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> it was a weird time in gaming^. I'd sum it up as everything was either 'the epitome of 2D gaming' or the first steps into 'a 3D version > For reference, 199

> it was a weird time in gaming^. I'd sum it up as everything was either 'the epitome of 2D gaming' or the first steps into 'a 3D version > For reference, 1996 was Duke Nukem 3D, Civ 2, Time Crisis, Super Mario RPG, Resident Evil, Metal Slug, Pokemon, Quake, Super Mario 64, NiGHTS, TES II: Daggerfall, Pilotwings 64, Wipeout 2097/XL, Marathon Infinity, MoO2, C&C:RA, DoA, and Diablo That's a really good observation, haven't thought about that. In retrospect, many of the first 3D games don't look that bad actually, I have to say. Maybe it's because when doing it for the first time, people were more aware of the technical limits of the medium (in the same way as many 80s 2D games are often making clever use of the limitations). That kind of constraint creates a lot of creativity. To me much what happened inbetween those early years and today's photorealistic graphics just didn't age that well, for some reason.

geon 10y ago
The pc game Ignition from 97 looked great in its non-perspective-corrected 3d. https://youtu.be/f2lajsZt4Hg https://youtu.be/f2lajsZt4Hg
- elcapitan 10y ago
  Remember playing that, that was great. Pretty hard to race when you don't know the track, though ;) Recently discovered this old NES game with similar racing, which looks pretty impressive for the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHMWuBV8lUI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHMWuBV8lUI
ethbro 10y ago
I'd probably sum up your observation with one my guitarist friend made about early electronic music. It was better, he said, because the first experimenters in the medium were all experts in analog music -- at that point, they had to be. One of my favorite early-3D games was Interstate 76 (1997), apparently built on the MW2 engine. Vehicle games were oddly popular in that period (Twisted Metal?). Maybe lower-poly no-animation cars were easier to render?
- elcapitan 10y ago
  Oh yes, Interstate 76 was one of my favorites as well. The open world type of game was actualy pretty similar to later GTA.
  - radiowave 10y ago
    Right. Interstate was to me a very clear signpost towards what games could become - I used to imagine some sort of huge, open-world descendant of it. I remember very distinctly, probably about 8 years later, being blown away by GTA San Andreas, thinking this is the game I've been waiting all this time for someone to make.

geon 10y ago

The pc game Ignition from 97 looked great in its non-perspective-corrected 3d. https://youtu.be/f2lajsZt4Hg https://youtu.be/f2lajsZt4Hg

elcapitan 10y ago
Remember playing that, that was great. Pretty hard to race when you don't know the track, though ;) Recently discovered this old NES game with similar racing, which looks pretty impressive for the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHMWuBV8lUI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHMWuBV8lUI

ethbro 10y ago

I'd probably sum up your observation with one my guitarist friend made about early electronic music. It was better, he said, because the first experimenters in the medium were all experts in analog music -- at that point, they had to be. One of my favorite early-3D games was Interstate 76 (1997), apparently built on the MW2 engine. Vehicle games were oddly popular in that period (Twisted Metal?). Maybe lower-poly no-animation cars were easier to render?

elcapitan 10y ago
Oh yes, Interstate 76 was one of my favorites as well. The open world type of game was actualy pretty similar to later GTA.
- radiowave 10y ago
  Right. Interstate was to me a very clear signpost towards what games could become - I used to imagine some sort of huge, open-world descendant of it. I remember very distinctly, probably about 8 years later, being blown away by GTA San Andreas, thinking this is the game I've been waiting all this time for someone to make.