Blocky, clumsy, early 3d model nostalgia thread

[Macho Madness]

I've still got a copy for my Genesis.

 

[SickBoy]

sorta? i dont know if this counts as 3d but it was to me.. infact it was 4d.

Is this the game on PC where you could do a cheap shot when the ref turned his head?

Could you please circle the ref in that screenshot?

BTW, 4D Boxing was awesome ... the best boxing game going for a loooong time. I don't think there was a better title until Fight Night (that's 13 years!)

 

[Diablohead]

http://tomtallian.com/index.html

I love these models since I first saw them, someone needs to convert them to work in TF2.

 

[Future PhaZe]

Dark Forces 2. Fucking awesome.

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

it's cool seeing these older games

 

[MisterHero]

I remember this. It was from when Super Smash Bros. was being worked on as a SNES game. Apparently back then they couldn't come up with good characters to turn it into something worthwhile until someone came in and said "Why not use our mascots", correct?

No, it was from a seperate project, as far as I know. Sakurai's project came later and was started for the N64. I have an EGM that previewed "Fighting Polygon" as an FX-chip game.

 

[Rlan]

I remember there being a small project someone was doing where they were making low poly models of Halo characters - Chief, Grunts etc. Anyone else remember?

 

[DECK'ARD]

Thread needs more Amiga!

Starglider 2, Birds Of Prey, Hunter, and the very awesome for it's time FA/18 Interceptor ...

 

[Azure J]

No, it was from a seperate project, as far as I know. Sakurai's project came later and was started for the N64. I have an EGM that previewed "Fighting Polygon" as an FX-chip game.

Oh really? I learn something new everyday then. :lol

 

[A Black Falcon]

Hard Drivin'... That game was so, so unbelievable in the arcades back then... mind-blowing stuff, really. Great game, too...

Oh, and I don't think I'd call late '90s stuff "early 3d model"... maybe, I guess, but still... I really wouldn't count, like, Outcast or Skies of Arcadia or stuff like that. "Early 3d" to me would mean at the newest N64, maybe, definitely nothing beyond that. Somewhere in the second half of the '90s is where I at least would draw the line, I think...

Dark Forces 2. Fucking awesome.

Best FPS ever. Yes, still. 1997 though, so it's not that "early", though compared to later stuff, or even some other games from that year, it does look somewhat primitive. The giant areas more than made up for that, though, not to mention the exceptional level design work, exploration, great music, puzzles, fun combat, force powers, multiplayer, and more...

Anyway, "early 3d"... Hard Drivin' is a fantastic one. As I said I remember being really, really impressed by that arcade machine. Mario 64 of course, to go a lot newer... that game pretty much defined "mind-blowing" for me. I still like N64 3d, really. Bad framerates, sure, but the better N64 games still look great to me... that's probably why I hesitate at including them -- "clumsy early 3d" to me sounds like "stuff that didn't quite work yet", but something like Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie... that worked, really well.

Something much more fitting would be, like, Vortex on the SNES... incredibly ambitious game for the platform, but unbelievably hard, and with a ridiculously low framerate and complex controls... despite how cool the idea is (transforming giant robot 3d flying/driving free-roam shooting game...), it just didn't quite work due to hardware limitations. Also, perhaps, Faceball 2000 on the Game Boy. 16-player handheld deathmatch in 1991! (It isn't polygonal, but still.)

 

[ymmv]

How about:

Mercenary

Elite:

Starglider:

Carrier Command:

Stunt Car Racer:

 

[Alfarif]

Of course this thread isnt about what looks 'great', its about the weird connections some of us formed to what we now regard as primitive 3d.

I'll also go with my initial instinct of Panzer Dragoon Saga to spice up the thread:

Look at those textures, good lord. I know it looks 'bad' now, but back then when everyone was playing and hyping FF7 with it's lego men on pre-rendered image backgrounds, Team Andromeda took the Saturn to it's fucking limit by doing everything in native 3d on the system that shouldnt! When I see Edge's polygonal back there, right at the very start in that ancient corridor, I still get shivers.

I came in here to post this. Panzer Dragoon Saga shits all over Square until Square got old of the PS2 dev kits. That game is not fucking joke. Shit still impresses the fuck out of me. If you uprezzed it, it would put most PS2 games to shame with its artstyle and atmosphere. FUCK! I'm going to go start up a new game right this second.

 

[Dead Man Typing]

*wishes he had his Saturn and PDS with him*

Anyone got any pics of Panzer 1 and Zwei at native res? They still look pretty good today, I'm sure.

 

[Night_Trekker]

I regularly play older 3D games (PSX games, mostly), and I love the look of the earlier 3D games. (The ones with great art direction, at least.) There's something very charming about the simple geometry of the Mega Man Legends games, for example.

 

[Roquentin]

Such an underappreciated game.

 

[GCX]

I've always liked how Nintendo used sprites in their early 3D games to overcome to technical obstacles.

Like the drivers in MK64:

Or the cannonballs and bob-ombs in Mario 64:

They're just little visual tricks but I think they hold up pretty well.

