Why the limitations of the N64 and PS1 mattered

[@jaytecx5942]

Technical limitations forced creativity in graphics and music compositions.

[@RubyRose23328]

And led to the horrible working conditions developers find themselves in today

[@Immortalangel14]

​@jcdenton4110 that wouldn't have anything to do with limitations in hardware. Unrealistic sales expectations and yearly release due dates especially for sports games causes horrible work conditions.

[@mrlewz0r]

@@RubyRose23328 Gonna need some citations, captain.

[@alanlee67]

​@jcdenton4110 eh, crunch was a huge part of the most iconic games throughout the 90s and 2000s, especially in japan. If you asked shigeru miyamoto, a big part of the success of his games is the "crunch" they went through. It takes dedication to create a timeless masterpiece. If anything, the unwillingness of modern devs to do this is resulting in very watered down middling games. Game development is a 9-5 for ucla comp sci grads and not for artists anymore. Imagine a game like chrono trigger and halo and how a few months of crunch resulted in games that touched people and the people that made those games are immortalized. We can all go for a few months without sleep. Anyone that's had a baby knows that.

[@mrlewz0r]

@@alanlee67 People who think "crunch" was some kind of big awful thing back in the day are just showing everyone they weren't alive back then. Many old games were created because the dudes making them wanted to. If you look at the old industry through a dumbed down modern lens, it looks like crunch. Lot of those old dudes like Carmack slaved away because they wanted to - it wasn't a soulless 9 to 5 industry then like it is now. I'll also add - nothing great comes easy. Only a child thinks it does.

[@mightylink65]

Metal Gear Solid was absolutely insane how far ahead of it's time it was. Kojima tried to do a full cinematic experience at the earliest possible time and pulled it off. The characters lips may not move but the story telling and cinematics and everything being rendered in real time was amazing. It's also the first game that I recall having dozens of hours of fully voiced dialogue, so much that it required 2 discs just for the sound files alone.

[@TooBokoo]

And you actually got to PLAY Metal Gear Solid 1. A lot of Kojima's later efforts had you watching 45 minutes of cutscenes just to then get to play for 10 minutes and then watch another 45 minutes of cutscenes. LOL!

[@redpheonix1000]

I've never actually played MGS1 (yet) but I have seen a couple of videos here and there. From the little I've seen, the voice acting, cinematic music and camera angles, it legit sounds and feels like a movie. The sound production quality far outweighs the actual graphics, limited as they were.

[@geesterfunk]

Every game was then judged to not be as good as metal gear solid, before it came out me and my mates played the tits off the demo, was mind blowing!

[@steelbear2063]

MGS is extremely overrated in both story and gameplay

[@RyanTheEatingwarrior]

To this day it’s probably my favorite game, I play it annually and love the fact the cut scenes are long enough to just chill and watch for a nice little break between playing.

[@Pilps]

“The enemy of art is the absence of limitation.” - Orson Welles

[@RAWCRUST]

That's a shitty take from Orson really, having unlimited sound selection on a synthesizer does not make music worse.

[@Braaaaaaa]

​@@RAWCRUSTNot really. Limiting yourself to make something with less tools, forces you to approach it more creatively.

[@RAWCRUST]

@@Braaaaaaa What if the new tools allows things that weren't even possible with the old tools?

[@Crit-Chance]

@@RAWCRUST Well, if your selection was unlimited, you might feel as if the next sound you tried might well be better than the last one you were planning on using. Were that the case, how would you ever be satisfied with your work? There's something to be said about the drawbacks of having too many options, wouldn't you agree?

[@jonathananderson5990]

@@RAWCRUST You raise some interesting questions. I don't fully disagree with you, but the Welles quote makes a sort of intuitive sense (for what that's worth). I think of drawing action scenes in comics, as a random for instance: all the different techniques that artists have come up with over the decades to compensate for the limits of the medium, giving s sense of motion from a static image. Or the game of football (soccer). All the different forms of dribbling, etc. would have never been invented if players could simply use their hands. When you look at creativity from the perspective of problem-solving, one can view limitations as problems. Creativity is finding different solutions to those problems. In this way, limitations tend to focus one's creative efforts. If the limits aren't there or are lessened to a largish degree, there would simply be less need for creativity or innovation.

[@Alley00Cat]

All I want to say is I really miss 4-player games of the n64 era. Playing Golden Eye with your buddies was insane back in the day.

[@TheWickedWizardOfOz1]

STOP PEEKING AT MY SCREEN! I did Perfect Dark, personally. Nothing quite like filling a room with bouncing grenades or proximity mines and waiting for someone to run into it

[@9a3eedi]

We have the most powerful consoles ever that can support like 8 controllers, 4k resolution 65"+ TVs, and yet somehow games aren't able to handle 2 player splitscreen anymore, what a shame. I think it should be technically possible to have 8 player splitscreen now!

[@Alley00Cat]

@@9a3eedi I’m pretty sure it can but they make more money if you play online. The sad truth

[@flowrepins6663]

​@@Alley00Catit really sucks its much more fun playing offline with friends. That is why i prefer fighting games at least you can always play competitive offline and there are tournaments also. Another pro is not requiring the screen to be splitted

[@Alley00Cat]

@@flowrepins6663 exactly. That’s why I had a ton of fun playing the TMNT sidescroller reboot. 4 players, single screen!

[@mariopllumbi3748]

PS1 era: doing more with less. PS5 era : doing less with more.

[@dikchez8090]

Kinda your own fault for locking yourself to one platform. The one with the least 1st party output this generation, at that.

[@Frionelz]

This is why ps1 ff games has the best style. And nostalgia has almost nothing to do with this

[@stevenmccroskey3411]

⁠​⁠@@dikchez8090First party games have nothing to do with the quality of technology. The thumbnail showcases MGS1 and Banjo Kazooi, neither of which were 1st party releases on their platforms. Also I think anyone would agreed “Starfield”, a first party game from Microsoft, is a greater example of “doing less with more” than any modern video game because it not only relies on the same game engine from the 7th console generation but it’s some of the most outdated game mechanics , horrendous load screens and poor optimization since CyberPunk2077. You’re just trying to start a console war in the comments even though 1st party games have literally nothing to do with the topic at hand.

[@Jay-jb2vr]

Playstation is STILL home of console gaming, regardless of 1st party output 💯

[@Razu-gk6ow]

​@@dikchez8090 delusional xbot detected

[@edwardcarlton]

One of the main things that has destroyed games is micro transactions, monthly, yearly subscription. I miss the old days.

[@donovanperrington418]

Don’t forget season passes and internet required to play the game. Then you gotta download at least 3 updates.

[@Isaiahrodriguez_amp]

You should play helldivers 2. Such a great refresher in the gaming community

[@jaysant6958]

It’s our fault for accepting it. We could’ve been like the Boston Tea Party people and said nope to all that.

[@schopra13]

I see what you're saying, but I think micro transactions get judged too critically. People are quick to point out their flaws but almost never point out that their existence has led to massive free to play games

[@darinherrick9224]

People always say this nonsense. How exactly does having more options destroy games?

[@gaetan4164]

It was wild. So much diversity, so many experiments on 3D, gameplay and how to make it all work. Modern gaming tropes solidified during the ps2 era.

[@jarde1989]

Experiments now vs then are fundamentally different Now, you experiment to differentiate from the norm Then, they were literally trying to figure out how it worked… there was no norm

[@otterdonnelly9959]

@@jarde1989not true. Depends what game/genre we are talking. Some matured faster than others and certain genres were already subverting themselves by the 90s.

[@jarde1989]

@@otterdonnelly9959 I’m really talking 3D games Yes, 2D games had matured by the mid 90s As for the “subversion” comment… thats exactly what time y’all about… Games and genres continuously experimented to identify the best way of doing things. Vs today where 90% of shooters, 3rd person games play the exact same because the genres have been refined over the last 2 decades.

[@angel_of_rust]

modern gaming IGNORED those tropes and took the worst possible definition of "diversity" with it.

[@otterdonnelly9959]

@@jarde1989 refined or dumbed down depending on who you are talking to. Regardless the restrictions forced people to optimize so games run efficiently. Now devs throw the whole kitchen sink but can’t even keep a steady fps.

[@to_baldly_go]

I'm playing through Chrono Cross for the first time (Chrono Trigger being my favourite childhood game) and i cant express how refreshing, challenging and fun it is to play a game again where you don't have a big notification telling you where to go or what to do next. The UI is slow, the frame rate fluctuates, the graphics are old.. but.. the charm and atmosphere is beyond what some AAA games have today. Its like you know it was an uphill battle against the hardware limitations of the time but the developers didnt care and worked with the limitations to deliver their vision, gameplay and story.

[@raafmaat]

i have all those SNES and ps1 RPGs ready to go but too little time :(

[@fairandfree9824]

Same……. So sad.

