Frequently Asked Questions

1) What is the Game Wizard?

Game Wizard™ is the fastest Mac 3D game accelerator on the market. Incorporating 3Dfx Interactive™ Voodoo2™ technology, the Game Wizard offers PCI Mac® and iMac™ users the opportunity to enjoy best possible gaming performance available at a reasonable price.

2) Fast? How fast?

Imagine full-screen 3D graphics, with really deep textures and in real time.
Imagine speed three times faster than Voodoo™ equipped cards.
Add Macintosh drivers that are compatible with your PowerMac™, your new G3 or your iMac.
We?re talking arcade-quality gaming on your Mac.
SCREAMING fast... Arcade Magic!™

3) What does the Game Wizard do?

Let?s answer that by talking about what the Game Wizard doesn?t do.

The Game Wizard is installed between the 2D graphics source (card or built-in) and the monitor. When not being 'called' by a game, it sits idle and the graphics display passes through to the monitor untouched. It cannot affect, control or be integrated into the desktop because the desktop is defined before its even seen by the Game Wizard.

The only time this chipset is active is when a game 'calls' it. Then, it accelerates the bezonkers out of that full-screen 3D game!

It is the best possible 3D game accelerator you can buy. (Neither this card nor any other Voodoo2 card is designed to provide 3D in a window.)

4) What?s the big deal with Voodoo2?

3Dfx?s Voodoo2 is the latest generation of Voodoo Graphics™, It is the only full-screen 3D-only solution availble for your iMac

Voodoo2 is designed for the serious game player who demands the highest performance. Voodoo2 is an expandable architecture with a base configuration of a 192-bit memory architecture and 2.2 Gigabyte per second of memory bandwidth, delivering over 50 BOPS (Billions of Operations per Second). This configuration delivers an incredible 3 million triangles per second and 90 million dual-textured, bilinear-filtered, per-pixel MIP-mapped, alpha-blended, Z-buffered pixels per second, over three times the performance of Voodoo cards!

5) Is the Game Wizard G3 Compatible?

Yep. One-hundred percent.

6) What is the minimum CPU speed you recommend with the Game Wizard?

None. There is no such thing as a PCI Mac that is too slow to run these games when a Game Wizard is installed.

The Game Wizard will work on any PowerMac with a PCI slot. It is fully G3 compatible. Even on a 601-based PowerMac, the Game Wizard will accelerate game graphics to blinding speed.

Furthermore, much of the improvement derived from the parallel processing of the Voodoo2 is CPU independent. Regardless of the perceived performance by measuring everything in frames per second, there is more than speed at play here ? your eyes see depth as well.

Your Game Wizard will create images that are much more elegant and real, even when the images are standing still. You would probably never be able to see these improved backgrounds and images without the Game Wizard.

Of course, if the game itself requires a faster processor, there?s not much we can do.

And, obviously, a faster processor allows the games to push the Game Wizard to higher performances.

7) Why does the Game Wizard cost more than PC Voodoo2 cards?

Economies of scale. Our goal is to bring Mac gamers the best quality cutting-edge technology at a reasonable price.

While Voodoo2 Cards for PCs do cost less, they can not be used on a Mac without a Mac driver. We have specifically optimized both our hardware and software for the Mac.

We are currently the only manufacturer providing Voodoo2 for Macintosh. The Game Wizard offers the fastest and highest quality arcade graphics available and is optimized for the Mac.

8) What?s the difference between the 8MB and the 12MB versions of Game Wizard?

The 8MB version is for the iMac while the 12MB version is for Macs with an available PCI slot.

9) How does the Game Wizard [Voodoo2] compare with Banshee™?

Banshee will not perform as well for gaming as Voodoo2. 3Dfx states the difference is significant. Not only will Voodoo2 outperform Banshee in 'fps' scores for the most demanding (and popular) Mac 3D games, but in many cases the depth of the graphics environment will be more detailed. Voodoo2 is better than Banshee, for gaming, both objectively and subjectively. Therefore, anyone wanting to play games should get Voodoo2 and anyone for whom 3D-in-a-window is more important could use Banshee.

10) Is the Game Wizard compatible with existing Glide and RAVE games?

Yes. Games which properly implement either the Glide or RAVE API are supported.