 

[Pezking]

I loved the first 3D games by Ocean for the Amiga. The still have a clean and very aesthetic look today:

 

[Damodar]

The funny thing about the VF1 screenshot is how amazingly inefficient the model is. It could easily be hundreds of polygons less without losing any detail.

Also GT1/2 still looks pretty damn nice!

I thought the exact same thing. There are actually a surprising number of polygons there, it's just a really bad model. For the same number of polys, you could get something that looked infinitely better, especially with some sort of basic per-poly smoothing, so it wasn't so faceted. I'm actually impressed by the number of polys.

And GT1 does warm my heart to look at it :3

And GOD YES, to the person who suggestion Galleon and the person that said it was underrated. I fucking loved it! Everything about it was so awesome, and nobody else that I know even played it

In fact, it's so awesome and I love the artstyle so much that I'm gonna post that pic again for good measure

I MUST GET TO CALVERLY BEFORE JABEZ DOES!!

 

[StarEye]

And GOD YES, to the person who suggestion Galleon and the person that said it was underrated. I fucking loved it! Everything about it was so awesome, and nobody else that I know even played it

+1 on that. I'm so sad that Galleon doesn't work on the X360. MS should continue with their BC support, there are still a lot of games that deserves that treatment. Like Stranger's Wrath, Shenmue 2, Galleon, Indy and The Emperor's Tomb and BG&E. For example.

EDIT: oops, both Shenmue 2 and Indy is BC apparantly.

 

[KareBear]

http://w1.612.telia.com/~u61202945/http:/w1.612.telia.com/~u61202945/pcgames.htm

Lots of early 3d pc game shots here.

Max Payne

Prey

Thief

Daikatana

 

[SapientWolf]

 

[senahorse]

I thought Alone in the Dark looked amazing when it first came out, hard to think now.

Oh, and Edward, I think you're meant to move the cupboard over to stop the dog coming in, if I remember correctly.

 

[BlazeHedgehog]

(why didn't they bother adding 7 well designed levels to have a full game?)

Though nothing official has been said, I remember hearing that Sonic Adventure started as a Sega Saturn game but quickly got bumped to the Dreamcast.

A full-on 3D Sonic game may not have been possible on the Saturn, at least not to the level of detail for Sonic Jam's Sonic World. Look at how fast a game like NiGHTS can move and that game had a pitiful draw distance. In Sonic World, Sonic actually moves slower than Mario does in Mario 64, and it's not calculating anything like the trademark Sonic physics, or enemies, or, well, anything except a basic 3D platformer engine. That would make for a pretty underwhelming game, no matter which character would star in it.

 

[Log4Girlz]

Tekken 3 in arcades...I love games that use their assets to the max. There's not a wasted polygon.

 

[Surfheart]

Man I loved that Geoff Crammond's F1. Played it to death on the Amiga and then later the superior PC version.

I remember being blown away by the visuals at the time and it really hits me about how I feel about game graphics these days. Back when F1 was new, it was so abstract looking that your mind filled tended to fill in the gaps. With 3D visuals these days being so realistic, it bugs me that I seem to focus on the shortcomings.

 

[flabberghastly]

A bit of old, a bit of new:

 

[Sleeker]

I thought Alone in the Dark looked amazing when it first came out, hard to think now.

Oh, and Edward, I think you're meant to move the cupboard over to stop the dog coming in, if I remember correctly.

I remember having the demo of this on our old, old PC from the early 90s and I couldn't believe the graphics were in 3D.
Blew my mind

 

[quetz67]

 

[Powdered Toastman]

Ellipsoid Technology(tm) > blocky polygons...

 

[Mithos]

I know the issue claimed that the game was heading to the Nintendo 64 when it wasn't.

According to many game sites back then it (Unreal) was heading to N64 but was canceled for some reason.

According to IGN this was due to the game Unreal 64 was made for the 64dd add on.

 

[Vespa]

 

[Mar]

I CANT BELIEVE IT!

Funny now, sure. But back when that game was released, it really did blow people away.

I had played a lot of Quake and other PC 3D games. But the first time I walked out of the crashed ship in Unreal and saw the outside world, while the music kicked in, I literally stopped and stared in absolute awe. So yes, this would have to be the first 3D game that blew my fucking mind.

 

[Kntj]

Terra Incognita
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d--Q0pi11ts&fmt=18

 

[GhostSeed]

StarBlade

This game was mind blowing back in 1991.

 

[zoukka]

Crash Bandicoot 2 blew my mind back in the days. So smooth and fluid... kicked the ass of most N64 games too.

But yeah the FFVII cast is forever burned into my brains. In a good way. The angry Barret animation is awesome :lol

 

[big_z]

Ellipsoid Technology(tm) > blocky polygons...

i wonder what an ellipsoid game would look like today if the tech would have taken off.

 

[Iron_Scimitar]

That ellipsoid game looks interesting.

 

[Danne-Danger]

Terra Incognita
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d--Q0pi11ts&fmt=18

Holy shit! That was a long time ago.

Was that some sort of tech demo or something? Only place I ever saw it was on a demo disc.

 

[BeeDog]

That ellipsoid game looks interesting.