[@Brekfastmachine]

And Chrono Cross has the greatest soundtrack of all time, so that's nice. :)

[@to_baldly_go]

@@Brekfastmachine legendary 🔥

[@sc3ku]

Just playing Chrono Trigger for the first time…loving it! Missed it at the time between Earthbound and Mario RPG then the N64…

[@Nitchigamer]

Exactly. Thought this for years. Thanks for taking the words out of my head. Miyamoto himself has said he likes to intentionally limit what developers have to work with!

[@DualBackdrop]

pros of n64:- Cartridges cons of n64:- Cartridges

[@petemiller2598]

Nearly 30 years later, I am really appreciating the cartridge format, as they physically hold up so much better than CDs. My PS1's laser is dying, the discs I have bought inevitably have scratches on them, and oftentimes I have to sit there while the disc skips or loads excessively. With N64 carts, you can buy some that are incredibly beat up, but work flawlessly and have no appreciable degradation since the 90s.

[@BurritoKingdom]

​@@petemiller2598pretty much except some people nasty and you have to give them a good cleaning. Always have to have some 90%+ alcohol when buying some used carts

[@JamesTDG]

@@petemiller2598 additionally with carts, if the ROM is corrupted, you can easily re-flash the ROM onto the cart!

[@f1nkangel]

Ah, this is the sad thing, Nintendo approached Sony about using their CD Hardware for their next console (there is even prototype hardware), gave them the idea and ambition and the Playstation was born...ended up capturing quite a bit of Nintendo's videogame market for a while too...but there is no stopping those guys!

[@etansivad]

Pros of N64: you could re-write the microcode and fully own the engine. Cons of n64: you need a god-tier assembly writer to do that. Pros of PSX: There was a standard C library that any competent C programmer could make use of with a bit of reading. cons of psx: It was very easy to shoot yourself in the foot and no one really knew 3d at that point or how to order rendering.

[@ante646]

the pre rendered backgrounds of digimon world are like a dream

[@Matanumi]

Also the music in that game with its limitations made it nostalgia for its time. Same with Pokemon RBY and even GSC

[@coldbreezeproductions]

Donkey Kong country still holds up today

[@skycloud4802]

The graphics looked nice, with some cinematic tank controls. I loved the soft transitions, accompanied by the music as well. A lot of jrpgs on ps1 played slower than today's games, but felt so much more a relaxing experience. Tranquil at times with the character running into a sunset or misty woods. The art style of games like these were great.

[@BrazileoTotalBrazil]

Those 90's prerendered background sure look amazing. But they need proper uspcaling (like quality crt fitlers) to be beautiful. Just uspcaling them to nearest neighboor, or worst with ugly bilinear filter make them look bad. I remember being blown away by the Donkey Kong Country and Psone Final Fantasy games back then. But today's Final Fantasy Viii remaster is a joke, not only did they upscale the background with ugly filter making them super blurry, but they also upscalled the character models which empahis the differences even more. I guess than the main problem Squarenix has with these remaster is the Japanese language. Kanji are easier to read with high resolution, but without proper treatment of the rest of the graphics, it causes a lot of problems with the visuals to simply increase the resolution. Hopefully, with the advance of AI based upscaling, there will be solutions to upscale these 90's prerendered CG. background. The FF I moguri mod seems to be the right solution .

[@ante646]

@@BrazileoTotalBrazil disagree , CRT is the intended medium to play these games on

[@channeljan8529]

Sega Saturn, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, my favorite generation of gaming. There will never be another era quite like that one.

[@craigtodd8297]

How old are you?

[@RoseyRK]

@@craigtodd8297 doesn’t matter how old he is, he’s right. I’m guessing you’re teenager so you haven’t a clue about video games

[@ciredecgellar8232]

completely right !feel the same

[@jaridatkinson4907]

Ps2 era was dope too but that supernintendo Sega genesis GameCube and ps1 days was peak

[@monty3854]

I feel this but I also wonder if it's just a bias. Although the novelty was a huge part of it.

[@coolgreek79]

Prime example back in the Day was Quake on Ps1, N64 and Saturn... Same name three different game engines and three different takes of the Original Game. I just love those days

[@arciks11]

Quake 1 didn't get a PS1 port and Saturn never got Quake 2 port.

[@hpickettz34]

Everything is x86 now, there's no need to have multiple engines, plus it would be very expensive if they did.

[@coolgreek79]

@@hpickettz34 true but the point of the video is to say how times have changed and how little effort they put these days to port a game properly to an underpower system. Probably that goes to the Nintendo switch

[@crestofhonor2349]

@@coolgreek79I wouldn’t say they don’t put effort into modern games because they’re significantly more complex than older games

[@coolgreek79]

@@crestofhonor2349 True... But do we really need all THAT complex games? The graphical leep wasn't all that great from Ps4 to 5 and the downsides are massive compared to the benefits and the price tag they ask for those so called upgrades

[@MarcelTega]

“Creativity is not thinking outside the box. It’s setting the box on fire and trying to find a way out” - One of my favorite quotes about limitations breeding creativity.

[@cluckendip]

but by whooooo

[@MikeRotch-ur7sx]

​@@cluckendip"trust me bro" - the brosiah

[@ivanromo4273]

@@MikeRotch-ur7sx haha

[@SammyCee23]

Who said this quote? I like it

[@Acacius1992]

Limitations don't breed creativity by me. No matter how hard I try my mind shuts down completely

[@agroed]

5th generation: using creativity to surpass the limitations of technology and make the best games ever. 9th generation: using the unlimited power of technology to squash creativity and destroy the medium.

[@noprz]

Bit sad innit

[@eazygamer8974]

That modern "aaa" gaming...it's all gone so corporate....there is no more love for the craft!

[@AndDeathForAll82]

And it’s getting even worse

[@theking5116]

Should've gatekept better. Now that gaming is a multi billion dollar industry corpos will keep pushing for the most bland and uninspired slop in an attempt to appeal to the mass market of people who really just want to watch a movie. It was always for profit but games were much better when they were tailored for a small group. The one consolation is that we still have the old games to go back to despite companies like nintendo trying to erase roms off the internet. It's never going to be as good again but that doesn't erase the past.

[@agroed]

@@theking5116 Based take, but I think there's still a bit of hope. The AAA market is slowly killing itself with bloated budgets and scope creep to the point where there just aren't enough consumers in the world for these games to make a profit. A lot of these companies are a few major flops from going under. There are only so many devs for them to sack to make up for their shitty decisions. Once a big company goes under we'll hopefully see a return to multiple smaller budget games, instead of them putting all their eggs in one basket and expecting it to sell 10-15 million copies. That said, the only thing these nepotistic execs have ever had to do to solve a problem is throw more money at it, and since that's exactly the thing that's killing the AAA industry, I doubt we'll see any change unless there's a significant market crash, which, considering how casual and up their own ass the average gamer is now, is unlikely to ever happen unless the companies force it on themselves by continuing with these 9-figure-budget games.

[@joelman1989]

Late 90s to early 2000s was the peak of gaming innovation. The PS3/360 era would begin the graphics innovation era that we are still in today. All innovations are visual now.

[@logandunlap9156]

that depends on where you look, honestly. some would argue that indies are still innovating or are at least remixing concepts in new and novel ways. it's not as if innovation doesn't happen at all, it's just not happening as quickly anymore.

[@neozes]

The 6th generation is also when game quality started to go down. Marketing, business decisions, bells and whistles, with hand holding on top. All that has robbed games of what made them what they are - gameplay and exploration. NDS has saved that generation for me.

[@kiba3x]

Not even visual, at least in the art style.

[@joelman1989]

@@logandunlap9156 there is A LOT of creativity in the indie scene. I definitely agree with you on them remixing ideas in creative ways. And we have seen some gameplay innovations through indie games particularly with physics games introduced in the early 2010s as well as casual games like candy crush (yeah, really). The mostly play indie games these days as well as first party exclusives from Sony and Nintendo (with the occasional Capcom and square enix game thrown in). But every game today indie or not is essentially some variation of Mario 64, Zelda 1/3/4, super Metroid, MGS, dragon quest/final fantasy, doom, Mario franchise, half life 1/2, resident evil 4, and GTA 3. There are other influential games of course. Even ones that came out in the 6th gen like COD MW, AC 2, Batman Arkham, Far cry, uncharted 2, GTA IV, and TLOU. But those games are more minor leaps forward. If Indie games had a bigger budget I suspect we’d continue to see innovation like before. Even some of the most innovative games to come out in the last decade have been indie projects like DayZ.

[@fuzzywzhe]

There aren't going to be any more innovations. You can't do much with having photorealistic, and I don't care what people say, you can't process over 90 FPS.

[@Madblaster6]

The developers of Crash Bandicoot talking about how they had to build such large levels with the system limitations. It was insane, the creativity.

[@fuzzywzhe]

Let me tell you something an an electrical engineer that has worked in software development and video games for the last 30 years. The challenge was the fun part of it, there is no challenge anymore. It's just libraries and abstractions now. You're not going to see any improvement that is really noticeable in the future. We have video now that is photo-realistic, now it's just down to creativity which has moved away from engineers to artists, and our artists are crap and upper management believes everybody wants to see photo-realistic anyhow, so even very talented and creative artists, they are pushed aside. Welcome to corporate America.

