4 ms·

The first two years for PS1 was insane. A true outlier. Tekken, Rayman, Road Rash, Twisted Metal Even random racing games were for the first time rendered in

The first two years for PS1 was insane. A true outlier. Tekken, Rayman, Road Rash, Twisted Metal Even random racing games were for the first time rendered in 3D so it was really mind blowing going from sprites to that. The opening line up is god tier by modern standards https://www.giantbomb.com/playstation/3045-22/forums/all-ps1-games-in-order-1995-round-up-1907206/ https://www.giantbomb.com/playstation/3045-22/forums/all-ps1...

micromacrofoot 3y ago
Yeah I don't think a console has come close since, and this always makes launches feel very lackluster to me.
- Cthulhu_ 3y ago
  The PS5 is a good example, it was announced over a year before it came out and I'm confident first-party developers could already work on games for the platform, but... exclusives were lackluster at best, and for the first year or two it was pretty much all cross-platform titles. Probably for the best since production couldn't keep up with demand, so the PS5 was a slow burner that didn't yet need exclusives to sell the console. But a better launch lineup would've been nice.
  - hbn 3y ago
    PS4 wasn't too different. Many people held off on getting one until Bloodborne came out 16 months later. I think Microsoft is the one in a really weird position ever since they started releasing PC versions of basically all their platform exclusives. Not that I'm complaining, but they've pretty much made it so there's zero reason for PC gamers to buy an Xbox, whereas there's still reasons to buy a Switch or PlayStation for the exclusives.
    - lukas099 3y ago
      I wonder if Microsoft does this because gaming has been one of the biggest differentiators for their OS. That's an advantage that is rapidly fading and they want to hold onto it as long as possible.
      - adamc 3y ago
        Fading? Vs. Linux, maybe. Mac OS is still a bad platform for games.
        incahoots 3y ago
        Not sure if that stance is going to be relevant much longer. I recall Apple releasing a new framework that actually had some substance during their last keynote. I think Linus did a segment, they were running cyberpunk on Mac at 30FPS, not ideal sure, but it's a big step up. https://developer.apple.com/games/ https://developer.apple.com/games/
        adamc 3y ago
        I don't know. I can hope for the best, but when they killed 32-bit apps and with them a ton of classic games, I gave up on Apple.
        lukas099 3y ago
        Yeah I meant vs. linux. True that it should continue to be a motivator for potential Mac switchers.
      - withinboredom 3y ago
        Heh, possibly. My brother won’t touch a PC game unless it runs on Steam Proton in Linux.
  - autoexec 3y ago
    Are there a bunch of PS5 exclusives now? Last I checked it was all PC ports and PS3/4 remakes. What are the must have PS5-only games right now?
- toast0 3y ago
  I kind of totally missed the PS1 launch, but it would have had the advantage that most of the titles being worked on didn't have anywhere else to go, really. It you're working on a maybe PS5 launch title, you can relatively easily decide to release it for PS4 instead. Most PS1 titles are tied to a cd-rom, and maybe some of the other hardware, and would have been tough to release elsewhere. Sega CD and 3DO didn't have much traction, TG16-CD and Jag-CD even less, Saturn vs PS1 vs PC was the relevant choice, and I think Sony was better at attracting developers at the time. Although, it should be pointed out Road Rash was widely ported, launching on 3DO, later releasing on Sega CD, PlayStation, Saturn and PC.
