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I hated PS1 visuals

Jeez, imagine what people will say in 20 years.

"Am I the only one who just can't stand 1080p?! It was such trash."

Seriously, for the late 90's, that shit was awesome.

First, you'd actually need to have 1080p console games for the majority of people to make that comparison. :p
 
It's kind of silly to look back now and say "I didn't like the way that game looked". In hindsight, of course you don't - look what we play now compared to 1997. Nothing, on either the Nintendo 64 or Playstation looks incredible today (save a few 2D games and games that aren't fully 3D).

It's not like we had very many high polygon count games when the Playstation and Nintendo 64 were in their prime.

That's like saying "I didn't like black and white TV very much."

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I never had a PS1, and had an N64 instead. I remember always wanting a PS1 and thinking that because it was so popular and used CD's that it must be better. Then I played it at a friends house and realized most of the games on it looked like shit.
 
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PS1 could do great 2D games. I was really dissappointed that so many companies felt compelled to jump into 3D :(
 
So out of curiosity, what do you all who don't remember PS1 graphics fondly think of modern retro 3D/3D sprite type art?

Are your problems with PS1 graphics due to technical problems (draw distance, flickering, overall screen resolution, etc.) or simply the pixelation of the low res textures or the blockiness of the shapes of objects? Do you like/dislike Minecraft ('s graphics)?
 
PS1/Saturn/N64 is my least favorite gen. I pretty much fell out of gaming for that time, minus a few titles here and there that I actually enjoyed.
 
I must say, though, one thing I really like about the screenshots I'm seeing posted in this thread is how much more vibrant everything was back then compared to now (with some exceptions, like Mirror's Edge, Assassin's Creed 4 or virtually anything Nintendo).

I know that's all down to art direction, but still.
 
It was kind of an adolescent era; 3D was just coming into its own adolescence itself, and it showed not only in the graphics, but the scope.

What got me about that point in time was the 2D efforts were SCORCHINGLY good but were poohpoohed by so many in favor of the rather mundane early PS1 3D, (ie, not Gran Turismo 2, Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story). Next Generation were particularly bad about this.
 
The shitty/lack of Z-Buffer on the PS1 was hilarious.

I'm looking at you Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone.
 
It looks so bad that it looks good. It's a bit strange, but the low-poly characters and low-res textures work very well sometimes. Especially MGS.
 
Ps1 was ok, the lack of complex textures makes things look clearer.
The worst visuals came with PS2 imo, making "realistic" graphics with low res texture was a terrible idea.
 
I enjoyed the 32-bit era. I definitely preferred the PSX/Saturn approach to the N64 approach, if only because they could actually display somewhat detailed textures. Texture filtering was nice and all but only if you have something to filter in the first place.

I was just playing some N64 yesterday and tried a bit of Top Gear Rally. Man does this game look like ass today. Youtube compression hides just how blurry and plain the textures really are, it looks decent in this video. You can see the foundation from which modern 3D games came, with the perspective correction, good draw distance and texture filtering. Saturn/PSX look like a whole other deal in comparison.

N64: Top Gear Rally

PSX: Gran Turismo 2

Saturn: Sega Rally Championship
 
It was a pick your poison scenario back then, with each system having its own strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I definitely preferred the look of N64 games as all the texture warping on the PSX drove me crazy. Funny thing is, the simpler looking games from that era (like Mario 64) ended up aging the best.



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That looks like it's probably not running on original hardware in that shot, but the quote was too good to pass up.
 
Pre-rendered backgrounds saved so many PS1 games and titles that used them have aged significantly better than purely 3D titles on the system.

Man I remember playing Twisted Metal on a kiosk and not even realizing the game was on next generation hardware because it was ugly.

I was never particularly blown away by purely 3D graphics on the system, ever. Crash Team Racing has that weird problem, where the polygons feel like they're always moving weirdly in motion. The environments sometimes look like they're bending slightly.

The other Crash bandicoot games have this problem too. It's hard to explain but the environments are bending.

I haven't experienced is issue in any n64 title.
 
Two particular series from the PS1 era I find still hold up today graphically considering how old they are is Spyro and Crash. I don't find MGS1 looks all that bad either, although the jump from it to MGS2 is pretty big graphically.
 
Fortunately, unlike N64, there are a respectable number of 2D games (same with Saturn). These are the games that have held up over the years.

There are certain titles which still managed to appear somewhat nice even in 3D, however.

Tobal 2 springs to mind with its higher resolution and use of gourad shaded rather than fully textured characters.

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True. I always loved the look and smooth action in the Tobal games.
Otherwise, it's mostly true that 3D polygonal PS1 visuals were never very good, even when the PS1 was "current gen". Wasn't that great even when it was "next gen" (before it released). Just kind of ugly.
 
Considering I started gaming on Vic-20 playing games like this one, it's probably no surprise that I think PSX graphics are fantastic.


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Everything looked shit back then. Nothing charming about any of it.

We were just young and now associate those ugly as games with great memories, so they're "charming".
 
Fortunately, unlike N64, there are a respectable number of 2D games (same with Saturn). These are the games that have held up over the years.

There are certain titles which still managed to appear somewhat nice even in 3D, however.

Tobal 2 springs to mind with its higher resolution and use of gourad shaded rather than fully textured characters.

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I don't think many people are aware that PSX had an actual High Definition mode, and that the Tobal games ran in it. Off the top of my head, the only other game I can think of that used the HD mode was Chrono Cross, but that was only in the character status screen. Maybe Crash Bandicoot 1? I remember being amazed that his character model was so smooth and didn't have visible joints.
 
