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What was the N64 game with the overall best graphics?
- Thread starter Alex_Mexico
- Start date
nkarafo
Member
On average.
If you only take the best looking games into account though, pretty much nothing touches World Driver Championship in geometry detail, at least for racing games.
Most of the obvious ones people have stated already - but I think Shadowman deserves an honourable mention. Acclaim really knew their way around the hardware.
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Never really enjoyed the game itself that much though.
I bought this game on the graphics hype.
What a sucky game haha
fart town usa
Gold Member
Resident Evil 2, Mario 64, Rogue Squadron. Even Shadows of the Empire in certain aspects.
InfiniteBento
Member
Conker takes the cake easily imo
D.Lo
Member
I remember the graphics I was most blown away with that gen was when first seeing the amazing waterfall in Ocarina of Time from the bridge to Gerudo Valley. And then being able to jump off the bridge hundreds of metres down to the river.
Like we'd had 'grand' looking things on screens already via pre-rendered games on PSX, but to see something that impressive and be able to traverse the land for real was a big wow.
Graphics include scope IMO.
Like we'd had 'grand' looking things on screens already via pre-rendered games on PSX, but to see something that impressive and be able to traverse the land for real was a big wow.
Graphics include scope IMO.
I agree with your choices, but you also need to see the games on an original CRT screen as well.
nkarafo
Member
I'd like to see any of my choices (World Driver Championship, Banjo-Kazooie, Shadowman High Res and Doom 64) Whichever one you got obviously.I've posted a few screens from my UltraHDMI N64 in the N64 thread. Here's one shot from Paper Mario. It's just the image being upscaled with the scanlines filter on.
Can post more if people want other games.
I'm more interested in Doom 64 as i don't have the game and according to Angrylions, it must be the sharpest looking N64 game (sans the enemy sprites).
I agree. That's why a game like GTA5 is still one of the best looking atm IMO.
I'm going to upload 4 games soon and then hopefully next week even more games. Some of my games like Star Wars Rogue Squadron stopped working so I'm going to get a new copy.
And like I said, they will be taken directly from the console with no upscaling, no filters, no tricks with a scan doubled res(720x240 to 720x480).
And like I said, they will be taken directly from the console with no upscaling, no filters, no tricks with a scan doubled res(720x240 to 720x480).
A lot of people are just posting random popular Nintendo 64 games. Not their fault if they only played a few games, but I can't see how this is a debate - World
Driver Championship trounces everything.
nkarafo
Member
I remember reading somewhere that BOSS studios "cheated" while programming this game. As far as i could understand, when you are making a N64 game you are forced to use some features (like z-buffering for instance). These features however took more recourses than the programmers wanted. So with this game, BOSS managed to bypass some of those features and created their own versions that were more efficient or something. This way they "unlocked" the N64's abilities and managed to squeeze a lot of geometry and visual details with this game.
I don't remember the details though so take this with a grain of salt.
This is also one of the few games that are hard to emulate and impossible to do it accurately so maybe this is the reason. This might be the case with Stunt Race 64 as well, another late BOSS racer that looks pretty awesome.
Lynd7
Member
Sure, I can take some pics.
I'll also take some pics with the sharp pixels mode enabled which turns off all filtering and just pixel doubles the N64 image.
Here's 4 games and hopefully more coming, note that these are taken directly from the console with no upscaling, no filters, just scan doubled from 720x240 to 720x480 due to the NTSC signal.
World Driver Championship
Turok 2
1080 Snowboarding
Wave Race 64
The reason Turok 2 has 3 because honestly, it's tough to take screenshots of that game, lol.
World Driver Championship
Turok 2
1080 Snowboarding
Wave Race 64
The reason Turok 2 has 3 because honestly, it's tough to take screenshots of that game, lol.
I like Paper Mario quite a bit too. Wouldn't feel bad choosing that. Haven't played S and P.
I think people are mixed on it, some like that and others hate it, or I'm remembering wrong and it's the AA off thing, though I know the AA off thing is something that people are definitely mixed on.
cuz it do
I just remembered that I haven't finished that game, I was super pissed of that no matter what I did my team was always loosing alignment
I hope I can get to that one, and do direct feed of course, no emulation/off screen stuff.
m_shortpants
Member
I remember the moving out of sync mouths blowing my mind.
