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Forums - Gaming - What generation do you feel progressed the most from its beginning to its end?

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Which do you feel progressed the most over its span?

Gen 1 0 0%
 
Gen 2 0 0%
 
Gen 3 9 23.08%
 
Gen 4 6 15.38%
 
Gen 5 5 12.82%
 
Gen 6 5 12.82%
 
Gen 7 14 35.90%
 
Gen 8 0 0%
 
Current gen 0 0%
 
Total:39
darthv72 on 05 August 2026
Spindel said:

How the hell can you vote gen 7?

Megadrive started with Altered Beast and ended with Virtua Racer and Virtua Fighter.
SNES started with Super Mario World/F-Zero/Pilot Wings and ended with Starfox and Stunt Race FX and also got a port of Doom.

That is a generation that went from sprites to full polygonal 3D and an FPS within the generation.

People here voting PS3/Xbox360/Wii generation must be too young to have experienced earlier generations.

I would dare to say that especially the PS1 had a larger evolution during its lifetime than PS3.

EDIT:// this is the first thread in this forum that makes me genuinely upset because so many are objectively wrong on this topic

I can assume its likely because to those, they never really experienced the greatness of the 16bit era. They may have got6ten into gaming in the 32bit PS/Saturn era and progressed from there. So to them, the 7th may be their pinnacle of most progression.

Us 'old farts'.... we know better.



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curl-6 on 05 August 2026
TheRealSamusAran said:
Spindel said:

How the hell can you vote gen 7?

Megadrive started with Altered Beast and ended with Virtua Racer and Virtua Fighter.
SNES started with Super Mario World/F-Zero/Pilot Wings and ended with Starfox and Stunt Race FX and also got a port of Doom.

That is a generation that went from sprites to full polygonal 3D and an FPS within the generation.

People here voting PS3/Xbox360/Wii generation must be too young to have experienced earlier generations.

I would dare to say that especially the PS1 had a larger evolution during its lifetime than PS3.

EDIT:// this is the first thread in this forum that makes me genuinely upset because so many are objectively wrong on this topic

A bit too aggressive, but that's how I feel too, specially since I feel like gen 7 is exactly where we started getting diminishing returns. I think that every generation that came before had a bigger jump from start to finish than gen 7. Well, maybe not the first two gens, they went from like, Pong to what, Space Invaders?

Diminishing returns I feel didn't begin to creep in til the 8th gen, (which was still a sizeable upgrade regardless) as going from even the best looking 6th gen games to something like Uncharted or Gears of War was still a massive jump.

It's the current gen where diminishing returns really kicked in in force IMO, to the point where the best looking PS4/XBO games still look great today even almost 6 years into the next generation.



Pajderman on 06 August 2026
Spindel said:

How the hell can you vote gen 7?

Megadrive started with Altered Beast and ended with Virtua Racer and Virtua Fighter.
SNES started with Super Mario World/F-Zero/Pilot Wings and ended with Starfox and Stunt Race FX and also got a port of Doom.

That is a generation that went from sprites to full polygonal 3D and an FPS within the generation.

People here voting PS3/Xbox360/Wii generation must be too young to have experienced earlier generations.

I would dare to say that especially the PS1 had a larger evolution during its lifetime than PS3.

EDIT:// this is the first thread in this forum that makes me genuinely upset because so many are objectively wrong on this topic

Snes was the first console I experienced first hand from start to finish. And I when I look back at the games I simply was not more impressed by the later games compared to the early ones. Star Fox did not impress me more than F-Zero, I thought StarFox mostly looked ugly even if it is more advanced on a technical level. As graphics goes, Donkey Kong Country did impress me, but i still prefer Super Mario World for just about every other aspect of the game.

PS3 had games in the start of the generation that almost felt unplayable returning to after one played the later releases in the same genres. Even if the improvements are "objectively" larger in earlier generations, to me they did not feel as impactful. 



Spindel on 06 August 2026
Pajderman said:
Spindel said:

How the hell can you vote gen 7?

Megadrive started with Altered Beast and ended with Virtua Racer and Virtua Fighter.
SNES started with Super Mario World/F-Zero/Pilot Wings and ended with Starfox and Stunt Race FX and also got a port of Doom.

That is a generation that went from sprites to full polygonal 3D and an FPS within the generation.

People here voting PS3/Xbox360/Wii generation must be too young to have experienced earlier generations.

