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[64bitmodels]

Looking back everything during the ps1, saturn, n64 was butt ugly for 3d

But virtually every game on those platforms was ugly as sin. Whereas most 16 bit games actually looked pretty nice.

Those early 3D games felt like a big technological jump and completely changed gameplay, but most of them were ugly as fuck.

4k on old ps1 era games is ugly af.
I hope they will offer original mode or something similar

PS1 games ugly?? since when???

I get that they're early 3D and all but how are PS1 games ugly? Most PS1 games looked really good actually

Crash Bandicoot for example still stuns me with the amount of colorful detail they're able to pack into a linear environment

If you enable PGXP on a ps1 emulator like Duckstation it virtually looks like a mid 90s PC game. The remakes look fantastic sure but that's also because they had such an amazing visual foundation to build from. Where's the ugly here?

How about Metal Gear Solid which despite the textures still looks great too, still has one of the best atmospheres on PS1 with the cold, sterile, hostile feeling

Spyro's color choice and art direction genuinely look great and hold up years later

it's not exclusive to the PS1 either. Just look at conker for fucks sake

I feel like the only reason people hate the way these games look is because the character models are laughably low poly in comparison to even Dreamcast (and even then they're still good looking character models most of the time)
The environments, art direction, game aesthetics have all aged gracefully. That's not even mentioning the 2d games or games that used prerendered backgrounds like SOTN and FF7...
what's with all the hate?

 

[Crayon]

I play them all the time. All the games I find to be ugly, I thought were ugly back when they launched anyway.

 

[rofif]

PS1 games ugly?? since when???

I get that they're early 3D and all but how are PS1 games ugly? Most PS1 games looked really good actually

Crash Bandicoot for example still stuns me with the amount of colorful detail they're able to pack into a linear environment

If you enable PGXP on a ps1 emulator like Duckstation it virtually looks like a mid 90s PC game. The remakes look fantastic sure but that's also because they had such an amazing visual foundation to build from. Where's the ugly here?

How about Metal Gear Solid which despite the textures still looks great too, still has one of the best atmospheres on PS1 with the cold, sterile, hostile feeling

Spyro's color choice and art direction genuinely look great and hold up years later

it's not exclusive to the PS1 either. Just look at conker for fucks sake

I feel like the only reason people hate the way these games look is because the character models are laughably low poly in comparison to even Dreamcast (and even then they're still good looking character models most of the time)
The environments, art direction, game aesthetics have all aged gracefully. That's not even mentioning the 2d games or games that used prerendered backgrounds like SOTN and FF7...
what's with all the hate?

I am saying that ps1 games look ugly at 4k.
They were designed at 320x240 or 640x480 and made to be viewed on a crt. The graphics look tragic when emulated at 4k. That's all I am saying

 

[64bitmodels]

The graphics look tragic when emulated at 4k.

they expose the blocky textures and models but the games look far cleaner & crisper as a result. especially when you take away the terrible warping and shimmering of the textures

 

[rofif]

they expose the blocky textures and models but the games look far cleaner & crisper as a result. especially when you take away the terrible warping and shimmering of the textures

even worse without warping!!!! The warping is the ps1 look I want lol

 

[nial]

5th gen games unironically look better than the 6th and 7th gen ones.

 

[existensmaximum]

Every PS1 and N64 game made of polygons look like garbage and make me wanna puke. Also, no graphics has ever aged worse.

Literally the worst graphics ever for me.

 

[CobraAB]

There were some pretty damn impressive PSOne games at the time and honestly, its really hard to bash a number of them even to this day IMO.

 

[German Hops]

My favorite generation.

 

[Spyxos]

Street Fighter Alpha 3 I still find pretty today. The 3d Games not so much. But I have to say the many of the ps1 games were special.

 

[64bitmodels]

I play them all the time. All the games I find to be ugly, I thought were ugly back when they launched anyway.

It's like, i play them and think "well they do look more basic and lower fidelity than the modern games but they certainly don't look bad"

like yeah they'll look underwhelming compared to something like God of War Ragnarok or Horizon Forbidden West but that doesn't take away from their existing artistic visual merit no? They still look good and achieve the visual style they were hoping to achieve. I just LOL at the people who think that 16 bit look better. Even the PS1's 2D games outclasses most of the SNES's best visually

People have been so spoiled at how good games look today they consistently dump on the best looking of yesteryear even though they never changed or got uglier.

