Voodoo 2 12mb in Powermac 6500?

[RadRacer203]

So I've been starting to gather some bits and pieces for this 6500/250, and the plan is to put in a comm slot II ethernet card (gotta find one), an accelerator (need one of those), a usb card and a 12mb voodoo 2 I have laying around. I was just wondering if it's possible to use it in this 6500 and how to flash the bios, what drivers I need, etc. It's a Creative CT6670 if that makes a difference.

 

[jessenator]

IIRC there's an old LGR video where he talked about using special system extensions (on 6400) that enables you to use an un-flashed 3dfx card.

You'll probably need an extension for the video passthrough, depending on the card.

 

[RadRacer203]

Oh cool! Any idea if those extensions are archived anywhere?

 

[Daniël]

IIRC there's an old LGR video where he talked about using special system extensions (on 6400) that enables you to use an un-flashed 3dfx card.

He's mistaken on the "flashing" part, as the Voodoo cards prior to the standalone (2D + 3D) cards don't have any sort of ROM. A standalone card would need it, as the computer needs to be able to use it at BIOS or OpenFirmware level, but the Voodoo 1 and 2 have no such requirements, as they aren't used until the 3DFX driver calls upon it for 3D acceleration.

 

[RadRacer203]

He's mistaken on the "flashing" part, as the Voodoo cards prior to the standalone (2D + 3D) cards don't have any sort of ROM. A standalone card would need it, as the computer needs to be able to use it at BIOS or OpenFirmware level, but the Voodoo 1 and 2 have no such requirements, as they aren't used until the 3DFX driver calls upon it for 3D acceleration.

Oh cool, haven't heard that before but that's good to know! Guess I just need the drivers for OS 9 then

 

[macuserman]

Oh cool, haven't heard that before but that's good to know! Guess I just need the drivers for OS 9 then

Won’t you have to use two pci slots though? Not sure if the voodoo2 can be driven from the internal graphics so you might need another pci graphics card. Not sure if that’s the best choice in a 6500 with limited pci slots esp if you want that usb card etc.

 

[macuserman]

Won’t you have to use two pci slots though? Not sure if the voodoo2 can be driven from the internal graphics so you might need another pci graphics card. Not sure if that’s the best choice in a 6500 with limited pci slots esp if you want that usb card etc.

Ignore that I just watched the video above apparently you can just use the built in graphics who knew!

 

[chelseayr]

macuserman indeed, you just basically need something with 2D support and enough vram to handle the wanted screen resolution&colour then otherwise the 3D aspect including textures is handed off to the card itself

(this isn't a perfect description I know but just trying to keep it shortly simple!)

 

[RadRacer203]

Planning on piping the internal graphics into the voodoo with an adapter, then adapting it back to the apple plug so I can use my Apple monitor. Then the other slot of gonna be usb, then I'll have to get a comm slot ethernet card

 

[chelseayr]

radracer203 just as a side footnote they were a small niche but there indeed were actually some companies that either sold conventional voodoo2 cards with a bundled da15>de15 cable just long enough to chain to the onboard port and an adapter for your monitor's cable, or even eg villagetronic/etc sold cards that had da15 ports onboard instead

so you doing (from the sound of it) cable adapters twice isn't unusual in any way after all

 

[Unknown_K]

Unless I am mistaken the Voodoo board takes over video output when games are fired up so you can just use 2 monitors and not need the dongle video cable.

 

[RadRacer203]

Unless I am mistaken the Voodoo board takes over video output when games are fired up so you can just use 2 monitors and not need the dongle video cable.

Not the voodoo 2, it's a 3d accelerator only, doesn't do its own video output at all

 

[RadRacer203]

Does anyone have a link to download the extensions for a voodoo 2? I found a website where they are supposed to be but it seems to be down. Got some adapters and a longer cable on the way!

 

[chelseayr]

would this already be of help radracer203?

3Dfx Voodoo Drivers (1,2,3,4,5) + Utilities, Flash Roms - Macintosh Garden

This driver is for a PC Voodoo2 in your Power Mac with a PCI slot-no emulators!

macintoshgarden.org

cheers

 

[RadRacer203]

Perfect! I feel stupid, everything is on there and I forget about that website EVERY TIME lol

 

[Unknown_K]

Not the voodoo 2, it's a 3d accelerator only, doesn't do its own video output at all

So the second monitor would be blank until the game starts.

 

[Byrd]

Not the voodoo 2, it's a 3d accelerator only, doesn't do its own video output at all

You’ll need a second monitor - a small 15” LCD would be perfect. No way you’re going to be able to use the internal monitor as input without a lot of hackery.

I’ve used a Voodoo 1 in a 6500 and it really gives gaming a new lease of life on the machine. Unreal, Quake engine games run well. Put another fan nearby the card as they get hot, but just a small amount of circulating air is enough.

 

[RadRacer203]

So the second monitor would be blank until the game starts.

Huh? You plug the onboard video into the voodoo 2 and then it goes out to the monitor. It's just a passthrough. Unless you have a video signal going in you get nothing coming out

 

[RadRacer203]

You’ll need a second monitor - a small 15” LCD would be perfect. No way you’re going to be able to use the internal monitor as input without a lot of hackery.

I’ve used a Voodoo 1 in a 6500 and it really gives gaming a new lease of life on the machine. Unreal, Quake engine games run well. Put another fan nearby the card as they get hot, but just a small amount of circulating air is enough.

I've got adapters ordered to let me use the original monitor I got with the machine, a Multiple Scan 15 if I remember correctly. Definitely gonna do something about the cooling especially since it's gonna have a cpu upgrade too. Should be a really fun machine with the voodoo

 

[jessenator]

Huh? You plug the onboard video into the voodoo 2 and then it goes out to the monitor. It's just a passthrough. Unless you have a video signal going in you get nothing coming out

Exactly.

I don't know how other posters got on this tangential speculation that the passthrough cards won't work until a supported 3d-accelerated title is being run...maybe the comment about ROM flashing got them confused, IDK. That's neither here nor there, because the focus is 3D accelerator cards, not graphics driver cards.

This is very quite straightforward. Yes, a standalone 3dfx graphics driver cards need to be ROM flashed to work with open firmware Macs, but passthrough cards like this one do exactly that: passes through the video signal from the on-board graphics chipset, just like in the video. The Voodoo2 accelerator OP has needs a graphics driver (either in the shape of a graphics card or on-motherboard chipset) or it won't work. A second display would be completely pointless here.