Complex computer games require significant computer resources, especially when it comes to video and memory. The Matrox Impression Plus (Matrox Graphics, (514) 685-2630) delivers the hardware performance features--3-D functions, accelerated motion video, and a 64-bit graphics engine--that a serious player demands.
The Impression Plus ($499) ships with MGA 3D-SuperPack, a CD filled with 3-D images, games, and demonstrations. The bundled 3-D games promote the promise of the MGA series as a platform for 3-D development. In 47-Tek's Sento, four battle lords from different zones of time, space, and dimension fight for supremacy of the astral plane. Their assortment of moves is fairly primitive, generally limited to a few basic attacks. But the characters are beau
tifully rendered, and they can freely maneuver in 3-D space. Ice Hawk, a jet-fighter simulation game, is also limited in functionality, but it displays intricate models of enemy planes and the 3-D terrain of the ice planet Valkor.
You wouldn't buy the Impression Plus just for the bundled MGA 3D-SuperPack, but it is a nice freebie, and it shows the power of the MGA board as a video subsystem.
Flexible C++
Matthew Wilson
My approach to software engineering is far more pragmatic than it
is
theoretical--and no language better exemplifies this than C++.
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