Best Technical Achievement games ever

[gizmo1990]

No I think he has a point. The monkey islands games were the first (or best) example of proper humour in a game, which was, and still is difficult to pull off successfully. It may have more to do with scriptwriting then development but its still a part of the game making process.

Well I'm sorry but I don't agree with you. I think when most people checked out this thread they took it to mean exactly what it says... best TECHNICAL achievement. From what your saying you might as conclude, to hell with speech, any sentence can mean anything!

If the question was 'name your funniest game' then I'd fully accept Monkey Island as an example.

[MD]

Yeah, Monkey Island 2 isn't really an example of pushing the machine to the limits or a technical masterpiece as it still uses code that was many years old... Maybe a game you fondly remember but it isn't a Shadow of The Beast (which wasn't the greatest of games in the first place and made your Amiga disc drive sound like it was being fed yougot but was a technical masterpiece and was stunning in it's day), Virtua Racing (best example of 3D gaming on any 16bit machine (Star Fox included... Whack it on a Nomad and it still looks better then any GBA game...), Shenmue (Technically wonderfully impressive), Doom (Back in the early 90s, if you had a expensive 386/486 PC you would be playing this and looking at other games thinking they were programmed in uncompiled GW-BASIC), etc....

[buster_broon]

personally for me its 1 game which looks beautiful

alot of the guys who know me around the neo scene know i hate Garou with a passion, i still feel let down by it and still believe it was a sell out by snk to try and grab some mainstream gamers - whcih lets be honest as a company you need more than the 'hardcore' to keep you afloat

the game itself is easy compared with others but it looks beautiful and even after its release 5 years ago i dont believe any game has looked as good or even come close

so my choice is Garou on the neo geo

not a very technical fighter but how did all the programmers at SNK manage to create such a beautiful game on very very old architecture

they must have hired in programmers for this game and then shot them on completion because even the games that weight in with more 'MEGGAGE dont look near as beautiful

[AndyB]

Can anyone remember the story that came in the instruction manual for that game? After reading that, and then starting to play the game, it felt incredibly atmospheric. Watching the sun set as you walked left for miles to get to that really scary cave...

I have this somewhere - do you want me to type it up for you?


AndyB

[Tobal]

Ridger Racer - PSX - unbelievable for the for the time, graphics, sound, music, and luckly had the gameplay to go with it.

Gran Turismo 1 - PSX - the graphics, the controls, realism compared to everything at the time and my god... the replay watching my friends and I vs A.I could always bring a smile to my face

Tobal no.1 - PSX - 1st proper 3D fighting game, full 3d movement, just-frame attacks(a 1st for 3D fighter i think), and a grapple system's for throws. timeless graphics and animation.

Street Fighter Alpha/zero 1 - i had never seen such 2d fighters on a home system, with combo's coming out the bum and a nice anime style

Shenmue 1/2 - brilliant stuff, graphics, the music the almost prefect marriage of adventure/fighting with decent story, give me number 3

[MD]

Tobal no.1 - PSX - 1st proper 3D fighting game, full 3d movement, just-frame attacks(a 1st for 3D fighter i think), and a grapple system's for throws. timeless graphics and animation.

Thought the game looked nice and was an okay fighter but nothing more. Although mainly bought my copy as I really loved the Music.

[leadgrinder]

hmmm, well for me it would go like this,
1,radiant silvergun on saturn(a bit unfair as it was only converted from near identicle arcade hardware)
2,yoshi's island and dkc on snes(cant really decide between the two)
3,garou motw neo
4,street fighter zero 3 on the jap psone(what a conversion for such a ram light machine)
5,metal slug 3 neo(animation anyone?)
6,banjo tooie n64(unbelievably beautiful, with no ram cart compatibility and even with a bit of slowdown)
7,f355 challenge (dc naomi hard ware really pushed, and personally i think it pipped soul calibre in graphical terms)
8,metroid prime (BEAUTIFUL game world running in glorious 60fps yum!this would have been higher if not for the consoles yet to fulfill their potential)
9,halo(1st xbox release, nuff said)
10,zelda ocarina n64(hyrule field!!!!!!!!!!)

there are others i'm sure but they spring to mind first and foremost!

