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Graphically Impressive PS1 Games...

ACESHIGH

Banned
Rapid reload is one of the best looking PS1 games. But it went unnoticed back then because it was 2D. 2D games ended up aging way better than 3D ones, at least fully poligonal games. 3D games with pre rendered backgrounds still look great to this day.
 

Mr Hyde

Member
Final Fantasy 7 was very impressive when it was released, as was Parasite Eve and Vagrant Story. Square was at the top of their game in those days, constantly pumping out quality titles. I also remember seeing Resident Evil for the first time and it blew my mind.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
T.R.A.G (Hard Edge in the UK), Resident Evil 2 & 3. AITD: New Nightmare, Street Sk8er 2, All the Squaresoft Games obviously.

PSX era games are effing gorgeous. Just gotta have access to a CRT and S-Video or sCART (euro bros can comment on that one). Standard RCA doesn't cut it and playing in standard RCA on a modern TV is even worse.
 
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SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
Ridge Racer Type 4 is the objectively correct answer.




Other games that looked very good:









(Sadly the controls are garbage,
this really needs a mouse & keyboard mod and better yet a remaster)









 
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Best looking PS1 game:

8371843a5a739c9aeb5cec802504cb41.jpg
 

Orta

Banned
Always thought Ridge Racer Type 4 was the best looking PSOne game.

God I wish Namco would give us a compilation disc :messenger_pensive:
 
Hated the improper 3d of the ps1, but yeah as some said, hard to beat ridge racer type 4 as far as racers go on the machine.

Insomniac did great work with the spyro series.
 
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SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
Playing these in a emulator @ 4K does nothing at all for me. All of these games look better on a Trinitron then they do here.
You mean this one?

I like the high resolution look. Some games will look worse, some will look better like with The Italian Job it definitely helps a lot. I understand that those old games were made with old school TVs in mind though.
 

Kerotan

Member
Spyro and crash trilogies still hold up today.

I played mgs1 on the PS2 so it was already a gen old and man it still looked good.
 
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SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
but damn are they some ugly games.
I guess it depends. Technically all those games aged obviously, but some games can still surprise on the the basis of what the developers were capable of doing with the limitations of the hardware and some games can still deliver nice visuals based on the style and aesthetics. Also, if the game is fun the graphics really don't matter much to me.
 

Kuranghi

Member
problem with that video its showing in an emulator upscaling the graphics, I still have a fair few of those games and they do not look that good even though they are stilll great to play
and it makes you "see more" than you are supposed to in the process, so its not even a good thing. Without adding a filter to reduce the perceived resolution its going to look worse than the original would on a 240p CRT.
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
No soul reaver?? Wtf??

Metal gear solid and soul reaver is probably my top technical picks as back then any fully polygon games where hard to do and those two did it so well on the system.
 
R4, Gran Turismo, Symphony of the Night, Metal Gear Solid, FFIX, Chrono Cross, Tekken 3, Vagrant Story, Einhander, honestly I could go on forever.

If you take into account "for it's time", meaning the onset of 3D polygon-based graphics on consoles, the system did remarkably well and games in emulation with better resolution and texture handling the games hold up remarkably well.
 

Keihart

Member
problem with that video its showing in an emulator upscaling the graphics, I still have a fair few of those games and they do not look that good even though they are stilll great to play
I would argue that those games look way better on the original resolution and screen than in a flat screen on a emulator and worse of all upscaled. I really dont get the point on upresing these games, the art direction it's trying to hide the sharpness of polygons and not make it more obvious.
 
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SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
I would argue that those games look way better on the original resolution and screen than in a flat screen on a emulator and worse of all upscaled. I really dont get the point on upresing these games, the art direction it's trying to hide the sharpness of polygons and not make it more obvious.
I guess with N64 and PS1 era games its kinda a gamble and a matter of taster, but with PSP/PS2 and Gamecube/Wii era games a higher resolution works wonderfully!
 
