QEMU MDK 1 & 2 (1997, 2000) (EAX) -- From Install to Play in 15 Mins
25Shiny Entertainment MDK (1997) and the sequel Bioware MDK 2 (2000) were both interesting PC games in nostalgia for the late 90's. An intriguing nick of Murder, Death, Kill, the game spotted a unique variety of play style among the early PC 3D games. Debut in 1997 the early era of uncertainty of PC 3D technology, the game was made into both DOS/Windows playable through software renderer and the later with 3Dfx Glide, PowerVR, Rendition Verite and Direct3D support for the onset of PC 3D revolution. The Direct3D version of the game was even playable for the notorious S3 ViRGE 3D "decelerator", thanks to its reduced rendering view port centered at 600x360. Though the 3Dfx Glide version was highly favorable at time of release, the Direct3D version would later catch up in quality by supporting 512x512 large texture beyond the capabilities of 3Dfx Voodoos. Fast forward to modern days, it turned out to be the BEST version for QEMU featuring qemu-3dfx retro gaming on modern PCs.
QEMU featuring qemu-3dfx fully leverages OpenGL FBO blitting within WineD3D for up-stretched rendering, also includes support for "DisplayROI" to restore FULL-sized, ZERO pillars borders for Good OLD games, delivering the unmatched retro gaming experience that surpasses genuine, period-correct retro PC boxes. "DisplayROI" isn't an entirely new concept, dgVoodoo2 incorporated the same feature long ago for both 3Dfx Glide and DirectX wrapping. Taking advantages of WineD3D underlying OpenGL FBO blitting support for Direct3D, the same idea is now realized for QEMU WineD3D within VMs.
Thankfully, MDK (1997) system requirement is paltry by modern standard, for its reduced view port and fixed 640x480 rendering. Even the "other camp" CPU brute-force emulation approach should have little trouble playing the game at full speed on S3 ViRGE or any 3Dfx Voodoos. However, those maniacs at **Accuracy \*BS\*** would care less in taking further steps for enhancing game experience in borderless, FULL-sized view port of Good OLD games. The typical, simple excuse, -- "It is NOT accurate."🤣 Yes, it is.
MDK 2 (2000) Bioware chose OpenGL as the game renderer for GPU vendors agnostic support. QEMU MESAGL is prime for such game, delivers the BEST & HIGHEST quality on any modern PCs/Laptops in the past 7 years. The game also featured EAX 3D audio support and with QEMU CPU virtualization DSOAL/OpenAL-Soft fully realizes EAX audio within QEMU VMs without the *\*BS\** of SoundBlaster emulation. Oh, I have almost forgotten to mention that MDK (1997) spotted Aureal A3D support in the later patches. Perhaps the "other camp" could have showcase their Ensoniq AudioPCI or SoundBlaster 128 PCI emulation in A3D 1.0 along the fantastic Voodoos emulation with Pentium II 400MHz on 125W Core i9-13900KF for an amazing MDK play-through.🤣
There isn't so much to say about MDK 2, since the game also has a modern HD Remaster in 2011 that should have been more appealing for modern gameplay. Nevertheless, these classics will always be remembered, fully preserved and restored to perfection, in pristine condition and without any funky 3rd-party patches or unexplained cults to play on modern machines.
As always, THANK YOU for those supporting qemu-3dfx and Game Preservation. There is absolutely NO **Accuracy \*BS\***, just FUNs and SUPERB retro gaming experience on modern Windows, Linux and macOS.
(Murder, Death, Kill -- Yeah, PCem is 0xDEAD 🤣)