Most Technically Impressive Games

[eugenek]

I don't quite remember what extended memory is, but I assumed it is like todays Virtual memory (correct me if I am wrong though, please).

Not exactly...virtual memory is a technique to address larger ranges of memory than you actually have, usually swapping inactive programs to the hard disk.

Extended memory is all the memory above the first 640K of "conventional" memory + 384K of "expanded" memory. This extended memory is not accessible under normal operation in the old 8088 architecture (that's computer engineering shortsightedness for you); with the advent of x86 architecture, the CPU's protected mode allows this memory to be addressed.

[roushimsx]

Wing Commander: Privateer was beyond its time. Customization of your ship. You could pick which way you played the game.

It really wasn't that much more than Elite + Wing Commander, and Frontier: Elite 2 was far, far more technically impressive (and released within a month of Privateer). Didn't stop me from playing the shit out of it of course, but it wasn't really the technical marvel that Wing Commander was before it or Wing Commander III was after it.

Origin did have an awesome knack for pushing the capabilities of PCs and putting out games that were optimized for computers that weren't even out yet. Crytek doesn't have shit on them.

[David Galloway]

For 2001 on the PS2 ICO was quite a marvel.

It really would have been amazing if it had ever come out on the PS1 as was planned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq9oCaYlBlE

Gran Turismo on the PS1, stands out for me as the all-time example of a game that was astounding and ahead of its time.

[NayusDante]

For 2001 on the PS2 ICO was quite a marvel.

It really would have been amazing if it had ever come out on the PS1 as was planned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq9oCaYlBlE

Gran Turismo on the PS1, stands out for me as the all-time example of a game that was astounding and ahead of its time.

Holy crap, that Ico preview could pass as an early Dreamcast demo... A lot of it is obviously prerendered, but the in-engine shots are awesome.

[Rob2600]

Holy crap, that Ico preview could pass as an early Dreamcast demo... A lot of it is obviously prerendered, but the in-engine shots are awesome.

I agree that it looks very good, but definitely not Dreamcast quality. If you look closely, you'll notice the PlayStation's trademark twitchy polygon problem. The walls and floors constantly undulate. Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast games did not suffer from that problem.

[Zebbe]

I think Alien Soldier for the Mega Drive is very impressive. It is really maxing out the hardware with high resolution, many colours, clear sound samples, huge multi-jointed bosses, rotation, sprite-stretching and high speed. There is some slowdown and flickering here and there, but all in all I doesn't matter when the game really lives up to the slogan "68k on fire".

[Gerry-Cola]

Sorry if I´m wrong...

but I´m very confused that it seems like noone mentioned AXELAY for the SNES.

I loved Supercontra... but AXELAY to me was the game that pushed the SNES more then any other game ever. It made the SNES look like a High-Tech-Machine with Arcade (if not better) graphics.

The zoom-effects of the first level (also on later ones) were better looking then most arcade effects on coinups of those days. The superior zoom-effects of Axelay made the great Supercontra and Super Castlevania Zoom-effects look like a childrens birthday cake in comparison.

Even the more traditional side-scrolling-levels to me were better then R-Type, Gradius etc. Graphically and technically!

Axelay was a Masterpiece of Konami and to me the best SNES game ever. It made the best Sega Genesis games look so dated in direct comparison. It looked even better then the Neo Geo "Last Resort" on the side-scrolling levels... and of course: it offered those unbelieveable pseudo-3-D-Zooming-Levels the Neo Geo could not offer.

It had e few slowdowns... but technically and graphically it made the SNES look like one of the best arcade machines... the SNES-chips sureley were smoking for this game!

I was very sad that Axelay never got a follow up of the same programmers-team.

[SegaAges]

Jet Grind Radio

I can't vouch about them starting using cell shading, but they did it extremely well.