 

[Crayon]

It's like, i play them and think "well they do look more basic and lower fidelity than the modern games but they certainly don't look bad"

like yeah they'll look underwhelming compared to something like God of War Ragnarok or Horizon Forbidden West but that doesn't take away from their existing artistic visual merit no? They still look good and achieve the visual style they were hoping to achieve. I just LOL at the people who think that 16 bit look better. Even the PS1's 2D games outclasses most of the SNES's best visually

Lots of romanticizing about 16bit graphics. Like you said, compare the 32 bit 5th gen games and they fare much better. Then compare the 16bit 3d games, if you dare.

 

[64bitmodels]

Then compare the 16bit 3d games, if you dare.

Star Fox ain't got shit on Daytona USA


.... the Saturn port of Daytona USA.

 

[moniker]

I hated 5th gen 3d graphics back then, and I hate it now. N64 was worst of the bunch.

 

[RoboFu]

I do too but not with those crappy upres PlayStation screen shots.

 

[64bitmodels]

N64 was worst of the bunch.

HOW

 

[Supple]

I couldn’t stand those blocky 3d graphics. Thank goodness there were still sprite-based games back then.

 

[bender]

I don't. Very few games from that generation hold up visually.

 

[moniker]

HOW

I'm not sure, just going from memory. I just remember low polygon count and extremely blurry, ugly, bilinear filtered (I think?) textures coupled with low framerates.

 

[Henry Panic]

PS1 games ugly?? since when???

I get that they're early 3D and all but how are PS1 games ugly? Most PS1 games looked really good actually

Crash Bandicoot for example still stuns me with the amount of colorful detail they're able to pack into a linear environment

If you enable PGXP on a ps1 emulator like Duckstation it virtually looks like a mid 90s PC game. The remakes look fantastic sure but that's also because they had such an amazing visual foundation to build from. Where's the ugly here?

How about Metal Gear Solid which despite the textures still looks great too, still has one of the best atmospheres on PS1 with the cold, sterile, hostile feeling

Spyro's color choice and art direction genuinely look great and hold up years later

it's not exclusive to the PS1 either. Just look at conker for fucks sake

I feel like the only reason people hate the way these games look is because the character models are laughably low poly in comparison to even Dreamcast (and even then they're still good looking character models most of the time)
The environments, art direction, game aesthetics have all aged gracefully. That's not even mentioning the 2d games or games that used prerendered backgrounds like SOTN and FF7...
what's with all the hate?

When you use modified images from an emulator with graphical enhancements on, for those who weren't there or who forgot what these games actually looked like, this would almost at first seem like a legit argument. However, none of these images look like the actual games (especially MGS) which look considerably worse. Almost all your shots look filtered and bumped to HD.

Here are the games in the OP correctly represented:

Crash still looks presentable of these games, but it still suffers from the hardware compromises of the day to sell early 3D consoles at low prices.

Many games that use prerendered backgrounds look like crap as well without bumping the res in an emulator.

While I don't think all games then aged like crap, it's an argument that makes a lot of sense when looking at how bad the games looked like for the time. It was allowed to pass because those were the first 5 consoles to offer 3D. Consoles jumped into it unlike computers that had been gradually evolving since the 80s.

 

[64bitmodels]

When you use modified images from an emulator with graphical enhancements on, for those who weren't there or who forgot what these games actually looked like, this would almost at first seem like a legit argument. However, none of these images look like the actual games (especially MGS) which look considerably worse. Almost all your shots look filtered and bumped to HD.

Here are the games in the OP correctly represented:

Crash still looks presentable of these games, but it still suffers from the hardware compromises of the day to sell early 3D consoles at low prices.

Many games that use prerendered backgrounds look like crap as well without bumping the res in an emulator.

While I don't think all games then aged like crap, it's an argument that makes a lot of sense when looking at how bad the games looked like for the time. It was allowed to pass because those were the first 5 consoles to offer 3D. Consoles jumped into it unlike computers that had been gradually evolving since the 80s.

they're lower resolution sure nothing besides that really changed. the art direction and textures are still there and still look glorious

 

[Henry Panic]

Lots of romanticizing about 16bit graphics. Like you said, compare the 32 bit 5th gen games and they fare much better. Then compare the 16bit 3d games, if you dare.

