From the mid-90s to the early years of the millennium, video games underwent a paradigm shift in graphics, treating us to some of the most classic titles of all time.
https://www.techspot.com/article/2655-50-years-of-gaming-part-2/
50 Years of Video Games, Part 2: The Rise of 3D, the Gaming PC, and Online Multiplayer
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amghwk
Posts: 1,558 +1,548
Unfortunately, the marketing hype for Quake gave too much credit to it as having the first true 3D game and that really worked. It was Bethesda's Terminator Future Shock that really had true 3D with mouselook, before Quake saw the light of the day.
But not many played T:FS, and people were more interested in seeing the sequel for the DOOM games, and hence they followed the Quake story from its inception, since it's coming from the then legendary id software developers. (id followed up with DOOM3 later as the true sequel, for the delight of the fans, as well as for extra sales for id).
But not many played T:FS, and people were more interested in seeing the sequel for the DOOM games, and hence they followed the Quake story from its inception, since it's coming from the then legendary id software developers. (id followed up with DOOM3 later as the true sequel, for the delight of the fans, as well as for extra sales for id).
Excellent write-up. Thank you for the trip down memory lane. I started out with a Pong clone and Space Invaders in the arcade, so you can see I've been around for a while. I got my first PC in 1999, mainly because I wanted to play 3-D combat games like FreeSpace and MechWarrior.
P
punctualturn
I must be the only person in the planet that preferred the Jaguar controller over the Genesis, SNES, 3DO and to a point, even the original PS1 controller.
That said, its true the Jaguar was hard to program and Atari didnt do any favors to themselves with poor tools and documentation, but many of the devs in those days were also lazy and abused the system flexibility.
Example, the Jaguar had a 68000 cpu that was used as a controller, but it could be used for games and thats what the lazy devs did, released 16 bit games without using Tom and Jerry chips.
Lets not forget, in those days, Japanese devs where on the top of the world, so to say and sadly, they will never support a non japanese company if they could avoid it (heck, just look how no matter what, Xbox cant do nothing right in their eyes).
Heck, some even took money to develop games and never did and kept the money.
Also, why do you think that Atari release the Pro controller? it was because certain company said it was going to release a "hot" game on the Jaguar if it had that controller, but we know that didnt happen either.
Anyways, I loved my Jaguar and its a shame how it died.
gamerk2
Posts: 982 +996
"An unsightly design, the internals of the 32X provided a substantial boost to the Genesis/Mega Drive's rendering abilities, most notably with the handling of polygons. However, it failed to attract much attention from game publishers and ultimately proved to be a commercial flop."
To be fair, the 32x got a lot of initial developer love...then Sega of Japan announced the Saturn just a few months later, and nobody was going to seriously develop for an already dead console.
Sega should have skipped the 32-bit era, releasing just a combined SegaCD32x refresh, then going to 64-bit. The 32x/Saturn debacle scared off developers, which was a large reason why the Dreamcast bombed despite being an excellent console.
To be fair, the 32x got a lot of initial developer love...then Sega of Japan announced the Saturn just a few months later, and nobody was going to seriously develop for an already dead console.
Sega should have skipped the 32-bit era, releasing just a combined SegaCD32x refresh, then going to 64-bit. The 32x/Saturn debacle scared off developers, which was a large reason why the Dreamcast bombed despite being an excellent console.
Growing up in the 80s/90s was the golden era for video games because new consoles brought new experiences. Today, that is not the case, at least not to the same extent. Very few AAA games do anything that bring a truly new experience. Gaming has fairly well-established categories and expectations of what kind of games fit into those categories. I remember playing Mario 64 for the first time and just being blown away with the 3D world. But, after Xbox/GameCube/PS2, each successive generation has just felt like technical upgrades instead of really new experiences. Not saying there has not been great experiences, but nothing can bring back the magic and wonder of the first few decades of gaming.
Threadcount
Posts: 73 +76
Miss the old Arcades, where social gaming was someone standing next to you slotting in a coin to challenge you in Street Fighter or MK...
LetTheWookieWin
Posts: 159 +345
For me, the ”killer app” for 3D was when I played Dark Forces II:Jedi Knight. I had an Intel motherboard with an integrated S3 Virge that had mild 3D acceleration, but when I put in a 3DFX Voodoo II it was absolutely amazing.
LetTheWookieWin
Posts: 159 +345
Maybe if game companies gave users the option to self-host or use a custom server browser they wouldn’t need to host as many servers. This worked great with BF1942, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Team Fortress 2, etc. Many of those games still have people running custom servers to this day (20+ years later in some cases).
One of my favorite game, I remembered playing the demo version, now I just finished playing it again using dgvoodoo to emulate 3dfx card
Soulburn74
Posts: 144 +78
Getting my first 3dfx add-in was that revolutionary moment, when to me, PC became top dog in the video game fight. With it came a switch in game play development (racing and fps took over far more development than older game types such as Sierra's 'Quest' games, which were my favorite. But having glide versions of some of my favorite veteran games such as Wing Commander and Need for Speed an FFVII were some of the best times in what was my teenage gaming years (now nearly 50). Fast forward all those years ahead to Now: being able to game in 4K/120fps/HDR with no tearing while having games with support for Dolby Atmos built in, getting a fancy display and soundbar, are taking things to that next level again!
Nice article
I played every game on this list
30+ years of gaming
Playing them today is def not the same experience as back then LMAO!