[@mikakorhonen5715]

@@fuzzywzhe Everyone knows this is bs. Next step is real time simulations and for that we need thousand times more power.

[@wow22815]

@@fuzzywzhedamn that was smart dude

[@fuzzywzhe]

@@wow22815 Well... We are trying to democratize everything just the same. It's kind of sad and still uplifting. You have no idea what power we've provided everybody, but evil people do. These are just tools, we're going to keep producing them, we'll give you more power and more information, if you don't make use of them... I was a complete atheist 30 years ago, and I still mostly am, but there really is a war between good and evil in my experience. I won't be evil, even if the good side is destined to lose. We have to give you more power, it's question of what you do with it. I will fight to the death on one side, and not evil. We provide tools to both.

[@wow22815]

@@fuzzywzhe I am atheist myself and I’ll be saying the same thing !??? Damn dude i like you ، and wish you the best , i I can tell you are a cool dude

[@Kilometrico88]

I'm so grateful that I grew up in the 90s and 2000s where there was actual innovation and the game came complete on a disc or cartridge and didn't require a legal agreement and an internet connection to play.

[@paddymalky1979]

And I'm still using my PS1 and PS2 from the late 90s early 2000s and enjoying every minute of it

[@MusicFromAnotherTime]

Necessity is the mother of all invention. Most modern games keep taking the approach of unlimited everything when in reality restrictions can end up creating some of the most beautiful art.

[@Roxor128]

If necessity is the mother of invention, laziness is the father. Just think how many things have been invented to make people's jobs easier. Assemblers and compilers, libraries and APIs, all invented to save programmers work.

[@Alloveck]

@@Roxor128 For that matter, how many things have each and every one of us done just as an investment in making a repetitive or otherwise pending task easier for our future selves? People really don't give laziness enough credit. A stitch in time? Meh, a stitch now or the same stitch later, no difference. A stitch in time saves nine, you say? Now I am all over that stitch! Few things motivate me like work now meaning the negation of even more work later. Though I prefer to consider it as valuing efficiency rather than seeking laziness.

[@stackflow343]

The restrictions incentivized pushing envelopes and being innovative, something a lot of games lack now. Most modern titles just bloat their assets and focus on shinier gfx cuz it's the safe thing to do.

[@Johnnybomb1]

Nah, developers back then were just more talented and creative. Boomer and older Gen X game devs were simply more talented and driven than the Millennials that replaced them on triple A game publishers.

[@FBI_Agent_69420]

@@Johnnybomb1 true bro i'm video games now wear graphics dont really give a fuk but back then the games was 👌

[@MrMario2011]

Glad to see Fear Effect got a shout on here! Definitely one of my favorite uses of what they did with backgrounds on the PS1. That alone took up much of the storage on it since it was a 4 disc game yet at the same time is quite short.

[@BOMBON187]

The beauty was that there was no such things as "updates/patches" to fix a mistake. You either made a shitty game or you didn't.

[@sor3999]

The bugs were there then and they were permanent.

[@bigboysdotcom745]

Making a modern AAA game without patches is literally impossible. The scope is too large, on top of the insane diversity of hardware and OS versions you have to account for lmao. Comment reeks of not understanding the production side of game development.

[@antuanperez426]

@@bigboysdotcom745🤡🤣

[@basseman4239]

@@bigboysdotcom745 but pc have always had patches, well at least from about the time internet became somewhat common.

[@Darmani2MB]

The games back then had revisions. It wasn't as common as it it nowadays to see a patched cartridge or disc, but there are quite a few cases of games with a 1.1 or even 1.2 version. If the bug wasn't game breaking, the updated version would arrive at the stores and slowly replace to older ones

[@torshec8634]

"Doing more with less" is a lost art now.

[@IdiotRace]

I feel like the switch fills that niche nowadays somewhat. As nintendo rely on solid artstyle rather than graphical horsepower. But then people still complain about framerates and jaggies. I'm still impressed what people are able to get out of a SOC that was released in 2015 and is still downclocked from it's orignal TV streaming box origins. I've put more hours into my switch than I have my stupid expensive gaming pc, both are hooked up to the same TV. I still hate nintendo as a company though.

[@Ozzianman]

Eh, not really? Nintendo 64 Modding shows just how underutilized that hardware is. One of the coolest projects for it was the Portal demake. It was pretty much a 1:1 remake with functional portals and physics engine. There are a lot of retro inspired indie games that get close to how PS1, Saturn and N64 looked like. You won't find this in AAA.

[@Broken_Yugo]

​@@Ozzianman That "You won't find this in AAA." is the problem.

[@Ozzianman]

@@Broken_Yugo I don't really think of it as a problem as I mostly buy from Indies nowadays. AAA will never be the same due to how much money there is in it now. Art never meshes well with a profit first mindset. I don't even have a lack of games to play either, got a massive backlog of indie games.

[@xenorac]

Thats why I loved the old days of the Demo Scene

[@chronossage]

You have to remember the other side here when it comes to limitations forcing creativity. Not only does working within hardware limits force creativity where it isn't needed now but it also forces middle management to accept creativity is needed. Everyone was looking for the new edge to sell a game. With modern consoles you can do just about anything from a creative standpoint now. Just look at indie games but AAA games always have the same push for "better" graphics and more microtransactions now.

[@litjellyfish]

Yes exactly. Sure there was games that sold due to great gameplay etc. but let’s not forget how many games that got publishing contracts and media exposure just due to “bragging” on a special fx or how much polygons then could push. So today with the more standard game engines as unreal etc at least it’s less down to tech and more to visuals and gameplay. Where sadly visuals / game scope / asset scope often is what sells a game as much as it being a fun game to play

[@ling8956]

​@@litjellyfishgames are played for longer periods of time today than the 90s and 2000s. Infact, during that time mostly just nerds played games

[@ling8956]

​@@litjellyfishSo Sega making a Sega CD and 32x and Game Gear with unplayable games was the highlight of the 90s.

[@litjellyfish]

@@ling8956 sorry but you are a bit misinformed about who played games back then. It was less people that played games yes. And due to it was a bit less mainstream. I can assure you it was not just a nerd thing but most all played games. (Like depending on how you define “nerd” it’s probably more % of nerds playing today compared to back then it’s just that the gaming market is so vastly bigger today than then. About the playing time you are correct. At least regarding the amount of times people play per day (actually in many games the games themselves was played for longer periods)

[@litjellyfish]

@@ling8956 haha not really. I think you forgot Dreamcast, N64 and PlayStation 2 ;) games like Zelda ocarina of time. Shen Mue and MGS series

[@777JonT]

From time to time, you come across a video on KZbin that you just know is going to be comfort food in the future. A video you go back to, like rewatching Friends or The Office because there's just something about it. I can tell this is going to be that video for me. Incredible work, MVG. Thank you for this.

[@AthanImmortal]

YES! My favourite was Crash Bandicoot, they did SO much to make that work, hacking the PS1 even streaming in parts of the level just in time, and how they compressed the animations. I watched a series called War Stories (search How Crash Bandicoot Hacked The Original Playstation), where devs from that era talked about developing and getting around these limitations. Utterly fascinating, and yes, a lost art form in the era of throwing more memory and CPU power at everything.

[@ArneChristianRosenfeldt]

Now how exactly did this help the gameplay?

[@RyTrapp0]

'War Stories' is a must-watch - it's a series that the Ars Technica YT used to do

[@MrGamelover23]

A lot of people don't realize, but the ARS Technica War Stories interviews have extended cuts without editing that you can watch. It means there aren't any fancy graphics to look at, but you get way more information.

[@RyTrapp0]

@@MrGamelover23 Some of them do - the Lorne Lanning extended cut is awesome, that's an amazing dude!

[@Alorso_]

Those 5 PS1 crash games also aged pretty well, the art and graphical style really cleans up well

[@thecunninlynguist]

facts. the limitation forced devs to be creative, innovative, etc. Sure there were always lazy devs too back then, but there were also the ambitious ones who did magic with the limitations of the 8-16-32-64 bit generations.

[@mentalhell4846]

Batman return of the joker on NES was a pure magic.

[@kyles8524]

no way man, ever played Superman on the n64. those are devs ats its finest

[@Mrnotpib]

Blame Warner Bros for anything that went wrong with soup 64. The devs a titus had to comb through a huge archive of comics to prove that Jonathan Spooperman could, in fact, *go underwater*

[@Mrnotpib]

Yes, Warner Bros has always had this leadership problem.

[@gettoecoding1058]

The problem is that I don't think the game engine's being used nowadays are flexible and the developers using them have learnt how to use them only within their limitations. I doubt there are any game devs under the age of say 30 who would know how to even code their own rendering engine, yet alone modify someone else's... all hardware is managed for them...