I would dare to say that especially the PS1 had a larger evolution during its lifetime than PS3.

EDIT:// this is the first thread in this forum that makes me genuinely upset because so many are objectively wrong on this topic

Snes was the first console I experienced first hand from start to finish. And I when I look back at the games I simply was not more impressed by the later games compared to the early ones. Star Fox did not impress me more than F-Zero, I thought StarFox mostly looked ugly even if it is more advanced on a technical level. As graphics goes, Donkey Kong Country did impress me, but i still prefer Super Mario World for just about every other aspect of the game.

PS3 had games in the start of the generation that almost felt unplayable returning to after one played the later releases in the same genres. Even if the improvements are "objectively" larger in earlier generations, to me they did not feel as impactful. 

Other consoles past gen 1 have at least been able to display colours.

PS3/360 could only display shades of brown ;) 

I say this a bit jokingly but it does have a hint of trough to it. 



HoloDust on 06 August 2026

Since C64 belongs to Gen 3 in timeline and tech, some examples of where getting to know stock hardware gets you:

1982, one of "launch" titles, Fort Apocalypse:

1983 (year Famicom and SG1000 launched in Japan), Blue Max:

1987, halfway into "gen" (along with year that Amiga 500 launched), Great Giana Sisters:

and 1988, sidescroll shooter, Armalyte

1993, end of C64 (in '94 C64 was stopped being produced), game that is considered pinnacle of what was possible on stock C64, Mayhem in the Monsterland:

2017, retro-coder enthusiast C64 project, Sam's Journey, which is borderline magic for all of us who had C64 back in 80s:



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Cerebralbore101 on 06 August 2026
Gen 7 is overrated because devs were lazy and a lot of the launch games for Gen 7 looked worse than the best Gen 6 games. Ninja Gaiden Black looked better than most 360 launch titles. Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii looked better than pretty much any 360 or PS3 launch title. 
Gen 3 wins without a doubt. The NES was able to split the ram between the console and the cartridge. This allowed for later NES games that could use 3-4 times as much ram as launch titles. 



Also, PC Engine launched in October 1987 in Japan. This is about a year after the September 1986 NA region-wide launch of the NES in the USA. Yeah there was a test market in LA and NY, but the real NES launch for all of NA was 1986. And the NES launched in Europe in 1986 as well. So anyway, the PC Engine fits into Gen 3 nicely. 

PC Engine had a CD add-on that launched in 1988. It also got Ram expansion cards that fit into the cartridge slot. So we were able to get shmups like Sapphire that looked nearly as good as Sega Saturn launch titles. 
So for Gen 3 we went from Gradius II looking and sounding like this on the NES...

To Gradius II looking and sounding like this on the PCE CD. 

HoloDust said:

Since C64 belongs to Gen 3 in timeline and tech, some examples of where getting to know stock hardware gets you:

1982, one of "launch" titles, Fort Apocalypse:

1983 (year Famicom and SG1000 launched in Japan), Blue Max:

1987, halfway into "gen" (along with year that Amiga 500 launched), Great Giana Sisters:

and 1988, sidescroll shooter, Armalyte

1993, end of C64 (in '94 C64 was stopped being produced), game that is considered pinnacle of what was possible on stock C64, Mayhem in the Monsterland:

2017, retro-coder enthusiast C64 project, Sam's Journey, which is borderline magic for all of us who had C64 back in 80s:

I need some C64 recommendations! I have one but it needs a recap, new fuse and new PSU. 



VGChartz has a Retro Sub-Forum! Put your Retro-Related Threads Here! Plz?

HoloDust on 06 August 2026
Cerebralbore101 said:
...snip...

Also, PC Engine launched in October 1987 in Japan. This is about a year after the September 1986 NA region-wide launch of the NES in the USA. Yeah there was a test market in LA and NY, but the real NES launch for all of NA was 1986. And the NES launched in Europe in 1986 as well. So anyway, the PC Engine fits into Gen 3 nicely. 

PC Engine had a CD add-on that launched in 1988. It also got Ram expansion cards that fit into the cartridge slot. So we were able to get shmups like Sapphire that looked nearly as good as Sega Saturn launch titles. 
So for Gen 3 we went from Gradius II looking and sounding like this on the NES...
...snip...

I need some C64 recommendations! I have one but it needs a recap, new fuse and new PSU. 