Depends on what you mean by 16-bit. The simple but colorful flat shaded 3D games on 16-bit computers and arcades aged way better than 5th gen. Same with the flat shaded 32-but games.

None of the console makers gave us complete 3D hardware for the time. So any attempt to push graphics or be ambitious have you vomit. Inducing graphics.

This made the Dreamcast look like more massive a jump then it really was.

 

[Henry Panic]

they're lower resolution sure nothing besides that really changed. the art direction and textures are still there and still look glorious

Lol you going to tell me res is the only difference between the MGS shots? Really?

Then you have conker blur wipes with noise.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Depends on the game and even genre really, but on average I’d say no.

 

[64bitmodels]

Lol you going to tell me res is the only difference between the MGS shots? Really?

Then you have conker blur wipes with noise.

these are the exact same area. One looks far more low resolution than the other. that's mostly it.

unless i'm missing something here nothing about the game's visuals itself has changed- just the resolution. and even the lower res screenshot i think still looks very good. MGS in general is just a standout game with it's amazing art direction and color choice

 

[Hunnybun]

PS1 games ugly?? since when???

I get that they're early 3D and all but how are PS1 games ugly? Most PS1 games looked really good actually

Crash Bandicoot for example still stuns me with the amount of colorful detail they're able to pack into a linear environment

If you enable PGXP on a ps1 emulator like Duckstation it virtually looks like a mid 90s PC game. The remakes look fantastic sure but that's also because they had such an amazing visual foundation to build from. Where's the ugly here?

How about Metal Gear Solid which despite the textures still looks great too, still has one of the best atmospheres on PS1 with the cold, sterile, hostile feeling

Spyro's color choice and art direction genuinely look great and hold up years later

it's not exclusive to the PS1 either. Just look at conker for fucks sake

I feel like the only reason people hate the way these games look is because the character models are laughably low poly in comparison to even Dreamcast (and even then they're still good looking character models most of the time)
The environments, art direction, game aesthetics have all aged gracefully. That's not even mentioning the 2d games or games that used prerendered backgrounds like SOTN and FF7...
what's with all the hate?

Each to their own, but from where I'm looking you just posted a load of images of games with fucking ugly graphics.

MGS, I grant you, has aged relatively well. But it was one of the very best looking games of the generation, after all.

Off the top of my head, one of the only 3d games from that era that's genuinely still ok to look at is Mario 64, and that's because it's clean and kept everything very simple.

 

[Guilty_AI]

When you use modified images from an emulator with graphical enhancements on, for those who weren't there or who forgot what these games actually looked like, this would almost at first seem like a legit argument. However, none of these images look like the actual games (especially MGS) which look considerably worse. Almost all your shots look filtered and bumped to HD.

Here are the games in the OP correctly represented:

Crash still looks presentable of these games, but it still suffers from the hardware compromises of the day to sell early 3D consoles at low prices.

Many games that use prerendered backgrounds look like crap as well without bumping the res in an emulator.

While I don't think all games then aged like crap, it's an argument that makes a lot of sense when looking at how bad the games looked like for the time. It was allowed to pass because those were the first 5 consoles to offer 3D. Consoles jumped into it unlike computers that had been gradually evolving since the 80s.

But then again, these games ran on CRTs, which arguably makes low-res images look much better.

 

[HyperBitHero]

I think 5th gen games still look good, but they have to be in their original resolution, or they look goofy as hell to me.

 

[simpatico]

I set up a CRT in my office as a little retro game station. PS2 and everything before are unplayable to me on any other medium. The art was designed with a CRT in mind.

 

[SeraphJan]

I would say 6th gen is the sweet spot, with resolution upscale and simple post processing, its basically MODERN REMASTER, not to mention most 6th gen games are 60 fps, compare to 5th gen its day and night difference. Gaming never had this level of jump in presentation from gen to gen IMO

 

[64bitmodels]

I set up a CRT in my office as a little retro game station. PS1 and everything before are unplayable to me on any other medium. The art was designed with a CRT in mind.

 

[nkarafo]

Not if you upscale them like that.

On a CRT, yes, they look great.

 

[64bitmodels]

Not if you upscale them like that.

On a CRT, yes, they look great.

i mean even on a flat panel they look good. not everything's about making the pixels look invisible and making everything look as realistic as possible

 

[Drizzlehell]

They did what they could with the art style and presentation but early 3D graphics are just quaint, and that's the most delicate way to put it. There's a reason why we moved on past it.

