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[Branduil]

This game was canned (Resident Evil on the GBC) but I think it counts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShC8zJgbTts

Okay, this one blows my mind. The backgrounds are obviously just prerendered, but how did they achieve those sprites on the GBC?

 

[Celine]

Okay, this one blows my mind. The backgrounds are obviously just prerendered, but how did they achieve those sprites on the GBC?

Fish Files for GBC has better graphics with over 2000 colors ( 2560 )
Coded by an italian studios:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygRdQ5kAMdQ

Heh - OK, fine, didn't think it mattered, but yes, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is what I was talking about.
Chamber of Secrets, End of final boss battle

Really impressive.
Never know there was a Harry Potter jrpg

 

[oneils]

For the OG Xbox?

Metal Wolf Chaos. It used 100% of the Xbox's Awesomeometer™.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Genl242_ZU8

Holy crap, that looks awesome. Never heard of that one.

 

[insin]

I seem to recall a lot of talk in PlayStation magazines of the time about Gran Turismo 2 pushing the PlayStation to its limits, according to the ever-mysterious Performance Analyser.

 

[benjipwns]

Fish Files for GBC has better graphics with over 2000 colors ( 2560 )
Coded by an italian studios:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygRdQ5kAMdQ

I'm probably wrong, but IIRC wasn't that high color palette, by swapping each scanline, on the GBC discovered partly by some hackers or indie people? I seem to think it was related to people who coded games for TI calculators for some reason.

 

[FyreWulff]

I think Perfect Dark pretty much wins this.

Hell, you could pretty much just say "Rare games before the 360".

Perfect Dark
Donkey Kong 64

Conker's Bad Fur Day and Tooie (where they started showing off and didn't even use the expansion pak)


Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2

Starfox Adventures (pulled off fur shading on the GameCube, which at the time was supposed to be an OXbox-only feature, full self shadowing and real time lights, etc)

And apparently the cancelled Perfect Dark Zero GameCube looked pretty fine.

 

[magicalsoundshower]

Goddamn, that Fish Files game looks like something Lucas Arts would have pulled off on a VGA PC. I wonder how many sprites that main character is composed of? Or did they circumvent the GBC's apparent 3-color-per-sprite limit as well?

 

[benjipwns]

Or did they circumvent the GBC's apparent 3-color-per-sprite limit as well?

As I noted, and I might entirely be remembering this wrong, but I seem to remember that people figured out that you could use the entire palette per line and thus reset it for every line but somehow take no performance hit if you did it right.

I thought it had to do with TI people because they use the same technique to get around limits on those calculators.

 

[bengraven]

What's sad is that Riddick on Xbox1 still looks better than 90% of current gen shooters.

 

[NBtoaster]

Revisted COD3 on PS2 on an emulator and there's some rediculous detail there for PS2.

I don't remember what the framerate was like when I played it on PS2 in 2006, but I don't imagine it to be great. The emulator can't really keep up either.

 

[Marco1]

Red dead Redemption, I just completed it last night and there are times such as the atmosphere when it rains in certain locations that it's hard to believe it's running on an xbox360. And that's coming from someone who primarily games on a GTX580 gaming PC.
I am glad it's finished and ready to be traded as I have wanted it on PC for so long and now I don't care if it comes or not.

 

[magicalsoundshower]

As I noted, and I might entirely be remembering this wrong, but I seem to remember that people figured out that you could use the entire palette per line and thus reset it for every line but somehow take no performance hit if you did it right.

I thought it had to do with TI people because they use the same technique to get around limits on those calculators.

Ah, I thought the scanline trick (which was used in a lot of European 8 and 16 bit games if I recall correctly) didn't count for sprites. But what can I say, I still don't quite understand how the entire scanline thing works.

 

[onQ123]

it's sad that 'Black' has been forgotten

 

[KittenMaster]

The fish files characters look like they're still subject to sprite color limitations (thus lack of elaborate shading). They probably just stacked sprites with different palettes just as one would in an NES game.

 

[ZacharyDCCLXXVII]

it's sad that 'Black' has been forgotten

Too true, but you can't blame them. Game looked amazing, but was incredibly short and pretty linear. I still loved it, I just wish there was more to it.

BLACK's the only game that comes to my mind right now, as I've been thinking about it what with the recent Bodycount complaints. Such a shame.

 

[Deleted member 22576]

Black? Forgotten? Its like the most famous shooter besides halo from last gen.

 

[Ultratech]

Black? Forgotten? Its like the most famous shooter besides halo from last gen.

Really? Because I rarely hear people even talk about it.
Very nice looking game, but pretty short.