[@captainfach]

Man you hit the nail right on the head for what I've always loved the N64 on the PS1 even to this day. That generation was so exploratory and inventive in all the different kinds of games we got, and it invented and reinvented so many genres and people weren't afraid to experiment what does new 3D Tech

[@danielbadger4985]

I love that Era growing up. Everything was so different but at the same time similar. Kinda wish that consoles nowadays were the same way.

[@petemiller2598]

That is why I like the Nintendo Switch. It still has unique quirks and takes talented developers to make impressive games on it. People keep talking about wanting the Switch 2 to be able to run games in 4k at 60 fps, but I just have no desire for that at all.

[@logandunlap9156]

@@petemiller2598 if you take the plunge and get a decent pc for yourself, i guarantee you'll be singing a different tune. higher frame rates and crisper resolutions will spoil you like that. and i agree with you, the switch is a neat little piece of hardware. still underutilized, not even first party games that make full use of everything that console is capable of. joycons have gyro, accelerometers, nfc support for amiibos, an infrared sensor capable of being used as a camera or to measure things like heart rate, all the crap that labo enabled you to do, flexible configurations, hd rumble, it's quite feature rich. and yet not much is done with like half of that shit

[@MINI_91]

PS1 and N64 are my two favorite consoles of all time. I don't care too much about modern games anymore thanks to the modern toxic business models. Currently playing through all the games I missed back then and I am having an absolute blast.

[@coolen]

Same, I've been spending all my time with 5th and 6th gen games and it's been a way better experience than games today

[@cikame]

Currently playing G-Police :P

[@Alorso_]

Doing the same and have been looking through the 7th gen era, even with the patches and dlc games have, the game quality really is night and day

[@kosmosyche]

To me the most interesting architecture in this regard was PS2. It could be simultaneously the weakest and the strongest of that gen, depending on how developers approached it and their knowledge and experience of it.

[@Alorso_]

@@kosmosyche Especially it's high bandwidth, which was really it's secret weapon

[@Don_Ramiro]

Another good use for the FMV capabilities of Ps1, was to make game cutscenes for a story mode, something that today is a standard for almost any game, but back then was a novelty. A good example of this are the Driver games (specially the 2nd one), also a good example of a huge and revolutionary 3D world, imposible to make it happen in N64

[@SuperDarthKelly]

Oh man I can't believe you didn't mention ps1's CD quality audio. That was such a huge deal back then

[@Weather_Nerd]

Saturn and others already has that but yes it was

[@mdjey2]

That was not the difference. Difference were how they approached playing music. Basically on PS1 you could play full songs from audio files. N64 was relying on previous experience were console had built in synthesiser with multiple tracks that could play sounds. Difference between earlier consoles like NES was that synthesiser could play samples instead of osc generating pulse waves and therefore you can store sample packs of any instrument and let console make song on the fly.

[@SuperDarthKelly]

@@mdjey2 lol nerd

[@4.0.4]

​@@mdjey2 N64 could play low bitrate audio files. The sound quality was the biggest difference.

[@dreamcastdude2398]

SegaCD had it a few years before, but yeah it was still pretty fresh tech for the time...

[@malo6748]

I was like 4 or 6 when I had to stay in hospital for few days and in a child room they had a small TV and a PS1, some kid was playing Spyro 1 the dark level in the first world and this was the first time I saw something like this. Later I would get a Ps1 and Spyro1. I still have that ps1, the ultra scratched game disc that somehow still works and even the memory card with my very first save. In fact all my early childhood saves are still on that small grey now turning yellowish memorycard. Good innocent times.

[@AriaLaurel]

The N64 was the first console I ever owned and I adore it. I have so many fond memories of the Dreamcast and Xbox. That said, I think the 360/PS3 era was also incredible. The hardware was capable of amazing things, but the industry hadn't fully coalesced around common trends and MTX hell. Not to mention it was also an era of fairly divergent hardware. I remember playing things like Mass Effect and Call of Duty 4 and thinking, "Wow, I can't wait to see what the future has in store for us!", but in 2024 I'm still waiting for experiences that best those in any meaningful way.

[@3DSage]

Truly a lost artform by these highly creative and optimized programmers. Really great video! :)

[@KyleReeseCel2029]

Surprisingly I agree with you 100%. The PS1, N64 and Saturn era was the best generation of gaming we will ever have. As well the last great generation was the PS2, Xbox original and Gamecube. The variety in gameplay, universes, and story all hit an all time peak in the 5th generation. The limitations of those consoles made it great. I miss the days we would first hear about a game then it would be out 6 months later. PS1 Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil 1-3, Fear Effect, Parasite Eve 1&2, Castlevania SOTN, Silent Hill, Einhander, R-Type Delta, Time Crisis, FF 7, Overblood N64 2 Zeldas, Indiana Jones, Star Wars SOTE, Winback, Sin & Punishment, Perfect Dark, 007 World Is Not Enough SAT 3 Panzer Dragoons, Deep Fear, Japan only quality ports like Real Bout Fatal Fury Special & Marvel vs Street Fighter PC Half Life, Star Wars Dark Force 2, Thief

[@miljororforsprakpartiet290]

I hate to agree with people in comments but I totally agree this was the best era. PCs had to wait some years for Half-Life and Diablo II though.

[@Skrenja]

I think the PS3 era was the last great era for games (especially for shooters.) There were some absolute bangers from 2004-2010. Hell, 2004 might have been the best year for videogames ever.

[@tomrees82]

Good video. I liked the N64s capability of using data from Gameboy games through the "Transfer Pak" to do extra stuff in N64 games, particularly being able to use your Pokemon in Pokemon Stadium. I hope you cover the peripherals that were available on the GameCube, PS2, Dreamcast, & X-Box, in your discussion about them.

[@davidaitken8503]

Limitations in storage space kept the production costs in check. With lower costs came more risk taking. The biggest problem with modern games is too many of them are absurdly expensive to make.

[@Jibe111111111]

This is the main point that nobody is talking about. Adding complexity and size to a game never made a game more fun to play

[@immortalfrieza]

So scale back on the complexity until it becomes easier to make more complex games with the same cost, instead of dialing up the complexity and thus cost as much as possible.

[@jaysherman2615]

Yes and no. What people forget is cartridge games from the SNES and Genesis days would cost upwards of $70, mostly from production cost. Same with N64. The CD revolution that basically began with the Sega CD is now you have 100X the space you did before and production of the disc itself was literally cents. The problem with modern games is team bloat. Take Call of Duty for example. The first game was made by 27 people. A new game in the series is made by 3,000 people and each of them needs to be paid. The problem here is that out of those 3,000 people, maybe 100 or 200 of them do anything useful. The rest is office bloat that could be fired today and the game would still reach deadline and probably be a better product without the other 2,800 people getting in the way.

[@TheJacklikesvideos]

@@jaysherman2615 you are fundamentally misunderstanding the meaning of the term production costs and mistaking it for manufacturing cost. this is what happens when strangers try to correct other strangers on the internet. everyone presumes differences in opinions are from other people being less moral, intelligent, or knowledgeable than themselves and not the other way around.

[@jaysherman2615]

@@TheJacklikesvideos Which is why I mentioned Call of Duty having 3,000 people working on it and you could fire 80 percent of those people and still have a good product. Games are absurdly expensive to make because of an overbloated staff that doesn't need to be there. It isn't a memory issue, it's a bad business issue.

[@dream431ca]

The PS1 is my favorite videogame console of all time, simply because I found the CD based game systems so fascinating. I believe to get around some of the seeking limitations of the CD on PS1, Naughty Dog pioneered virtual memory with Crash Bandicoot. I also just love the CD format itself. It's so crazy to me that data can be stored as pits and lands on a metal disk. Wild.

[@collinmiller4721]

Same with modern games that don’t have a lot of technical resources as well. Like I don’t know the history or development history of “Dredge,” but it’s a simple fishing game with a surprising amount of depth. Not a lot of extra stuff going on, but offers a uniquely designed experience where gameplay leads you to discovering new things. It’s an organic world where you learn through by just trying things. I miss the days when games couldn’t actually fall back on their graphics. Such a great video! 🙌

[@leandrormor]

Thanks for sharing this masterpiece. I love to read or see limitations on the NES era, too. They kind of used SWAP (the mappers) to overcome the lack of memory (RAM and ROM). Seeing from today's eyes might look simple, but I imagine how much of a thoughtful process it was. The budget for timing/cpu was something else. :) And on top of all this, it was a simpler era where we (SWE/Hardware folks) could follow and understand the whole flow end-to-end.

[@petemiller2598]

What amazes me even more is when I have learned about the programming for the Atari 2600. It was before my time, but the concept of "racing the beam" where programmers were having to worry about the exact timing of the electron gun on the CRT is absolutely nuts. Those games may look simple to modern eyes, but the engineering behind them was masterful.

[@RubyRose23328]

Even if Hardware limitations were reintroduced it wouldn't make a difference because in this day in age it's about maximizing profits and cutting costs.

