Old games you recall that had great graphics at the time

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BudAshes

Lifer
Jul 20, 2003
13,911
3,195
146
Wing Commander 3 and Myst stick out right now. Half Life 2 and Crysis more recently, although Half Life 2 was more the physics than the graphics.
 
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MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
21,004
19,442
136
Shit I remember watching a friend's brother play the first Doom on a PC when I was like 16 or 17. That was impressive. But since then I remember Half-Life but Far Cry was the game that really made my jaw drop. My friend and I would take turns playing it on my PC in wonderment.
 

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
14,004
12,068
146
betrayal at krondor was pretty amazing on PC
A man after my own heart. One of my favorite games of all time.

Hard to not say Far Cry, Doom, Quake 2.

As for one I haven't seen yet, Morrowind was pretty breathtaking, stepping off that boat for the first time. I also have a special place for Privateer 1/2, but I think 1 at least was just the wing commander engine.

On the topic of space stuff, may as well throw x-wing alliance on the list, that shit looked excellent when it came out.

I'll give a special mention to Total Annihilation. That was a well designed engine to be able to handle so many units at once. It was impressive to watch.

I'll also go with an underdog, Outcast. While everyone else was still futzing around with isometrics, animation, and indoor 3d environments with loading screens, those crazy bastards were creating multi square mile outdoor environments created from ray casting, voxels, AA, angle-relative water translucence, weather effects, and an advanced AI to top it all off. It was a stupendous achievement at the time.
 

Ajay

Lifer
Jan 8, 2001
15,332
7,792
136
Beat me to it. First game that actual looked 3D to me, even though it was software rendered (IIRC).

Starsiege Tribes and Unreal Tournament were amazing after adding a Voodoo 2 to my Matrox G400. Real 3D rendering. I was hooked!
 
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RPD

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2009
4,971
483
126
The first Mortal Kombat in the arcades was pretty bad ass, same with Killer Instinct. Those 3D arenas and panning waaaaaay out on some fight grounds was awesome.
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,244
10,748
136


Descent III Freespace was one of my all-time favorite games and was truly revolutionary when it came out. (I still have it on CD somewhere)

It was the first REALLY 3-dimensional PC game and the first time a cap-switch on a joystick was actually useful! I can clearly recall feeling genuinely sea-sick the first few times playing it!

Good luck, Material-Defender! .... :D




Beat me to it. First game that actual looked 3D to me, even though it was software rendered (IIRC).

Starsiege Tribes and Unreal Tournament were amazing after adding a Voodoo 2 to my Matrox G400. Real 3D rendering. I was hooked!


I had not one but two hardware-accelerated versions, a 3DFX version that looked and ran great, and an S3 Virge (lol) "decelerated" version that came bundled with a Diamond PCI card gave pretty shaky frame-rates. (but oddly was even prettier then the 3DFX one)
 
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Starbuck1975

Lifer
Jan 6, 2005
14,698
1,909
126
Myst, Tie Fighter, Grim Fandango, Planescape: Torment, HL2, Homeworld 2, Max Payne, Thief, Myth: Soulblighter, Rise of Nations and a bunch I’ve forgotten
 
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brianmanahan

Lifer
Sep 2, 2006
24,202
5,608
136
Descent III Freespace was one of my all-time favorite games and was truly revolutionary when it came out. (I still have it on CD somewhere)

It was the first REALLY 3-dimensional PC game and the first time a cap-switch on a joystick was actually useful! I can clearly recall feeling genuinely sea-sick the first few times playing it!

Good luck, Material-Defender! .... :D

descent games were amazing

me and my buddy would use our modems to connect directly via phone, then play 1v1 or co-op in favorite levels (like descent 1 level 7)

or occasionally we would play hide-and-seek in huge levels haha

descent and warcraft used up so much of our time in the summers
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
94,661
14,928
126
descent games were amazing

me and my buddy would use our modems to connect directly via phone, then play 1v1 or co-op in favorite levels (like descent 1 level 7)

or occasionally we would play hide-and-seek in huge levels haha

descent and warcraft used up so much of our time in the summers
We had lan parties with 10Base2 network...
 

Commodus

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 2004
9,206
6,799
136
It's funny to see everyone raving over how Voodoo cards made games look so much better... folks forget those Rendition Verite V1000 boards that came out before 3dfx's offerings!

I was playing 3D-accelerated Quake on a Creative 3D Blaster PCI before GLQuake even existed. And then there were games like Hyper-Blade and Monster Truck Madness that looked so nice. Don't get me wrong, 3dfx was ultimately the main driver for 3D-accelerated graphics in the 1990s, but some of us remember the very early days when 3dfx wasn't even on the radar.
 
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brianmanahan

Lifer
Sep 2, 2006
24,202
5,608
136
I was playing 3D-accelerated Quake on a Creative 3D Blaster PCI before GLQuake even existed. And then there were games like Hyper-Blade and Monster Truck Madness that looked so nice. Don't get me wrong, 3dfx was ultimately the main driver for 3D-accelerated graphics in the 1990s, but some of us remember the very early days when 3dfx wasn't even on the radar.

oh man, i never owned monster truck madness but i played the CRAP out of the demo version

same thing with the motocross madness demo!
 

UNCjigga

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
24,800
9,002
136
King’s Quest V. Was my first real VGA game (maybe 2nd counting 688 Attack Sub?)

The difference between EGA vs. VGA was like the difference between 2D graphics cards and 3dfx.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,194
12,025
126
www.anyf.ca
Off the top of my head, NHL95. "It looks almost like a real game!" after upgrading from Blades of Steel. lol. Then same thing when upgrading to NHL99.


Man talk about nostalgia.

Actually I still have my NHL 95 cartridge I should check if all my game saves are still there. My dad was probably more into it than I am, as far as making sure all the player trades matched the NHL etc but man we spent so much time playing that together. We used to play entire seasons then start a new one and do it over again. Things sometimes got heated when I would do really cheap goals. Game had some weird quirks like being able to score from a faceoff really easily lol.

I'd say this goes for most games really, at the time you really feel the graphics are great but then you go back and it's like "wait really?". Though some games were really ahead of their time as far as graphics go. Like even the golf one in OP actually looks half decent considering the age. That probably looked awesome on a CRT at the time.
 
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Feb 4, 2009
34,494
15,729
136
The glowing chalice & Easter egg room with the glowing letters blew me away. Coolest thing ever at the time.

While not graphics per say the look was cool at the time and the size of the game levels was mind boggling at the time. Plus you could fall & swim!

 
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brianmanahan

Lifer
Sep 2, 2006
24,202
5,608
136
King’s Quest V. Was my first real VGA game

lol i loved the narrator in that game

"life-giving water. nectar of the gods. graham can feel strength and renewal flow through him!"

cedric, on the other hand... he was annoying