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Games that were ahead of their time...

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shortylickens said:
Legend of Zelda


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The first one never really felt special to me. It seemed technically simple/crude compared to the full-screen smooth scrolling of Super Mario Bros. It was cryptic to the point that almost no one could be expected to finish it without getting outside information (playground knowledge). The translation / localization was poor. One of the in-game hints basically tells you to make a loud sound to destroy Pols Voice (the hopping rabbit thing). That's because the Famicom had a microphone in the permanently-wired player-2 controller. You could yell into the mic to kill the Pols Voice. For any version outside of Japan you had to use arrows to kill it. The "hint" was misleading.

The Japanese version of the game was on a small disk instead of a cartridge. I guess that was pretty neat considering that typical PC floppy drives were 5.25-inch monsters in that day.

Saving to cartridge was poorly implemented. There was no obvious way to save without killing yourself. Does the manual even mention how to do that with controller # 2? Your save could be corrupted if you turn off the system without holding Reset. I read it's because the NES CPU goes nuts when voltage drops during power-down. It may attempt to write random addresses, including the ROM+SRAM space. A bit of SRAM and a coin cell battery inside the cartridge wasn't very fancy, but I guess that was the first cartridge game to do it. Some N64 games still used SRAM+battery save (Zelda OoT). Some GBA games too.
 
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Divutdab said:
What a pleasure to play a game that was localized professionally, if you are looking for a who can help you – I hope this can it [spam URL] This center of translation offers its wide range of services related to the localization of games or software into more than 60 languages.
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Your spam post has the kind of typographical and grammatical errors I expect to see in an unprofessional translation.
 
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I would consider Spec Ops: The Line to be ahead of its time. The story it told and the "heaviness" of it all was not really seen before it that I can remember.

The "game as drama" was probably perfected with The Last of Us, but began with Spec Ops.
 
Ichinisan said:
Saving to cartridge was poorly implemented. There was no obvious way to save without killing yourself. Does the manual even mention how to do that with controller # 2? Your save could be corrupted if you turn off the system without holding Reset. I read it's because the NES CPU goes nuts when voltage drops during power-down. It may attempt to write random addresses, including the ROM+SRAM space. A bit of SRAM and a coin cell battery inside the cartridge wasn't very fancy, but I guess that was the first cartridge game to do it. Some N64 games still used SRAM+battery save (Zelda OoT). Some GBA games too.
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Page 15 from the manual:
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Donkey Kong Country because of its claymation graphics. I remember seeing and thinking they had somehow overclocked the CPU in the SNES to be able to produce such graphics.

Update: It was pre rendered 3d graphics not claymation. Brain must have been in simpleton mode and I couldnt remember the right term.

Witcher 3 because even though the game is 3 years old, the body and voice animations are better than games that come out today.
 
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KB said:
Donkey Kong Country because of its claymation graphics. I remember seeing and thinking they had somehow overclocked the CPU in the SNES to be able to produce such graphics.

Witcher 3 because even though the game is 3 years old, the body and voice animations are better than games that come out today.
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"Claymation" 😛

If the warranty registration card for your SNES was sent in, Nintendo would have sent a promotional video before the game was released. The video explains how they produced the graphics in detail. After the credits there was a glimpse of Killer Instinct while that game was in development.
 
purbeast0 said:
I got that video from preordering DKC from TRU back in the day.
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They sent me the video a while before preorders started. I had never preordered a game before DKC, so that was my first preorder ever. I don't recall Walmart ever doing any game preorders before DKC. Does anyone remember if Walmart did preorders for previous big releases like Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat?

The next game I was hyped for was Killer Instinct. Walmart didn't have any way to preorder it. Then the launch day came and went, but they never got the game. I remember it being several days after launch before my local Walmart finally got it.

purbeast0 said:
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I think they only captured one audio channel from a stereo VHS tape. Especially at 11m 30s.

This one has the full audio:
https://youtu.be/Rv_YCSbWP78
 
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Killer Instinct was pretty terrible on SNES. I was pumped for it and liked it, but it is absolutely no comparison to the arcade one. Not only graphics, but like some combos and stuff are missing/different.

I was so disappointed that they never ended up making it for Nintendo 64 too, even though the damn intro on the arcade game says "AVAILABLE THIS SUMMER (i think it said this summer) FOR YOUR NINTENDO ULTRA 64!".
 
Maybe it's just me, but Super Metroid for SNES probably counts as a game that was ahead of its time. Despite the fact that non-linear games were obviously nothing new, even back then, it still amazes me that some games are still copying the Super Metroid formula for some of their action-adventure games. Symphony of the Night and all Castlevania GBA and NDS titles take their obvious inspiration from Super Metroid. Hell, even newer indie games like: Shantae, Axiom Verge, Hollow Knight, and maybe a few others take their platforming roots from Super Metroid.