[@mrlewz0r]

Or just remaking old games (poorly)

[@Matanumi]

which is where people mention Indies.... and that's great and all. But the industry in whole suffers for it

[@WannabeMarysue]

its always been that way, they didn't invent capitalist profit motives after u turned 15

[@alanlee67]

​@@WannabeMarysuelol yea. These kids keep crying on Twitter about capitalism and the patriachy.

[@Bob_Smith19]

Games as a service is the issue.

[@drfredcreedon7051]

I just love this video! Thanks for sharing. It’s part of why I don’t mod any of my original hardware, I want to experience the original experience limitations and all.

[@totalgaara]

You forgot the fact that there were NO UPDATES capability, since no storage, so games were much better finalized and tested than they are today

[@cheat117]

well, there were... but it would have to be a GLARING oversight by both manufacturing's QA. (Dev, and Platform) But we do see re-prints with upgraded versions.

[@breadone_]

...they really weren't. SO many games were broken out the gate back then too, and there was absolutely no way to fix them. You don't remember them, because they were bad.

[@alvallac2171]

*was NO (because "capability" is singular)

[@rattlehead999]

Today games aren't tested well because the graphics aren't ready until a few months before release, while the games are a lot bigger and usually not level based and this is caused by high graphical fidelity, which also balloons the budgets of AAA games to the Hundreds of Millions of dollars or in some rare cases even Billions. We should go back to 2004-2009 graphical fidelity, but with modern rendering technology(modern engines) and AAA budgets should be 5-25 million dollars.

[@FBI_Agent_69420]

But when there was a bug, it would be a huge problem. Like in Space Station Silicon Valley, they created a special final level that nobody ever got to see without cheats, because you needed to collect all the trophies to get it, but one particular trophy was glitched so you couldn't pick it up.

[@TheExFatal]

I think something a lot of lowpoly artists and even indie devs fundamentally don't understand about the fifth gen graphics is that texture warping, low resolution and low polygon count aren't an "aesthetic", they were constraints developers had to work under. You can't just put together an ugly lowpoly model, throw in a CRT filter and call it a day because "that's how ps1 games looked," no, it was about how much good graphics you could cram in within those constraints. The only fangame I can remember that understood this is Sonic Triple Trouble 16-Bit

[@sebastiankulche]

Yeah thats my problem with most indie retro style games, especially 3d ones. They try on purpose to make the games look ugly instead of making the games look like a cutting edge of that gen. The fifth gen at its absolute peak was capable of more impressive graphics than what the indie scene show at times.

[@pablocasas5906]

​@@sebastiankulche there's also a problem I have with some sprite-based indie titles, this have been said in various sites but sprite weren't meant to look that blocky or jagged, CRTs monitors hide many of the imperfections. And another thing I dislike about some modern sprites-based games are those who feature very limited animations, I know that drawing sprites is difficult, but games made in the late 90s for arcade boards like Street Fighter III and Mark of the Wolves show a clear evolution in artistry when you compare it with their predecessors like Street Fighter II and the original Fatal Fury

[@Souldestroy199]

I think devs understand perfectly well that it was due to hardware constraints but they like the look anyway and want to emulate it. It's as much of an aesthetic choice as a VHS filter. Deciding on how "cutting edge" a game that's a retro throwback is supposed to look is kind of nebulous.

[@KetsubanSolo]

​​@@pablocasas5906 yeah, as someone who studies how Sprites work, nothing triggers my flight or fight response more than when someone looks at anything made with pixels and goes "oh hey it's 8-bit!" Also yeah, a huge factor with Sprites is making sure you can read them on a crappy CRT, and lots of modern sprite artists make stuff that looks decent enough on modern displays but would look like sludge on a CRT.

[@SviatoslavDamaschin]

The cringiest thing is when they attempt to make an "8/16bit graphics" game and it just looks like "8/16bit graphics" game on a high res lcd (awful/incorrect look).

[@spacematter431]

I love this so much mate. i didn't know a few of these technical differences, I grew up with a PS1 and Dreamcast and I'm just finishing a masters in computer games tech and cos of it I know exactly everything you explained and it makes me so happy to understand the PS1 and N64 this well! The Fear Effect use of quads to render the FMV blew my mind! So simple and genius! You caught up my 14 year old self and he is flipping out! Looking forward to the other episodes especially Xbox and Dreamcast!

[@jesusflores-dc2mw]

The Nintendo64/Playstation era is an inflection point in videogames history, the jump to 3D environments meant a lot of trial and error for developers, and Mario 64 being the first one to achieve a good playable 3D experience. You hit the nail showing how developers overcame the technical limitations of the hardware. Thank you for the awesome video!

[@JGKingCrusher]

I was fortunate enough to have both systems, and I absolutely loved them both. It was such a generational jump in ability that we overlooked so many of the flaws. We just celebrated successes on both systems. It truly was an amazing time!

[@3vi1J]

Can't agree more. I love examples where devs used quirks of the hardware and clever programming to go beyond system limitations. That's probably why I appreciate Atari 2600 games (everything beyond combat needs thought) and C64 games with 9+ sprites and parallax backgrounds. Great video - thanks for sharing.

[@aussiepunkrocksV20]

Still fondly remember renting N64 consoles and games from Blockbuster during the late 90's. That era and the PS2/DC/GC/Xbox were my favourite...and Great for the PC too. Every year felt like a massive upgrade.

[@SlaughterDog]

I don’t think we’ve ever seen two competing machines that were so dramatically different! I’ve always been fascinated by how developers overcame the limitations of 16-bit consoles and earlier, so hadn’t even thought much about these consoles.

[@4.0.4]

Ah come on, N64 wasn't as different from PS1 compared to the massive difference between the Wii or Switch to the playstation or Xbox, both of which are now a locked down PC.

[@ling8956]

Simple. They released terrible games whether they could run on the system or not. SNES couldnt run Street Fighter Alpha but they released it anyway. Playstation not powerful enough for proper Marvel vs Capcom? Release it anyway

[@JakvsMetalheads999]

The 7th Generation was arguably pretty similar to this. The Xbox 360 was kind of the only “normal” baseline console of that generation from a hardware perspective. The Wii was, well, the Wii - while the PS3 actually had a lot of weird stuff going on under the hood with its cell processor. That made it really powerful if used correctly, but also a lot harder to develop for and it made it much more difficult to port games over from the 360, which means that even though it was a more powerful console, third party multiplatform games tended to look and run worse on PlayStation. The first party exclusives though like Uncharted, Last of Us, God of War and Killzone were all among the best looking games of that generation and leaps beyond anything the 360 could run. But yeah, that’s unfortunately a good example of why the hardware differences ended up being a negative thing for that generation. While the PS1 and N64 era had devs thinking outside the box to create a good or unique experience on both consoles - often we just ended up with games being good on 360, slightly worse on the PS3 (or sometimes a lot worse), and often not releasing at all on Wii because of the hardware limitations - and of course, you could be assured that if a multiplat game did come to the Wii, it would definitely be the worst way to play it by far. Sony and especially Nintendo really ended up carried that generation by their first party games. Not necessarily a bad thing though, as those first party Sony and Nintendo games were some of the best games of all time. *One thing I will say though is that, while the state of Wii ports of games was more frustrating as a kid that only owned a Wii for a time, going back as an adult years later is kind of an interesting experience. For me, the experience has changed from “this sucks” to “how the hell did they get this to work on the Wii?”. It’s actually kind of cool to see the design choices they made to get PS3/360 games to run on such underpowered hardware. It’s almost like seeing a PS2 port of games that would’ve never come out on a PS2.

[@jaykelley103]

​@@ling8956imagine seething this much about ppl preferring retro games lol. Your ps5 has no games other than movieslop

[@NuttachaiTipprasert]

This was the norm before the console's 6th (PS4) generation, though. All the consoles had different architecture and that's why multiplatform games were very rare. Most companies back then would just stick with only one platform for an entire generation.

[@HE360]

Thanks again for this great video! I was taken aback to the great days of video games that I too am glad to have been a part of.

[@RiposteBK]

Couldn't agree more, MVD, very glad to see you make a video on this. I make music for Banjo-Kazooie and Zelda romhacks, and the constraints really shape the end product in ways people don't expect. Being limited to midis, pushed down to 16 channels, low quality samples, limits on how many notes can play at once, pitch shift limits, straight-up bugs and errors and much more mean your songs need serious work nearly every time to just play ingame at all. My favourite example is the sound quality between Josh Mancell's pre-mix Crash Bandicoot music, then hearing the final version - the hardware limits are hard and fast, but your creativity in working around that is the only limit on things still sounding good. And damn does the Crash soundtrack still slap. Cheers for covering this stuff! 🍻

[@KyleRuggles]

I just gotta say, I really appreciate you and your channel, I rarely if ever comment but I always look forward to watching your video's, being a kid in the 80's and 90's, I really dig this. Thank you!

[@D.u.d.e.r]

13:38 completely agree! Great vid, thank u for making it and for showing how limitations and obstacles bring together amazing developer talents which r admired and celebrated till today.

