worst era of graphics

[pragmatic insanester]

i know most people here are immediately scream out "lousy ass polygonal graphics resembling legomen instead of smooth sprites!" and the like. one of the worst eras in my opinion was probably around 2000, with the launch dreamcast kind of graphics. they were a real, ugly, bland kind - although not as cumbersome as some of the bricky ps1 graphics of its time.

[grayrobertos]

that makes no sence surely?

[Jibbajaba]

Kids are cute...

Chris

[Sam]

Nah I see where the original poster is comming from.

I'd have to say PlayStation era - I went straight to the N64 as many early 3d PlayStation games were flickery, warped and had mass pop-up. The N64 still wasn't pretty a lot of the time but at least most games didn't set of migranes.

That said I love a lot of PlayStation games, but ones that had simpler 3d graphics or were 2d. A lot of games for the system do look good but I feel a lot of games tried to do more than the system was capable of.

[RetroYoungen]

Do you mean the era when we simply weren't shocked with the quality of the graphics on a new console? Because that would be a legitimate question.

I was just in awe when the Dreamcast was released in '99, I thought Sonic Adventure was simply the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. But when the PS2 was released and was suppost to be really "superior" by every standard, I just wasn't surprised. Same goes with the XBox, though I was pretty surprised by the lighting effects when I first fired up Luigi's Mansion on my Gamecube.

So I would have to say I was least in awe in 2000 with the PS2 release.

[RetroYoungen]

Sorry, double post.

[gonzo90017]

I'd have to say the 32 bit era. That means you playstation! also 32X and 3DO. The 2D games on these systems looked really cool but the 3D games looked like crap. Maybe that's why i'm still stuck on the 16 bit machines since I was tramatized with those system's first offerings.

[tylerwillis]

Blocky launch Dreamcast graphics? No.

Two words: Soul Calibur.

[grayrobertos]

^thats what I was thinking.

[Dahne]

Early PS1, definately. Some pretty things were turned out, but anything without a huge budget looked awful. Good 3D was tough to do then, and bad 3D is really bad.

[Push Upstairs]

It was a toss up between either 2600-era or early Saturn/PSX era 3D graphics.

Then i remembered that those early 3D games look like shit.

[Cthulhu]

I'd say the early FMV era. Early polygonal stuff might look bad, but chop-chop-choperrific video is more painful to me these days for some reason. Maybe it's just the fact that FMV games are absolute garbage or something.

[pragmatic insanester]

does anyone know why during FMV scenes, there's a weird kind of grainy flickering that usually is noticed in the background of the picture? it was notorius during the early ps1 years, where the fuzzy faction made the image look rumpled, like some sort of wet comic book.

[drwily008]

I definitely think PSX era is terrible. I still have much appreciation for certain games, but I can't really play any of the early Crash/Tomb Raider/Loaded/etc etc etc...

I also have a hard time looking at pre 2600 stuff.

[pacmanhat]

Like others have said, I think the worst era in terms of impressiveness is the early PSX/Saturn era. Technology was there for 3D games, but the industry just hadn't learned how to utilize it anywhere near its full potential. It made for some really ugly stuff, but it also paved the way for a lot of great looking stuff a few years down the line.

[Milk]

That period in the late 90s, when the Genesis and Super NES were dead, and the 32X, Saturn, and PS1 ruled the day. Perhaps we can stretch it a little and add some Sega CD and 3DO to the mix...Then came the N64, which was prettier, but blurred everything or added fog. No wonder I stopped playing games after the Saturn died.

[hydr0x]

Early 3D (PS1 / SAT), god, i always thought those games looked awful

[Quintracker]

Worst era of graphics? I would have to say the first era. :roll:

[rxdoga]

Early 3D (PS1 / SAT), god, i always thought those games looked awful

I agree. Some Saturn and PS1 look so bad its sometimes hard to play them.

[njiska]

By the standards of a lot of people the start of the 32-bit era was bad, but they obviously have never seen the AMAZING 3D visuals in Alone in the Dark AKA Attack of the walking polygons.

See the problem with a question like this is that, at least in my mind, the worst era of graphics isn't really an era. Like's been said many time here and by the original poster the year 200 was a horrible year for graphics. However it was also an amazing year for graphics.

PS2 1st Generation games are by far accepted as the worst graphics in history because of the demos and because of the demos shown to us at e3. (that's a hint for you people who think the Killzone video is what real-time will look like)

Last generation DC graphics on the other hand were some of the best seen at the time. D2 still looks great to me. It ran smooth and was sharp.

So yeah 32-bit was ugly, but it was good for the time.

[Avatard]

The only thing that really drives me bonkers is the faint grid background you can see on the N64's games sometimes. Like on Starfox64 on the submarine level, thats where it really sticks out. And yea, early PSX is really blocky and bad, but it was amazing back then.

[sabre2922]

I just dont get some of these posts :hmm: there is no way in hell that anyone can honestly say that the Dreamcast had blocky 3-D graphics (well maybe a gamer winged on PSX) but any experienced gamer would know what a large quantum leap there was in 3-D graphics when the DC was release when compared to Saturn 3-D :puke: N64 BLURRRY and PSone< now thats freakin blocky ;)

I also was blown away by the Dreamcast upon its released and still think many of the "old" DC games look just as good as many "not all mind u" of todays most advanced games on PS2,Xbox and GC and still stand up very well.

