Macs Only!

first reviewed the MacPicasso 540 and 3D Overdrive. Now the Mac Gamers Ledge and Tikkabik, two game-oriented sites, have reviewed the graphics accelerator card and 3Dfx module available from The Software Hut for $549.95 bundled.

Reader David Nicolson sent me some Quake fps benchmarks for his PowerComputing PowerCenter Pro 604e/240 MHz using the MacPicasso 540/3D Overdrive combo. They are about 20% higher than I achieved, perhaps due to the PCP's 60 MHz system bus which is 20% faster than my 9600's. Here are David's results:

Frames per Second (fps) for Quake v1.0.8.5 Demo2

Computer/CPU/Video	Resolution	Quake Regular (fps)	Quake RAVE (fps)	Quake 3Dfx (fps)
PowerCenterPro/240/MP540-3DO	640x480	16.1	27.5	27.4
"	800x600	11.6	-	16.6

Did you get an Apple QuickTake 200 like me? Don't pay ridiculous prices for SmartMedia cards. I found that Buycomp.com has 4 MB 5v SmartMedia cards for $24.95, the lowest that I could find, and I bought 2. However, shipping was an excessive $10 for UPS ground bringing the cards' price into line with other vendors. They arrived Thursday, are Simple Technology units and work fine.

From Macs Only!'s Ace Reporter Dana Baggett, a ZDNN article states that "The Justice Department probably won't block Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 98 software from coming out with a version that includes Internet browsing software, the Wall Street Journal said Thursday in its electronic edition. However, citing people close to the case, the Journal said the government may ask a U.S. District Court judge to order Microsoft to also offer a separate Windows 98 version without Internet software."