Lynd7
Member
Yeah, I think people were talking about the DeBlur function. The DeBlur is hit and miss for me, some games look good with it, some don't. I sometimes use it with scanlines still on and it's quite nice.
Sharp pixels should just upscale the image to 720 or 1080p without any filtering.
Taken from RetroRGB - http://retrorgb.com/ultrahdmi.html
Sharp Pixels - This feature displays the image at either 1x (720p) or 2x (1080p). Turning sharp pixels on (picture on the right) disables all upscale filtering, as well as any other filters. In the menu's above, Sharp Pixels was turned on, which is why all the filter-based options are greyed out. If you'd like an exact representation of the original N64 image scaled to the closest 1080p integer, try this mode.
UPDATE: As of the latest firmware, there's now an "INTEGER+" mode that ads 3x (720p) and 5x (1080p) scaling. Click for full-sized:
Infernal Monkey
Member
1080 Snowboarding
I still absolutely adore the way 1080 looks. Those 'speed line' snow textures were really clever.
As someone who only owned an N64 during that era and thus had to settle for a shitload of games most people probably never played, I feel like in order to properly judge any of the games I'm thinking about I'd have to go back and look at them on my old CRT. Emulator screenshots and even pixel-accurate screenshots on my 46-inch LCD show blemishes and flaws we were probably never meant to see in the 90's.
Off the top of my head from my memories though, I remember Rare and Acclaim consistently showing off some of the most impressive tech on the N64. Games like Banjo Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, Turok 2, NFL Quarterback Club, All-Star Baseball, XG2, and even GoldenEye had a certain realism and smoothness to their model detail that was uncharacteristic of console games of the era. I personally thought they looked markedly better than Nintendo EAD's blocky games (Mario 64, Wave Race 64 excluding the water effects, 1080, etc.). Ocarina of Time may be an exception but even back then I never thought it was an exceptionally great looking game. Let me put Rogue Squadron 1 up there in the graphics department too for the relative smoothness of its models and maybe even textures. Maybe the art direction of the N64 Mario games holds up better today, but the other games I'm mentioning made reaches towards realism that at the time were far more impressive.
Maybe F-Zero X should get in there for being almost the only 3D 60fps N64 game, with 30 cars on screen to boot. Oh it made sacrifices to get there, but it got there.
Another nice little thing: Turok 3's cut scenes. They were able to achieve accurate lip syncing on the N64, probably better lip syncing than in Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast. Maybe even many PS2 games.
Off the top of my head from my memories though, I remember Rare and Acclaim consistently showing off some of the most impressive tech on the N64. Games like Banjo Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, Turok 2, NFL Quarterback Club, All-Star Baseball, XG2, and even GoldenEye had a certain realism and smoothness to their model detail that was uncharacteristic of console games of the era. I personally thought they looked markedly better than Nintendo EAD's blocky games (Mario 64, Wave Race 64 excluding the water effects, 1080, etc.). Ocarina of Time may be an exception but even back then I never thought it was an exceptionally great looking game. Let me put Rogue Squadron 1 up there in the graphics department too for the relative smoothness of its models and maybe even textures. Maybe the art direction of the N64 Mario games holds up better today, but the other games I'm mentioning made reaches towards realism that at the time were far more impressive.
Maybe F-Zero X should get in there for being almost the only 3D 60fps N64 game, with 30 cars on screen to boot. Oh it made sacrifices to get there, but it got there.
Another nice little thing: Turok 3's cut scenes. They were able to achieve accurate lip syncing on the N64, probably better lip syncing than in Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast. Maybe even many PS2 games.
nkarafo
Member
The best thing about it is the "cloth physics" by the wind. You can see the clothes sometimes simulating such effect. I remember myself being very impressed by this the first time i saw it and i don't think any other game had something like this at the time.
Also, lens flare.
It maybe even has smoother texture filtering than Deadly Premonition on the PS3.
Yeah, Wii U. I have the Wii one...but 1080 has been moved to the Wii U, not Wave Race yet.
PreFire
Member
Toadthemushroom
Member
I really liked the chunky character models in Rare's games, which also had a surprising amount of detail (for the time) in certain areas.
