Recollections of a game bundled with Intel Pentium MMX CPUs

[HwAoRrDk]

I don't know whether this counts as 'vintage', but I guess stuff from the '90s qualifies these days. So I shall ask...

Back sometime in 1996 [Edit: can't have been '96, Wikipedia claims the 166 MMX wasn't released until early '97] 1997 I built a new PC (the first from my own hard-earned cash!), featuring a Pentium 166 MMX processor. The retail boxed edition of the CPU I got came bundled with a game on CD-ROM that was supposed to show off the new MMX capabilities. Pretty sure it was the "Free CD-ROM included with Intel MMX™ Technology" stated on the attached example of a box (200 MHz version there).

I'm trying, but failing, to recall what the name of that game was. All I can remember about it was that it was a first-person shooter with a futuristic space-themed setting. I'm pretty sure it was for DOS, not Windows, because I used Windows 3.1 on that system - Windows 95 had only recently come out (I didn't start using 95 until I later got a Pentium II) and Windows 3.1 games weren't really a thing. The performance of the game was indeed very nice - smoother than Doom, for example - but I remember never playing it much. Possibly because it might have been only a cut-down demo and quite short, or the gameplay was lacklustre (or both).

Does anybody here know of the game?

All research I've done so far points towards it possibly being Rebel Moon, but all the information I've ever found on that says it was optimised for, and only ever bundled with, 3D accelerator cards using the Rendition Vérité 1000 chips. But I definitely have never had such a 3D card.

[Nominal Animal]

Descent?

[HwAoRrDk]

No, definitely not that.

I found some video of Rebel Moon gameplay on YouTube (was difficult to find, as all search results seem to be either about the game's sequel, Rebel Moon Rising, or some new Netflix series with the same name), and it seems vaguely familiar. It definitely has one of the "ooh, that's neat" things I remember: coloured lighting effects. But the footage is definitely from a high(-ish)-res 3D-accelerated engine, which correlates with the purported requirement of a 3D accelerator. And I simply cannot find any information that there may have been another MMX-optimised version of the game bundled with Pentium CPUs.

[SpecialK]

Duke Nukem 3D?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Nukem

[HwAoRrDk]

Duke Nukem!? One of the most widely-known smash-hit games of it's era? You must be joking.

I'm pretty sure that whatever the game was, it wasn't something that was released separately - i.e. could be found on store shelves.

[Kjelt]

Bladerunner perhaps ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_(1997_video_game)

[HwAoRrDk]

Okay, now I'm confused. After searching around the forums on Vogons.org, I find discussion on the fact that Rebel Moon Rising was specifically optimised for MMX. And in fact the box art does carry the Intel MMX branding, and proclaims "A first-person 3D sci-fi adventure designed exclusively for Intel MMX technology".

But that game was for Windows 95, and I really, really do not recall using 95 at that time on that machine. I wonder now whether the bundled game was indeed Rebel Moon Rising, but some kind of earlier limited DOS version of what would become a full commercial release.

[HwAoRrDk]

Holy shit, it was Rebel Moon Rising, according to this Intel press release:

Each Pentium OverDrive processor with MMX technology will also include a CD ROM sampler featuring a free MMX technology software application, "Rebel Moon Rising" from Fenris Wolf, and several demos of other applications designed for MMX technology.

Although that talks about Pentium OverDrive, no doubt the same was for regular Pentium MMX CPUs.

WTF, my mind is playing tricks on me. I could swear up and down and on several deities that I never used Windows 95 until later, on a newer Pentium II PC.

[Kjelt]

So now you know.
Now what ? 

[macboy]

So now you know.
Now what ? 

Now he sleeps at night without stressful dreams of nameless 25 year old FPS games.

[John B]

So now you know.
Now what ? 

Now he sleeps at night without stressful dreams of nameless 25 year old FPS games.

Can relate.

I remember this piece of music from the installation program for some modern warfare RTS game. I've tried to remember what it is for around, oh 7+ years I'd guess.

If I ever find it again, it probably wont even be as good as I remember.

[HwAoRrDk]

I remember this piece of music from the installation program for some modern warfare RTS game. I've tried to remember what it is for around, oh 7+ years I'd guess.

^ This guy gets it.

Yes, I am sleeping much more soundly now.

[xmris]

I remember this piece of music from the installation program for some modern warfare RTS game. I've tried to remember what it is for around, oh 7+ years I'd guess.

just search for "installer music", lots of links

[2N2222A]

Could Rebel Moon have been placed on the CD as well? I read that the CD had other games on it too. Rebel Moon is a DOS game that looks a bit like DOOM. Here is the game on an abandonware site: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/rebel-moon-7qw