golden age

Post by **3DOKid** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 4:58 pm

Early - mid 90s really was the gaming golden age -- wasn't it?

3DO, Jag, PSX, Saturn and aracde ... you can't get away from it, it was the best.

8 bit, with all the love in the world was a bit rubbish and doesn't stand the test of time.

16 bit was 8bit of steroids and very 2D

32/64 bit. It was the best

(IT WAS!)

After that the game studios went all Hollywood and were to scared to release anything even slightly adventurous, and I'm not saying that the best of modern games aren't aces, they are... but I've been playing NFS, ridge racer revolution and Sega Rally and the only concusion i can come too is 90s gaming, with it's cheap 3D was indeed the most exciting and the best.

3D is too expensive these days - and that has kind of ruined it

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 5:02 pm

Hear, Hear... Although I think I might extend that through '96/'97, too. I had a lot of fun with the Saturn and the early, heady days of the N64 in that timeframe. After that, things cooled off. The Dreamcast had a chance to recapture the magic, but just missed.

Lemmi · Post by **Lemmi** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:19 pm

nope golden age for me is Genesis/SNES/TG16 days

didnt get a ps1/N64 untill dec 99, a saturn was in late 97, while i enjoyed the saturn (hated the ps1) i never enjoyed them as much as the Gen/SNES/TG16 era

2D rules - 3D sucks ass

Post by **3DOKid** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 7:13 pm

You see Lemmi - you're old-old school gamer, I'm just old school.

mosul210 · Post by **mosul210** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 7:26 pm

I agree, the 90's was a great time for gaming. I owned just about every gaming machine except for Nintendo. I owned a Genesis, PS1, Jaguar, 3DO, Saturn, PS2, and Dreamcast. The only Nintendo machine I've ever owned was the Gamecube - I think its mainly because their target audience has never been my age group.

Some of my favorite games of all time would include Alien vs. Predator (Jaguar), Sonic (Genesis), Resident Evil 4 (Game Cube), Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn), Way of the Warrior (3DO), Killing Time (3DO), Devil May Cry (PS2), Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast), and many others.

13BEAST · Post by **13BEAST** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:54 pm

I'm going to have to side with Lemmi, here. Donkey Kong Country, Splatterhouse and SMW are my three favorite series of games.

First of all, it's a stretch to include Jaguar in the 32/64 bit era, it was launched in the hayday of the 16 bit era, and it really sucked badly. Though marketed as a 64bit system, it was grossly underpowered.

Now, looking at the PSX, N64 and 3DO, those systems were fantastic. But they were a bit akward, as the first full scale attempt at making 3D polygon based consoles. I loved my N64 more than any other system for a very long time. I played Goldeneye for hundreds, if not thousands of hours from 1997 til 2006 when I bought my GameCube. But now that I'm collecting everything (literally) from 1977 till today, and I have a SNES again, I definitely have the most fun with that system. My TG16 and SNES get much more play than any of my other systems, even the 3DO, N64 or 360.

However, I do take the most pleasure out of telling people I have a 3DO. Mostly because noone knows what it is. And my favorite system to brag about when I'm with other nerds is my Jaguar CD. Everyone loves to talk about the Jag CD. Noone wants to play it, though. God does that thing suck LOL

Lemmi · Post by **Lemmi** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 1:01 am

3DOKid wrote:You see Lemmi - you're old-old school gamer, I'm just old school.

you got that right, well i would call it, im in old school your in middle school

as i liked the atari 7800 more than the NES when they first came out
and i bet we are almost the exact same age (maybe 3 years difference)

i guess its all about what you like, and i absolutly hate the modern 360/ps3 stuff

growing up i started with a sports pong system then the 2600, (crammed in here was my uncles colecovision, untill he took it back), the 7800, NES, TG16, Genesis, SNES, Sega CD, the 3DO, Saturn (the only game ive played since 1999 on it has been Warcraft 2)

Post by **3DO Experience** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 2:27 am

The 80's were the best fun I had but I have to say, the full stretch of the 90's was truly the golden age.

