I am assuming they mean RX Vega graphics.

Does System76 solder in the RAM like Lenovo does now? Because that just horrifies me.

EDIT: Nope, RAM is fully upgradeable with two DDR4 slots. Sounds great.

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Quoting: The_AquabatI wasn't that much into linux gaming back in those days but my personal favourite from Loki Software was Soulride snowboard game. I wonder if this machine can handle it?

Soul Ride was released by Linux Game Publishing rather than Loki Software which makes it even harder to find a copy of nowadays. The LGP website does look to be back online as an archive at least so I could try the demo:
https://www.linuxgamepublishing.com/

Quoting: whizse

Quoting: kokoko3kYou really need to get a crt :(

...and as a grand finale to the article series, blow it up using an erroneous xvidtune modeline. Always end with a bang!

If you read my first article you will find I did use a CRT but it was in the process of arcing itself to death. So after risking fire or electrocution I am sticking with the LCD for now.

I had thought of using the ViewSonic Q71 monitor I have as a second head on my main Arch Linux computer through the use of a VGA switch but I am concerned about the loss of picture quality.

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Quoting: furaxhornyxThat nice selection of games brings back good memories

I have access to a number of loose jewel cases and even a few complete Linux game boxes to show in future articles. Not an exhaustive collection but enough to be interesting.

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Quoting: Xaero_VincentDoes internet browsing work at all?

Yes, but also no. Any website secured through HTTPS will not load as the old web browers can not authenticate. You can browse unsecured websites and download files directly through wget and the like.

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Quoting: x_wingProbably a better contender for RH9 is WXP, as the memory usage also went quite up compared to W98.

Indeed. If you go past 512 MB you can run into issues with Windows 98.

Quoting: x_wingBy the way, do you have any bench for your games? Results for runs on Windows (98 & XP) and Linux (RH9 & RH7.3) would be great in order to compare performance on those early gaming days for Linux.

I will be doing some timedemos with Quake at the very least once I settle on a Linux release.

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Quoting: HamishNot a huge difference between my Rage 128 Pro and a Radeon 7000 although both can be made to work with later Red Hat Linux releases. If I were to go that route I would either want to max it out with a Radeon 7500 or just install a later Linux with support for my Radeon 9200.

Sorry to quote myself here, but I just realized there actually is a third option which is using the Radeon 9200 with Red Hat Linux 9 and fglrx 8.28.8 which supports XFree86 4.3 as seen here:
https://www.amd.com/en/support/graphics/legacy-graphics/ati-radeon-9xxx-series/ati-radeon-9200-series

By the time I was using the card fglrx had already dropped support for the Radeon 9200 so it might make a fun article later on just to see what I missed by not using the binary blob.

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Quoting: scaineIt was life-changing. I mean that genuinely - it was the moment that crystallised the potential of PC gaming for me. First I played Deus Ex, then I played Quake.

I am actually a good way through playing Deus Ex again from the Windows 98 install. Performance varies quite a bit depending on the complexity of the level but that is likely as much due to running a Pentium III 500 Katmai as a Rage 128 Pro as Deus Ex is notoriously CPU intensive.

Nice little bit of Linux trivia: if you look at the patch notes from the Deus Ex GOTY release you can see that Loki Software is thanked for supplying the OpenGL renderer for the game. Apparently Loki was very close to releasing the Linux port before they went bankrupt.

Quoting: The_AquabatBut I wonder what would this machine achieve with the latest bleeding edge AGP card ever released, a Radeon HD 4xxx I think

Likely nothing great I would imagine. You would be horribly bottlenecked by both the CPU and RAM and of course not all AGP is created equal. Even my Rage 128 Pro is being held back just a bit by being an AGP 4x card inserted into my motherboard's AGP 2x slot.

Quoting: x_wingBut those game works way better with a Voodoo card?

Well, it depends. But that is a subject for a future article, so I will come back to that later.

Quoting: x_wingI still think that there are better alternatives in the market that should give a way better Linux experience for that time period. For example, in my country I can find a Radeon 7000 for around 5 USD

Not a huge difference between my Rage 128 Pro and a Radeon 7000 although both can be made to work with later Red Hat Linux releases. If I were to go that route I would either want to max it out with a Radeon 7500 or just install a later Linux with support for my Radeon 9200.

Quoting: x_wingin fact, for the price of one Voodoo card I can actually buy 4 to 5 old PCI/AGP GPUs

That I can believe. Again, I am not rushing to get a Voodoo for this exact reason.

Quoting: whizseActually, The Weather Channel used Linux for some project and demanded FLOSS drivers. ATI payed Tungsten Graphics to develop them.

Now that is interesting to find out about. And yeah, Radeon R200 cards were the last to receive Mesa drivers from ATI before they were bought out by AMD.

That being said, things did improve after the AMD buyout as I remember in 2010 I could finally launch both Doom 3 and Penumbra on my Radeon 9200. By that point I had already started using Radeon HD cards though.

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Quoting: x_wing

Quoting: HamishCertainly an interesting option, if I can find my way past the 3dfx tax.

It's pointless. The only "beauty" of a voodoo GPU in a build is glide support, but you can already get it with nglide (and it's probably the way to go on Linux).

Keep in mind we are talking about building a period computer here, so doing it with the original hardware is kind of the whole point of the exercise. Just for the fun of it.

There are also a few commercial games using SVGALib on Linux that will only provide full acceleration with 3dfx hardware. Still not enough to make me shell out hundreds on the dumpster computer though.

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Quoting: BumadarYou can still add a voodoo2 pass through ;)

Certainly an interesting option, if I can find my way past the 3dfx tax.

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A few contemporary articles from early in the development of the DRI:

The Puzzle of 3-D Graphics on Linux
By Matt Matthews and Daryll Strauss published September 1, 2000 (Linux Journal)
https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/4083

Graphics: Pick a Card... Any Card
By Matt Matthews published October 1, 2000 (Linux Journal)
https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/4152

Linux Video Card Comparison - October 2000
By Jeff Brubaker published October 9, 2000 (AnandTech)
https://www.anandtech.com/show/632

A New Generation of 3D Gaming in Linux
By Matt Matthews published October 2000 (LinuxGames)
http://www.linuxgames.com/articles/nextgen3d/

XFree86 4.1.0 and ATI RADEON
By Robin Rowe published November 1, 2001 (Linux Journal)
https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/5425

DRI Beginner's Guide
By Frank Worsley
https://dri.sourceforge.net/doc/DRIbeginner.html

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