PowerVR Series 1: PCX 1, 2 old screenshots

[Davros]

Rave racer, is that the super top secret game that simon cant mention less modern civilization will come to an end ?

 

[vetz]

Let me say that OMD's "Stay" makes a good track to accompany a driving game.

That is actually a nice driving song, not just for gaming but driving in general

That was many PCs ago. Doubt any harddisks of that era still exist let alone working hardware.

That is too bad You mention earlier in this thread that it would require some SGL rebuilding to work on the PCX2. So in theory, if a copy of the demo were to surface after all these years, would it run on the Midas3 or the PCX1, or would these also require rebuilding?

Do you have any information of why it was shelved by NAMCO?

You should write down the things you know about the early history of PowerVR, seems that you know more than a thing or two

 

[Davros]

He is, it should be ready by the year 2024
or should that be started by the year 2024

 

[Simon F]

That is too bad You mention earlier in this thread that it would require some SGL rebuilding to work on the PCX2. So in theory, if a copy of the demo were to surface after all these years, would it run on the Midas3 or the PCX1, or would these also require rebuilding?

Good question. Hmm. Rave Racer** was running within Windows 95 so it will (should?) have been using the SGL DLLs, and so that aspect should be independent of Midas3/PCX1/PCX2. The one thing I can think of that might cause issues is that I seem to recall that Midas1&2 took the 2D card's output as input and used chroma key to know where to display the 3D - but take that with a grain of salt. It was a long time ago.

**There, mentioned it. Davros's universe has now collapsed to a singularity.

Do you have any information of why it was shelved by NAMCO?

No idea. Sorry

You should write down the things you know about the early history of PowerVR, seems that you know more than a thing or two

Before it leaks out of my brain?

He is, it should be ready by the year 2024
or should that be started by the year 2024

Cheeky monkey.

 

[cjo]

Cheeky monkey.

Cheeky but not entirely inaccurate?

 

[Megadrive1988]

mmmmm Rave Racer, runs at 30fps according to the Next Generation article, and the video.

 

[Simon F]

I don't remember the details but that seems quite feasible. The Midas1 had a 60Mhz clock and it was probably only targeting VGA resolution.

 

[Megadrive1988]

I don't remember the details but that seems quite feasible. The Midas1 had a 60Mhz clock and it was probably only targeting VGA resolution.

The original Namco System 22 arcade Rave Racer used a screen resolution of 640x480 @ 60fps with higher resolution textures than arcade Ridge Racer or Ridge Racer 2.

Besides the CPU and DSPs the System 22 renderer was provided by Evans & Sutherland in the form of the TR³ (Texture Mapping Real-Time Real-Visual Rendering System) chip or chipset. This was no doubt equivalent to the Martin Marietta texture mapping chips in Sega's Model 2 boards.

I don't know anything about the Midas1 but I assume that's a prototype of the PowerVR PCX1 or the PowerVR arcade chip.

IIRC Namco was rumored to have a rival to the Sega Model 3 board called System 33 using a MIPS CPU and four PowerVR prototype arcade chips.

Perhaps you can shed some more light on this, if you remember, I know it's been many years now!

 

[Davros]

If your lucky simon may have promised to write an article about it shortly after it was released. If that is in fact the case then the article should be close to completion by now.