How to run 3Dfx Glide/Voodoo games on modern Windows, and run them in HD with widescreen!

This guide will show you how to run DOS and Windows 3Dfx Glide accelerated games on a modern Windows system. You can actually upscale all these old games as well and make them look better on widescreen monitors.
Timeline:
0:00 - Intro
1:10 - Setting up dgVoodoo2 on Windows
3:50 - Additional thoughts regarding dgVoodoo
4:57 - Setting up DOS 3Dfx games
6:27 - Closing thoughts.
Links:
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dgVoodoo2: dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/
DOSbox-X: dosbox-x.com/
Check me out on twitter:
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[@SireSquish]

Thank you for actually putting the relevant link in the description! :) (So many say "link in description" but never actually put it there)

[@DOSStorm]

Of course! Thanks for watching, I hope you found it useful.

[@pc-sound-legacy]

If you saw the 3DFX splash screen back in the days, you always knew you'd get a decent game experience:-) Thanks for this - as I have 3DFX cards I do not need it but I think this will help many people without retro hardware. And yes, prices for 3DFX cards going insane constantly. I remember when ebay sellers offered tons of voodoo 3s for less than 20 bucks and no one seemed to care😄 We should have known better lol

[@DOSStorm]

Unfortunately I was always stuck on software rendering back in the day I never had anything better than some crappy Matrox onboard stuff. I should have bought a couple back in the mid 2000s when they were cheap.

[@RAA12586]

@@DOSStorm I was too young to buy stuff and was stuck with the rage pro 4mb when I first started PC gaming

[@V3ntilator]

I still have my Orchid 3DFX Voodoo 1 and 2 Cards. Yes, 3DFX ment quality gaming back then. :)

[@pc-sound-legacy]

@V3ntilator The Orchid did underline the splash screen with its characteristic click (relais) if I remember correctly. I always wanted one but got a voodoomania instead😀

[@V3ntilator]

@@pc-sound-legacy Yep. :) Orchid were the first one sold here and is why i bought that one. Since the first worked, i bought Orchid Voodoo 2 when that launched. I never had Voodoo 3. I think i had Permedia or something instead which were also very good.

[@MacCekko]

I stumbled in your fantastic video while I was just asking myself if I would ever be able to feel what I felt in 1998 when Tomb Raider II was first released for the Mac, as I used to have a 3dfx Video Card in my PowerMac 8500 (yeah, quite strange that Macs allowed users to replace components, but certainly it was less rare in late nineties' tower/mini-tower models than later on). Now I do games only on my PC nowadays and I would like to feel that sensation again, while admiring that very special kind of render that only Voodoo used to bring. Thank you very much, from the bottom of my heart. Yet another step toward Memory Lane! :)

[@pentiumgaming]

subbed, this guide is amazing emulating some glide games while i wait for the parts for my voodoo banshee rig to arrive

[@DOSStorm]

Glad to help. I hope your Voodoo rig works out well... I'm a bit jelly at the prospect of real 3Dfx hardware!

[@sly_botts1189]

I've been using this method for a number of years. It works great! Even for non glide games from that era you can copy over the D3D files and it will make those games work better as well. One thing I did notice though, with the retail disc version of Half-life the 3dfx mini-driver does not like dgvoodoo2.

[@Thesavagesouls]

3:24 I complety forgot about that game. I think I played the demo when I was a kid and I loved it. I'm going to try to get it. Thank you.

[@DOSStorm]

Yeah man it's an excellent game!

[@V3ntilator]

I still have my Orchid 3DFX Voodoo 1 and 2 Cards. DGVoodoo2 is still updated and newest is from april 2024.

[@lancervi1762]

My very first sound card? Sound Blaster 1.0. My very first 3d graphics add-on card, Voodoo! I miss 3dfx and Matrox for that matter.

[@quiet44]

thank you so much for this video. finally i was able to run this tomb raider 1 demo i have

[@DOSStorm]

Enjoy. I'm glad I could help you.

[@jimmyf2618]

I've have an interesting setup , windows XP and nglide connected to my 4k TV LG OLED. Amazing . Nglide works like a charm ,

[@carlosenriquesappa2049]

thanks for your video

[@CYON4D]

Nice video. Besides dgVoodoo I also use PCem to emulate Voodoo cards running on Win98/95.

[@DOSStorm]

Yeah I need to mess with PCem more....

[@CYON4D]

@@DOSStorm I highly recommend it. The hardware emulation is mind-blowing.

[@samfkt]

@@CYON4D but you need supercomputer kinda...

[@MCalundan]

Like the One Must Fall 2097 ending theme playing in the background !

[@DOSStorm]

One of my favorites. 😁

[@griff5476]

Awesome!

[@COIFISHGAMING]

I miss my Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo 3!

[@DOSStorm]

I never had the pleasure back in the day unfortunately! I would like to get a hold of a real one sometime but they are so expensive now.

[@COIFISHGAMING]

@@DOSStorm Even the games that utilized 3DFX glide didn't run that great tbh. It did feel exclusive though

[@davidmyablonsky2294]

Thank you for this how to video.