 

[The Technomancer]

At this point I'd feel comfortable in saying that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the best any Wii game is ever going to look, especially from a technical perspective. Mostly because they're probably running low on employees after the blood sacrifices required to work that black magic.

 

[tea_and_crumpets]

From last Gen I would have to say God of War 2 for the PS2, its undoubtedly its best looking game. For the Xbox, Chronicles of Riddick and for the Gamecube, Twilight Princess.

 

[Trunchisholm]

I think Perfect Dark pretty much wins this.

Hell, you could pretty much just say "Rare games before the 360".

Wrong. Banjo-Kazooie: N&B and Viva Piñata: TiP are some of the most graphically intensive games on the 360, with Banjo taxing the CPU a lot as well thanks to its physics. Rare arguably were, before the massive Kinect exodus, the most technically proficient Microsoft first-party studio, even if we include Bungie.

 

[FyreWulff]

Wrong. Banjo-Kazooie: N&B and Viva Piñata: TiP are some of the most graphically intensive games on the 360, with Banjo taxing the CPU a lot as well thanks to its physics. Rare arguably were, before the massive Kinect exodus, the most technically proficient Microsoft first-party studio, even if we include Bungie.

N&B is impressive but there's a bunch of games that match it in terms of prowess. I'm not saying they suck at graphics now, but it's clear some of the rest of the development community has caught up.

Makes me wish we could see a Rare Wii game, as they'd really push that hardware and we'd stop letting companies get away with porting old PS2 projects to the Wii.

 

[dreamcastmaster]

I'd have to say that Dead or Alive Ultimate for the Xbox really pushes the system. It's up there with Riddick, Doom 3 and half Life 2.

 

[TeK-DeLorean]

Front Mission 3 on PS1
Killer Instinct on SNES and N64
TooT on N64

 

[Seraphinianus]

Shadow of the Colossus.
MAXED. OUT.

beyond maxed. anything less would've been unplayable lol

I'd have to say that Dead or Alive Ultimate for the Xbox really pushes the system. It's up there with Riddick, Doom 3 and half Life 2.

and Ninja gaiden black!

 

[Deleted member 22576]

Really? Because I rarely hear people even talk about it.
Very nice looking game, but pretty short.

IDK, actually since I made that post I can think of a few other franchises definitely more well known (killzon, timesplitters) But I think Black was a pretty big game, and certainly looking back one of the more "famous" titles.

 

[sublimit]

Playstation:Hmm hard to say...probably Gran Turismo 2?

Playstation 2:Shadow of the Colossus

Playstation 3:None yet

Gamecube:Resident Evil Remake

Wii:Xenoblade Chronicles

 

[RedSwirl]

Also: Riddick. It was riddickulous.

What's really messed-up about Riddick is that in an interview with 1up, Starbreeze said that they basically accomplished the same thing on the PS2. They just couldn't release that version due to some publishing limitations.

 

[Nuclear Muffin]

At this point I'd feel comfortable in saying that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the best any Wii game is ever going to look, especially from a technical perspective. Mostly because they're probably running low on employees after the blood sacrifices required to work that black magic.

Nah, I'd say that Other M is comfortably a notch above SMG 2 in the visuals department. I honestly sometimes found it hard to tell which parts were FMV and in game at moments in certain (not all) cutscenes.

Fish Files for GBC has better graphics with over 2000 colors ( 2560 )
Coded by an italian studios:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygRdQ5kAMdQ


Really impressive.

HOLY MOTHER OF FUCK!, WHAT?! HOW?!

 

[Jerry Orbach]

Black? Forgotten? Its like the most famous shooter besides halo from last gen.

Battlefield, Call of Duty, Ghost Recon, SOCOM, Max Payne, Serious Sam, Far Cry, Red Faction, Brothers in Arms...

...Mercenaries, Freedom Fighters, Psi-Ops, Metal Arms, Brute Force, Painkiller, Black.

 

[Atomski]

What's really messed-up about Riddick is that in an interview with 1up, Starbreeze said that they basically accomplished the same thing on the PS2. They just couldn't release that version due to some publishing limitations.

Ps2 didnt support bump mapping though.. which was what made Riddick look so good for its time.

Black? Forgotten? Its like the most famous shooter besides halo from last gen.

I figured it was a sleeper hit.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Dead or Alive 3
Dead or Alive Ultimate
Chronicles of Riddick

 

[Metal-Geo]

Conker's Bad Fur Day was a goddamn impressive N64 game. But it also did have some framerate issues here and there. (not as much as Perfect Dark, mind you) At which point you have to ask whethere the code wasn't optimized proper, or if it really did max out the console.

