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Best Retro Console?

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Vigo:
Are you talking about games on like an IBM PC, or games on actual gaming computers? Yeah, the best stuff on those PCs were monochromatic text adventures, rpgs and cerebral games with terrible bibs and boops, getting something like a c64 was completely different. You could get a nice wico made joystick and play games that looked far better than many of the NES launch titles, just look at most of what Epyx and other decent companies were putting down 2-3 years before the NES was available -







And then by the time the NES was really available in 1986, games on gaming computers were beginning to look like this:



The early NES games were not that beautiful, a graphical leap isn't what sold it. They packaged together their quality stuff and filtered out what was bad for the US/EU markets. Contrast that with computer games, you have one game that looks amazing on the shelf next to a game with stick people. Shovelware was a plague. You also had to read gaming magazines to know what was good, and often order from catalogs. You would need to check every game to make sure it was compatible with your particular computer, and nothing about an experience was consistent. Not approachable by kids and many parents.

With the NES, they put everything in toy store shelves and marketed like crazy. You could go to the store and just know it works with your console, and knew what was good from word of mouth and commercials.

KenToad:
The NES was only heavily marketed after it was a proven seller. Retailers wouldn't touch it. It was released in a few test markets and proved itself because it had mind-blowing graphics and gameplay.

None of those games that you're showcasing demonstrate smooth side to side scrolling that was needed for the top selling genre of platformers (although that split screen is impressive if that's from 1985). The graphics on the top two games look pretty drab, even compared to early NES release games. The bottom two games look okay. I had one or maybe two friends who owned a computer powerful enough to play Summer Games in 1988. It was a single screen affair with no original in-game music. The Amiga version of IK+ came out in 1988, had no scrolling and looked like a tech demo for Prince of Persia.

Most people I knew who owned PC's just had Carmen Sandiego, Oregon Trail or Ultima, something with rudimentary graphics and a lot of text. If you wanted movement and action-oriented gameplay in 1985-87, you had to get an NES.

Also, the PC hardware was insanely expensive (C64 was $600, nearly quadruple the price of the $180 NES Deluxe set in 1985), meaning that the market was very limited. Even so, the graphics, sound, and especially play control of the NES were a huge leap above the C64 and other home computers of the day.

Also, those Wico red topfire sticks were just okay, nothing that I would want to use today. The NES controllers are still great to this day.

pbj:
This is an interesting and weird argument.  I remember being told for years that Commander Keen was “just as good as a console game” and it was freaking terrible.

My mind was blown by Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, though.

 :cheers:

Vigo:
Ken, I am not arguing against the significance of the NES, and never said the graphics of the NES were inferior, When I say the NES is comparable to computers, though, I am acknowledging that the NES did do certain things better, and computers at the time did certain things better. It all depends on the spec. I was responding to comments stating that before the NES, video game characters looked like indecipherable dots, which isn’t true at all.

I knew tons of people with c64s and other gaming computers, I’m a little young, but my brothers were trading games all the time. I have no clue where you got $600 from, but a C64 retailed for $150 in 1985, and the scrolling was usually fine. Games were far cheaper, too. Price point wasn’t the difference.

With an example of scrolling, Commando comes to mind. It came out in late 85, and the NES version a year later. Generally, the C64 version was considered superior in just about every way.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=cdGaZ8Fakok

honestly the best weapon Nintendo had in Hardware was instant booting. No cassette or floppy disks and loading sequences to get you to the game. Blasted the demographics wide open.

FYI - that racing game is Pitstop II, released in 1984. Cool game, as you make pit stops and can control the entire pit crew.There were plenty like it. Commando comes to mind as it was

dmckean:
It was Metroid that sold me on the NES, and about 18 of my classmates at a going away party. Passing the controller around and taking turns on that game was like nothing we'd previously experienced. My age group in 1988 (5th grader) was all about the arcade and thought of home consoles and computer as being sort of lame in comparison. The NES and games like Metroid and Zelda changed all that. Those games were about just getting lost in the world and atmosphere for hours and having no idea what to do next, it was so different from any previous gaming experience.

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