Honestly, 2D sprites have a much more timeless look and lasting appeal, even when done in 2,5D boomer shooters. The only people who miss the PS1 look, or spend unnecessary amount of time and effort to re-create the aesthetic for the purpose of an unnecessary demake or a retro horror game are just aging gamers who long for the simpler days of their childhood.

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

they expose the blocky textures and models but the games look far cleaner & crisper as a result. especially when you take away the terrible warping and shimmering of the textures

Still looks better on a CRT

 

[Bo_Hazem]

They looked like shit back then, and will still look like shit forever.

 

[Sleepwalker]

They look like shit.

Even the ones in the OP which are amongst the better looking ones didn't age that well. It's easily the generation that aged the worst.

 

[Drell]

The problem with that gen is not really that it's simple so it's ugly. It has more to do with the fact the consoles that ran them lacked the features to do decent 3d. What I mean by this is that PS1 and Saturn didn't have texture filtering, had incorrect texture mapping and worst of all for me, Polygons vertices being unstable thanks to no FPU.

N64 was a little bit better since it had these, nowaday basic features but Nintendo got that brillant idea to stick with cartridges and while SGI stations were the best machines you could have to do pre-rendered graphics back then, their architecture wasn't the most optimized thing for gaming. And so N64 devs had to deal with that awfully small texture cache of 4KB, making N64 games so blurry on top of the draw distance fog. and finally, there's these framerates...

But the, the market is the market and Sony's decision to release their PS1 as it was was the right move. And while not as successful (especially in Sega's case) Nintendo and Sega had to provide competition. But let me tell you that in my ideal world, the SNES and Megadrive would have lasted longer to allow Nintendo and Sega (Sony too) to make better 3D hardwares.

 

[nkarafo]

i mean even on a flat panel they look good

They look horrible to me this way.

not everything's about making the pixels look invisible and making everything look as realistic as possible

Not sure what you mean.

 

[64bitmodels]

They looked like shit back then, and will still look like shit forever.

 

[fart town usa]

My favorite generation.

Yea, they look rough if you don't have the proper gear but that's a user issue, it's not the games fault.

Lots of the games look great still.

 

[Henry Panic]

these are the exact same area. One looks far more low resolution than the other. that's mostly it.

unless i'm missing something here nothing about the game's visuals itself has changed- just the resolution. and even the lower res screenshot i think still looks very good. MGS in general is just a standout game with it's amazing art direction and color choice

I guess you're blind then.

 

[Henry Panic]

But then again, these games ran on CRTs, which arguably makes low-res images look much better.

Spyro and MGS look no different than my screens outside the person in the video using higher output to.maulybe clean up the image abit, but not enough to pretend they look good.

Remember this thread was started on bullshots.

 

[supernova8]

PS1 games only looked good to me as a kid on a CRT screen and because PS1 was (part of, maybe not the) cutting edge at the time.
Sure there were some lookers on PC at that point but come on PC gaming wasn't as mainstream as it is now. We were only just getting dedicated GPUs around that time (3dfx and Nvidia didn't even exist until like 1993/1994).

 

[ReBurn]

That generation was all blurry, warped textures and shaky polygons. For the most part 3D polygon games looked like ass with a few exceptions. But most of them were super fun to play and that's what matters most.

 

[Knightime_X]

As long as I can bump up resolution and maybe a few other graphical features I'm good to go.

 

[Seider]

I Love Playstation games running in HD using emulators like Duckstation. I dont know why we must play them at 320x200 when we can play these games at a much higher resolution nowadays. Same with Nintendo 64, Playstation 2, Dreamcast and Gamecube games.

Super Mario 64 running at 1080p 60 fps on Project 64 looks awesome. It looks like a Dreamcast game.

 

[March Climber]

The games were ugly but fun. Depending on your age back then and your nostalgia now, not many people cared.

I think what spoiled me on this gen was the fact that I managed to play a lot of arcade cabinet games that looked almost a full generation ahead graphically, and then I would go back home to playing uglier PS1 versions and hoped one day they would make a system as powerful as those arcade machines.

 

[Banjo64]

N64 games still look good. PS1 games always looked absolutely dreadful.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Still screens don’t do the games justice. Seeing them in motion, especially on a CRT that doesn’t magnify the blemishes, is still worth it in some cases. Mario 64 would look fugly in stills, but it was nice enough in that All Stars collection on Switch.