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:46 pm

As far as sheer choice goes, nothing could touch the early to mid 90's. It is doubtful we'll ever see that kind of bloated market again though ... 2 to 3 players seems to be the max.

Doskias · Post by **Doskias** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:02 am

Amen! The early-mid 90s was the epoch in gaming history that I have the fondest memories for. How I miss showing off my 3DO to all my friends whose parents would only buy them a snes or genesis. When they saw Road Rash on my 3DO they couldn't go back to their sad genesis version

.

UnholyTancred · Post by **UnholyTancred** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 7:07 am

The Golden Age is different to me. For me, it's more like the golden hardware maker

The PS1 had a plethora of 3D action games that have aged very poorly. It also had a ton of J-RPGs and although some were pretty good, most were terrible. I never got into the N64 and only own 2 games for it today. I hated the controller, hated the use of cartridges, and hated that the majority of games are 1st party platformers.

I'm a Sega fanboy. I admit it. I love the Genny. I own the most amount of games for this baby than all my other consoles. The Saturn is my favorite console of all time. And the Dreamcast... I own a plethora of them. Repaired a whole bunch too. Have one hooked up to my monitor, have one hooked up to my TV, and repaired one and gave it to my little brother. Have around 4 more working ones lying around along with 5-6 that I haven't gotten to repairing yet.

But I do like the NES. Granted a lot of games are complete rubbish but there are a bunch of gems. Playing the NES for me is a masochistic experience. Incredibly ugly arcade ports with super funky 8 bit music and an unforgiving difficulty... that's the NES for you. I can't even beat the first level of Ikari Warriors or stay alive long enough to finish listening to the level 1 song, but I love the game!

Post by **3DOKid** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:17 pm

This whole console shinanigans started for me on the 3DO. Prior to that I a computer (Amiga/ST) and the arcade.

So - anything that was doing the rounds in the arcade during the 90s has a soft spot with me.

I loved the entire Sega/Namco arcade years. From Winning Lap (back in '89) where i spent a great deal of my money, through to Virtua Cop, Tekken, Ridge, Sega Rally, Starblade, Virtua Fighter (I won a national tournament at a local Sega World in 1995 on Virtua Fighter

) - these were the best games for me. I'm tech whore, consoles always looked at bit dated to my eyes.

The first game I loved was Star Wars arcade (not the sega one, the Atari one!)

UnholyTancred · Post by **UnholyTancred** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:26 pm

Ooooh the one with the vector graphics?

I love that game!

Post by **3DOKid** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 12:37 am

My family went on holiday to Wales in what must have 1985/6 and me and brother saved like mad for holiday spending money. Between us we raised the princely sum of £7.00 (I think it included £5 birthday money

)

We blew the lot on Star Wars and when Star Wars wasn't free we played Battle Zone.

3D was aces

[/quote]

For me these game still represent something of a technical marvel.

We also saved up the £12.99 necessary for the Sinclair Spectrum big box version of Star Wars, Empire Stikes Back and the rather naff Return of the Jedi games, converted by Domark.

Post by **3DO Experience** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:54 am

Star Wars always rocked, but all my friends were better than me at it. Remember when Battle Zone used to come with Windows? LOL

13BEAST · Post by **13BEAST** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 5:27 pm

I just discovered a new(not new, but I never knew if it before) 32bit system that I HAVE to have. If I can find one, it might actually dethrone my 3DO as my favorite system to say "Oh yeah, I have that".

Post by **3DO Experience** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 11:35 pm

hmmm he says he has to find it so it's prob not as easy to get as a Saturn or PSX. And the Amiga CD32was nothing special so I'm gonna guess... NEO-GEO AES?

13BEAST · Post by **13BEAST** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 4:50 am

Nah, I've wanted a Neo Geo AES since I was a kid lol. I was talking about a Bandai atWorld.

