Which PS1 Games Pushed the Hardware the Most?

[CRTGAMER]

Controllers
Ah, Ape Escape and the duel shock. For external hardware, perhaps the vast controller library. Not only the standard controllers or various arcade sticks, but all the unique driving (NEGcon/Jogcon), Flight controllers (PS1 Duel Flightstick), train controllers, music controllers and the forgotten Nyco Trakball. That Trakball perfect for PS1 Tempest X3. The PS1 with so many controllers; the standard for wide range of game controller adapters for other systems. Buy the huge expensive arcade stick for the PS1 and pretty solid there will be an adapter available for most other consoles.

Video Card
As far as max video push on the software side, there are some games that supported the higher resolution 640x480 mode; Tekken 3 and Internal Section for example.

Two Player Split Screen is nice - Two Player Two Screens are better
Another forgotten mode are the Link Cable games requiring two PS1 consoles and two video displays. Assault Rigs, Command Conquer and other games; the PS1 has a small library of Link games. Local multiplayer adds to the fire over online play.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Link_Cable

[marurun]

Dead or Alive ++ ran smoothly in a higher res. Not as well as the Saturn version, but still impressive. Also, Omega Boost was a high-speed, visually impressive title.

[Sano]

Haven't seen anyone mention Legend of Dragoon. I think that game was pretty solid on pushing the PS1 hardware.

[racketboy]

Ok so now between discussion here and some other research I've done, here's my really rough list.

What I need now: I need to narrow down the top 15 or 20 and try to prioritize the list best we can. I know not everyone is going to be familiar with them all, but if you can up-vote or down-vote the best to your ability I'd appreciate it.

If you think a game needs to get bumped up to the top 15, say so.
If you think one isn't as good as the ones below it, tell me to move it down.

Here's a Google Sheets link


And here's the list in text form for now

Main List
Metal Gear Solid
Chrono Cross
Gran Turismo 2
Final Fantasy IX
Einhander
Tobal No. 2
Ridge Racer Type 4
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Front Mission 3,
Ehrgeiz
Quake II
Crash Bandicoot
Spryo
Ape Escape
Terracon
Vib Ribbon

Honorable Mentions
Final Fantasy VIII
Vagrant Story
Parasite Eve II
Wipeout 3/Wipeout XL
Legend of Mana
Silent Hill
Omega Boost
Colony Wars
Driver
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
Bushido Blade
Tekken 3
Fear Effect
Philosoma
Rapid Reload/Gunner’s Heaven
Delta Force: Urban Warfare
Soukaigi
Rival Schools
Syphon Filter
Alien Resurrection
Reboot
Tenchu 2
Soul Reaver
Soul of the Samurai
Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of the Superheroes
Armored Core: Master of the Arena
Internal Section
Dead or Alive
Legend of Dragoon
Tales of Eternia
Threads of Fate
Team Buddies
Motor Toon Grand Priz
Crash Team Racing

[marurun]

You know, some of those games I'm not sure actually pushed the PS1 hardware that much. I think there may be a case of, "It looked and sounded good so it must have been pushing the hardware," going on, here. But some of that can be explained by good art design and asset management.

[racketboy]

You know, some of those games I'm not sure actually pushed the PS1 hardware that much. I think there may be a case of, "It looked and sounded good so it must have been pushing the hardware," going on, here. But some of that can be explained by good art design and asset management.

That could be true. Which ones come to mind?
I have some notes for most of these that do help the argument, but I'm curious which ones you're thinking of

[Segata]

2D Capcom games look better on Saturn in general. Mainly because the PS1 doesn't expand the RAM. So they were compressed for PS1. I'd say they are pushing the system pretty hard. They what had 1MB to work with of the 2MB? and the Saturn carts expanded to 4MB so maybe 5MB total? Some of those had at least that much to work with on SS.

Or am I just way off?

[CRTGAMER]

You know, some of those games I'm not sure actually pushed the PS1 hardware that much. I think there may be a case of, "It looked and sounded good so it must have been pushing the hardware," going on, here. But some of that can be explained by good art design and asset management.

That could be true. Which ones come to mind?
I have some notes for most of these that do help the argument, but I'm curious which ones you're thinking of

Most games on the list maybe should be exclusives?
Perhaps the optimum programming ties in with what the list is about. The games thru hardware and software programming that produces the best results "wow factor" of a game or offered something unique and exclusive to the PS1 console.

I'm looking to revive and expand a series I did a while back and I could use the input of PS1 enthusiasts. I want to focus on the games that really maxed out the hardware of the console.

This could be graphics and sound, but would love to focus on those that used some programming tricks to really push the best output it can. These could also be games that really use all the RAM for loading massive levels, etc as well.

[alienjesus]

Games that push the hardware don't need to be exclusive. Resident Evil 2 is a game that pushed the N64 hardware to crazy degrees, but it wasn't that amazing on PS1. Sometimes a game pushes hardware on one console whilst being no problem to run on another.

[racketboy]

Games that push the hardware don't need to be exclusive. Resident Evil 2 is a game that pushed the N64 hardware to crazy degrees, but it wasn't that amazing on PS1. Sometimes a game pushes hardware on one console whilst being no problem to run on another.

Agreed. And something like Quake II was a complete rewrite instead of a port. It was an impressive effort to compensate for the PS1s limitations