I played every game on this list
30+ years of gaming
Playing them today is def not the same experience as back then LMAO!
ComputerGuy55
Posts: 392 +14
Loved reading through Part 1 & Part 2, great trip down memory lane as well as being informative.
Just wanted to point out that there is a repeated section just after the Battlezone Picture. The two paragraph(s) proceeding the picture that start with "Released towards the end of 1980..." are nearly identical, with a minor wording difference.
Great article!
Just wanted to point out that there is a repeated section just after the Battlezone Picture. The two paragraph(s) proceeding the picture that start with "Released towards the end of 1980..." are nearly identical, with a minor wording difference.
Great article!
Atari is the real disappointment in the console wars. I had the Atari 400 computer. Modded it to add a real keyboard and enjoyed the few games that made their way to the platform. But they were surpassed by Commodore and the IBM PC and died a slow painful death.
Unreal Tournament!!! I spent waaaay too much time playing this back in the day.
The ngWorld Stats that came with it were fantastic too. I managed to get to about 200th in the world at one point. Happy days with a Shock Rifle and a Flak Cannon. Unstoppable!
The ngWorld Stats that came with it were fantastic too. I managed to get to about 200th in the world at one point. Happy days with a Shock Rifle and a Flak Cannon. Unstoppable!
colossusrage
Posts: 33 +33
Great articles. I remember the following as games that blew my mind in terms of graphics and gameplay through the years:
1. Mortal Kombat which to me looked ultra realistic at the time;
2. Gex on the 3DO, I saw it at a store once and had never seen such clear 2D graphics;
3. Gran Turismo on PS1, most realistic cars I had seen up to that point and some of the best 3D graphics I had laid eyes on;
4. Mario 64 the cleanest 3D graphics I had seen up to that point and the 3D platforming blew my mind;
5. Unreal Tournament on PC both gameplay and graphics;
6. Tokyo Extreme Racing on Dreamcast, became the most realistic looking cars I had ever seen in a game;
7. Half Life 2 was kind of the first real AAA game with a full story and interactivity that I had ever seen and the graphics were phenomenal;
8. Project Gotham Racing 3 on Xbox 360 looked unlike anything that existed at the time, level of car detail was ahead of its time;
9. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter still holds up in graphics department today and was very cinematic;
10. Grand Theft Auto V really set the standard that open world games had to live up to, the sheer level of detail and objects interacting all at once was incredible;
11. Red Dead Redemption 2 took level of character detail to another level;
12. Cyberpunk 2077 geometry, map size, and detail was astounding, now lighting tech with path tracing is taking it to the next generation;
13. Matrix Awakens Demo showed what next gen gaming can be, I had never seen anything like it nor the closeness to real life;
1. Mortal Kombat which to me looked ultra realistic at the time;
2. Gex on the 3DO, I saw it at a store once and had never seen such clear 2D graphics;
3. Gran Turismo on PS1, most realistic cars I had seen up to that point and some of the best 3D graphics I had laid eyes on;
4. Mario 64 the cleanest 3D graphics I had seen up to that point and the 3D platforming blew my mind;
5. Unreal Tournament on PC both gameplay and graphics;
6. Tokyo Extreme Racing on Dreamcast, became the most realistic looking cars I had ever seen in a game;
7. Half Life 2 was kind of the first real AAA game with a full story and interactivity that I had ever seen and the graphics were phenomenal;
8. Project Gotham Racing 3 on Xbox 360 looked unlike anything that existed at the time, level of car detail was ahead of its time;
9. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter still holds up in graphics department today and was very cinematic;
10. Grand Theft Auto V really set the standard that open world games had to live up to, the sheer level of detail and objects interacting all at once was incredible;
11. Red Dead Redemption 2 took level of character detail to another level;
12. Cyberpunk 2077 geometry, map size, and detail was astounding, now lighting tech with path tracing is taking it to the next generation;
13. Matrix Awakens Demo showed what next gen gaming can be, I had never seen anything like it nor the closeness to real life;
I think a lot of it had to do with the popularity of the multiplayer aspect of Quake; though Doom 3 to me is not a doom game. I freaking hate that game and I loved Doom and Doom II when they came out.
I missed out on Unreal games in the 90s because I was more focused on Goldeneye on 64, Doom/Doom 2, Duke Nukem 3D, Delta Force 1&2, Rainbow Six Rogue Spear, Dark Forces, and the amazing Dark Forces II at the time; but finally got around to visiting Unreal Tournament 99 the last couple of years on a PIII 1Ghz and P4 2.8Ghz with my 3DFX Voodoo 3 2000/3000 and 5 5500 cards; wow that game is amazing.
I would say that the most innovative and unique [pc] games ever made were 7 Cities of Gold CE, Aces of the Deep, Lords of the Realm 1, Doom 1, Across the Rhine, Steel Panthers, Duke Nukem 3D, Star Wars Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, Delta Force (think Ghost Recon voxel graphics edition), Rainbow Six, UT99, Operation Flashpoint, Rome: Total War, Fable, Grand Theft Auto III, Mount & Blade Warband, Just Cause 2, The Division, and Ghost Recon: Wildlands.
Vanderlinde
Posts: 436 +274
Yep.
Playing in a arena with either bots or real human beings was quite unheard of.
Played it for a great portion of time in my life lol.
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