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TheShape31 on 02 October 2012
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noname2200 said:
TheShape31 said:
noname2200 said:
TheShape31 said:

Nintendo consoles were always visually a high-end product until the launch of the Wii. 

When you say "always," you mean "starting with the N64 and excluding its handhelds", correct?

Excluding handhelds, yes.  But the NES was a graphical powerhouse for its time.  And the SNES was far superior to NES, providing a significant graphical leap.  Granted the Genesis looked better, it wasn't by much.  So I did mean always, in reference to every home console.

The NES was built with 70's technology, and it looked like it. Compare its graphics to those of the Commodore 64 (1982), Amiga (1985), Atari ST (1985), or PC-Engine (1987). NES graphics don't compare. They're more in line with ZX Spectrum (1982) and Colecovision (1982) games.

Okay, let's start with the fact that the ZX Spectrum, Atari ST, Amiga, and Commodore 64 were all personal computers.  None were a gaming console.  Moot points.

On top of that NES actually matched up identically to what Commodore 64 games looked like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY2gK1MPgh8

 

On to actual gaming consoles...

Technically, Colecovision and NES were in the same generation, and look how much better Nintendo's console looked:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv9uxfoVEbQ

Now, when comparing the NES to PC-Engine (aka TurboGrafx-16), Nintendo's system did not look as good.  Also take not that it didn't come out until '87 in Japan, '89 for North America, and '90 for Europe.  For most of the world, it appeared at the tail end of the NES generation.  So this is your only valid comparison for a console that looked better than the NES at the time.  But remember that the NES launched in 1983 in Japan.  TG-16 launched 4+ years after the NES in each region.  Sega's console (which you didn't mention) didn't launch until 1988 in Japan.  So of course both the TurboGrafx-16 and Sega Genesis are going to look better when they launch 4 and 5 years after the NES.  They were next-gen consoles.  The SNES arrived in 1990, serving as direct competition to the other 2 systems.  For its time (1983), the NES looked outstanding for a home gaming console.  And for the others in the next generation (in 1987, 1988, and 1990, respectively), they all looked great for their time.