Now back to the ?

I think the worst was the very early experimental phases of the 32-64-bit era just look at the some of the crap that came out of Jaguar and 3DO :shameful: and while I luv the Saturn especailly as a 2-D system many of the early 3-D Saturn games were god-awful to look at.

overall the 32-64 bit was a very painful period for many of us gamers that had been playing video games for the past 25 years and started out with the Atari2600 or earlier because we went from beautiful 2-D sprite based art on Genesis and Snes right into shitty half-assed texture 3-D hell with early Saturn,PSx, and N64 games.

[Retsudo]

Anything before the 8 bit era.
I remember when I bought Zaxxon for the Intelivision, I was like, "Wat the Hell is this".

[pragmatic insanester]

dreamcast wasn't blocky. it just had a nasty glazed sheen on some of the graphics.

[sabre2922]

Nasty glazed sheen? in all respect man I really think your reaching now LOL the DC had anti-alaising built in something the PS2 was and is in DIRE need of I would rather look at a "glazed sheen" than a shitload of jaggies any day :D

[googlefest1]

id have to say - that there is no such era

starting from the odessey - to the 360 -

the graphics were amazing for the time period

today looking back - you can say - damn those games looked like vomit

but id say - if you want to compare graphics to what was currently available on the consumer market - then id say all eras were bad untill the last gen consoles - becasue computer games offered better graphics

2600 - coleco - era -- c64 - atari computers etc had better graphics

nes - sms era --- pcs kicked but - 16 bit --- pc kicked but - psx -saturn --- pc kicked but

[GrayFox]

dreamcast wasn't blocky. it just had a nasty glazed sheen on some of the graphics.

What the? Now contradicting yourself, and bringing up the dreaded 'nasty glazed sheen' angle. What the hell is that even.

See, its posts like this that make me not want to post.

[WanganRunner]

Dreamcast was my FAVORITE era of graphics, honestly.

I loved the "shiny" look, and the lack of jaggies.

My 2nd favorite is probably the era of 32-bit 2D games, a la Capcom fighters and Megaman X8 on the Saturn, Albert Odyssey, etc...

[Avatard]

See, its posts like this that make me not want to post.

You mean its posts like that one that make you post? /boggle

See, its posts like this one that make me not want to post LOL LOL

[Crush Crawfish]

By far the worst era would be the early 3D games of the PS1 & Saturn. They were impressive back then, but now they just look like a bunch of random 3D shapes smacked together.

And as far as my favorite era goes, it's a toss-up between 16-bit Genesis/SNES and dreamcast.

[Milk]

Even back in the late 90s, I thought that early 3D/FMV looked nasty, so please don't try to pull that. There's Final Fantasy 3/6, and then there's Saturn Daytona USA, with jaggy textures and pop-up. I remember EGM making fun of the constant use of fog in N64 games, too.

[Lemmy Kilmister]

I'm going to go with what most people have said so far and say the 3D 32-bit era. Those games basically look like the games we're getting today only horrible glitchy and outdated looking. It's funny how Sony has that supposed anti-2D policy with their systems, yet most of the games that stood the test of time and still look good on their systems are 2D ones. LOL

[sabre2922]

I hate it when ppl correct me but you do mean Anti-2D policy right?

[Lemmy Kilmister]

I hate it when ppl correct me but you do mean Anti-2D policy right?

Whoops, my bad. Guess I better fix that. :embarrassed: LOL

[CreamSoda]

dreamcast wasn't blocky. it just had a nasty glazed sheen on some of the graphics.

WTF IS THAT EVEN?! LOL

No offense dude, but that is just totally stupid. Dreamcast still has awesome graphics.

...Unless your the type that likes jaggys instead of smooth aliased graphics?

[CreamSoda]

Sorry for the double post.

[CreamSoda]

dreamcast wasn't blocky. it just had a nasty glazed sheen on some of the graphics.

WTF IS THAT EVEN?! LOL

No offense dude, but that is just totally stupid. Dreamcast still has awesome graphics.

...Unless your the type that likes jaggys instead of smooth aliased graphics?

[WanganRunner]

To be honest, I sort of like the early Saturn games too.

I know they look pretty bad, but there's just something about those early Model 1 & 2 games that I like. Even the Saturn ports.

I still play emulated VC2 on my PC (I own it for Saturn, but it looks infinitely better emulated from the Model 2 original on the PC).

[Slate]

Most PS2 games.

Do not start arguing. It will get us nowhere and will waste time.

[squidblatt]

Anything before the 8 bit era.
I remember when I bought Zaxxon for the Intelivision, I was like, "Wat the Hell is this".

The Intellivision has got to be the most disappointing in terms of graphics. They were better than Atari, but only by a few degrees and not enough to really affect the gameplay except for sports titles.

That would've been fine except that the catalogs and screens on the boxes all made it seem like near Colecovision quality. New Intellivision games were usually disappointments since the quality of the visuals were so incongruous with what they were promoted to be.

It's still that way with pre-release hype for most games, but I don't know of any other system that used such blatant false advertising for games already on the market.