For many emulation fans, finding something capable of playing Windows based games from around 1998 onwards has been a bit of a chore. Some gamers have resorted to building their own vintage systems, however, there's a new solution now on offer known as PCem - an old computer emulator capable of running the more high-end early Windows titles.
Similar to DOSBox, PCem allows you to determine how powerful this faux system in memory is, even down to which specific graphic and sound cards you want to use. This in turn provides an empty skeleton system to which you can install an older version of Windows to and then play the games (and software) of your choice.
One of the more recent breakthroughs with PCem though is compatibility with the old 3Dfx graphics cards which revolutionised the PC gaming world overnight in 1997. 3Dfx allowed the once chunky polygonal based games to feature smoothed out 3D models and visuals - something the consoles didn't quite offer for another few years. After this point plenty of games were shipped as 3Dfx exclusives and ever since they've remained a real pain to emulate or play again, at least until PCem arrived.
While this new build of PCem with 3dfx compatibility isn't available to publicly download, builds of it have been circulating amongst developers who have been sharing the results on YouTube. To showcase how good PCem is getting at emulating this era of desktop gaming, check out Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Need For Speed III running flawlessly below:
PCem Emulator Running 3Dfx Games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjMClMlPln8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxUGwwTG2Wo
Link: PCem Introduces 3Dfx Emulation
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