Old games you recall that had great graphics at the time

[pete6032]

One of the first games I played on PC was Links 386, a golf simulator. I remember being blown away by how beautiful and realistic the graphics were. For me, at least, half of the game experience was loading up different golf courses across the country and being stunned by the beauty and differences in foliage, topography, etc. I just went back and look at some screenshots and have to laugh. At the time the graphics were amazing, but seeing them now reminds me just how far we've come.

What are some old games you recall having amazing graphics at the time they came out?

 

[sandorski]

Wolfenstein 3D
Unreal
Far Cry

 

[BurnItDwn]

MS Flight Sim 3.0 ... especially compared to FS 2.0 on a green apple 2e screen.

Carmageddon & Quake on Glide ..

really, anything on Glide vs everything pre voodoo1 era.

 

[pete6032]

Wolfenstein 3D
Unreal
Far Cry

Is Far Cry old? I bet it still wouldn't run on integrated Intel CPU graphics.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

MS Flight Sim 3.0 ... especially compared to FS 2.0 on a green apple 2e screen.

Carmageddon & Quake on Glide ..

really, anything on Glide vs everything pre voodoo1 era.

This. First 2 games I ever bought were Forsaken and Half-Life. Games defaulted to software rendering back then. I didn't know anything about graphics at the time and played for months like that. When I discovered how to enable OpenGL/Glide, I crapped myself.

 

[pete6032]

NASCAR 1994. Another good one.

 

[Chapbass]

Myst was a big one for me.

 

[dank69]

Gran Turismo

 

[solidsnake1298]

Final Fantasy 8
Unreal Tournament 2004
Day of Defeat Source
Call of Duty
Metal Gear Solid 2

 

[Chapbass]

This. First 2 games I ever bought were Forsaken and Half-Life. Games defaulted to software rendering back then. I didn't know anything about graphics at the time and played for months like that. When I discovered how to enable OpenGL/Glide, I crapped myself.

This. When I bought HL1 I didn't have a graphics accelerator. I bought a Voodoo2 1000, plugged it in and immediately said "this doesn't look different at all....". I then changed it to OpenGL and immediately called my best friend to have him come over and look at how absolutely amazing it looked.

 

[Pohemi]

Myst was a big one for me.

Yeah my offerings are Myst, the first Farcry, and the first Crysis.

 

[dasherHampton]

I remember Doom 3 really blew me away at the time.

FEAR was another one.


edit - you know, now that I think about it: certain games looked WAY better on CRT monitors. Morrowind is a great example.

I remember buying Morrowind and being really impressed by the graphics, the overall world. But it looks like crap on flatscreens.

 

[lxskllr]

The two I specifically remember were original Doom, and RTCW. There's been better since of course, but I come to expect it now. Those two surprised me.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

The two I specifically remember were original Doom, and RTCW. There's been better since of course, but I come to expect it now. Those two surprised me.

The Flame Thrower in RTCW to this day has the best look & feel for that weapon.
No I have never used on in real life.

 

[BoomerD]

The original Quake on Glide was pretty amazing. I got Quake II and wasn't impressed...until I picked up a Diamond Monster Voodoo II add-on card...HOLY SHIT!
After that, Unreal and Half-Life really opened my eyes.

 

[Iron Woode]

Doom 3
Quake 4

both looked amazing at the time and still look damn good today.

Unreal and Unreal II: The Awakening had excellent graphics.

 

[pete6032]

The first modern FPS I ever played was Half Life. I just had the uplink demo from PC Gamer. Had no idea about CPU specs or video cards at the time. Played the demo and it defaulted to software acceleration at 512x384. My friend came over and changed the resolution up to 640x480 and my mind was completely blown away by how good it looked.

 

[mikeymikec]

Half-Life 2 still looks good.

I remember thinking 'ooh' at parralax scrolling on the Amiga (Shadow of the Beast, 1989):

Project X on the Amiga (1992):

 

[dullard]

Links 386 was fantastic graphics at the time. I ended up copying the idea and drawing some trees pixel by pixel to make scenery in a similar fashion. Took my young teen self quite a while to create one good tree.

Is Far Cry old? I bet it still wouldn't run on integrated Intel CPU graphics.

Give Tiger Lake 28 W and Far Cry New Dawn is playable (barely). https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Qx3vA8avYLH24QKUjT64TD-970-80.gif

 

[BoomerD]

Half-Life 2 still looks good.

I remember thinking 'ooh' at parralax scrolling on the Amiga (Shadow of the Beast, 1989):

Project X on the Amiga (1992):

IMO, Half-Life 2 is one of the best games ever produced.

 

[pete6032]

Hardball 5 another favorite. I remember thinking the players look so realistic.

 

[Captante]

Wolfenstein 3D
Unreal
Far Cry

In the first Unreal the moment when you finally escape the crashed alien ship and see the huge open river valley really was amazing... distant sunshine on water scenes in Far Cry 1 were also breath-taking. (as were the bugs!)

There were also some incredible battle-scenes in Free Space 2 which gave an amazing sense of "scale" with truly massive capital ships. (NOT referring to Descent III Freespace ... this was a space sim)

 

[sdifox]

Descent

 

[pmv]

Quake II (first time I saw 3d acceleration). if I look at it now I only see the horribly-limited color palette that it uses.
Unreal - for the open environments and the vivid colours (compared to Q2!). Now I'd mostly notice the very limited poly-count.

 

[pmv]

Why is this in OT, by the way? Is OT planning to branch out into sub-sub-forums? OT-PC-gaming, OT-CPU, OT-graphic-cards, etc?