- JohnBooty 3y ago
  Man, that is hooey, if we're talking launch (day one) titles. The US Dreamcast launch lineup was spectacular. Leading the way was Soul Calibur, one of a handful of games to earn a perfect score from Famitsu[1] and it actually blew away the arcade version (!) NFL2K was also a launch title and while I'm sure a lot of the HN crowd is allergic to sports titles, it was far superior to contemporary versions of Madden... got correspondingly high reviews as well Sonic Adventure was pretty spectacular too I thought, I would call that an 8.5 or 9/10 (like a lot of 3D platformers it maybe hasn't "aged well" but at the time, I thought it was spectacular and it was well reviewed) Power Stone was a blast too.... Hydro Thunder.... bunch of other solid ones. Day one. https://www.mobygames.com/group/13786/launch-title-dreamcast-north-america/ https://www.mobygames.com/group/13786/launch-title-dreamcast... Here was the PS1 launch lineup. Ridge Racer is the only really good title here, excluding previous-gen ports like NBA Jam and Rayman. Toshinden was obviously mindblowing as the first polygon fighter many played but it's sort of a notoriously bad game. https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/06/playstation-launch-titles/ https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/06/playstation-launch-titles/ But in some ways that just shows Dreamcast had already lost the war before it launched. Sega did everything right and hit the ground running with what many consider the greatest launch title lineup in history, but their rep was too tarnished. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famitsu_scores https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famitsu_scores
  - hparadiz 3y ago
    Almost every single game during the PS1 launch was a killer app because every single one was a novel new experience in a 3D rendered space. Dreamcast showed up way too late to compare. The PS1 also launched several novel IPs. Dreamcast was years after PS1 when 3D games were a dime a dozen and no one cared by that point. That's why Sonic Adventure and Hydro Thunder are forgettable where Tekken and Rayman are not.
    - missblit 3y ago
      The Dreamcast wasn't competing against the Playstation 1, the Sega Saturn was. And price and game library aside it had the hardware to back it up. You can see this in gameplay videos of, say, Nights into Dreams or Tomb Raider. If anything the Dreamcast was competing against the PS2 and Gamecube (despite coming out at an awkward time significantly earlier than the competition)
dayvid 3y ago
The demo discs were clutch. I didn't have much money and would play the heck out of demo discs until I could save enough money to buy a game. Saturn didn't seem to have enough titles and PS was spitting them out like crazy.
- chrisco255 3y ago
  Yeah hard to describe probably to anyone growing up in a post-YouTube, post-Steam, post-Playstation store era, but getting a video or playable demo of like 20 or 30 games on a demo disc that was sometimes packaged in with a magazine you'd buy in the store was incredible.
Grazester 3y ago
Rayman was available for the Saturn, heck that game was available for the Jaguar. The Saturn arguably got the best port also.

