Expendable
Expendable is a flashy Direct3D 6 game that was often used to benchmark PCs in 1999 and 2000. Demo versions of the game were distributed with many video cards during this period. Expendable is playable on most Windows 98 systems, but requires a fast video card to run smoothly. It also runs without issues on most Windows XP systems.
Expendable was one of the first games to use bump mapping. It uses a technique called environment mapped bump mapping (EMBM) that was first supported by the Matrox G400 line of video cards. Some Nvidia and ATI cards also support EMBM. Copies of Expendable distributed with Matrox cards use bump mapping more extensively than the retail version. Matrox also released a patch that adds EMBM to the retail version. The original patch only works with Matrox video cards, but has been modified to support other vendors.
At least two demo versions of Expendable were released. Expendable Lite is a pre-release demo with unfinished gameplay mechanics. Another demo, termed Primary Offensive, is mostly identical to the retail version, but only includes four levels. Most physical copies of Expendable for sale online are actually one of these two demo versions, as the CDs are not clearly marked as demos. PCGames9505 recommends only purchasing copies of Expendable that can be visually identified as the full version (see these photos for reference).
To use Expendable as a benchmark, start the game with the -timedemo argument. Timedemo results are saved to a file, timedemo.txt, in the game folder. Note that Expendable is CPU limited on many systems, returning the same frame rate at all resolutions.
Expendable can be controlled using the keyboard, mouse, or joystick. A good keyboard configuration uses the home row keys, with the left hand controlling movement and the right hand controlling actions:
Expendable was one of the first games to use bump mapping. It uses a technique called environment mapped bump mapping (EMBM) that was first supported by the Matrox G400 line of video cards. Some Nvidia and ATI cards also support EMBM. Copies of Expendable distributed with Matrox cards use bump mapping more extensively than the retail version. Matrox also released a patch that adds EMBM to the retail version. The original patch only works with Matrox video cards, but has been modified to support other vendors.
At least two demo versions of Expendable were released. Expendable Lite is a pre-release demo with unfinished gameplay mechanics. Another demo, termed Primary Offensive, is mostly identical to the retail version, but only includes four levels. Most physical copies of Expendable for sale online are actually one of these two demo versions, as the CDs are not clearly marked as demos. PCGames9505 recommends only purchasing copies of Expendable that can be visually identified as the full version (see these photos for reference).
To use Expendable as a benchmark, start the game with the -timedemo argument. Timedemo results are saved to a file, timedemo.txt, in the game folder. Note that Expendable is CPU limited on many systems, returning the same frame rate at all resolutions.
Expendable can be controlled using the keyboard, mouse, or joystick. A good keyboard configuration uses the home row keys, with the left hand controlling movement and the right hand controlling actions:
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