I can always go back to that game and still enjoy playing it. Same thing applies to the original Metroid Prime, even though I don't think that game was ahead of its time. Still an amazing game, either way.
 
purbeast0 said:
Killer Instinct was pretty terrible on SNES. I was pumped for it and liked it, but it is absolutely no comparison to the arcade one. Not only graphics, but like some combos and stuff are missing/different.

I was so disappointed that they never ended up making it for Nintendo 64 too, even though the damn intro on the arcade game says "AVAILABLE THIS SUMMER (i think it said this summer) FOR YOUR NINTENDO ULTRA 64!".
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Yup. It said:

"available for your home in ninteen ninety five ONLY on Nintendo ULTRA sixty four"

"NU64" was then delayed a few more times and launched as "Nintendo 64" on September 29, 1996.

Then, Zelda for N64 was delayed numerous times.
 
Triloby said:
Maybe it's just me, but Super Metroid for SNES probably counts as a game that was ahead of its time. Despite the fact that non-linear games were obviously nothing new, even back then, it still amazes me that some games are still copying the Super Metroid formula for some of their action-adventure games. Symphony of the Night and all Castlevania GBA and NDS titles take their obvious inspiration from Super Metroid. Hell, even newer indie games like: Shantae, Axiom Verge, Hollow Knight, and maybe a few others take their platforming roots from Super Metroid.

I can always go back to that game and still enjoy playing it. Same thing applies to the original Metroid Prime, even though I don't think that game was ahead of its time. Still an amazing game, either way.
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The music.
The graphic design.
The gameplay...

Super Metroid oozes atmosphere and is a nearly perfect game.
 
purbeast0 said:
Killer Instinct was pretty terrible on SNES. I was pumped for it and liked it, but it is absolutely no comparison to the arcade one. Not only graphics, but like some combos and stuff are missing/different.

I was so disappointed that they never ended up making it for Nintendo 64 too, even though the damn intro on the arcade game says "AVAILABLE THIS SUMMER (i think it said this summer) FOR YOUR NINTENDO ULTRA 64!".
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I remember seeing footage of a beta SNES version on a video display at Toys R Us. There was a panel with game titles and artwork where you push the button for a game to see a video about it. Some of the titles were unreleased, including Killer Instinct.

https://youtu.be/fP6Lk2GguGo
7 minutes 39 seconds
11 minutes 14 seconds

The animation was far better than the final game. Nintendo Power's first report of the 16-bit version was only a couple months before release (less, I think) and they reported it would be missing 2 characters. The next issue corrected that to say those characters would be included. I suspect they had trouble cutting the ROM size down to 32 megabits (4 megabytes) and chose to eliminate like two thirds of the animation frames. 🙁

I wish they would have spent a bit more for a larger ROM chip and released it as a 48mbit game (like Japanese Tales of Phantasia).
 
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Ichinisan said:
I remember seeing footage of a beta SNES version on a video display at Toys R Us. There was a panel with game titles and artwork where you push the button for a game to see a video about it. Some of the titles were unreleased, including Killer Instinct.

https://youtu.be/fP6Lk2GguGo
7 minutes 39 seconds
11 minutes 14 seconds

The animation was far better than the final game. Nintendo Power's first report of the 16-bit version was only a couple months before release (less, I think) and they reported it would be missing 2 characters. The next issue corrected that to say those characters would be included. I suspect they had trouble cutting the ROM size down to 32 megabits (4 megabytes) and chose to eliminate like two thirds of the animation frames. 🙁

I wish they would have spent a bit more for a larger ROM chip and released it as a 48mbit game (like Japanese Tales of Phantasia).
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Wow that is great footage, I had no clue about that. The animation is NOTICEABLY better there. And I noticed the character select screen had all 10 characters though, so unless they were placeholders, they were all there. Obviously Eyedol wasn't there though so who knows.
 
OHH YEAH! I remember that. The preview version was so much better than the released product. Big scandal. Gamers were pissed. I think it may have actually killed the franchise on home console.
 
purbeast0 said:
Wow that is great footage, I had no clue about that. The animation is NOTICEABLY better there. And I noticed the character select screen had all 10 characters though, so unless they were placeholders, they were all there. Obviously Eyedol wasn't there though so who knows.
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They probably hadn't cut the ROM size down to 32 mbit at that point, so it probably still had everything. It would be a holy grail to own that prototype.
 
Ichinisan said:
They probably hadn't cut the ROM size down to 32 mbit at that point, so it probably still had everything. It would be a holy grail to own that prototype.
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Well not really the holy grail for me since I own the arcade game lol. But yes I get what you mean.
 
River City Ransom. Now there are tons of beat 'em ups with RPG elements but that's the first I can remember. That game was such a step up from even the top arcade beat 'em ups like Double Dragon.
 
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