• lobut@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I remember playing Doom for the first time and I remember thinking that graphics would never get any better than that. Like the arm even moves when he walks!

    How horribly naïve I was.

          • MyFairJulia@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            They did have people dress as the fighters and do poses and then took photos of them and turned these photos into sprites.

            So the game was photorealistic (that is within the technological boundaries of the platforms the game ran on).

            I’d love to see a 2D Mortal Kombat with the original photos taken from what we may consider the OG Mortal Kombat cosplayers.

            • Blastasaurus@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              I think it was the first use of motion capture in a video game.

              It made Street Fighter look so cartoony and childish by comparison.

          • seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 year ago

            I remember Altered Beast having amazing graphics, but it was just memory goggles. I was very disappointed when I got around to firing it up in an emulator.

    • axellenium@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      My peak game i think it was F.E.A.R., my pc couldn’t run it at full but I remember thinking it couldn’t possibly get any better than that

    • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      grew up with c64, spectrum+3, master system, genesis, nes, snes. So when I bought a ps1 with my paper round money and started up the intro to Soul Blade, that would become Soul Calibur, the graphics jump shook me to my core and brought tears to my eyes. I was like "THIS is the peak of graphics. Nothing can beat this.

      Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jscuco8zEk

    • ignism@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I had those moments multiple times. I remember thinking the same about International Karate on the Amiga. Then my mind was blown with Street Fighter II, Max Payne was one for sure as mentioned elsewhere and let’s not forget Carmageddon, which got a little bit too realistic. Graphics technology developed so fast, you can’t compare it to today’s upgrades. As I’m older now 10 year old games still feel “new” to me.

      • DefederateLemmyMl@feddit.nl
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        1 year ago

        As I’m older now 10 year old games still feel “new” to me.

        It’s not just you getting older, it’s also diminishing returns.

        It takes more and more effort, both in manpower as in graphical processing power, to make graphical leaps, and the visible returns are getting less.

        You can compare it to video formats:

        • VHS => DVD: huge quality upgrade
        • DVD => 1080p HD: yeah that definitely looks better
        • 1080p => 4k: I guess it’s a little sharper?
        • 4k => 8k: Well it’s … more. Also: why is everything running so hot?
        • MonkderZweite@feddit.ch
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          1 year ago

          Well, 8k is in allmost all home-usecases useless, 4k a better choice. Except maybe for video walls. Eye resolution is limited by angular resolution (visual acuity).

        • Mythril@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I actually liked 3D movies and I even bought the Nvidia 3D kit to play my PC games in 3D, it was amazing (to me)!

          But it was an imperfect 3D technology that gave many people headaches, so I can understand why it eventually got scrapped.

          I do have a VR headset too, but besides Half-Life Alyx, there haven’t really been any VR games I am so hyped for that I keep going back to play in VR.

      • GenericUsername34@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Agreed. I used to be blown away by a game from a technical standpoint 2-3 times per console generation and at a similar clip on the PC side. Now we are getting GTA V and Skyrim re-released for the 10th time. Neither of those games were groundbreaking at the time (IMO) as they both were good but predictable progressions from their previous entries.

        Playing DKC and seeing the detailed sprites, Mario 64 (and several others) ushering in 3D, the FMVs in FF VII, and the enemy AI in FEAR, these things felt like monumental leaps forward. Nowadays, the closest thing I can think of is something like Elden Ring or TotK which to me is just taking an existing good game (Dark Souls/BotW) and slapping a mechanic onto it (Open world/crafting). They are both excellent games, but neither compare to the leap forward of FF VII or Mario 64.

        Maybe I’m just jaded by adulthood and have my rose tinted glasses on.

    • thingsiplay@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      @lobut I thought Donkey Kong Country on the SNES was photorealistic and rivaled movies like Terminator 2, which used the same technology behind the scenes. I thought every game would look the same as Donkey Kong Country in future.

    • Tylerdurdon@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I remember getting deep into that game, trying to make my own levels with megs of RAM and having things crash. Changing all the sprites on some of the mobs, recording my own sounds and replacing various noises in the game. I learned how to strafe using 100& keyboard (couldn’t look up or down in that game), and dominating the evil. Good time to be a teenager. I still think some of the secret rooms in that game were some of the best.

  • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    No way would that kid be frowning. If this was legitimately in the late 70s or early 80s that kid would be ecstatic with the graphics.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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    1 year ago

    Always so kick ass

    Always?

    Have you seen the cover art for the first MegaMan game? lmao

    Even funnier with the boasting of “state of the art high resolution graphics” at the top. Though to be fair, the actual game looks infinitely better than that cover.

    • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I don’t know which I love better

      1. This isn’t even the right color scheme for the character, so it’s not like they misinterpreted the sprite
      2. Rock over here looks like he shit himself upon seeing a Mettaur and is trying (and failing) to pretend he didn’t.
      3. Mega Man doesn’t even use a gun, he uses a Buster. The only time Mega Man has used a gun are instances that parody this boxart or rare occasions like when his internet incarnation uses the Gun Del Sol during crossover events with Boktai
    • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      Even funnier with the boasting of “state of the art high resolution graphics” at the top.

      At the time, this want really that inaccurate. There weren’t many video games with the same quality.

      The only reason it’s laughable now is because it’s been 35 years since the claim was made.

      • AtomicPurple@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        No, it was inaccurate, even at the time. The Famicom was built to cost and and mainly used cheap off-the-shelf components that were already obsolete when the system first released in 1983. The NES released in North America the same year as the Commodore Amiga, a system that actually was cutting edge, and represented a big leap forward in what home computers could do graphically. By the time Mega Man released, the Amiga was on it’s second revision and other home computers were rapidly catching up to it’s capabilities.
        While Mega Man was one of the best games on the NES, it ran at the same resolution as every other game on the system, and was stuck working within the same limited color palette and low sprite limit that were more than five years behind the curve when it released.

    • Mythril@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Looking at this cover art again now, it kinda reminds me of AI-generated art lol

      • NotSteffen@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I love bashing AI art but in AI art it’s usually the details that you spot at second glance that makes it fall apart. The Mega Man cover is just fundamentally messed up to a degree where even AI art is miles ahead.

        • Mythril@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Yeah true, AI art is more “looks OK at first glance, but smaller details are messed up”, while this one is the opposite of that so “smaller details are actually fine, but as a whole it looks quite messed up” haha

  • Dave@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Except in the case of the Sega Master System, where the simplistic 8-bit graphics felt like a massive leap up from the terrible box art!

    Ugh

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Remember the coverart for Phalanax and how it had NOTHING to do with the game at all? And when asked the company said they simply put a cover they thought would be eyecatching.

    Why a random old coot with a banjo on a rocking chair would accomplish that is beyond me

    • ledge@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      When everything is spaceships and big men with guns. You might ask whats this thing with old man and a banjo?

  • ThatWeirdGuy1001@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    This is how I feel about mobile games. Even the good mobile games will have some epically animated scene that shows all out war between a bunch of magical badasses with explosions and all kinds of epic shit.

    Then the gameplay is some low effort turn based game where the characters barely move and the attack effects are pathetic light shows.

    • chrono@apollo.town
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      1 year ago

      To be fair actually sick effects and attacks would probably take like 30 seconds per turn. Looking at you final fantasy VII

      • callouscomic@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        But, I’ve been told my entire life that FFVII is literally the solely greatest thing ever and is itself the 2nd coming of christ its apparently so perfectionly good.

    • The Picard Maneuver@startrek.websiteOP
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      1 year ago

      Totally agree. A flashy light show will only keep people’s focus for a hot minute, but good core gameplay will keep players engaged for so much longer. Just look at dwarf fortress, lol.

    • FMT99@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I would say It Depends. I play almost exclusively indy games and yes AAA graphics aren’t what I’m expecting.

      But some indy games just look like the dev threw the sprites together in less than half a day and it can be offputting. Dated can be ok, but rushed and butt ugly… Hell I almost skipped Rimworld way back when because the visuals looked so lazy.

      The gameplay has to be really freaking fantastic to cover that up. In Rimworld’s case it was.

  • alignedchaos@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Last panel inaccurate, games were vibrant and awesome

    Just like the ones today that will feel amateurish compared to future immersive games. Give it time

    • Draconic NEO@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Games today (also games in the mid 90s) tend to focus on graphics and not as much gameplay, problem with this is that they tend to age poorly, which is why Atari, Famicom, and C64 games are well remembered and still being played to this day but Amiga games aren’t as much, they were primarily designed for graphics and thus look dated today.

      It’s also why many Indie games embrace the retro style and game mechanics instead of going for graphical wows. These games are just relevant and enjoyed for longer.

    • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s a little less impressive when I got my 8-bit console after 16-bit ones were already out, but that didn’t stop me from playing.

    • GenBlob@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Spanish developers using Alfonso Azpiri’s art for their games is actually genius. If I was a kid in the late 80’s I would have bought game over or R.A.M the moment I saw the cover.