Regular Sharky Extreme readers will have kept a canny eye on the 3d graphics goings on. The next generation of video cards are making their way
with S3 throwing their hat into the ring with the Savage 2000 and NVIDIA's GeForce 256 nearing a release.
So what about 3dfx?
Recently (before word leaked out that 3dfx most likely will not be making Christmas with their next generation technology chip), we had a chance to toss some questions at Scott Sellers, a Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at 3dfx Interactive. He was kind enough to toss some answers back…
SE: First things First: Do you have a Dreamcast yet?
Scott Sellers: I personally do not own a Dreamcast. Seen folks around the office playing them, though. Some very nice looking games….
SE: With ArtFX doing the chip for Nintendo's Dolphin console, it seems as though there was a group of engineers at 3dfx that wanted to do console chips. Were you ever a part of that group?
Looking back on how things turned out, how do you feel about the fallout with Sega over the Dreamcast project?
Scott Sellers: Yes, I most certainly was one of the ones who originally championed 3dfx designing Sega's next generation game machine. We really felt at the time that having a console utilize our technology really played into our "platform" strategy very nicely. However, during the time of the design, we were a very small company and the amount of resources that it was taking to design the Sega console graphics was really starting to impact our overall PC business. While we were executing ahead of schedule on the Sega design, there is no doubt that our PC products were suffering as a result. So, in reality, it was good for our PC business when we parted ways with Sega. We predicted at the time that a fate of losing the technology edge in the PC business would happen to VideoLogic as a result of getting involved with Sega, and I think Videologic's track record of delivering compelling PC products since has proved our point.
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