Which (2) 5th GEN Consoles are you owning? Poll Question

[Curlypaul]

I voted N64 and Saturn.

Saturn: Well I owned one when it was new so there is a lot of nostagia attached to it for me. The games I generally play on there are the arcade ports, 2d fighters and Nights

N64: No nostalgia here as I got my first N64 about 2 years ago. Its got some great games, some great early console fps games and personally I really like the controller. The stick feels very smooth and accurate (until it wears out of course).

The bigger question here though, is why didnt I choose the PS1? The graphics are way ahead of the competition, the dual shock controller is one of the best ever made, and choice of games is staggering. I dunno really, guess I'm just a sega fanboy.

In all seriousness though, Sega and Nintendo games always had a certain amount of character - There is something about the games that these 2 companies have produced over the years, some characteristic that makes them identifable. Sega mastered the feel of arcade games - easy to pick up, hard to master, great music, while Nintendo have crafted a disneyesque charm in their games that is hard to deny.

On the other hand playstation games, while generally excellent, lack a characteristic that binds them all together and makes them feel as one.

This generation of consoles is still my favourite for many reasons:
1 - 3D was within reach of people with spending a mint on a gaming PC
2 - Each console's library had such a large proportion of exclusives, and the ones that did get ported often has some major differences
3 - The number of consoles in the running! The poll lists 5 but there was also the neo-geo CD, Amiga CD32 etc. At the time it was hapening this was all pretty exciting - the world had noticed that games were getting more popular and it seemed that every electronics company wanted a slice of the market. Gaming was growing up

[BoringSupreez]

Seeing Tomb Raider or Crash Bandicoot the first time after playing 2D games like Sonic the Hedgehog or Super Mario World was a huge experience back then.

But both Tomb Raider and Crash Bandicoot came after Super Mario 64...

Okay, I don't have the exact dates of these game releases memorized. Sorry. But that still doesn't change my point that those systems came out first and made the technological step first, not N64.

Fine. PS1 and Saturn made the leap first. But N64 was the first to make the leap in any meaningful way, the first to make games in 3D that could never have been done in 2D (at least ones that any large number of people would actually have any interest in playing, on a console).

[TornadoCreator]

People always discuss Mario 64 as though it broke boundries, as though it was a special case that everyone else used as a referrence point, this is simply not true. We know it's not true because the average video game takes approximately 2-4 years to finish, when it comes to games of 5th generation and later at least. This mens that while Mario 64 may have been first (and it wasn't in Europe), it only beat Crash Bandicoot and Tomb Raider by a couple of months. This is nothing in reality. In 5th generation people didn't buy on release day with the same ferver they do today. So it's entirely reasonable that people would see them as simultaenous releases and it's a fact that they where developed simultaneously and independently. Mario 64 was a great leap forward, the 3D technology was impressive, it's the gameplay I have an issue with, but to claim it was the single game responsible for 3D or to imply that as many people do is disingenuous. Mario 64 did not create 3D, it's just the most obnoxiously obvious example of it.

[o.pwuaioc]

Seeing Tomb Raider or Crash Bandicoot the first time after playing 2D games like Sonic the Hedgehog or Super Mario World was a huge experience back then.

But both Tomb Raider and Crash Bandicoot came after Super Mario 64...

Okay, I don't have the exact dates of these game releases memorized. Sorry. But that still doesn't change my point that those systems came out first and made the technological step first, not N64.

OK, we may have to just agree to disagree, but I think my point still stands. You say thaat the 3DO, Saturn, and PS1 beat the N64 to the punch technologically. While I point out that even 16-bit technology had 3D games, you said they were few and far in-between, then point out games that came out after the N64 to show how the N64 lagged. But what I'm saying is that although those systems did introduce 3D tech, they didn't do it in a revolutionary way. N64 had the first mainstream 64-bit technology (Jaguar's failure didn't inspire the masses at all, and both the PS1 and 3DO was 32-bit tech), and it's release of 3D platfomers is, as far as I can tell, what truly ushered in the 3D craze. They came out, did it, and did it well. If I'm missing something, please let me know. But from the picture I drew above, Inazuma seems more correct than not.

[mjmjr25]

I've been swayed. I'm switching to PS1 because of Tomb Raider.

If I recall it was released with a box of dramamine.

[BurningDoom]

OK, we may have to just agree to disagree, but I think my point still stands. You say thaat the 3DO, Saturn, and PS1 beat the N64 to the punch technologically. While I point out that even 16-bit technology had 3D games, you said they were few and far in-between, then point out games that came out after the N64 to show how the N64 lagged. But what I'm saying is that although those systems did introduce 3D tech, they didn't do it in a revolutionary way. N64 had the first mainstream 64-bit technology (Jaguar's failure didn't inspire the masses at all, and both the PS1 and 3DO was 32-bit tech), and it's release of 3D platfomers is, as far as I can tell, what truly ushered in the 3D craze. They came out, did it, and did it well. If I'm missing something, please let me know. But from the picture I drew above, Inazuma seems more correct than not.

No, N64 did NOT have the first mainstream system and did not usher in the 3D craze. That has been my point the whole time. Not only was it first, but PS1 even outsold N64 making more mainstream than N64.

[TornadoCreator]

3 - The number of consoles in the running! The poll lists 5 but there was also the neo-geo CD, Amiga CD32 etc. At the time it was hapening this was all pretty exciting - the world had noticed that games were getting more popular and it seemed that every electronics company wanted a slice of the market. Gaming was growing up

Yeah, this is one of the reasons I loved this time in gaming too.

Everything felt different game wise. In my circle of friends we had a few people who had the "special consoles". I was the sega kid with my CDX (called the Multi-Mega over here) and Sega Saturn. My brother had a Playstation, as did one of my cousins. My other cousin had an N64 and SNES. My brother later got a SNES too. I got the CD-i, and later got a 3DO from another cousin, I swapped my original Mega Drive and Mega CD for it (I had the CDX after all). One of the kids in our street had an Atari Jaguar CD and one of my friends from school had a huge SNES collection. And then there was the kid at the end of the road who had the Neo Geo, Playstation, Laser-Quest, a Pioneer LaserActive (with both the expansion modules from America) and his own PC with Windows 95... no-one liked him but we all went to his house to play his games obviously. His dad used to order him the newest games straight from Japan or America (spoilt brat).

So yeah, everyone had an identity...

[DinnerX]

As far as I know personal computers did real 3d at home first. They had the technology first. They weren't obscure either.

For consoles I think it's Star Fox on the SNES. It had real polygons thanks to the super fx chip.

Also, super mario 64 started way back as super mario fx. It did get reworked a ton but still.

[BurningDoom]

As far as I know personal computers did real 3d at home first. They had the technology first. They weren't obscure either.

Touche.

[Inazuma]

Super Mario 64 wasn't the first 3D game but it was the first one to do an excellent job of it.

Just looking at it back then was amazing. It looked much better than everything else. Nintendo knew they couldn't make super detailed 3D games so they went with a very basic and clean look, which worked great.

The amount of moves Mario had was just crazy as well. And controlling him was so easy and smooth, thanks to the N64 analog stick.

Tomb Raider came out at roughly the same time and I did buy it and play it, but honestly, it was pretty much pure shit compared to Mario 64. The graphics were ugly and the controls were horrid.

Crash Bandicoot couldn't hold a candle to Mario either. Same with Nights. Super Mario 64 was in a league of its own for a very long time.