Honestly, I never really played many games on this system because I couldn't get over how unbelievably ugly the games looked at the time. The worlds had lots of ploys but the textures were super blocky, shimmery and would constantly jitter as you turned the camera around. N64 had a blurry ass look but at least the textures were smooth and didn't shimmer/jitter constantly.

It's the only Sony system I just couldn't play, early 3D is so f'n bad.

Same for me i had a n64 at the time, my friend had a ps1. And i just couldn't get used to the absolute terrible visuals.
 
So out of curiosity, what do you all who don't remember PS1 graphics fondly think of modern retro 3D/3D sprite type art?

Are your problems with PS1 graphics due to technical problems (draw distance, flickering, overall screen resolution, etc.) or simply the pixelation of the low res textures or the blockiness of the shapes of objects? Do you like/dislike Minecraft ('s graphics)?

PS1 graphics are nothing like games like Minecraft.
The only thing of note is that Minecraft has not (at least before a recent update) had texture filtering, everything else is fine (unlike the PS1, which can not map textures correctly and does not handle polygons on a sub pixel level).
 
i love the emulator shots, its basically the "this is how i think i imagined these games looked"

LOL.

gran turismo 1/2 to me looked fugly at the time and looks even worse now.

the best looking racing game was R4 even the menus had a beautiful minimalistic look, got that smooth jams soundtrack it was a near perfect game but buried in the pages of history now :/
 
Silent Hill 1 was amazing because of, not in spite of, the system's low fi visuals.

The shit you don't see, or can only barely make out, is what makes the best horror games scary.

I agree with what you're saying in principle, but I found Silent Hill to be a terribly ugly mess, and not in a good way. Given my limited first-hand experience with PS1 games, Silent Hill was the first game I thought of when reading the OP.
 
Mind blowing visuals.
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My two least favorite things in gaming graphics are pixelated textures and jaggies.

This screen confirms why of all generations, PSone was my absolute least favorite graphically. It's the only one that doesn't even have charm (unless we're talking about the retro REMADE graphics like someone mentioned earlier,) to look back on.

It was just a shit looking stepping stone from beautiful sprites (SNES) to sexy polys (PS2/Xbox/GC).
 
Fortunately, unlike N64, there are a respectable number of 2D games (same with Saturn). These are the games that have held up over the years.

There are certain titles which still managed to appear somewhat nice even in 3D, however.

Tobal 2 springs to mind with its higher resolution and use of gourad shaded rather than fully textured characters.

1897430-tobal2_h1.png

You have very good taste, sir. Tobal 1 and 2 looked amazing for the time, and made me wonder why more games didn't eschew pixelated textures for god-tier shading and resolution. They were also pretty revolutionary and it just sucks that there hasn't been anything like their dungeon modes ever since (each of which, in turn, was very different from the other). Some of the most unique experiences on the PSX for sure.
 
Don't understand this thread,

you are bashing a PSX a 20 year old console for having shitty graphics??

Back then it was the best on the market, and I am pretty sure most of you thought the same way when it was in its prime.

I have tons of fond memories of a new game coming out and me drooling over the graphics.

2 years later the N64 came out, with Goldeneye,,, does NOT hold up very well,, but back then was the best evar.
N64 (arguably) crushed it, PC crushed PS1, N64, and SS in a way that makes current high end PCs compared to last gen consoles look like the same damn thing, and a few of the very best looking games can arguably spoil everything for the rest of the generation (Virtua Fighter was as I recall high resolution and 60 FPS, something most PS1 games simply weren't... and neither were most Saturn or N64 games.)

There is a charm for it to me admittedly, though usually from Japanese games, but that was really just a painful period for 3D on consoles even within that period, and even PC doesn't really hold up too well either. It's why it's disappointing we saw 2D drop off the way it did, because even on the PS1 that could look crazy good.
 
Doesn't bother me at all. I loved the games I played and don't hold the graphics against them especially from a system in the mid 90's.
 
Even though the PS1 was considered to be fairly 'cutting edge', it still looked ugly to my 8/9/10 year old eyes.

Metal Gear Solid looked quite good though, and it holds up well for such an old game.

Crash Bandicoot is another game that looked alright. Crash Bash was good. FIFA 99 was alright.

I also liked Colin McRae Rally and Gran Turismo (although this looked kinda ugly, but better than everything else). GT2 was a massive improvement.
 
I know it's not 3D, but Final Fantasy Tactics still looks great.
. . . It is. Put it on and press the shoulder buttons, you're rotating your viewpoint, and certainly not in a way that would've worked well in full 2D at that period in time (and isn't really practical to go for when 3D does the trick.)

Incidentally because of its simplicity it looks as good as it does, or so I thought. Usually the worst looking games were the ones that overshot what the PS1 was really capable of doing justice to, yet couldn't actually scale to higher resolutions well.
 
It could hold up FINE with the N64. Yep it was pixelated but it was not filtered to death.

Games like MGS, GT2, FF9 and so on looked great as hell and N64's lineup was so limited it didn't even have equivalent games to compare in many situations, so what's even the point... (I was a Nindork at that time BTW)
 
It was a strange era... We were playing games in 3D, but knew deep down that what we were playing was ugly.

Many of us were already playing games in 64 bit... N64 games were easier on the eyes, for sure... and many of us probably compared the two without realizing it.

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But, you know, CD had to win out.

dude n64 games look ugly as shit.
 
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