Personally I find Conker Live & Reloaded (single player portion) more incredible. Dat fur and lighting.

 

[zephervack]

One of the best if not THE best looking N64 game ever made.

Is this the final box? This game did not need the expansion pack? Thats mind blowing.

 

[FyreWulff]

Is this the final box? This game did not need the expansion pack? Thats mind blowing.

Yep, didn't need it. Which makes the game that much more impressive that it's running on an N64.

 

[Celine]

I'm probably wrong, but IIRC wasn't that high color palette, by swapping each scanline, on the GBC discovered partly by some hackers or indie people? I seem to think it was related to people who coded games for TI calculators for some reason.

I believe the"hi color mode" was rarely used but always supported by the hardware.
The trick was that it could be used only for "still presentation" ( as seen in Tomb Raider, Simba the lion king etc. ).
Very few games use the mode during gameplay : The Fish Files, Addam Family and Alone in the Dark New Nightmare.

Presentation:

In-game:

 

[Skiptastic]

Really? Because I rarely hear people even talk about it.
Very nice looking game, but pretty short.

It's hard to talk about because there really hasn't been anything to take up it's legacy, in my opinion. The CODs had Modern Warfare, Halo had more Halo. Black was kind of just left to exist in its own world. But good god, that game is the definition of visceral.

 

[benzy]

Ninja Gaiden. Those character models, texture detail, shaders, A.I., animations, all at 60fps was incredible.

 

[StuBurns]

While it seems to be a shit game, FF Type-0 is pretty much shocking visually.

 

[ElFly]

Is the only measure of "maxing out a console" that the framerate is shitty?

 

[Erebus]

For PS2:

God of War II
Shadow of the Colossus
MGS3 Subsistence
Silent Hill 3 (how can you forget that?!)
Resident Evil 4 (even while being inferior to the GC version)

And what about GTA San Andreas? I think having a game of that scale running on PS2 is a technical achievement on its own.

Plus, I don't know if these maxed out the PS2 but they sure look incredible for the hardware:

Tekken 5
Gran Turismo 4
FF XII

 

[Shadow of the BEAST]

Lionheart amiga

The game pushes hundreds of colors on a system tha basically has 32. This with lots of paralax scroll. Great game with great art thanks to henk nieborg.

Batman return of the joker nes

Huge sprite. Sometimes it almost feels like a proto mega drive game.

kirby dreamland

Really smart use of color. Looked absolutely great. Feels like proto snes game.

ridge racer type 4

 

[NinjaBoiX]

No game ever truly maxes out a console. Developers will simply find new ways to optimise. For arguments sake, lets say U3 uses 90% of the power available on PS3. Two years down the line, ND would probably be able to get the game running on 70% of the power, and therefore throw some more particles around or whatever.
Hell, a badly optimised ugly game could use a load more processing cycles than a well optimised pretty game. It's all relative.

 

[Toadthemushroom]

Old thread, but still relevant and the existing responses are worth keeping I think.

GTA on DS saw Rockstar Leeds write a lot of machine code to get the game running at 30fps:

At the end of the day though, the biggest restriction we had to contend with was home made. Even before we wrote one line of code we had laid in stone that the game MUST run at 30 frames per second. For the type of action we were aiming for I honestly thought that I was setting my guys up for a near impossible test. Sure enough, many times through the dev cycle, we dropped to 20 or 15fps. At these times you would hear the odd murmur of 'we can't throw that much around screen,' or 'we need fewer attackers on this mission' - we never once backed down or compromised though.

What we did do many, many times is go over the code, hand optimising every line we could. The amount of raw machine code in this game is just unheard of nowadays. We were busy throwing away page after page of traditional code in favour of the machine's raw assembly language. Sure, this massively added to the development schedule of this project, but at the same time it created a game that I feel could not have been created anywhere else on the planet. Sam (Houser, President of Rockstar Games) had given me the remit of creating a DS game that would rival Nintendo's own best offerings, and he wasn't about to let any ticking clocks get in the way of our success.

From a NWR piece:

Leeds also worked closely with members of the team behind Grand Theft Auto IV.

Using every area from Grand Theft Auto IV's Liberty City, except the New Jersey-based Alderney, Chinatown Wars' iteration of Liberty City is fully modeled in 3D. With over 900,000 lines of hand-optimized code, the DS game's city is nearly double the size of the PSP title, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.

The difference in performance between Astro Boy: Omega Factor and Gunstar Super Heroes on GBA makes me think Treasure wrote more of the latter in assembly. The former has copious amounts of slowdown, whereas the latter runs smoothly while throwing around more sprites (from what I remember anyway...)