Over the past few days, I’ve been spending some quality time with my latest retro build for native MS-DOS 6.22 gaming. The system consists of an ASUS SP97-V motherboard, an Intel Pentium-S 100 MHz, 16MB of EDO RAM, a S3 TrioV+ graphics card, and a 3dfx Voodoo 1 for hardware acceleration.
My main goal is to utilize Glide under MS-DOS to play early 3D games. Classics like Tomb Raider or Screamer 2, but also games like the original Grand Theft Auto. It’s important to understand that most 3dfx-enabled DOS titles require a period correct Glide driver file right in their game directory. Usually, simply copying the GLIDE2X.OVL into the game folder and launching the game is enough. With Grand Theft Auto 1, however, that wasn’t the only hurdle to get it running on the Voodoo 1. To save some of you the hassle of troubleshooting, I’ve summarized the stumbling blocks below:
I did my first test run with GTA using the GLIDE2X.OVL from the latest 3.01.00 driver package from 1999. When launching the game, there was no error message, but the screen just turned a static blue and there was no game audio. I suspected that the driver version was simply too new.
After a bit of research, I found the right GLIDE2X.OVL for GTA: the version from the 2.43 driver package seems to be the most compatible for MS-DOS. Many forum users report having zero issues with this specific driver version. The GTA menu loaded flawlessly, but as soon as I tried to start the actual game, I got the error message FATAL ERROR: UNABLE TO LOAD DLL. This was strange, since this driver was supposed to be compatible.
After testing several other drivers with all leading to the exact same result, I was almost ready to give up until I took a look at the game’s README file. It states that the developers “recommend” at least 32MB of RAM for running the game in 3dfx mode. Now, a recommendation is usually a far cry from a hard requirement, right? Think again: after upgrading the system to 32MB of EDO RAM, the game booted without a hitch.
In summary, the following two things are absolutely essential to get GTA running in 3dfx mode under MS-DOS:
1. GLIDE2X.OVL version 2.43 must be located in the GTADOS directory.
2. The system must absolutely have at least 32MB of RAM.
You can download the correct driver right here: GLIDE2X.OVL