[@DOSStorm]

No problem I hope you found it helpful!

[@KalimaTV]

Nice!

[@lurkerrekrul]

For what it's worth; On my old system, I used Dgvoodoo to play the game Klingon Honor Guard. At the time, I figured "Why not put the DLLs in the System directory so that everything could use them." When I later installed another game (I think it was Return to Castle Wolfenstein), it kept crashing on me. After much frustration, I went and deleted the DLLs I had copied to System, and after that, the game worked. Apparently it thought that I had a Voodoo card and was trying to use it. I don't recall any option to switch which graphics method it used, or if there was a way to switch, I wasn't aware of it.

[@DOSStorm]

I think you can get away with it for the GLIDE files but doing it with the DirectX ones will mess everything up. I'd rather do it on a per program basis personally.

[@yigras]

i remember playing 3d world of Warcraft with a voodoo lol but i cant find anything about it on the web but i definitely played it .

[@neomage2021]

The voodoo 5500 was my first card

[@MM-pl5ed]

we are trying to run the classic old pc game called *Enemy Infestation* (1998) from Microprose in windows 10 (64-bits)

[@silverfoenix]

What was the graphical glitches with Descent? If its flicker I remember another option I used to run Airstrike 3D on intelGMA 945 graphics , a tool called 3danalyzer from a site called 3DFX Zone! Other options I know that emulate 3Dfx are Dosbox pure, PCem & 86box Thanks for the Very informative video.

[@DOSStorm]

It was super dark and lots of textures were popping in and out and flickering. Framerate was pretty unplayable too. Something like DXX-Rebirth is a massively better option, but kinda neat to try the other at least!

[@whocares871]

How to fix sysdump txt error of delta force xstream game

[@FractAlkemist]

I still have my Voodoo-2 and Voodoo-3 cards, and my fave games Carmageddon(s) and Descent(s). But since I use Linux , I don't know what to do with them. I sooooo miss those '90's games!

[@DOSStorm]

Sounds like its time to build a cozy mid 90s Windows 98SE rig for old games. Whatever you do hang on to those cards!

[@FractAlkemist]

@@DOSStorm After my last 2 DOS/Win9x boxes gave up the spirit about 6 years ago, I tried to find some at second hand computer stores etc., no luck. Components to build aren't readily available, and "DOS box" emulators are a pain to set up and lack performance. So yes, I hang on to the cards, and all the other legacy cards, video, audio, RAM, and the software, still hoping and dreaming .... one day I may get back down into the mines .....

[@DOSStorm]

@@FractAlkemist Well sounds like you're halfway there with a working Voodoo cards. Just need a decent mobo/CPU and a case.

[@JohnDoe-ip3oq]

Linux isn't any different, you just install dosbox and run the game.

[@FractAlkemist]

@@JohnDoe-ip3oq Actually, just installed DB; using for old DOS fractal apps and BASIC coding, so far ok. Will try games next. But cant use voodoo cards with modern hardware, so descent and carmageddon will be pixelated.

[@schubird43]

Quick question before I try this: Do you know if this will work if I already have something like nGlide installed? Or should I remove that so they don't conflict? Sadly nGlide worked for me initially a few years ago, but updates to Windows seem to have made it unstable for the games I was trying to play. 🙁

[@DOSStorm]

I would uninstall nglide first personally.

[@e-onmytube5322]

I use ngilde as wrapper.. its for me more comfortable.

[@DOSStorm]

Yeah that works too. I think DGvoodoo is a bit more versatile though and can be used on older DX and Direct draw titles.

[@dominikmichalczak4941]

What about when the game is a DirectX 5 version and the game folder does not contain any glide.dll files?

[@DOSStorm]

For DX5 games you can just copy over the DDraw and D3DImm dll files into the root of the game folder. They are in the "MS" folder in the dgvoodoo2 package. Obviously it isn't emulating glide but it should work and provide you with enhancements if you choose to use them.

[@dominikmichalczak4941]

@@DOSStorm Wow, I pasted the dll you mentioned along with glide.dll files and the game working flawlessly! All I need is to run dedicated 3dfx exe. Thank you so much!

[@andreyansimov5442]

Looks like very useful. But I feel trying to load old game in Win 10 is a pain. I have a nice small collection of old games and planning to play them in future... Other thing is I like to play with 3D sound, so EAX is needed also. I have Audigy card in my PC.

[@DOSStorm]

If I recall there is some kind of hack you can use to get EAX working on newer versions of Windows. I never messed with it myself though and I'm not sure if it still works.

[@mushfiqurrahman-j3k]

i am trying to install codename eagle in windows 10 and error shows 'glide not found'. can you advise?

[@DOSStorm]

I don't know much about that particular game. However, the PC gaming Wiki seems to recommend using using dgvoodoo2 with the DirectX option. Maybe you could try that? www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Codename:_Eagle

[@ud2hb4]

Try DXX-Rebirth for Descent 1+2. It's a source port with OpenGl support.

