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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.
5 year old me thought it looked photorealistic.
That was Mortal Kombat when I was 15
But mortal Kombat WAS photorealistic (in my head)
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.
It still is in my head... Didn't they use real photos/video for the animation?
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.
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.
Same, basically every game I played as a kid has awful graphics compared to modern stuff
Primal Rage too for me. "Stop motion animation? In a game? This is the height of technology!"
Heh I thought the same with Max Payne. (the first one)
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
In some ways it didn't.
No microtransaccions, no battle pass, just a nice story to tell through a videogame, awesome soundtrack also
I remember feeling the same way with Myst. "It even has video!"
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
I mean that looks legit. I've got no nostalgia at play here, having never seen that intro before.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=5Jscuco8zEk
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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.
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?
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).
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.
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.
@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.
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.
Same. It was too realistic.