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warioswoods on 19 April 2009
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Staude said:
warioswoods said:

Agreed, to argue that the PS1's 3D graphics were even in the same league as the N64 is absolute nonsense.  Take any big flagship N64 game and you can be certain it simply couldn't be reproduced on PS1 hardware, not even close.  Sure, the texture detail on the N64 was low, but overall the 3D rendering was far more advanced.

Also, the N64 wasn't some sort of mistake by Nintendo due to arrogance or however it was badly argued by someone above -- they decided to throw all their weight behind true 3D gaming with zero load times and analog control, so, while the system couldn't do a lot of things that the PS1 could in terms of cutscenes or 2D work, it pretty well ushered in the 3D era with its transformation of classic games like Mario and Zelda into the first fully realized 3D platformers and action-adventure titles.  What PS1 was producing in this area isn't even close; their 3D platforming games were either horribly rendered and awkward or actually only 2.5D like Bandicoot.

So sure, they lost the RPG genre and they started to lose the attention of the adolescent gamers who want more of what they often mistakenly deem 'mature' games, but it was a remarkable achievement in terms of reinventing classic 2D gameplay elements for the new 3D era, and we wouldn't have a hell of a lot of what we have now in gaming if not for this system. Let's not forget other important moves like the i nclusion of 4 controller ports standard -- I remember how much that meant to social gaming all those years ago.

 

They didn't invent 3d gaming. Infact they probably only went 3d because sony promoted their console to do the same. I'm not claiming it was better at rendering 3d but if you notice, most ps1 games are 3d. Simply because sony promoted this to the developers.. and they did this even prior to ps1's release.

Of course didn't invent the hardware for 3D gaming, or the basic software concepts of polygons, etc.  What I'm talking about is the fact that it was really only Nintendo who was able to successfully take classic gameplay (series like Mario which, if you jump back before the N64 release, were thought unanimously to be impossible to transition to 3D) and re-envision it for 3D, but not in a cheap way (ie Bandicoot and other 3D platformers that essentially shoved 2D gameplay into 3D graphics) -- Mario 64 and OOT truly ushered in the 3D era for the first time, since they showed with tremendous success how various genres should function in a 3D world.  If you look at any successful 3D platforming or action-adventure title to this day, you'll see remnants of the ideas laid out in the N64 era.

It was really only Nintendo and their then-close allies Rare who made this happen, though, as there were plenty of awful examples of 3D on the N64 as well (Castlevania for instance, which still hasn't figured out how to make the difficult transition to 3D without losing its core gameplay elements).

Anyhow, Sony' console certainly helped bring about some incredible changes in gaming as well (epic RPGs with cinematic cutscenes, for one), but I just don't think you can ignore the impact of Nintendo's first-party titles on the history of 3D gaming, and it's quite a legacy for the otherwise limited N64.