[Zero 1]

Mine would look something like

Gauntlet (arcade) How big was this game? First time I had ever had three other players sharing the same experience and it went on and on, and totally swept up my generation.

Summer games 2 (CBM 64) possibly still one of the greatest sports games to date, the animation on equestrian was mind numbing (back in the day), each event was delivered with such a plomb

Space Harrier (Arcade/full cab) First time I ever stood in front of a machine and said "How the '#$~ do they do that?" Awe inspiring, best graphics to date and the cabinet moves.

Powerstone (DC) proper 3D fighting, fast and classy, the sound, the graphics, the tight arenas. I though capcom had developed this from ambrosia

Quake 3 (DC/PC) How does anybody get anything to move so fast without being a personal friend of gravity, id's finest imo, the undisputed multiplayer champion, and the most perfectly designed weapons set of any game (despite what Romero may think).

PSO (DC) First time I had played anything online, totally awestruck by the technology, and De Rol. It still wows me even today

FF7 (PSX) amazing CG, easy interface and what a story.

Virtual On (Saturn/Pal) I just couldnt believe the Saturn could do justice to this, what a game, what a conversion.

Xeon (Atari ST) The visuals totally amazed me, so shiny and metallic, and that digitised head as you transformed your ship, incredible.

Fifa (3DO) First 3D outing for EA's much lambasted series. Excellent playability but it was the lighting that really stood out, the games all looked like champions league semis. Nice use of fmv too for any dev cos that wondered how to do it properly. just pips Madden 3DO

Return Fire (3DO) One of the finest games ever made, great single and two player modes. But it was the dolby surround Ride of the Valkaries that really set it off, incredible.

Thunderforce IV (MD) So much going on, I remeber thinking to myself, How do they write routines for this kind of game?

The list goes on and on

[dataDave]

I can't believe myself, and around 40 others have forgotten to mention F-Zero X. Slags.

Probably the greatest technical achievement of all time on any console. Just make sure it's the NTSC version for an even faster experience with a slightly longer range of view.

[MD]

Glad that people can count to five. That's one hand not two...

F-Zero X wasn't nothing too technically brilliant about it..

[df0notfound]

Glad that people can count to five. That's one hand not two...

F-Zero X wasn't nothing too technically brilliant about it..

Yeah cos wipeout was SOOOO fast wasn't it

[hankwangford]

No, I think X is a bit technically good. It was fast, processed a lot of crap on screen AND - *BIG AND* - didn't succumb to the usual blur-o-vision of previous and future N64 games.

[Super Monkey Balls]

personally for me its 1 game which looks beautiful

alot of the guys who know me around the neo scene know i hate Garou with a passion, i still feel let down by it and still believe it was a sell out by snk to try and grab some mainstream gamers - whcih lets be honest as a company you need more than the 'hardcore' to keep you afloat

the game itself is easy compared with others but it looks beautiful and even after its release 5 years ago i dont believe any game has looked as good or even come close

so my choice is Garou on the neo geo

not a very technical fighter but how did all the programmers at SNK manage to create such a beautiful game on very very old architecture

they must have hired in programmers for this game and then shot them on completion because even the games that weight in with more 'MEGGAGE dont look near as beautiful

I was going to go with this too
16 bit? WTF?

[Goemon]

Wave Race: I recently mentioned this is another thread, and the gorgeous water effects have yet to be equalled. Yeah, they might have looked more organic, but the whole feeling of real, moving water hasn't been beat yet.

This was also the first console racing game to use analogue steering.

[MD]

Erm no it wasn't, you about 20 odd years late with that one... Various consoles had a driving game that used an Analogue stick

Even if you want to talk modern consoles, the Megadrive had an Analogue joystick (XE-1AP) which Aryton Sennas Super Monaco GP and Fastest One both used (two Analogue sticks too, one for movement and one for accelerator / brake...)

Even the Saturn and Playstation had steering wheels (these are Analogue btw...) well before the N64 came out...