Late '93, all of '94 and early '95 was a weird time in games [Archive]

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Anthony1

10-12-2003, 06:32 PM

Really, if you look back on this time period, from say October 1993 till June 1995, it was a really interesting time period in console video gaming.

Let's start with late 1993. In Late 1993, you had the debut of 2 32-bit type systems. The 3DO by Panasonic and the Atari Jaguar. You also had the Genesis and Super Nintendo at their respective peaks. It was definitely a strange time in gaming, cause most gamers had been playing 16-bit side scrolling 2-D games, and then all of a sudden you get systems like the 3DO and the Atari Jaguar and games like Total Eclipse and Cybermorph.

Then in 1994, you had the 3DO and the Atari Jaguar continue to have games start to trickle out. You had the Super Nintendo and Genesis enjoying their glory years, and you had the arrival of the Sega 32X in November. Plus at the same time, everybody knew that the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation were just around the corner.

Then in 1995, the 3DO started to really hit it's stride, and be more competitive, the Jag tried to be the low price option, although lacking alot of big time games. Then the Saturn had the sneak attack in May. Plus the Genesis and Super Nintendo were still going relatively strong. Plus you had the Sega 32X continuing to be there, although not for very long. And then of course in September, everybody knew that the Sony Playstation was coming, but I don't think too many people realized just how huge the Playstation was going to be.

Ed Oscuro

10-12-2003, 06:37 PM

In 1994, who cared about the Jaguar and the Atari? In 1994, who cared about DOOM? I'll agree that the other systems made for an interesting market, since the SNES and Genesis held down the low-cost game market down while high-tech gaming started to appear in the US on the PC and (to a lesser extent) with a few great Macintosh titles...not all of them made by Bungie, either.

I'd say that the period 1993-1996 was a strong period as you had great games appearing for both PC and consoles. CD-ROM games were starting to appear and by 1995 you had Duke Nukem 3D. By the end of that period proper hardware standards even started to appear for the PC...and that, ladies and gentlemen, started us on the path to the present state of things.

Berserker

10-12-2003, 08:34 PM

you're kidding, right? in that era DOOM was an all-important thing for the PC world. it was a milestone not only in what you could do with a 3d game but in sales of a PC game as well for that time period. it was also undeniably a great stride for consoles, SNES and Genesis were definately at their tops, and while I saw 3do and the like in stores with crazy(at the time it seemed crazy) pricetags, myself and everyone I knew who was into it either had Nintendo, Sega, or both in their house....

orangemage

10-12-2003, 08:46 PM

oh yeah i couldn'y stop playing the Jaguar with it's 64-bits of power! man that system had like 2 good games, i'm almost don't want to admit i have one in the closet LOL

Ed Oscuro

10-12-2003, 09:05 PM

Sotenga

10-12-2003, 09:10 PM

Yay for the Jaguar!!! NOT!!!!! :P

Travor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy. WORST. SHMUP. EVER. Or so I'm told. Dire-san, care to elaborate?

Ed Oscuro

10-12-2003, 09:16 PM

Yay for the Jaguar!!! NOT!!!!! :P

Travor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy. WORST. SHMUP. EVER. Or so I'm told. Dire-san, care to elaborate?

I'm not Dire 51 (and please die for using "-san" ;) but my vote goes to "Tetsuo Gaiden," which should have been "Tetsuo Geiden" (written as the announcer pronounced it, "Tetsuo Gay-den," for English speakers). Though I'm sure there are ways to be worse, this shooter has the wierdest scoring system I've ever seen in a shmup.

Sotenga

10-12-2003, 09:20 PM

Please die? That's not very nice! I ought to stab you in the face with my penis!!! :smash:

But one of the worst shmups I've played is Gyrodine. Not one of Taito's better moments. It's quite mundane and uninspired. I haven't really played it much, but I know it bites. Stay away from it. :shameful:

Dire 51

10-12-2003, 09:39 PM

Nope, Dire 51 would be me, of course. :D

Trevor McFur was so damned sub-par it wasn't even funny. It's not the worst shmup ever, but it's definitely down there.

Sotenga

10-12-2003, 09:44 PM

He's the one and only Dire 51! Okay, I lied. The other Dire 51 is from Aleste, but this guy here's my god. :hail:

Permission to start another topic about this, anyone? I don't want to change the subject. All in all, that was a somewhat offbeat era for VGs.

Dire 51

10-12-2003, 09:49 PM

Oh, come on. I'm not a god. I'm just a really nice guy.

At any rate, I felt that the earliest batch of PSX and Saturn titles were just plain... odd. I recall seeing so many games at the time reviewed in mags like Game Players, and most of them I just have to look back on and scratch my head.

Anyone have a listing of early PSX and Saturn ('95 - '96) titles handy?

Ed Oscuro

10-12-2003, 10:01 PM

Please die? That's not very nice! I ought to *edited for content* :smash:

o_O

To the Battlezone with you, go! You fail to see how I make the end of a parentheses into a smiley face:

(and please die for using "-san" ;)

That is seriously one of my pet peeves...and it's actually related to Tetsuo Gaiden. I can't stand it when people (or games) try to punctuate their language with Japanese. That said, it worked for Tetsuo Gaiden--the game has, after all, won my eternal contempt :D

Sotenga

10-12-2003, 10:03 PM

Yeah, he's humble and he's a good man, and I'm convinced that I'm somehow related to him. I AM him, or at least a clone. Nevermind, I'm not on his board anymore. I should shut up now. :|

Yeah, opening PSX titles were a little odd. I don't know what it is. They probably felt weird because the era of 3-D didn't really begin until a couple years after the PSX's release.

Ed Oscuro

10-12-2003, 10:08 PM

I'd say, personally, that the years past 1997 have similarly been odd as 2D on PCs has been virtually killed off in recent years by DirectX, especially with the very recent disappearance of DirectDraw. It might not sound like much, but doing 2D on quads isn't nearly as good as a native 2D approach would be.

I'm of the mind that straightforward 2D artwork is often confused with the classic sidescrolling or top-down (i.e. shump) perspectives, and that you can do much better stuff with 3D than was possible with 2D. For the time being, though, the state of graphics cards has made 2D development more of a chore than it used to be.