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phil_t98

#SonyToo
and it makes you "see more" than you are supposed to in the process, so its not even a good thing. Without adding a filter to reduce the perceived resolution its going to look worse than the original would on a 240p CRT.

no they have up scaled it so you can read all the signs on Rodger racer In the adverts, the cars look less jaggerdy in gran turismo.

the games look is massivly better than how it looked on the console, like I said they should just show the original
Versions that’s all to represent the original look
 
I guess with N64 and PS1 era games its kinda a gamble and a matter of taster, but with PSP/PS2 and Gamecube/Wii era games a higher resolution works wonderfully!
I'll use mario galaxy as an example as it's a sort of best case scenario for 3d emulation of the 6th gen (equivalent) hardware. Cartoon visuals, bright colors.

I've played Mario galaxy on my crt trinitron, and on a high end lcd, and on emulation. On the crt it looked the best with a slightly softened, not harsh look, colors pop, motion is sublime. On dolphin, it immediately makes my eyes focus on the flaws : polygon count, textures etc.

I've really not seen a retro game that looks better emulated compared to on a crt or even a high end flat panel (that's not too large) and properly upscaled with an OSSC or something. In the end, you have to have enough detail for that high resolution to truly be a benefit, not to mention no amount of filters are a substitute for the originally intended display technology if a game uses scanline tricks or relies on the crt blur.

Not shitting on emulation btw, it's integral to the preservation of the medium. I'm particularly interested in Ps3 emulation at the moment, games are looking very promising in higher resolutions.
 

Drell

Member
I would argue that those games look way better on the original resolution and screen than in a flat screen on a emulator and worse of all upscaled. I really dont get the point on upresing these games, the art direction it's trying to hide the sharpness of polygons and not make it more obvious.
Not only that, but it seems that some games in this video (the racing games and Tekken) use some kind filter that reduces the shakiness of polygons and the warping of the textures. I don't have anything against that, I use them myself nowaday when playing PSX games on emulator, but you can't present a list of "beautiful PSX games" and not present it with what you had to deal on the PSX. It would be like using one of these plug-ins, allowing you to replace N64's lowe rez muddy texture with HD upscaled version of these same textures and make a video saying: "Wow look, Mario 64 could be a gamecube game".
 

buenoblue

Member
Yeah I loved ps1, it was the first console I bought with my own money.... but these videos look nothing like the ps1 did lol.
 
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SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
I'll use mario galaxy as an example as it's a sort of best case scenario for 3d emulation of the 6th gen (equivalent) hardware. Cartoon visuals, bright colors.

I've played Mario galaxy on my crt trinitron, and on a high end lcd, and on emulation. On the crt it looked the best with a slightly softened, not harsh look, colors pop, motion is sublime. On dolphin, it immediately makes my eyes focus on the flaws : polygon count, textures etc.

I've really not seen a retro game that looks better emulated compared to on a crt or even a high end flat panel (that's not too large) and properly upscaled with an OSSC or something. In the end, you have to have enough detail for that high resolution to truly be a benefit, not to mention no amount of filters are a substitute for the originally intended display technology if a game uses scanline tricks or relies on the crt blur.

Not shitting on emulation btw, it's integral to the preservation of the medium. I'm particularly interested in Ps3 emulation at the moment, games are looking very promising in higher resolutions.
Hmm, I guess it is really a matter of taste in the end. I think there are definitely games that benefit greatly from higher resolutions. I like the sharp look. My favorite aspect of emulation is getting a higher framerate in games like GoldenEye. Makes those oldies play really smooth again. I am interested in getting an old TV again though, to play PSX mainly. The higher refresh rate of those old TV's being the key factor in this decision, as it makes games that had originally low framerates seem smoother.
 
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McCheese

Member
Battle Arena Toshinden blew my mind when I first saw it, it's easy to forget even the first gen titles were impressive at the time.
 
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Hmm, I guess it is really a matter of taste in the end. I think there are definitely games that benefit greatly from higher resolutions. I like the sharp look. My favorite aspect of emulation is getting a higher framerate in games like GoldenEye. Makes those oldies play really smooth again. I am interested in getting an old TV again though, to play PSX mainly. The higher refresh rate of those old TV's being the key factor in this decision, as it makes games that had originally low framerates seem smoother.
Hmm, I know goldeneye originally is capped at 30fps, not sure if (through emulation) going higher breaks animations/logic or if there's even a latency benefit. If the animations are 60fps but the logic is tied 30fps it'll feel like 30fps. I played goldeneye less than a week ago, and honestly it feels responsive due to the crt. Generally, I mean it can chug, it is still goldeneye! Rare really taxed the hell out of the 64, in banjo tooie there's points where it feels like a drop to 6fps lol.

