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Best graphics of the 16 bit generation?

No Means Nomad said:
It's like people in this thread never heard about sequels.

Donkey Kong Country 3.
Earthworm Jim 2.
Vectorman 2.

Seriously.

Well, I should have been more clear and said DKC series. the game play in the 3rd one was hella lame :(
 
Lyte Edge said:
The problem here is what is everyone classifying as "16-bit?" Just the Genesis and SNES? What about the Neo-Geo? What about other arcade gaming platforms introduced in this era like the CPS2? Model 1?

Well, it seems that one of the key questions is how you categorize the Motorola 68000, which was in a lot of systems then...

Really, this shows how categorizing things by "bits" doesn't make much sense. Computer architectures are complex and not easy to so easily categorize into straight "8, 16, 32, etc" categories.

If you go by what should be the standard definition, bus width:

(16-bit CPUs and buses, perhaps 16 and/or 8-bit secondary chips)
SNES
CD-i
Super A'Can
8086 and 80286 PCs
Apple IIGS

(should be called 16-bit -- aka '68000-based consoles')
Genesis (68000 CPU)
Sega CD (68000 CPU)
Neo-Geo (68000 CPU)
Neo-Geo CD (68000 CPU)

(8-bit CPUs, 16-bit GPUs and some buses, these probably should count)
TurboGrafx-16
Turbo CD
SuperGrafx
Lynx

(32-bit systems, but with 16-bit OS, this probably shouldn't count)
All DOS programs made for 386es and better

(16-bit CPU, though due to everything else about the capability of the hardware, many people wouldn't count it... though its CPU technically is 16-bit.)
Intellivision

(Unsure... how should you classify 68000-based computers? As 32-bit because the CPU and programs were? Or as 16-bit because the bus was?... aka '68000-based computers')
Amiga
Macintosh (original)
Sharp X68000

As for arcade machines other than the Neo-Geo, yeah, I have no idea. In a lot of cases you'd need to go board-by-board to know...

CPS-1 and 2: 68000 cores (CPS-3 is 32-bit)

g35twinturbo said:
Well, I should have been more clear and said DKC series. the game play in the 3rd one was hella lame :(

DKC3 is the best game in the series in both gameplay and graphics, in my opinion. All three games are fantastic, but I like the third best... and yeah, at least one of the three DKC definitely belongs on any list of the great 16-bit games, graphically or otherwise.

As for Vectorman though, I think of the two as about equal. Graphics, sound, gameplay... very, very similar between both titles. Both are pretty great games, but I'm not sure which is better...
 
A Black Falcon said:
Snip!

DKC3 is the best game in the series in both gameplay and graphics, in my opinion. All three games are fantastic, but I like the third best... and yeah, at least one of the three DKC definitely belongs on any list of the great 16-bit games, graphically or otherwise.

As for Vectorman though, I think of the two as about equal. Graphics, sound, gameplay... very, very similar between both titles. Both are pretty great games, but I'm not sure which is better...

Well graphically it was awesome, I didn't like some of the story and the characters...come on baby kong!?!?!

I loved DCK2 though.
 
g35twinturbo said:
Well graphically it was awesome, I didn't like some of the story and the characters...come on baby kong!?!?!

I loved DCK2 though.

Story has never been relevant in platformers, with very few exceptions... and the DKC games are not some of them.

As for characters, Kiddy Kong is kind of silly, but oh well. They wanted a new character... why not. Gameplay matters far more than those things, and DKC3 had the most varied, interesting, and deep gameplay of the series. So much had changed since the first game and its largely standard platforming, mine-cart levels aside... in DKC3 a lot of levels have interesting, experimental themes and gameplay designs, and I thought that was great. And even the standard levels keep things interesting. And it has by far the best save system in the series, since FINALLY you can exit a world and go save, as opposed to the "play through three or four or five levels before you reach the save point, and hope you don't get game over!" play of the first two... which added challenge for sure, but not fun challenge. More the frustrating kind of challenge. How about instead of using artificial means to make it harder like that, you just build that kind of stuff into the actual level design?

Anyway, in both level designs (how standard a platformer is it?) and gameplay, DKC2 falls in between the other two titles... DKC2 was a huge step over DKC1, but I think DKC3 improved things even more. But again, I really like all three games, and DKC2 and DKC3 are very, very close, overall quality wise.
 
