HN was made for.

Tribes 1 looked so good thanks to Glide…

Re: Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools

#28

Post by severino » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 10:34 PM UTC

sejje wrote: post #2

My first video card. Getting it working in linux in ~1999 was really not easy, especially for a teenager with no linux experience. My networking card wasn't working either, so I had to run to a friend's house for dial-up internet access, searching for help on Altavista. Very cool project. Way above my head, still!

Same here. I remember some kernel module or video driver named tdfx, and then, struggling to make X11 work with this DRI (Direct rendering infrastructure or something like that) setting on. It was very rewarding to see it enabled on glxinfo's output after days compiling half of your system and trying to figure out what was wrong, specially when the access to the internet was limited, and then being able to launch GLtron with hardware acceleration. Also remember playing Quake 3 and America's Army games around that time.

Fun times, now everything is straightforward on Linux but I somehow miss that era when you actually had to do everything by yourself.

Re: Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools

#29

Post by fer » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 10:36 PM UTC

Tsiklon wrote: post #23

Tangentially related, that screenshot of Screamer 2 caught me off guard completely, I loved that game to death, and I feel I was the only one of my friends to have played it. Tremendous handling model and superb music.

I loved it, though from that era I liked Fatal Racing the most.

Re: Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools

#30

Post by girvo » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 10:46 PM UTC

ekelsen wrote: post #4

The project is cool, but the LLM generated blog bothers my brain.

I find your (and my!) reaction to LLM generated text fascinating. It has a distinct smell, and I honestly can't really put words to why I find it repellent, I just know that I do.