Mac games that support 3Dfx's MacGlide (Glide for Mac) or QuickDraw® 3D RAVE will take advantage of the Game Wizard. It supports either Voodoo or Voodoo2. If the game looks for 3D acceleration through MacGlide or QuickDraw 3D RAVE, and follows those APIs, then the Game Wizard will support their calls and work its butt off accelerating those games.

11) Will any games be bundled with the Game Wizard?

Not at this time. We are trying to minimize the Game Wizard's cost to the Mac Community.

12) Will your Mac drivers support SLI?

SLI stands for Scan Line Interlace and adds yet again a significant performance boost when utilized. Two cards with the same memory (i.e. two 8MB or two 12MB cards) are placed in side-by-side PCI slots and bridged with an internal ribbon cable. Now, you?re running two parallel chipsets with six processors!

To answer your question, yes ? but not yet.

All Game Wizards will ship SLI capable; however, the software will come later. Early users will pay no penalty. Every Game Wizard will be able to be used in SLI mode when the software is released. Software upgrades will be free.

13) Will the Micro Conversions Game Wizard?s Mac drivers work with any other Mac or PC Voodoo2 or Voodoo cards?

Nope.

The Mac drivers for Voodoo2 will not work with any card other than the Game Wizard. The Game Wizard?s hardware and software are integrated to provide optimized performance on the Mac.

14) Is Micro Conversions the only company manufacturing a Voodoo2 card for the Mac?

Yes. Currently, we are the only Company shipping a Voodoo2 card for the Mac.

15) Were the Mac drivers developed internally? Did you work with 3Dfx?

Yes to both. We developed our Mac drivers for Voodoo2 internally and worked very closely with 3Dfx. We have been developing Mac graphics & video drivers since 1986, longer than anyone else [except Apple].

16) What made you decide to work on a game card for the Mac?

Steve Jobs has made a commitment to the Mac as a game platform. Most games are developed on the Mac. As a company, we are in the process of expanding our line of Value Packed MacOS graphics & video products. A 3D gaming card is part of our full line-up and the timing of Voodoo2 is perfect for our plans. Since 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics is the best possible 3D game solution, and the Voodoo2 is so much better than Voodoo, we just couldn't resist making this product part of our offering to the Mac community!

17) How does the Game Wizard out-perform Voodoo cards?

With 192-bit memory architecture and parallel processing, Voodoo2 provides three times the raw POWER of the original Voodoo chipset.

Any slow-downs users currently experience in higher resolutions or texture depths/choices will be greatly reduced or even disappear totally!

More people will be able to enjoy their games at higher quality levels.

Also, now that the standard has been raised and more power is available, new games will be able to offer even greater game performances.

A Mac with a Game Wizard is the best possible configuration for game playing!

18) What is Micro Conversions?

Micro Conversions, Inc. is a Mac-only developer providing award winning solutions to the Mac community since 1985.

For more than 10 years, we only sold through Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), which means that ?brand name? companies took our products and sold them under their labels. If you?ve used a Mac for very long, chances are you?ve used our product(s).

In addition to the Game Wizard, we sell Video Wizards (VP-VW4M-PCI), 2MB & 4MB PCI Graphics with Video-Out (VP-2/4M-PCI), NuBus graphics (2124NBII... only one left in current production) and PDS Graphics (1724PD... only one left in current production).

19) Why the change? Why are you selling these products under your own name?

To offer Macintosh users a better value for their money while maintaining more control of our products within our community.

We?re selling the latest graphics and video products for the Mac at a price aimed at ?the rest of us.'

As the technology matures, we?ll continue to enhance our cards, while maintaining low competitive pricing. By cutting out one level of middleman, we?re able to offer as low a price as possible on all of our products.

Finally, since our name is on the box, we?ll be able to make sure that all the latest drivers and software updates are available (for free) to our customers directly and immediately through our web-site.

Voodoo2, Voodoo, 3Dfx Interactive and Voodoo Graphics are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of 3Dfx Interactive, Inc. Macintosh, Mac and QuickDraw are registered trademarks of Apple Computer Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. PowerMac is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Game Wizard and Arcade Magic! are trademarks of Micro Conversions, Inc. All rights reserved.