Lyte Edge said:
The problem here is what is everyone classifying as "16-bit?" Just the Genesis and SNES? What about the Neo-Geo? What about other arcade gaming platforms introduced in this era like the CPS2? Model 1?

I go by whatever bit size the program was compiled into machine code for. And that's usually identified by the register bit size of the CPU. Using the address or data bus size is a bit of a stretch. Since the majority of professional games produced during that era were coded in assembly they coded to the register size.
 
another world

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and flashback

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Truespeed said:
So was the Amiga. It had a 32 bit CPU, a 24 bit address bus and a 16 bit data bus.
All on a two-bit console.

I don't really think that. The setup was just too perfect, though.
 
Truespeed said:
So was the Amiga. It had a 32 bit CPU, a 24 bit address bus and a 16 bit data bus.

The A1200/A4000 did, but did the A500 as well? I remember the A1200 being marketed as the first 32bit Amiga.
 
Stike said:
Those adventures are OUT.

They are all originally published for 256 colors VGA graphics on 386+ CPUs, which have 32bit architecture (Wiki-Link)

Conversions for technically lower machines shouldnt count, I´d say.

Hmm not too sure, but wasn't DOS a 16-bit operating system? I think only with dos extenders like DOS4GW you could actually use the 32-bit capabilities of the CPU. And those adventures didn't use those I think.
 
StarEye said:
The A1200/A4000 did, but did the A500 as well? I remember the A1200 being marketed as the first 32bit Amiga.
That´s where Truespeed and I got into discussion about.
Technically, the A500 CPU understands 32 bit commands, but takes two cycles to process them. Let´s say it was kinda half of a 32 bit processor - but not a "true" one.
 
Drkirby said:
Neogeo had a 32 bit processor in it, was advertised at "24 bit", so its hard to place.

The NeoGeo had a 16-bit Motorola 68k and a 8-bit Z80 as a co-processor.

The NeoGeo is a 16-bit system.
 
I find it pretty funny how this thread has 170 replies from people praising the awesomeness of 16bit 2D games, and yet every time I come here, the first 2-3 pages of the gaming forum are filled with threads about games that are 3D.

You guys like to talk the talk but not walk the walk. I honestly feel I am among the only and very few people here who still plays 2D games religiously, as in....EVERY.SINGLE.DAY!

2D games to me are the life and blood of videogames. 3D games(in a general sense) will never have the charm and uniqueness of a 2D game(in a general sense). The joy I get from firing up games like Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, Final Fantasy 6, Samurai Shodown, etc, will never be matched by ANY game with polygons that I can think of.

I guess with the birth emulators, I've been spoiled all over again.

As to which 16bit game has the best art style, I will just say there are way too many to list, but Chrono Trigger is probably my personal favorite since it's well....my favorite videogame of all time :)
 
Chrono Trigger and SD3 are the best looking 16 bit games I have seen.

Vectorman 1 and 2 were technically impressive but look ugly as shit style wise.
 
Any other answer than Donkey Kong Country is just incorrect.

That series, along with Killer Instinct, are the motherfucking reason why I went back to SNES back in the day. The SNES would've been mostly dead to me in 1993 if not for these games. They also managed to resurrect the SNES altogether.

PS: For the LAST FUCKING TIME, stop trying to pin "bits" on systems. You can't even say a CPU is a certain "bit." The address bus could be 24-bit in width and the data bus could be 16-bit. And then, certain instructions may be something entirely different. Hell, there are instructions on Intel's current line that are 128 bits in width.

So stop talking about something you obviously know nothing about.
 
idahoblue said:
In my memory it would be Earthworm Jim, but some of these caps say otherwise.

It looks better in motion. Especially the PC version, which has extra animation and uses high-color graphics (plus, has all the bonus content of the Sega CD version, which means roughly twice the levels + redbook audio).
 
Donkey Kong is the obvious answer, but I'm surprised no one has mentioned Toy Story. That game looked amazing to me as well. I still can't believe those graphics could be produced on that generation of systems.

In terms of art style, too many games to list. The 16 bit era was the "Golden Age" of gaming IMHO.
 
