Recently, the Sharky Extreme crew was given the chance to tour the Metabyte facilities in Fremont California. We were able to take a peek at their products and technology in action and will use this section to give you an inside look at what's going on at this up and coming hardware player.

Metabyte was founded in 1993 as a software development house, with the majority of the work focused around producing device drivers for over 80% of all video chipset manufacturers. Metabyte still has a close relationship, and is often outsourced for work, by many of these companies. In addition, Metabyte still specializes in Information and MIS Technologies, such as datawarehousing and e-commerce. While Metabyte's specialty is indeed software development, they're arguably best known for their Wicked3D video cards.

Contrary to popular belief, Metabyte's Voodoo 2 card was not their first video card product. Although by no means as popular as their current lineup of products, Metabyte developed and released three video cards prior to their Voodoo 2… almost. Their first two products were the Metabyte GIA and GIA DX, based on S3's Virge and Virge DX chipsets respectively. The S3 Virge chipset was one of, if not the, first 3D accelerator to hit the market, however it was quickly attacked by gamers for its lack of performance and dully labeled the "3D Decelerator". Luckily for Metabyte, their GIA cards escaped the criticism and negative press largely intact. While they weren't made available directly to retailers, the GIA cards sold relatively well to OEM system integrators like Bay Area based Media-On and Polywell.

Metabyte's third video card was based on Oak Technology's Warp 5 graphics processor. Scheduled to ship a few weeks before the first Voodoo 2 card was to be made available on the market, the Wicked3D Warp 5 was officially announced in early December of 1997. Technologically, the Warp 5 was ahead of all chipsets at the time, and would have put Metabyte "on the map". Unfortunately, Oak Technologies, only one day after Metabyte announced the card, divested all interests in their graphics and multimedia division. The Warp 5 never saw the light of day, and Metabyte would have to wait 6 more months before establishing a name for themselves within the gaming community.