It's Ecstatica, a horror adventure game that rocked my socks off when I was a kid. I have no idea if they (the first game on the pic, and its sequel) were well received, but I know I loved them (especially the second game).

 

[CTLance]

Obligatory party pooper: Early 3D sucks ass. It still gives me the shivers. How anyone could go from beautiful lush 2D games to N64/PSX 3D willingly still boggles my mind. But I'm a 2D diehard, so it's no small wonder that I think that way.

Still, carry on please. Particularly the PDS shots made me want to dig out my Saturn again. Proves again that good artstyle beats technical limitations.

 

[harSon]

Could you please circle the ref in that screenshot?

BTW, 4D Boxing was awesome ... the best boxing game going for a loooong time. I don't think there was a better title until Fight Night (that's 13 years!)

Well, the game I'm talking about had the ref ringside.

 

[Kntj]

Holy shit! That was a long time ago.

Was that some sort of tech demo or something? Only place I ever saw it was on a demo disc.

It was one of those Yaroze games that were made by hobbyists. I have a demo disc with like 20 of them

Some of them were great at the time.

 

[RevenantKioku]

Obligatory party pooper: Early 3D sucks ass. It still gives me the shivers. How anyone could go from beautiful lush 2D games to N64/PSX 3D willingly still boggles my mind. But I'm a 2D diehard, so it's no small wonder that I think that way.

Still, carry on please. Particularly the PDS shots made me want to dig out my Saturn again. Proves again that good artstyle beats technical limitations.

As much as I dislike then compared to 2D, the more realistic games get, the more disappointed I am. There really is something charming about games where it looks like the developers are pushing the system to its limits and have to do certain "tricks" to get things looking right. Just don't get the same feeling from todays games. That feeling mostly died out during the PS2/Xbox era.

 

[VNZ]

I thought the exact same thing. There are actually a surprising number of polygons there, it's just a really bad model. For the same number of polys, you could get something that looked infinitely better, especially with some sort of basic per-poly smoothing, so it wasn't so faceted. I'm actually impressed by the number of polys.

True... But then again, Model 1 only supported quads and couldn't do gouraud-shading. But yeah, if they had dropped the individual fingers they could have allocated a lot of the polygons to more useful areas. Then yet again, one have to realize that the 3d modeling packages sucked ass at that time. I believe Sega used some proprietary in-house software at the time, and really, the modeling and animation process was a huge pain in the ass compared to today.

More to the topic: I was involved in a project called Netbaby World, and we used the early polygon look in a retro-stylized sense. This was way back in 1999, and I have to say it's a look that still works quite beautifully:

 

[adelante]

http://i42.tinypic.com/2m44s43.jpg[//IMG]

I CANT BELIEVE IT![/QUOTE]
lol I still have that issue!!

Edit:
[IMG]http://i43.tinypic.com/2q1v1ch.jpg

Was so freakin impressed when i first saw this shot of the Skarj:

The beginning of the end? (plus snippet of Cliff Blezinski's interview) :

And of course, this guy:

 

[the androgyne]

This was originally a Super NES game with an FX chip, thus the title. I don't think any digital screenshots of its only appearance in Nintendo Power exist, but man, was it chunky.

Actually there's a whole bunch here, and below are some i just took from an old NMS magazine in Australia. February issue, due to be released in April.... :lol

 

[666]

I think that's the thread that I've been waiting for to make a weird confession.
I don't have any idea why, but I did enjoy (in fact I still do) the blurriness aspect of the N64's games textures and that fog that almost all games had. I thought it was really charming, mainly in Zelda's games.

Here's what I'm talking about:

Yeah, I know it's bizarre.

totally agree!!!

 

[ymmv]

Obligatory party pooper: Early 3D sucks ass. It still gives me the shivers. How anyone could go from beautiful lush 2D games to N64/PSX 3D willingly still boggles my mind. But I'm a 2D diehard, so it's no small wonder that I think that way.

It was popular because it was so much different from the 2D visuals that had been the norm for 15 years. No more sprites, no more 2D scrollers and beat-em ups, you could finally go in all directions. Those primitive 3D graphics blew our minds. I remember seeing games like Hard Drivin', 4D Sports Boxing and Virtua Fighter and being astounded by the graphics.

Times have changed. The graphics in early 3D games don't hold up as well by current standards as the best 2D games, but things were different 15 years ago. The same thing happened in music by the way. Just ask any musician about the popularity of FM synthesis over analog synths in eighties music. It even effected gaming. Just about anyone had a Soundblaster or AdLib sound card in their PC but you don't see PC gamers waxing nostalgic about those tin can sounds like C64 fans revere the SID sound chip.

 

[bengraven]

I MUST GET TO CALVERLY BEFORE JABEZ DOES!!

Wasn't that PS2? Doesn't exactly count as "early 3D" since it was just a few years ago.

And my God, I remember how ugly I thought the game was when it came out then...

 

[Easy_D]

e;fb

Doesn't count! OP asked for polygons, Outcast uses voxels!
But man, something about Outcast just looks lovely..so fuzzy and nice, the sound effects and soundtrack helped too.