[@DOSStorm]

Yeah its the best way to play on modern systems!

[@JohnDoe-ip3oq]

@@DOSStorm glide for descent 2 was an incomplete beta version that didn't actually support shading the robots. Only descent 1 had working glide support.

[@DOSStorm]

​@@JohnDoe-ip3oq That makes sense. Pretty useless to play it like that anyway since we have DXX rebirth now. Fun to experiment with though.

[@brutapode8939]

Can we even do that with Dosbox-Pure via RetroArch?

[@DOSStorm]

Maybe this will help you: github.com/schellingb/dosbox-pure/#3dfx-voodoo-emulation

[@MADVAN-61636]

nGlide?

[@majas5187]

😄❤️

[@AssemAhmad]

hey man , plz could u find solution for a game called ( Uprising : join or die ) , becusae i bouth it from steam and couldn't play it after i made what u had said , and also a game called MDK

[@DOSStorm]

Do those games use glide? DGvoodoo2 also has a DX renderer you could try which works on lots of different games

[@AssemAhmad]

@@DOSStorm sorry man , cant get what u said , could u explain more ?

[@DOSStorm]

@@AssemAhmad Instead of using the Glide emulation library you can use the DGVoodoo DirectDraw or Direct X emulation. You basically just have to put the Dlls (which will vary depending on the game) in the root of the folder where the games exe is located. You can see more detail on it here: dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/ReadmeDirectX/

[@simonq92]

How to run it on GOG version? There is no 3DFFX setup file

[@DOSStorm]

What game?

[@simonq92]

@@DOSStorm Arabian Nights. Game from my chillhood

[@DOSStorm]

​@@simonq92 It says here they removed the Glide API in the GOG release: www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Arabian_Nights You can easily find the original CD release on archive.org. Not sure if the glide version would be better in this case however. Good luck!

[@simonq92]

@@DOSStorm Thank you in advance. I downloaded it but while i'm going to start installation this message form my system appers "This App Can’t Run on Your PC". I got Windows 10

[@DOSStorm]

@@simonq92 The installer is probably 16-bit(won't work natively on 64bit Windows). You might be able to use the OTVDM to run the installer(I have a video on that). However, you are probably better off using the Direct X API in the GOG version.

[@Karl-me4mh]

Trying to download from your link, windows defender detects a virus. Downloading from another source was clean.

[@DOSStorm]

Odd...it's the official website for DGvoodoo. Its probably a false positive as Windows/Chrome is picky about dll files. Maybe I will switch the link to the Github page.

[@Karl-me4mh]

@@DOSStorm Well, I got it working anyway 😊. Dark Forces 2 - Jedi Knight. I had to copy the Files from the MS/x86 folder for Direct3D + the dgVoodooCpl.exe into the JediKnight folder. Now I can play that old game like I used to back in the day. Works even with the steam version. 🥰 So, thank you.

[@DOSStorm]

@@Karl-me4mh Glad I could help! 🙂

[@aelahn]

0:45 game name?

[@DOSStorm]

Descent II

[@phrtza]

What about Linux?

[@DOSStorm]

You can use dgvoodoo2 in WINE. For some games you may have to use the dlloverrides for WINE. As far as DOS games, DOSbox-X has a native Linux version so it should work pretty much the same. I haven't used Linux heavily in quite some time though.

[@tidzej5400]

I recommend nglide + wine for voodoo emulation on linux. It works for me with a lot of games. For DOS 3dfx emu on linux i recommend... Nglide + wine + dosbox-x Windows version. It really works!

[@RandSilva79]

I prefer NGlide for Windows games.

[@DOSStorm]

Just curious, for what reason exactly? I find DGvoodoo 2 is more tweakable

[@RandSilva79]

@@DOSStorm Simplicity. It just works! No need to worry copying files or configuring the wrapper, just install and everything works like a real 3Dfx system.

[@DOSStorm]

@@RandSilva79 that's true

[@FlashThunder_]

ever heard about DOSBox? dude... you're still in 90's I guess...

[@DOSStorm]

Wha? I mentioned DOSbox in the video.

[@williamfranklin860]

I have a custom 486 with parts from 1994-1996, and an upgraded Gateway P3 from 1999 AND use Dosbox and 86box.

[@JohnDoe-ip3oq]

Please don't use dgvoodoo for anything. It's the worst. NGlide works better, same with any alternative for dgvoodoo, like directx stuff. The program is a broken nightmare and barely works. Glide is probably the best working on DG, but you don't really need it. Good dosbox SVN builds will include their own glide support. DG is essentially useless for most use cases, and broken for fixing old directx games. If you buy off GOG, they include all the fixes ootb.

[@DOSStorm]

It definitely isn't perfect, but I'd had pretty good success with it. I've used it with Croc(GLIDE) and No One Lives Forever(DX) with good success. I prefer it over Nglide because you don't have to modify Windows system files to use it and it offers some modern enhancements.

[@marcello4258]

Worst advice in the internet; Download this run it as an admin 😂😂 Windows und mac user ☕️