[@felixklinge5571]

What awesome content. This video speaks from my soul. Sometimes I feel like modern games are developed using a cookie-cutter approach - when I return to my retro library I'm often reminded how unique these retro games are, be it because of technical limitation or other reasons. Keep up the good work!

[@crimson-foxtwitch2581]

modern gaming shifted because the improvements in technology allowed publishers to improve at their nickel-and-dime schemes. the rise of mobile gaming brought about the beginning of the end of big AAA console games being a trustworthy source of quality content. by 2024, the vast, vast majority of the AAA games industry has been utterly consumed by this capitalistic virus. so many of the best games that have come out so far this year have belonged to indie devs, and the ratio of indie PC exclusives to console games grows with each passing month. i’d say that the second half of the PS3/360 era was when things began to go downhill, and by the PS4 it was in full swing.

[@Aragorn7884]

'Fear Effect' did a fantastic job.

[@todesziege]

I never got far in that game, but I still think of its art direction.

[@DeadPhoenix86DP]

And the Remake apparently got cancelled.

[@KyleReeseCel2029]

I was very disappointed with the follow up sequel. The first game was one of the best ever made.

[@mermerac]

Ah Chrono Cross, my love. So good to see you from time to time.

[@excrono]

However, in context of use on this platform thinking about using any of its content invokes an anxiety response in content creators. Why you don't see as much of it here as you'd expect is because of Square-Enix, it's out of fear.

[@bobbywrtm]

Game publishers and studios are still creative and innovative, but instead channeling them on overcoming hardware limitation they channeling their creativity and innovation on nickel-and-diming the consumer LOL

[@mrlewz0r]

I think you'll find creativity has actually taken a heavy hit.

[@Alorso_]

It's the Indie and AA's that are picking up the slack these days, AAA these days just can't really do that unfortunately, but the flip side is that graphics nowadays are good enough to where low budget games look perfectly fine

[@Beefnhammer]

@@mrlewz0r Yes. Modern AAA games are pretty boring and predictable these days. They've got it down to a science. There's way too much of an emphasis on scale and making it as cinematic as possible, while sacrificing gameplay depth. There are exceptions of course, but overall that's been the trend of the past decade or so.

[@SWOTHDRA]

​@@Beefnhammername examples

[@Beefnhammer]

@@SWOTHDRA Both Last of Us games, the past few Resident Evil's, God of War on PS4 and Ragnarok, FF16 and FF7 Rebirth, to name a few. I wouldn't necessarily call any of these games bad but they're leaning into the whole "interactive movie" aspect that I'm not a big fan of. I prefer games like Skyrim, Elden Ring, and Zelda that minimize cut-scenes, and very rarely take control away from the player.

[@AfterBurnerTeirusu]

Mortal Kombat 4's N64 port uses the original arcade version's cutscenes. They replaced them with FMVs for the CD versions.

[@ConkerTS]

Personally, I much prefer cutscenes to be made using the game's engine, rather than having pre-recorded FMVs, even if the FMVs are almost always of better quality than the in-game engine's graphics. To me, the shift from the game engine's graphics to an FMV cutscene, and therefore the sudden change in graphics quality (even if it's a temporary improvement, until the cutscene ends and the game's engine then takes over) just takes me out of the game and reminds me it's not real. Incidentally, the mostly excellent Unreal Championship 2, for the original XBox, was the first game I remember seeing where the pre-rendered FMVs were actually a lower quality than the in-game graphics (the latter were excellent). That always seemed strange.

[@AfterBurnerTeirusu]

@@ConkerTS I 100% agree

[@giovanni4304]

More like "mom I want to play MK4 on this arcade" Mom: "but we have MK4 at home!" MK4 at home: .....So glad I opted for a PS1 as a kid.

[@Nero_Jero]

Great video. I think the same could also be said with the music in video games. NES era games had crazy complex tracks that pushed the limitations of the hardware to extremes. Just look at anything the Follin brothers did. Or hell, any of the Konami games. Video games from the 80s - 00s had super memorable songs. It seems like video games have scores now, rather than soundtracks.

[@mrwasi99]

Love this episode! It's like revealing the kayfabe of the video game world. Thanks for sharing!

[@MyAmazingUsername]

The biggest loss in modern games wasn't even the graohics. It's the sound. Back in the day, they had maybe 2-8 mono audio channels and a basic synth. This forced developers ro come up with the most amazing, catchy soundtracks and iconic tunes. What do they do today? Slap a generic, instantly forgettable "epic orchestra and choir" on every single game. 😅

[@halinaqi2194]

Its preference. Yes older hardware put more restrictions, and while many iconic tracks did come out during that time, it doesn't mean that newer game sound tracks aren't great either. Legend of Zelda, halo, uncharted, Touhou, Kirby, yes a lot of these games go a while back, but even the recent releases still have great tracks. But it comes down to preference. I prefer pokemon emeralds ost to RBY or gen 2, and I do like gen 4 and 5s music more than the later games, but it wasn't because of the hardware limitations the tracks were composed for. I can appreciate the effort put in for that, but just because I found those tracks catchy.

[@Mr_pai_pai]

​@@halinaqi2194Touhou doesn't count it's literally a one man team 🤣

[@Skrenja]

I swear, with few exceptions most modern games have WORSE sound design/mixing than what we used to have in the PS2-PS3 days.

[@CleverGirlAAH]

And stock sound effects... 🥱

[@Oceanwaves-d8l]

I like both! Orchestra is epic!

[@stavrokaps]

You hit the nail on the head, newer games just don´t do it for me like the ones from the late 90s early 00s. I haven´t really been able to put my finger on the reasons until this video, nice to know Im not the only one thinking about this, thank you!

[@novelezra]

One thing that made the PS1 so amazing that is very underreported is PSY-Q (the development kit developed by Psygnosis). There's a fascinating interview with the developer of GwenWar on the Sega Saturn where he basically says that the reason so many developers flocked to the PS1 was because the SDK was so easy to use - as oppose to Nintendo's and Segas which had no documentation (or most of it was in Japanese). This was normal at the time, but Sony offering an entire manual with their SDK changed the industry and it's reason the PS1 dominated and why buying Psygnosis was so important to Sony

[@crimson-foxtwitch2581]

The PSX was also by far the easiest of the three consoles to program for. It had one GPU, one CPU, and one audio chip, those were your main processors. The Saturn had SIX chips dedicated to those tasks, one of which had to be written solely in assembly code for, and the N64 was bottlenecked by dogshit memory bandwidth and low game storage capacity. Many N64 games were written in C, but there were some PSX games later in its life that used plenty of MIPS assembly because they had that much room to push the hardware.

[@dannyboots]

This is the same reason behind Mario Maker only giving you a few selection of tools/objects to create a level upon first starting the game. It forces you to be creative with what you have

[@zombee38]

And also with Mario paint as well 😂

[@hpickettz34]

No matter what it's just a run and jump platformer, nothing creative about that.

[@TheJacklikesvideos]

no, that's entirely about onboarding and not overwhelming new players.

[@basseman4239]

@@hpickettz34 if you actually seen what people actually have done with those tools, but it´s more creative then most copy-paste games like cod or similar..

[@dragonangel194]

Great video. I had an N64 at launch, then my uncle gifted me his PS1 a couple of years later. I had a much better overall experience with the PS1, but the N64 did give great highlight moments with friends and nintendos first party games. Another architecture note: the N64 did not have a dedicated sound chip. That's why the PS1 usually had better music in its games, in addition to the CD format of course.

[@rasmusolesen5307]

Voice acknowledgements was implemented in Dune 2 and Warcraft to hide the unit activation delay caused by path calculation. It's such a characteristic part of game design today, but only happened because of system limitations.

[@yashy2x]

Limitations = creativity

[@davidm4677]

Not true you need to be creative to work with limited hardware but has nothing to do with actual creativity

[@altheapolyam]

You bring a very fair point. Now is a matter of writing and design, but before it was a hardware matter, and games were definitely shaped by it in more than one meaningful way. It made more sense to have a console war and be amazed by how other console games looked like. Now its a matter of "it has 56382017254748291 triangles or 75839172648401917 triangles"

[@manicfoot]

Interesting video. It's also fascinating to see how quickly video games evolved in the 1990s. It's very hard to believe that there's only 5 years between the release dates of Mario World and Mario 64. There's more time (7 years) between the two Last of Us games, yet there isn't a huge difference between the two. Mario 64 brought a 2D series seamlessly into 3D. The Last of Us Part II is pretty similar to the first one, but with better visuals and a few incremental design improvements.

[@miguelhxrnandez]

Id agree with you until you said tlou pt 2 is the same as pt 1 but with better visuals and design improvements. when in practice, this is just blatant false information and a terrible analogy because of it. The gameplay alone of pt 2 is so different and unique from pt1 that it can be its own separate game. And the visuals being understated to just better is just doing a disservice to the game. I hate TLO2 yet I still am amazed at how true to life the game looks and how damn amazing the combat is. The combat in part 1 is stupud simple and was basically a handholding movie.