StarEye said:
The A1200/A4000 did, but did the A500 as well? I remember the A1200 being marketed as the first 32bit Amiga.

The A1200/A4000 used the economy version of the 68020 which only had a 24 bit address bus, but did have a 32 bit data bus. The size of the address bus is sort of irrelevant in this era because no one had 4GB of RAM back then so 24 bits was more than sufficient. The data bus size is also irrelevant (to me) because it's something that was transparent to you and you never had to account or deal with it as the CPU microcode took care of any necessary operations. If your machine code is 32 bits then that's all the proof you need.
 
TheDayday said:
In terms of art style, too many games to list. The 16 bit era was the "Golden Age" of gaming IMHO.

Quoted for the mother effin' truth. So many classics. Neo Geo + SNES + Genesis = Gaming Heaven.
 
I remember the first game I was really impressed by the graphics was Shining Force 2, the battle graphics looked really good to me.

shinforce2-2.gif


and it had some huge boobs

sf2_uberboobs.gif
 
DragonBall Z: Hyper Dimension
dragon%20ball%20z%20-%20hyper%20dimension-1.jpg


Any of the DKC games (Dixie's Double Trouble looks the best, though).
dkc3_4.jpg


Yoshi's Island
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Kirby's Dream Land 3
Kirbys_Dream_Land_3_SNES_ScreenShot2.jpg


Super Mario RPG
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As much as people like the DKC games I always felt KI looked much better in terms of that shiney "SGI" style of graphics


killer-instinct.jpg


KI.jpg
 
mr stroke said:
As much as people like the DKC games I always felt KI looked much better in terms of that shiney "SGI" style of graphics


killer-instinct.jpg


KI.jpg

Those are screenshots from the Arcade version and don't count, if you ask me. :P The Arcade version was intended to be a Nintendo 64 game.

As for DKC3, I just didn't much like the "theme" of the game - DKC1 was jungles and rain forests for the most part, DKC2 was pirates, DKC3 was more... woodsy and industrial stuff. Plus, in terms of level themes, it felt like the game was really running out of steam.
 
Rewrite said:
And, my favorite looking zone from Sonic CD which I still think it's beautiful up to this day. Stardust Speedway:
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Collision Chaos
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Tidal Tempest
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Got to be this, I mean holy christ look at it.
 
Speevy said:
Star Ocean. Never released in North America, but it looks amazing from the screens I've seen.
yea this i actually played this man is it incredible, i really hate the art they used in the psp version.
 
Casey120 said:
No love for Contra 3 the alien wars then ??

Is this a joke? Did you even look at the pictures? This is a first-generation game with more in common with NES, with just a few cool Mode 7 effects spicing it up. Check out the repeating tiles all over, the horrible color depth and the non-existant background artwork.
 
SiegfriedFM said:
Is this a joke? Did you even look at the pictures? This is a first-generation game with more in common with NES, with just a few cool Mode 7 effects spicing it up. Check out the repeating tiles all over, the horrible color depth and the non-existant background artwork.
i checked but all i see is awesomeness, I don't considered it as the best of the 16-bit era though.
 
mr stroke said:
never knew this.
Wiki says-


if that was the case anyone know why the NeoGeo games looked miles better than anything on Genesis? was it "16 bit" core with 24 bit graphics? Never knew what the hell was going on there?

in that respect wasn't this just a 8 bit system?
NECTG16Box.jpg

The NeoGeo had more color on screen then the Genesis or snes. And the had 330 Meg memory cart
 
SiegfriedFM said:
Is this a joke? Did you even look at the pictures? This is a first-generation game with more in common with NES, with just a few cool Mode 7 effects spicing it up. Check out the repeating tiles all over, the horrible color depth and the non-existant background artwork.

Did you just equate Contra III wth NES games? WHAT!?:lol
 
There is a lot of good suggestions. Rares prerendered games just doesn't feels as impressive as reel pixelated games today in my opinion. They where damn impressive back then though.

I got my own candidate, Shinobi III for Genesis / Mega Drive. It's a 16 bit masterpiece. I know that the Neo Geo-games are far beyond this, but knowing the limitations of Segas black beast, this still is really good looking and holds up well 2008.

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