Also,
Conker's Bad Fur Day (N64)
It may have been done before it, but this was was well knows for having voice acting in there (not the first I don't think, but very awesome)

Is Quake Live browser-based? If so, I will definately say QL. I have seen videos of the QL tournament at Quake-con, and doing something like that and keeping it browser-based is incredible.

[NayusDante]

Is Quake Live browser-based? If so, I will definately say QL. I have seen videos of the QL tournament at Quake-con, and doing something like that and keeping it browser-based is incredible.

I played a Java Quake II source port a while back. It just asked for your data files (base*.paks) and went to fullscreen. It was still part of the browser process, or something like that. It seemed kinda pointless at the time.

Running 3D content in a browser window is an odd idea. They're going to have to have an implementation of OpenGL or DirectX embedded in the page, somehow. Still, it may be that they do everything by loading the program into memory, but streaming the content over the internet. Kinda like playing Quake III before, except you don't have to run an installer, and the Quake III CD is replaced with a network connection to the content server. In that case, it's just a neat way of making the game easy to play, if not a bandwidth hog....

[alexkidd2000]

Wow I am still impressed with Power Drift as well. Were there any other games around that time that built as impressing 3D area? Pretty cool sprite tricks if you ask me.

[The 1 2 P]

The Xbox had so many technological wonders but I'll narrow it down to the big 4 that the PS2 couldn't handle:

Chronicles of Riddick
Farcry Instincts
Doom 3
Half Life 2

But the PS2 had both God of War's and they are simply breathtaking.

[Wraith Storm]

For the Sega Saturn two games spring to mind.

Scorcher -
It has incredible back drops, jaw dropping graphics, a fantastic techno soundtrack by Jesper kyd (Has he ever made a bad ost? ), and in first person view one of the greatest senses of speed ever achieved in a racing game. I have read before that Sega even sent copies of this game to third parties to show them that the Saturn was a VERY powerful machine if you had the right programmers behind it.

Scorcher might have had some sloppy and very difficult track design but it was a showcase game on the Saturn. Too bad there was no 2-player

Video

Amok -
Kick ass arcade style mech game, Jesper Kyd sound track, well textured polygon models, and a frentic 2 player mode was enough to impress. But the fact that the game ran on a Voxel engine was mind blowing!!! All the games environments were crafted completely from voxels. Sure, they weren't the smallest voxels so the environments looked pretty chunky at times but as far as I know it was the first voxel game to appear on a home console.

Video

[16bitter]

This may have been mentioned, but The Adventures of Batman & Robin, I thought, really pushed the Genesis. Contra Hard Corps too. These games did things I never thought the Genesis was capable of doing.

[crazyjackcsa]

For the Sega Saturn two games spring to mind.

Scorcher -
It has incredible back drops, jaw dropping graphics, a fantastic techno soundtrack by Jesper kyd (Has he ever made a bad ost? ), and in first person view one of the greatest senses of speed ever achieved in a racing game. I have read before that Sega even sent copies of this game to third parties to show them that the Saturn was a VERY powerful machine if you had the right programmers behind it.

Scorcher might have had some sloppy and very difficult track design but it was a showcase game on the Saturn. Too bad there was no 2-player

Video

Amok -
Kick ass arcade style mech game, Jesper Kyd sound track, well textured polygon models, and a frentic 2 player mode was enough to impress. But the fact that the game ran on a Voxel engine was mind blowing!!! All the games environments were crafted completely from voxels. Sure, they weren't the smallest voxels so the environments looked pretty chunky at times but as far as I know it was the first voxel game to appear on a home console.

Video

When thinking Saturn showcases, I can't see Scorcher and Amok being two of them. Scorcher has very little going on in the way of environments other than the track itself and Aamok was originally supposed to be on the 32X. Draw in on both games is very poor, even for the saturn.

No mention of Shining Force 3 for the Saturn? The game used the sound chip as a video processor. Besides the game had two full engines. The 3D battle engine, and the polygon/sprite based map. Also, there are almost no load times between the two.

That's very impressive Technically.