PC Engine was really a 4th Gen console though - sure, it had 8 bit CPU, but, due to how fast it was, it was brute forcing things, along with dual 16 bit video processors, with fairly comparable visuals to SNES/Mega Drive. But I think going from 1983 Famicom games to its late offerings is more than enough for the 3rd Gen argument.

As for C64 recommendations - not sure what you're looking for, cause honestly, I can never offer such recommendations without knowing about taste or interest one that's asking for them has.



Cerebralbore101 on 06 August 2026
HoloDust said:
Cerebralbore101 said:
...snip...

Also, PC Engine launched in October 1987 in Japan. This is about a year after the September 1986 NA region-wide launch of the NES in the USA. Yeah there was a test market in LA and NY, but the real NES launch for all of NA was 1986. And the NES launched in Europe in 1986 as well. So anyway, the PC Engine fits into Gen 3 nicely. 

PC Engine had a CD add-on that launched in 1988. It also got Ram expansion cards that fit into the cartridge slot. So we were able to get shmups like Sapphire that looked nearly as good as Sega Saturn launch titles. 
So for Gen 3 we went from Gradius II looking and sounding like this on the NES...
...snip...

I need some C64 recommendations! I have one but it needs a recap, new fuse and new PSU. 

PC Engine was really a 4th Gen console though - sure, it had 8 bit CPU, but, due to how fast it was, it was brute forcing things, along with dual 16 bit video processors, with fairly comparable visuals to SNES/Mega Drive. But I think going from 1983 Famicom games to its late offerings is more than enough for the 3rd Gen argument.

As for C64 recommendations - not sure what you're looking for, cause honestly, I can never offer such recommendations without knowing about taste or interest one that's asking for them has.

Gens don't go by processing power. They go by release timing and/or whether they had a predecessor. PCE didn't have anything before it. Switch 1 is a 9th gen system for example. So is PS5. Why? Because Wii was 7th gen, Wii U was 8th Gen, and Switch is 9th gen. 

My taste is pretty much any game that is legitimately good. I'm not too keen on sports titles but will still play NBA Jam and NHL 94 because they are bangers. 



VGChartz has a Retro Sub-Forum! Put your Retro-Related Threads Here! Plz?

curl-6 on 06 August 2026
Cerebralbore101 said:
Gen 7 is overrated because devs were lazy and a lot of the launch games for Gen 7 looked worse than the best Gen 6 games. Ninja Gaiden Black looked better than most 360 launch titles. Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii looked better than pretty much any 360 or PS3 launch title. 

A lot of this I think comes down to art direction; early on devs were still learning how to best use the 360/PS3's capabilities and so early games often looked a bit garish due to heavy handed use of new techniques, while the best 6th gen games used mature technology more tastefully.

Still, even early on in the gen there were some games that really popped like Bioshock, COD4, Uncharted 1, etc.



HoloDust on 07 August 2026
Cerebralbore101 said:
HoloDust said:

PC Engine was really a 4th Gen console though - sure, it had 8 bit CPU, but, due to how fast it was, it was brute forcing things, along with dual 16 bit video processors, with fairly comparable visuals to SNES/Mega Drive. But I think going from 1983 Famicom games to its late offerings is more than enough for the 3rd Gen argument.

As for C64 recommendations - not sure what you're looking for, cause honestly, I can never offer such recommendations without knowing about taste or interest one that's asking for them has.

Gens don't go by processing power. They go by release timing and/or whether they had a predecessor. PCE didn't have anything before it. Switch 1 is a 9th gen system for example. So is PS5. Why? Because Wii was 7th gen, Wii U was 8th Gen, and Switch is 9th gen. 

My taste is pretty much any game that is legitimately good. I'm not too keen on sports titles but will still play NBA Jam and NHL 94 because they are bangers. 

Well, I think you made an argument for my POV - PC Engine/TurboGrafx has spent most of its time competing with SNES and Genesis and is considered first 4th Gen console. But as I said, no need to call on PC Engine - going from Famicom launch titles to its later offerings is more than enough for 3rd Gen argument.

As for C64, I don't like doing this, since I don't consider there are universally good games for everyone's subjective taste, but I'll reluctantly suggest you look up this chart (be aware they are mix of old C64 titles from its heyday, as well as few of newer, retro coding titles available on cartridges) on LemonC64 (you can choose minimum number of votes, it changes list quite a bit):

https://www.lemon64.com/games/votes_list.php?votes_needed=30