micromacrofoot 3y ago

Yeah I don't think a console has come close since, and this always makes launches feel very lackluster to me.

Cthulhu_ 3y ago
The PS5 is a good example, it was announced over a year before it came out and I'm confident first-party developers could already work on games for the platform, but... exclusives were lackluster at best, and for the first year or two it was pretty much all cross-platform titles. Probably for the best since production couldn't keep up with demand, so the PS5 was a slow burner that didn't yet need exclusives to sell the console. But a better launch lineup would've been nice.
- hbn 3y ago
  PS4 wasn't too different. Many people held off on getting one until Bloodborne came out 16 months later. I think Microsoft is the one in a really weird position ever since they started releasing PC versions of basically all their platform exclusives. Not that I'm complaining, but they've pretty much made it so there's zero reason for PC gamers to buy an Xbox, whereas there's still reasons to buy a Switch or PlayStation for the exclusives.
  - lukas099 3y ago
    I wonder if Microsoft does this because gaming has been one of the biggest differentiators for their OS. That's an advantage that is rapidly fading and they want to hold onto it as long as possible.
    - adamc 3y ago
      Fading? Vs. Linux, maybe. Mac OS is still a bad platform for games.
      - incahoots 3y ago
        Not sure if that stance is going to be relevant much longer. I recall Apple releasing a new framework that actually had some substance during their last keynote. I think Linus did a segment, they were running cyberpunk on Mac at 30FPS, not ideal sure, but it's a big step up. https://developer.apple.com/games/ https://developer.apple.com/games/
        adamc 3y ago
        I don't know. I can hope for the best, but when they killed 32-bit apps and with them a ton of classic games, I gave up on Apple.
      - lukas099 3y ago
        Yeah I meant vs. linux. True that it should continue to be a motivator for potential Mac switchers.
    - withinboredom 3y ago
      Heh, possibly. My brother won’t touch a PC game unless it runs on Steam Proton in Linux.
- autoexec 3y ago
  Are there a bunch of PS5 exclusives now? Last I checked it was all PC ports and PS3/4 remakes. What are the must have PS5-only games right now?
toast0 3y ago
I kind of totally missed the PS1 launch, but it would have had the advantage that most of the titles being worked on didn't have anywhere else to go, really. It you're working on a maybe PS5 launch title, you can relatively easily decide to release it for PS4 instead. Most PS1 titles are tied to a cd-rom, and maybe some of the other hardware, and would have been tough to release elsewhere. Sega CD and 3DO didn't have much traction, TG16-CD and Jag-CD even less, Saturn vs PS1 vs PC was the relevant choice, and I think Sony was better at attracting developers at the time. Although, it should be pointed out Road Rash was widely ported, launching on 3DO, later releasing on Sega CD, PlayStation, Saturn and PC.
JohnBooty 3y ago
Man, that is hooey, if we're talking launch (day one) titles. The US Dreamcast launch lineup was spectacular. Leading the way was Soul Calibur, one of a handful of games to earn a perfect score from Famitsu[1] and it actually blew away the arcade version (!) NFL2K was also a launch title and while I'm sure a lot of the HN crowd is allergic to sports titles, it was far superior to contemporary versions of Madden... got correspondingly high reviews as well Sonic Adventure was pretty spectacular too I thought, I would call that an 8.5 or 9/10 (like a lot of 3D platformers it maybe hasn't "aged well" but at the time, I thought it was spectacular and it was well reviewed) Power Stone was a blast too.... Hydro Thunder.... bunch of other solid ones. Day one. https://www.mobygames.com/group/13786/launch-title-dreamcast-north-america/ https://www.mobygames.com/group/13786/launch-title-dreamcast... Here was the PS1 launch lineup. Ridge Racer is the only really good title here, excluding previous-gen ports like NBA Jam and Rayman. Toshinden was obviously mindblowing as the first polygon fighter many played but it's sort of a notoriously bad game. https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/06/playstation-launch-titles/ https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/06/playstation-launch-titles/ But in some ways that just shows Dreamcast had already lost the war before it launched. Sega did everything right and hit the ground running with what many consider the greatest launch title lineup in history, but their rep was too tarnished. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famitsu_scores https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famitsu_scores
- hparadiz 3y ago
  Almost every single game during the PS1 launch was a killer app because every single one was a novel new experience in a 3D rendered space. Dreamcast showed up way too late to compare. The PS1 also launched several novel IPs. Dreamcast was years after PS1 when 3D games were a dime a dozen and no one cared by that point. That's why Sonic Adventure and Hydro Thunder are forgettable where Tekken and Rayman are not.
  - missblit 3y ago
    The Dreamcast wasn't competing against the Playstation 1, the Sega Saturn was. And price and game library aside it had the hardware to back it up. You can see this in gameplay videos of, say, Nights into Dreams or Tomb Raider. If anything the Dreamcast was competing against the PS2 and Gamecube (despite coming out at an awkward time significantly earlier than the competition)

dayvid 3y ago

The demo discs were clutch. I didn't have much money and would play the heck out of demo discs until I could save enough money to buy a game. Saturn didn't seem to have enough titles and PS was spitting them out like crazy.

chrisco255 3y ago
Yeah hard to describe probably to anyone growing up in a post-YouTube, post-Steam, post-Playstation store era, but getting a video or playable demo of like 20 or 30 games on a demo disc that was sometimes packaged in with a magazine you'd buy in the store was incredible.

Grazester 3y ago

Rayman was available for the Saturn, heck that game was available for the Jaguar. The Saturn arguably got the best port also.