DP ServBot
12-03-2014, 06:00 AM
http://forum.digitpress.com//images.eurogamer.net/2013/articles/1/7/2/3/8/2/0/-1417546961975.jpg/EG11/resize/300x-1/format/jpg/1723820.jpgDecember 3rd, 1994 - Sony launches the original PlayStation in Japan, bringing with it seismic shift in the nature of console gaming. The 2D era of sprites and bitmap art was coming to an end, with polygon-driven 3D the new standard in state-of-the-art visuals. The Sega Saturn launched a couple of weeks ahead of Sony's debut console, but it was the PlayStation that set the standard for technological innovation in this new era. Namco's Ridge Racer launched alongside the new hardware - and it was a revelation.
"Most of the racing games were with 2D at that time and it was still difficult to give the feeling that you were really driving the car," Ridge Racer's visual director Yozo Sakagami tells us. "However this 3D Ridge Racer could provide the moment that you drift around corners with a high speed feeling and I was very happy with the fact that this new game experience was accepted by many consumers."
Perhaps 'acceptance' is an understatement. While both Nintendo and Sega had dabbled with home 3D on their previous consoles, nothing matched the Ridge Racer experience: texture-mapped objects rather than flat-shaded polygons, a fluid, consistent frame-rate, melded with brilliant playability, backed by a unique CD soundtrack a generation beyond the 8-bit chip-tunes of the Super NES and Mega Drive.
Read more… (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-20-years-of-playstation-the-ridge-racer-revolution)
"Most of the racing games were with 2D at that time and it was still difficult to give the feeling that you were really driving the car," Ridge Racer's visual director Yozo Sakagami tells us. "However this 3D Ridge Racer could provide the moment that you drift around corners with a high speed feeling and I was very happy with the fact that this new game experience was accepted by many consumers."
Perhaps 'acceptance' is an understatement. While both Nintendo and Sega had dabbled with home 3D on their previous consoles, nothing matched the Ridge Racer experience: texture-mapped objects rather than flat-shaded polygons, a fluid, consistent frame-rate, melded with brilliant playability, backed by a unique CD soundtrack a generation beyond the 8-bit chip-tunes of the Super NES and Mega Drive.
Read more… (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-20-years-of-playstation-the-ridge-racer-revolution)