QEMU Classic Retro Games on MacBook Air M1 -- Descent I, II (1995, 1996)(3Dfx)
9Interplay/Parallax Descent I & II (1995, 1996) were superb 3D space-shooter in the 90's on the dawn of PC 3D games era. Both games started as typical DOS games with just the software renderer but spotted SVGA 640x480 high-res at the time. Upon the arrival of 3Dfx Voodoo, both games were revitalized with unofficial 3Dfx Glide patches that vastly improved game performance in full 3D visuals glory.
In modern days, thanks to the release of game engine source code, the Descent series built a strong fans community bringing on many after-life improvements. Hence, the games remain playable through source-ports on modern Windows, Linux and macOS. Both games remain on-sale from GOG, too. Nevertheless, QEMU featuring qemu-3dfx delivers the game experience in retail originality with 3Dfx Glide patch in Windows 98 VM which happened to be the best way to play the games back in the 90's.
Descent I 3Dfx patch upgraded the game into Windows with full NT compatibility, works great on Windows XP VM and support modern game controllers. The minor let-down is the missing of mouse support. Descent II 3Dfx patch retained the game as DOS4GW game. When playing the game on QEMU Windows 98 VM, MIDI music does not work on the VM with AC97, so the CD-music played as BGM through Daemon Tools. On QEMU DOS VM with SoundBlaster 16 emulation, both PCM and MIDI played as usual but not the CD-music, as QEMU CD-ROM emulation does not support CUE/BIN. OpenGLide compatibility is passable but some minor rendering glitches remain. On Windows 10/11, dgVoodoo2 would be perfect.
Both games called for CPU requirement of Pentium 100MHz. These are games that work well even in emulation for any modern CPUs.