See Grunty's hands here for example - you'd forget the rest of her low poly self in that scene: https://youtu.be/MoC1ETUvITU?t=47
I've never looked into Turok 3, ever, does anyone have any good footage of this in action?
Toadthemushroom
Member
The skyboxes were really interesting too for the time. From an N64 Magazine interview with Giles Goddard:
I remember Shenmue's Skybox being a Mario 64 type moving 2D image and that was one element of the presentation that sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the insane amount of detail everywhere else.
Most of the obvious ones people have stated already - but I think Shadowman deserves an honourable mention. Acclaim really knew their way around the hardware.
Never really enjoyed the game itself that much though.
Woah, are these N64 screenshots?
We really need some gifs of this game. Here's some great footage of it running on the N64 hardware - but I don't know how to make any good ones:
https://youtu.be/A0-Oe_Z6IZk?t=654
(Sorry about the double post!)
Cow Mengde
Banned
Despite it's short comings, the N64 was a beast for its time.
I believe the Waves in Wave Race had simple physics on them.
I believe the Waves in Wave Race had simple physics on them.
Toadthemushroom
Member
Yup. From that same Goddard interview:
The physics in Mario 64 are quite realistic in some ways, but there’s a lot of stuff that went in to give a twist so you could defy the laws of physics for gameplay’s sake. Wave Race and 1080 did the same thing – based on very fundamnetally good physics, but you have bits on top that you plug in so you can do things you can’t actually do. That’s where the excitement comes from.
---
Also:
I love how dark10x has done a Digital Foundry video video on Sega Saturn Quake, hopefully we'll see more retro stuff soon...possibly an N64 title (wink wink).
The video also reminded me of Doom 64 - was that also 60fps like F Zero X? I seem to remember it adding some lighting effects and other things, though I haven't looked into it with any depth so correct me if I'm wrong.
Most of the obvious ones people have stated already - but I think Shadowman deserves an honourable mention. Acclaim really knew their way around the hardware.
Never really enjoyed the game itself that much though.
I loved this game back then, but I'm sure it would be super clunky to play today.
All the Expansion Pak games I tried looked super sharp and detailed. Turok 2 blew my mind, the difference is night and day with the pak plugged in. Also, Perfect Dark looked spectacular.
Yeah thought the engine is simply coloring the polygons to fake that effect.
I don't think Doom 64 is 60 fps but it's smooth.
Toadthemushroom
Member
Yeah thought the engine is simply coloring the polygons to fake that effect.
I don't think Doom 64 is 60 fps but it's smooth.
Cheers! It's been a long, long time since I played my copy of the game so I appreciate some facts!
I know what you're saying but I don't think it's the same thing at all. Doom 64 offered the same type of progression as the original game - just an entirely new set of levels and a different look.
Forsaken 64, however, is literally just the PC multiplayer levels with AI enemies floating around. It feels like a series of botmatch levels. You didn't really progress through the levels - you just looped around them killing enemies.
The PSX/PC game, however, featured a more traditional structure with levels that had real progression. You start at point A and work your way through a series of challenges and battles until you reach the end of the stage. The levels worked more like Descent.
That doesn't mean Forsaken 64 was bad or anything, I'm not saying that, just that I was always puzzled by the decision to basically make it a bot match game.
World Driver Championship
Gifs from misericordia.
I'm glad to see that I am not the only WDC fan!
ZiggyPalffyLA
Member
Oh I agree with you 100%, I just bring up Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon in every N64 topic because it's THAT good and not enough people know about it. I stand by my assertion that it is a better game than OoT and easily the best action platformer on the system.
evilromero
Member
It's funny but Mario 64 was my first thought for many of the reasons you listed. Even today it's one of the few N64 games that holds up thanks to its frame rate, appropriate visual style and controls.
Agreed with Banjo 1. Would put it far ahead of both its sequel and Conker in terms of sheer performance. Always found the color palette far too muted in Tooie and Conker, not to mention the atrocious performance which made those games rather difficult to gleefully enjoy. Banjo 1 was rife with color, imagination and scale all in a wonderfully playable package, even if technically the later titles were pushing the system harder visually.
evilromero
Member
This thread has reminded me about the fact that Mystical Ninja 64 is not on the Wii U VC. Goddamn that game needs to come back baaad.
