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Would you Still Play Nintendo 64-Quality Games?

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Started by Vincent_M August 31, 2014 09:30 PM

26 comments, last by zero0055 9 years, 7 months ago

Vincent_M

969

Author

September 02, 2014 01:54 AM

What do you mean by "N64-quality"? I wouldn't play old console games simply because I don't like the blocky pixelated look, but I certainly would play lots of those games if they were rendering at a decent resolution and no other changes beyond the minimum to make the art work.

For instance MarioKart on the GameCube is awesome, and not because of the graphics.

That's actually what I was referring to. We played Zelda on our Nintendo 64 that as hooked up to our HDTV, and it's hardware resolution was so low, that it looked really blocky on our TV. Now, when playing the game through an emulator where you could actually draw the scene at a higher-resolution frame buffer, it looks really, nice --even without higher-res textures. In fact, people sometimes produce higher-res textures for those games as I've seen with Banjo-Kazooie. Anyway, speaking of hires textures, they can make a huge difference as well: http://siphil.blogspot.com/2011/03/nintendo-64-in-high-resolution.html

Ravyne

14,306

September 02, 2014 02:33 AM

Very early 3D (Playstation, Saturn, N64, excepting a few of the later gems) tends to translate about as well as early 2D -- that is, not terribly well. There were some really great games, design-wise, despite those limitations, but if we're being honest the average -- even "good" -- games from this era fall down for more reasons than their graphics. Fumbly controls, horrible AI, level-design constrained by the tiny hardware. Only the best games from that era overcame those limitations and hold up well to the test of time. In many ways, the late 2D games that were waning during that same time age better, on the average, because the hardware posed fewer significant restraints, and because that time was sort of the Apex of 2D gaming.

So, I don't think your question centers on the n64 or its cohorts at all. What you're really picking up on is that certain games really make you look past their rough exterior -- even if it only seems rough now, in hindsight. From that, I imagine what you're probably gathering / pondering, is whether a great game design today might stand up to the competition, even if it were to look a little rough by contemporary standards.

I think that, yes, they can -- but do be wary that an irksome trait of progress is that any new effort will always be compared to its competitors past, present, and in today's media and information age, the future (to a certain extent). You won't be given carte-blanch solely for designing a great game, the state of the art has moved on, taking consumer expectations along with it. Your game's presentation needs to be polished to reasonable standards, in addition to being a great design. Having a unique visual or musical appeal can also help, as strong styling, executed well, can often trump any kind of technical achievement in graphics or audio.

throw table_exception("(? ???)? ? ???");

Antony Zito

112

September 03, 2014 04:23 AM

I used to be all about updated graphics as it was always the most noticable difference in new-er games. It wasn't until I played games such as Borderlands 2 that I started to care little about Graphics and unltra-realistic looking environments. The cartoon aspect of Borderlands makes the game just as much as the gameplay itself, if the game flows well I don't mind much. I'd still play N64 looking games if they were textured and smoothered out with new gen engines just for the clarity, I find it hard to actually play an N64 game for as long as I can play games such as Forza 5 or Battlefield and such.

Thomas Wiborg

1,573

September 03, 2014 11:12 AM

Old games have charm and are nostgalic to me.
When i play games as Diablo, Monkey Island 1 - 2, and alot of others, I realy get a warm good feeling :)
There is nothing like it nowdays. But i believe its because we grew up with them. I think young people today find many old games quite boring.

//Thomas Wiborg

Truerror

523

September 04, 2014 11:23 AM

I would, and not just for nostalgic reasons. I don't own a N64, but I do play my old PS1 games from time to time, either from a physical disc or a ROM image (if the original disc is too damaged. Yeah, I'm bad at maintenance). As a matter of fact, I'm currently playing through Suikoden 1, and planning to use its save file on Suikoden 2 afterwards. It looks blocky as hell, but I don't really mind. The story is what counts.

the incredible smoker

480

September 04, 2014 02:29 PM

Jes i would like to play such games, cus they run smooth to.

I still play Saturn, and now also C64.

Emulators suck to the real deal, nowadays you can play from SD card ( place all roms on 1 card hooraay ),

this way you have the real sound to.

N64 has also SD card, but i think expensive ( much more then a console ).

S T O P C R I M E !

Visual Pro 2005 C++ DX9 Cubase VST 3.70 Working on : LevelContainer class & LevelEditor

OandO

1,576

September 04, 2014 11:17 PM

I went out today and bought two new PlayStation 2 controllers so I can play my PS1/2 library again, so yes. Although (And I don't know if this is fair or just a prejudice I've picked up) I would expect to pay an awful lot less than something that played or looked like a modern game, regardless of how much fun it was.