MY 3D BLASTER PCI EXPERIENCE

I must confess, I am a die-hard gamer. From action games to strategy games to plain old shoot-em-up games, I like them all and I play them all. But personally, Duke Nukem3D and Warcraft II were my favorites till I saw Quake in action.

I never saw so much blood, gore and destruction in any game before, and the funny thing was I enjoyed it! It wasn't just the blood and gore. Quake is a true 3D game. Making use of a 3D engine, Quake depicts its characters in three dimensional - you actually see monsters with legs, arms and weapons! The lighting used in the game is simply superb. You could see the bright trail of your rocket moving with it as you fire into the distance. Yeah, sure you would still see the pixels in the monsters' face if you take a close-up view of the monsters. But why would you want to take a closer view unless you want to get killed? But believe me, Quake isn't a simple game to play, especially with monsters hurling grenades and shooting lightning bolts at you.

Initial Skepticism
The first time I heard about 3D Blaster PCI was when I read that there was going to be a special 3D version of Quake. I was pretty skeptical about its capabilities especially when I heard about so many negative discussions and rumors about other 3D boards. Colorful packages with fancy names didn't help either. From Stealth to Righteous to Rage, they sounded more like mood swings than computer peripherals! To me, 3D Blaster seemed like another one of those over-hyped products. That was until I saw a 3D Blaster accelerated version of Quake at a computer shop! I never imagined that Quake could get any better but this 3D Blaster version took my breath away. For starters it was fast, and I mean really fast! The game was running at 640x480 resolution, yet it was moving close to 30 frames per second. This would have been impossible on my Pentium 133! That was enough to get me hooked. And I ended up buying the 3D Blaster.

3D Blaster Quake
When I played the 3D Blaster accelerated version of Quake on my computer, I really saw the difference. You could see the ogre snarled at you as he sliced you with his chain saw or the Death Knight swinging his wicked sword at you! No longer did I see plain pixelized graphics, instead everything (and I mean everything!) was texture mapped. Even when I went up close to a wall, the texture mapping was so realistic that it seemed that you could touch it! It was simply incredible - high resolution graphics combined with fine details yet performing at 30 frames per second!

SOFTWARE QUAKE

3D BLASTER QUAKE

Other 3D Blaster Games
Like Quake, I played the Toshinden software version before and was skeptical about the 3D enhanced version. But after trying out, the 3D Blaster Toshinden turned out to be excellent, with great graphics and great frame rates! The characters were carefully detailed, the sky was cool and even the ground had texture mapping!

3D Blaster version of Flight Unlimited changed my opinion of flight simulator games. I had never quite like flight simulator games where they made me fly around doing nothing, with nothing spectacular to see. That was until I played the 3D Blaster version of Flight Unlimited. The 3D enchanced version was simply breathtaking! I thought it was too good to be true. As I flew, I enjoyed the picturesque view of the rocky mountains, clear blue skies and green forests.

Rebel Moon, another of Doom like kind of games, is based on a futuristic scenario. I was awed by the graphics! Not even Quake came close to it as the graphics was designed with a futuristic feel. However, the gameplay was pretty lacking. I wouldn't have continued playing the game if it wasn't for the graphics. I guess 3D graphics really do make a difference huh?

Hasty but No Regrets
OK, I admit it. Perhaps I was hasty in buying 3D Blaster without checking its software support. After all, rumors of limited software support did linger in my mind. So I checked out the 3D Blaster titles in Creative's website and my doubts were cleared (to a certain extent I was surprised!). Creative listed more than 50 titles either already available or coming soon. Among them are games like Microsoft's HellBender and Psygnosis' Destruction Derby 2!

Ever since I plugged in my 3D Blaster, I've not turned back. The increased frame rate/resolution with a 3D Blaster has given me a significant advantage and I have zoomed up the QUAKE rankings. Ha! Now my opponents can't keep up with me and I even run rings around them before taking them out with my trusty axe! QUAKE will never be the same without my 3D Blaster!

Next time you play Quake over the Internet, watch out or you may be blown away by my 3D Blaster!