Wow, check out those graphics!

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Zack Burner
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Joined: May 3rd, 2019, 6:01 pm

Re: Wow, check out those graphics!

Postby Zack Burner » November 16th, 2020, 1:22 pm

I still remember the day I popped into Sears (RIP), and found Donkey Kong Country and being astonished by the 3D graphics, looking so pre-rendered I just had to play it. I deliberately played bad just to gawk the visuals. Even today those graphics hold up.

The cutscenes in FFVIII were so beautiful even my mother remarked how gorgeous they were!

BanjoPickles
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Joined: June 18th, 2015, 3:05 pm

Re: Wow, check out those graphics!

Postby BanjoPickles » November 16th, 2020, 10:51 pm

Absolutely graphics can still impress. In this past generation alone, the following games have blown my hair back:

-Bloodborne
-Dark Souls III
-Red Dead Redemption 2
-Grand Theft Auto 5

The generation that really blew me away the most, though, was the 16-bit era. It’s interesting, though, because some of the most visually-appealing games weren’t even cutting edge. For example, Prince of Persia on SNES had so much atmosphere to it, for the time, that I hung on to every detail. The same goes for Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, Terminator (Genesis), etc.

ThePixelatedGenocide
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Re: Wow, check out those graphics!

Postby ThePixelatedGenocide » November 16th, 2020, 11:28 pm

To answer the second part of the question:

Image

ImageImage

ImageImage

Yeah, I'm still impressed by modern graphics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfiFBsKi7go
Last edited by ThePixelatedGenocide on November 17th, 2020, 6:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

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ASalvaro
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Re: Wow, check out those graphics!

Postby ASalvaro » November 16th, 2020, 11:35 pm

the Tornado in 18 Wheeler on the Dreamcast STILL looks amazing to this day

thunderjohn
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Joined: June 15th, 2017, 11:59 pm

Re: Wow, check out those graphics!

Postby thunderjohn » November 16th, 2020, 11:41 pm

So many games were awesome graphically back then. Off the top of my head:

Genesis:
Sonic2-3, Alladin, Toy Story, Vectorman, Virtua Racing,Contra:Hard Corps,Gunstar heroes, Panorama Cotton.

SNES:
TMNT,Contra 3,Donkey Kong Country trilogy, Mario kart and rpg,Star fox.

PS1:
Ridge racers, Tekkens, Final Fantasies, Tomb Raiders, Crash Bandicoots, C12, Resident evils.

Saturn:
Panzer dragoon Saga, Sega Rally YEAH,Radiant Silvergun and Sonic R.

N64:
Super Mario 64, Turok, Banjo Kazooie, Zelda OoT,Sin & Punishment,Wave Race 64,1080.

Dreamcast:
Sonic adventures, Code Veronica, Shenmues, Street Fighter 3 3rd strike,Marvel vs Capcom 2, House of the dead 2, Skies of Arcadia.

Gamecube:
Resident evil 0,1 & 4, Twilight Princess, Super Monkeyball,F-Zero GX, Rogue Squadron.

Xbox 360:
Bioshocks, Batmans, Call of duties, Halos etc

newmodelarmy
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Joined: January 16th, 2017, 8:10 pm

Re: Wow, check out those graphics!

Postby newmodelarmy » November 17th, 2020, 5:47 am

I am not sure I agree that graphics fail to impress. I am playing Uncharted 4 on the PS4 (where else?) and the graphics are pretty sick. That said, I do think the changes from generation to generation are becoming more incremental.

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Retro STrife
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Re: Wow, check out those graphics!

Postby Retro STrife » November 17th, 2020, 7:08 am

The one I'll always remember most distinctly is NFL 2K for the Dreamcast. My cousin got it for Christmas in '99 and I remember walking in with other family members to see him playing NFL 2K.. we were all blown away, saying it looked like real life. That's the moment I first realized that realistic graphics were possible in a video game- nothing had looked that close to me before then. It's funny, because now those graphics look nothing like real life when you compare them to modern day graphics. But perspective is everything. And back then, people debated "can graphics really get any better?" Clearly they have, but it's more and more incremental each gen. I used to be impressed every time a new system came out (like playing SNES after only owning an NES, or playing a 3D game for the first time on PS1). That doesn't happen anymore.

These days, it seems like the TV resolutions play a bigger role in improving graphics than the gaming hardware does. 1080p and 4K were the biggest emphasis in the past generation or two, rather than bits and GHz. And to PixelatedGenocide's point, when modern graphics do impress us today, it's more often because of the art design (like Cuphead) than the technical aspects of it.

ThePixelatedGenocide
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Joined: April 29th, 2015, 9:06 pm

Re: Wow, check out those graphics!

Postby ThePixelatedGenocide » November 17th, 2020, 10:04 am

Retro STrife wrote:hese days, it seems like the TV resolutions play a bigger role in improving graphics than the gaming hardware does. 1080p and 4K were the biggest emphasis in the past generation or two, rather than bits and GHz. And to PixelatedGenocide's point, when modern graphics do impress us today, it's more often because of the art design (like Cuphead) than the technical aspects of it.


In defense of the new generation, I'd argue that ray-tracing is nearly as big an improvement to 3d graphics as Rare's pre-rendering was to 2d. We can finally refer to game graphics as just another form of cinematography.

And that's going to lead to dramatic improvements in realism, style, and atmosphere. Every type of artist benefits. Even in indie games, once there's suitable tools available.

Still, the real news is that the industry's finally focused on performance. A stable 60fps everywhere you look? We haven't seen it since the 16-bit era. Think about it: We finally have everything our 90's hearts could have wished for.

Edit: Except decent sports games.

mbd36
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Joined: April 18th, 2015, 10:32 am

Re: Wow, check out those graphics!

Postby mbd36 » November 17th, 2020, 12:48 pm

Soul Calibur and Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast.

Ninja Gaiden for the original XBOX.

icepeople
Posts: 100
Joined: January 23rd, 2020, 2:33 pm

Re: Wow, check out those graphics!

Postby icepeople » November 17th, 2020, 2:13 pm

I'm going with some totally "out there" games I daresay surpass any other programming feats, byte-for-byte: high-resolution games for the 1K ZX81.

Overcoming the 64X48 built-in graphics was a massive feat for a few scatterted 16K titles late in the machine's life and subsequent homebrews like the classic Speccy title Manic Miner (first screenshot). But a 1K ZX81 has only about 760 free bytes and no screen memory map, so just filling the screen with plain text consumes nearly all the memory.

So how on Earth did Dr. Beep (alias who wrote more than 50 1K games) and perhaps a follower or two manage to pull off the games in the other screenshots? Luckily, the Internet Archive has an article I wrote back in 2012 with some details: https://web.archive.org/web/20130916190 ... g=invaders

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