The canceled xbla port seems to be a good 60fps and runs as it should.

But yeah man, definitely pick up a crt if you feel like it, you'll probably enjoy it.
 

Agent X

Member
Spyro and crash trilogies still hold up today.

Yeah, they do. Great artwork and technically solid game engines.

The Colony Wars series always looked really good.

I loved the first two games, but I've never played the third.

The Wipeout games also hold up really well.

Gran Turismo was amazing. I remember getting Need for Speed III (also a great looking game) and thinking that it couldn't get much better than that, but then Gran Turismo came along shortly afterward and completely raised the bar.
 
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SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
Hmm, I know goldeneye originally is capped at 30fps, not sure if (through emulation) going higher breaks animations/logic or if there's even a latency benefit. If the animations are 60fps but the logic is tied 30fps it'll feel like 30fps. I played goldeneye less than a week ago, and honestly it feels responsive due to the crt. Generally, I mean it can chug, it is still goldeneye! Rare really taxed the hell out of the 64, in banjo tooie there's points where it feels like a drop to 6fps lol.

The canceled xbla port seems to be a good 60fps and runs as it should.

But yeah man, definitely pick up a crt if you feel like it, you'll probably enjoy it.


The homebrew and modding scene really does a lot to make those games be as good as possible. GoldenEye gets below 15 FPS at times and on a modern set up that really sucks. With an CRT its much better though. Still, having smooth 60 FPS is amazing (and don't get me started on the mouse & keyboard controls). I imagine the XBLA version to play really smooth too. Kinda like the original TimeSplitters or the XBLA version of Perfect Dark I guess, where you move with the left stick and aim with the right stick (precision aiming per button press and the right stick).
 

The Fartist

Gold Member
Yeah, they do. Great artwork and technically solid game engines.



I loved the first two games, but I've never played the third.

The Wipeout games also hold up really well.

Gran Turismo was amazing. I remember getting Need for Speed III (also a great looking game) and thinking that it couldn't get much better than that, but then Gran Turismo came along shortly afterward and completely raised the bar.
Dude, you just reminded me of how good High Stakes looked, the beautiful pastels.

I remember Wip3out blowing me away, too. I was obsessed with the soundtrack.

GT is gonna GT, you know?
 
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The homebrew and modding scene really does a lot to make those games be as good as possible. GoldenEye gets below 15 FPS at times and on a modern set up that really sucks. With an CRT its much better though. Still, having smooth 60 FPS is amazing (and don't get me started on the mouse & keyboard controls). I imagine the XBLA version to play really smooth too. Kinda like the original TimeSplitters or the XBLA version of Perfect Dark I guess, where you move with the left stick and aim with the right stick (precision aiming per button press and the right stick).

first thing I noticed was the low fps death animation (what I was talking about) and also the soldier walking off camera and he gets distorted out due to the widescreen hack. But upon further inspection the 360 version has the same animation issue

I would never play it like that, cue Nmh2 song :p
 

PaintTinJr

Member


No mention of the Konami's International Superstar Soccer (Evo or Evo 2) seems harsh - probably the best gameplay animation(in close or far camera) on the console by miles. Performant, collision system too, brilliant gameplay and is still the DNA of modern computer football simulation, and the game still looks and plays brilliant on PS3 using the built in emulator.

It is the reason why it is truly piss poor(sorry for the language) that all modern day Playstations don't offer PS1 and PS2 emulation at the very minimum - even if the disc needed placed in a PC and remoteplay used to rip to console with OOdle network transfer, if PS4/Ps5 can't read CD- because it isn't just the game, but the football history of players at their peak, or teams at their best, along with the great software that is lost, as a classic emu port would never come to PS Store, because sports licensing is timed.

I'd also place Tekken 2 in there for being virtually arcade perfect - and still think it is better animation and better roster/move set than Tekken 3 - it still looks and plays amazing on the PS Vita.
 
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