[@manicfoot]

​@@miguelhxrnandez Ok, so what would you say makes Part II's gameplay unique in terms of mechanics? Genuinely curious. Sorry if my comment came across as dismissive of the TLOU. I like both TLOU and Part II. Naughty Dog are one of the best devs around when it comes to polish and attention to detail in their games (the animations in part II in particular are phenomenal). I enjoyed Part II a lot, but in terms of gameplay I only saw ND adding a few things to the established formula while embellishing other things that were already there (e.g. crafting).

[@tulip811]

SNES Era should have last longer 😢

[@sebastiankulche]

At first glance looking at a youtube video it may seem like the case, but after playing the game for some hours you would realize that TLOU2 is literally the definition of a next gen title, the evolution of PS4 capabilities versus PS3. You would never fit the amount of geometry on screen at once, the open areas, the real time cutscenes (which in PS3 i remind you they were prerender and look less detailed), insane amount of subtle details, complex AI, complex lightning, shaders, physics, 1080p resolution, etc on a PS3, is just impossible. TLOU1 is how we seen TLOU2 back in the day, lol.

[@phillystevesteak6982]

​@@miguelhxrnandezThe point is the the technological and functional jump is nowhere NEAR as big in TLOU games than the transition from the 16-bit era to low poly - even in less time. It takes more time, energy, and resources to make a smaller evolution today.

[@hersnab]

Yeah I was team Saturn and owned all these consoles and enjoyed them accordingly. Totally agree when you say we saw some of the best gaming during that era. It was very exciting and then the Xbox modding scene turned up! Happy days, thank you for your videos. I really enjoy and appreciate your insight into what was a large part of my life.

[@XVa-uj8m]

I think Saturn and before that the PC Engine really amazed more than anything in overcoming limitations. There is little on the SNES and Genesis for 3D I think that matches Sappire.

[@petemiller2598]

I never had a Saturn at the time in the 90s, but I just bought one with a Fenrir Duo card, and OMG I am having a blast. There has never been a better time to have a Sega Saturn, as there has been an explosion of fan translation for japanese exclusives, of which there are many!

[@a.mirandahsr]

The funny thing about MK4 is that the arcade itself also had the opening thing (and endings) like the N64 version, unintentionally making it look a bit more accurate in presentation

[@Simte]

Great video MVG, this is certainly true for films as well, limitations marked artistic visions and to some extend required more creativity to present an idea.

[@mrlewz0r]

Consoles started their decline around the PS3 era. The whole industry, really.

[@yasunakaikumi]

The reason is basically F2P and P2W games that smartphone game era leaked to console/PC gaming. In reality game devs really has no hardware limitation now a days in making fun games.

[@KevinFought]

Ps3/Xbox 360/Wii era was arguably the last good console generation. After that you could honestly get a better experience on PC

[@sunnohh]

@@KevinFoughtconsoles were especially bad that era, first truly awful generation of gaming

[@KevinFought]

@@sunnohh lol what? It had some of the best games that generation with console exclusives

[@EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH]

@@KevinFought I think he's talking about how the consoles where way more prone to fail in this gen. look all the consoles with YLoD and RRoD

[@Kamau1865]

Great insight and analysis, thanks. I grew up in the late N64/PS1 era and spent plenty of time on both consoles. But my social group favoured the N64 for the irresistible multilayer experiences (Goldeneye, Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing) and first party Nintendo titles. Unlike consoles and gaming today there was a real choice in selecting which console to purchase. They were fundamentally different experiences; from the games, to the distinctivness of controller to the culture and fandom surrounding Sony & Nintendo. The limitations of that era not only forced developers to find technical solutions to technical problems, but artistic solutions too. While that era couldn't boast about having great graphical fidelity, or detailed, high-resolution textures or photo realism etc. We can say that developers in the mid-90s worked within those technical constraints but still managed to produce works of perhaps unsurpassed accomplishment in terms of art and design.

[@KatRollo]

PS1 will always have a special place for me, because it is where I loved video games. Sure, I started with Mario/Contra, but the PS1 is where I "understood" video games. Tekken 3 Demolition Racer Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare Street Sk8er 2 Ehrgeiz (Forsaken Dungeon) NASCAR 2000 Metal Slug/X Ah, good times.

[@xavijgg]

Limitations that existed in terms of processing power, storage, ways to patch game breaking bugs, etc, pushed devs to be more creative and careful with their work. Nowadays they don't optimize properly, and everything feels like a copy of another game. No wonder we're reaching a breaking point like the bubble that caused the videogame market crash in 1983. Some things are eerily similar.

[@Matanumi]

Yet the industry has become too big to fail now

[@xavijgg]

@@Matanumi I didn't say it will fail. It didn't fail in 1983 either. But many companies shut down and many people in the industry lost their jobs. It took a few years and some innovation to bring the industry back and push it further. Like a great reset.

[@mro9466]

​@@Matanumi EA Dice will fail*

[@crimson-foxtwitch2581]

@@xavijggwhat I think will happen isn’t a total industry collapse but a collapse of the AAA sector, especially in the West. the game I believe will cause the tipping point is GTA VI.

[@ExtremeWreck]

@@crimson-foxtwitch2581 I think that'll just be another case of Japan just being above everyone else. The US may get out of there fine & so would likely most of Europe, but countries whose economies are REALLY in trouble... yeah those industries may have some serious danger up ahead.

[@SansSouci90]

Excellent video - very interesting and comprehensive yet easily understandable and accessible to any fans of videogame history

[@McSluntTheSecond]

I've felt for years now that developers have lost their creativity and edge because they no longer need to work around the strict hardware limitations that they used to. The massively creative solutions they used to need to overcome those problems, would breed creativity and excellence in the games themselves. These days instead they can just throw power at the problems, and it has caused games to lose their uniqueness. Hell, you can notice this with just the music across console generations. I can't even remember any specific music tracks from basically any games made in the last 20 years, but I can immediately recall music from mega drive, SNES, and PS1 era games.

[@davidm4677]

just developers back than cared about the product they made and games needed to be good in order to sell people had more standards now people will buy anything.Where now is about the profits and just sake of making any game also the woke ideologies pushed into the industry.Also the developers lack the creativity.The games where good from 1989-2006 and it have nothing to do with hardware limitations. Actually for that time period the hardware where breakthrough in technology so developers had new grounds to play with just look at the jump between16bit- 32bit -128bit.The same goes for the music and the movie industry. The generation from 2008-2024 Justin s creativity broken. (Although we still getting some good music ) just everything is so generic these days there is not heart and soul involved anymore.Not to mention micro transactions ,broken games and digital push just to make more profits.

[@Haseo8]

Honestly, the main problem is the executives. Truth is most devolopers still have to work with limitations, the limitations of deadlines and budget, stuff out of their control.

[@gamigem]

My absolute favorite pre-rendered backgrounds are on Final Fantasy X on the PS2. Truly a leap in art direction from the Psx era of background art

[@jsr734]

Final Fantasy X uses almost no pre-rendered backgrounds, only some interiors but most are in 3D

[@gamigem]

@@jsr734 Correct

[@MachFiveFalcon]

@@jsr734 Baten Kaitos for GCN has great-looking pre-rendered backgrounds in that generation of games.

[@jsr734]

@@MachFiveFalcon Yes, i have heard of it. Also Onimusha 2 has some beautiful pre rendered animated backgrounds.

[@Pedr4m]

Sure, having to develop for different architectures with different limitations forced creativity, but that was more likely back when games weren't as massive or expensive as they are now. The similarity of architectures lets developers easily port from one system to another, and leads to more multi-platform games being possible with restricted timelines. If they had to rewrite most of a game for a different system, many developers probably couldn't justify the time sink and we'd probably get a lot more exclusive (or delayed) games. Anyway, great video. It's neat to see what happened behind the scenes back in the day.

[@Alorso_]

I feel like it's for this very reason that Nintendo still has an understanding of how to work with lower specs, probably why imo the switch first party library feels the most robust and interesting out of the current gaming era

[@Dad_Shoes]

It actually makes me think that despite whatever their next system will be, even if it's less powerful than PS5 and Xbox Series X, developers and publishers might see the limited hardware as more appealing due to them not needing to spend nearly as much time or money on development. That's probably not going to happen, but it's something I've been thinking about for a while.

[@Alorso_]

@@Dad_Shoes That's a key reason why Nintendo keeps their hardware lower spec is to reduce costs overall it's honestly smart, it works great for Indies and AA which usually aren't that demanding, it also has the added effect of showing which developers really took the time to optimize and which ones didn't

[@crimson-foxtwitch2581]

⁠@@Dad_Shoesthe games industry has shifted in such a manner that I don’t believe the gap between Nintendo’s next console and the PS5/XSX will be as large as Switch to PS4: there’s already been leaks showcasing a next-gen NVIDIA SoC with comparable performance to the Series S. also, most of the games that are actually attempting to utilize the PS5 and XSX’s power are so poorly optimized that they struggle to run at stable framerates, even with extremely low internal resolutions compared to the displays they’re targeting. game engine scalability has simply become too important to engine design for publishers to ignore potential opportunities. so, no, I don’t think the next Nintendo console will have such a massive power gap between hardware like it is now.