If anyone has one, hook a brotha up

Lemmi · Post by **Lemmi** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 6:07 am

you mean the Pippin?

http://ultimateconsoledatabase.com/golden/pippin.htm

Post by **3DOKid** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 7:43 am

Lemmi wrote:you mean the Pippin?

http://ultimateconsoledatabase.com/golden/pippin.htm

That is what I was thinking. That or a FM Towns Marty.

The Marty had some interesting games.

13BEAST · Post by **13BEAST** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 2:12 pm

Lemmi wrote:you mean the Pippin?

http://ultimateconsoledatabase.com/golden/pippin.htm

Yes, but I specifically want the atWorld, not the atMark.

Post by **3DO Experience** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 12:12 am

ohh, yeah I think those look cute too!

13BEAST · Post by **13BEAST** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 1:44 am

Lemmi wrote:you mean the Pippin?

http://ultimateconsoledatabase.com/golden/pippin.htm

Intersting, that site has conflicting information from what I've gotten everywhere else. It was my understanding that the atMark was white and the Japanese model, whereas the atWorld was black and the American model. Then there were some black Japanese atMark's which were speculated to be reformated, unsold American units since it sold so poorly here.

Either way, I want the American version, no matter which that is.

Post by **3DO Experience** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 3:58 am

I've only ever seen photos where the American ones are white. Hey if you happen to find more than one let me know. I've wanted to add one to my collection but I always passed them up in the past. (I do that a lot and kick myself later for it.)

13BEAST · Post by **13BEAST** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 5:31 am

3DO Experience wrote:I've only ever seen photos where the American ones are white. Hey if you happen to find more than one let me know. I've wanted to add one to my collection but I always passed them up in the past. (I do that a lot and kick myself later for it.)

If I come across another Jag CD, do you want me to let you know about that, too? I'd like to get mine back at some point lol.
There's this one, but I'm not going to bid on it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rare-black-Bandai-W ... 7C294%3A50

taken from the auction:

@Worlds were produced in white and black. The white models were called Atmark (for the "@" mark) and were only marketed and sold in Japan. The black units were called @World and were sold in the US. There are black Atmark units in Japan, but they are extremely rare.

Post by **3DO Experience** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 3:32 am

WOW I didn't think anybody would pay that much for such a bla system. Anyway if you find another JagCD too let me know.

mattyg · Post by **mattyg** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 2:00 pm

Okay the '90s were the Golden age
Pong was the stone age
Atari 2600 was the bronze age
the crash of '83 the Dark Ages
Sega & Nintendo the renaissance
The 90's - pure gold!
Why?
We were playing games beyond our wildest dreams at the arcade Daytona , Sega Rally , Time Crisis , Tekken , Virtua Fighter
The CD was giving us power and storage we'd thought impossible only a few years before and everyone wanted a piece of the action
Dominance was up for grabs.
Phillips (CD-i) , NEC (Turbo Grafx) , Fujitsu (Marty) , Panasonic , Sanyo , Goldstar/LG (3do) , SNK (Neo Geo) , Atari (Jag) , Nintendo (N64) , Sega (Saturn Mega CD 32X) , Sony (psone) , Commodore(CDTV) , Amiga (CD32) - it was a roll call of the worlds top electronic manufacturers .
It was a brave new world - boundaries were being pushed in all directions (good and bad)
Most of us were in our formative years and we lapped it up (along with some brewskies

)
Even Sci Fi was becoming more mature (Bladerunner , Babylon 5 etc)
Stephen King was on the bestseller list every other week
This is why it was the Golden Years

Post by **3DOKid** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 3:35 pm

Us Cyberpunk fans had it pretty good in the 90s.

Post by **3DO Experience** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 6:32 pm

3DOKid wrote:Us Cyberpunk fans had it pretty good in the 90s.

GOD YES!

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:25 pm

Even Sci Fi was becoming more mature (Bladerunner , Babylon 5 etc)

Babylon 5!