[@ExtremeWreck]

Sadly the Wii had a whole slew of low grade shovelware that came out of the Wii being cheaper to make games for.

[@mrlewz0r]

Zoomies will never ever experience that glorious jump from 8-bit to 16-bit 2D and then 32-bit 3D within 3 generations.

[@graemevaughey7432]

And practically within one decade too (!) Think about it: at the beginning of the '90s, the dominant platform was still the NES, with the Sega Genesis having only just been released in August of '89 (and 18 months before the first Sonic game which would make the system mainstream); while at the end of the '90s we have the release of the Sega Dreamcast and are a few months away from the launch of the PS2! That is absolutely insane technological progress. Gaming moved so incredibly rapidly in the '90s that it almost felt like something revolutionary was happening every other month. There was so many incredible games coming out on so many different platforms that it was easy to see why so many games (which would be standouts today) simply fell through the gaps (and later become cult classics/hidden gems).

[@winlover37]

I actually did! Born in 97, I grew up poor and thus with hand-me-down systems. Went from NES to Genesis, PlayStation. I feel really really lucky in a way when I look back.

[@Beefnhammer]

True, but retro gaming is still a popular thing with younger people. It shows the staying power games of that era have.

[@gettingbett]

Nowadays, wo do not jump from Super Mario world to Mario Sunshine in a decade. We play GTA 5 on PS3, PS4 and PS5. Sometimes Skyrim, too.

[@johnsmithy6354]

Playing Mario 64 for when it was new was breathtaking. It is still a timeless game because they somehow nailed the controls on their first 3D game. Miyamoto really is a genius.

[@fancypotato1873]

I can't wait to see you cover the GameCube Xbox and PS2 Era! Great video!

[@TheUnfulfilledOne]

The old video games from The 90s and The early 2000s looked more fantastic,colourful and almost miraculous in a way that modern games simply can never be.The old games felt like You were playing in a completely different World than The Real World.Modern video games look just like Real Life.The Ultimate point of a video game is to make it so fantastic that it is completely different from Real Life!

[@SergeantExtreme]

If I remember correctly, one of the ways the developers of Crash Bandicoot got around the RAM limitation was by using the CD itself as a form of RAM. If you ever 100%'ed Crash Bandicoot, then the CD drive would have spun approximately twice its rated life cycle.

[@sebastiankulche]

I think they also "trick" the CD by adding a fake big file to push the game data to the outside of the CD, which is faster.

[@artificercreator]

Now days the "hardware limitations that push creative results" are on the budget, skill and development philosophy of game developers. On the Indie level there amazing examples of creativity. Like Gris, Bastion, Oneshot and more into AA realm games like Sanctum 2 and The Room Series. The "old console architecture paths for devs" are represented today in the Game Engines, in my opinion. I like the professionalism style of your video, is very cool.

[@Vinicius_Berger]

The 5th generation was the best generation for more reasons that I can list here.

[@Mr.Atari2600]

I feel like the PS3/XB360 was the last era where console hardware was different yet interesting. The Xbox 360 being the 1st system to use a Tri-Core Processor with a GPU that uses Unified Shaders. The Playstation 3 with the Infamous Cell Processor that was notorious for being difficult but powerful when used by the right hands.

[@petemiller2598]

I agree with that. Sadly, technological advancement inevitably yields homogeneity. Look at Android vs iPhone and Windows vs Mac these days. Besides fanboys, nobody would seriously argue that these platforms are appreciably different as far as capabilities anymore. It's more of a preference over what ecosystem you want to be in. Same with Xbox vs PlayStation in 2024. The Switch is still a little different, which is why I love it.

[@SCHMALLZZZ]

Well, my Samsung sucks compared to my Motorola phone. If the first letter is wrong but the rest of he word is correct, my Samsung has no idea what to do it's pathetic. If I accidently spell Oathetic instead of pathetic, the auto correct still has no idea what I am trying to type.

[@jonpatchmodular]

This is a beautiful video in honour of the hard work that many developers put in to make this medium what it is today. The PS1 and N64 are great examples to illustrate this discussion, but even then these systems had convenient advantages over previous systems. They ran precompiled, higher-level object-based programming in C, and their advanced texture manipulation and sound capabilities were almost too comfy. A limitation that didn't stop - rather, it encouraged - the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis from employing some funky hacks with their down-to-the-metal ASM code, memory juggling, cartridge augmentations and screen interrupt racing (and the very very lovely seven glorious channels of SPC goodness or the iconic grit of FM synthesis). And those in turn were supercomputers when compared to the programmable pong ear-destroyer that is an Atari 2600.

[@themcadamsminute8494]

I can’t agree with this video. I think nostalgia is running high on this one. As much as the moment of playing Goldeneye or metal Gear Solid were epic at their times, the newest generation of gaming is what it should be and a beyond more entertaining experience. We also have to remember that this video focuses on the best games of that time. The average games of that time are a chore or even unplayable today.

[@josephbarkley3301]

I agree with you

[@IMDABROWN]

Wow never understood why N64 textures looked “soft”. Now I need to go relive some of those old games

[@mymusic3354]

This is a very good video breaking down these systems and the graphics capabilities....A very informative and interesting amount of information 👍

[@MatrixEvolution17]

I feel like the PS1 Crash Bandicoot games have aged so well visually due to their strong art direction, meanwhile the remakes are already starting to show their age

[@saricubra2867]

Meanwhile for Spyro it's kinda the opposite, with the exception of Spyro 3, the og Spyro 1 and 2's art direction is ruined by the dated graphics a lot. Reignited Trilogy is just beautiful, imagine it with path traced lighting or ray tracing. They kinda ruined Spyro 3's music on the remakes, the OG is lightyears better. You can't beat the The Police's drummer.

[@AndyMetalHeadBR]

Nowdays many companies are lazy to push the limitations and specially speaking about optimizations and framerate.

[@petemiller2598]

While I don't play first person shooters, I always see the memes about the ridiculous file sizes of the latest Call of Duty installments. Something approaching 250 GB iirc. Talk about unoptimized...

[@grigorirasputin996]

It was so exciting to experience the leap in graphic capabilities every new console generation. Going from snes, to ps1 and n64, then to ps2 blew my little mind, it was so awesome.

[@dr.charlesedwardflorendobr3952]

You mentioned Sega and Sega Saturn in the start and ending parts of this video. Pls include Sega Saturn in the comparison too

[@tgheretford]

The Saturn would need its own video on the basis of its multi-processor architecture and its use of quadrilaterals as opposed to polygons that is so far away from the PS1 and N64. Plus it's likely the two main US systems were compared as that would be the experience of the vast majority of people who played video games at that time. We only have to look at the homebrew development for the Saturn to see what it was capable of.

[@stephandolby]

@@tgheretford By that logic though, there's really no point in mentioning the Dreamcast outside of a footnote as the PlayStation 2 outsold it by a much higher margin than the original PlayStation did to the Saturn. I do hope that doesn't end up to be the case.

[@cal2127]

majority of modern devs are playing around in map editors for the same 5 game engines.

[@RubyRose23328]

Yes development has been made easier for people. That's a good thing.

[@mrlewz0r]

@@RubyRose23328 Clearly, based on the quality of things coming out in general, it really isn't.

[@RubyRose23328]

@@mrlewz0r The engine isn't what makes the game good lol.

[@mrlewz0r]

@@RubyRose23328 It allows less talented people in to the market, which dilutes the quality.

[@yoshi314]

yes, because it's unfeasible to develop an engine from scratch. except for small scale games. PC is a very complex beast nowadays. you have to target an architecture with myriad hardware and driver options, dozens of resolutions and aspect ratios and somehow make it work. oftentimes it's just easier to use an engine someone else developed.

[@ecco222]

I view each of the video game consoles from the 80s and 90s as different art mediums that have their own unique qualities and limitations that give games a special feel. And it's always fascinating to study how people used these mediums in different ways to create their games. By the mid 2000s with the HD era, all of the consoles became digital color photography. Which is nice but I also like art created with the limitations of oil paint on canvas or pencil on paper.

[@natese8406]

As a kid during the console wars, no PS1 fanboy I knew ever cited the blurry N64 graphics as a dig against it. That's something we notice now, but back then nobody who mattered (kids playing the consoles) seemed to notice or care.

[@Brahvim]

People were peaceful? Yay!

[@petemiller2598]

Yeah, same. Remembering back when I was a kid then, all the debates were simply over the games themselves, not even about these limitations. "Fanboy" debates were about Ocarina of Time vs FF7, not about the size of the texture cache and presence of a z buffer lol.

[@paolozago6123]

I remember it being a common criticism on specialized magazines, but I was already out of console war age at the time :D

[@spursdynasty7378]

Simpler times no doubt ! But it was all about the fantastic game’s released at the time , that’s all that mattered at the end of the day. Way too many fanboys and crybabies gamers today 😂