A Sprite

It's character based comedy. He's playing the same guys who imitate him. And you're too good to be wasting your time being bitter about this. Swallow your pride, admit you're targeting a niche audience that hasn't found you yet, and work on hooking them.

True, but until the Playstation/Saturn/N64 arrived on the scene, polygons were mostly used as a novelty graphical effect in home releases. Hunter ( Atari St and Amiga ) was the rare exception that couldn't be done on a sprite based engine, I can't think of any others off hand. It's the gameplay that matters to me - or rather, the emotions we bring into it. Walking into a cave and seeing the entrance rise up around you is a different experience than seeing a sprite walk into a tile on the bitmap. So too is being able to look your character in the eyes, and experiencing what they're feeling as well. These are moments that simply don't exist in most 2d games - and it wasn't until after the 16 bit era that they were fully explored.

In my opinion? Sure, why not? 1978 - A custom Intel 8080 cpu isn't enough to run Space Invaders at full speed, until players begin to clear the screen... 1980 - Pac Man targets nongamers. The hardcore prepare for the worst. 1985 - Mario discovers the path to victory. And then another path. And then another... 1985 - Ultima IV asks you to choose between being kind to those in need and being honest with those who trust you with their money. There is no wrong answer. 1995 - Polygons replace sprites. Though early efforts are broken by strobe light frame rates, dizzying camera angles, and poor control, the end result was that normally conservative game companies were forced to innovate. Not a good thing at the time, but it eventually gave us the first console generation not dominated by a single genre...

The PS2 and XBox figures are for raw polygon pushing performance, minus texture and lighting. Neither figure is relevant, unless you can name a PS2 game that benefited from more polygons and less texture data? Final Fantasy X and Tekken Tag tournament are two early games who's sequels had their character polygon counts reduced. In the case of Final Fantasy XII, this was purely for reasons of texture detail - the Dreamcast wouldn't have needed to make a similiar sacrifice.

Try zeropunctuation at the Escapist if you want to see someone tear apart bad games and bad ideas without stealing James' shtick. It can be done...

How do they make a profit? If it's mass market, it requires strong games up front. If it's an entry way for new programmers to share their ideas, that means lots of retro remakes violating copyright laws, and quality control issues... I'd love to buy into the dream, but it looks like the crash. What makes it a good purchase for non-programmers?

Just don't be surprised if you hear the Nintendo Nerd speaking through the Irate gamer, as Irate's something of a rip-off artist... but if James doesn't have enough videos for you, he's like the cheap prostitute who pretends to be the celebrity you crush on... It's one way to get a fix.

Perhaps this?

What's your least favorite part of 8 bit graphics? Did it influence what games you bought?

Video. It's like MARIA and the TMS9918 eloped, and had a love child. "He's got mommy's singing voice!" "That's just the dog. Bad TIA! ...is our baby having a seizure?!" "Maybe we can teach him to play Moon Patrol."

If we're going to dream, let's go all the way...

"less powerful" and "more powerful" are kind of sweeping, all or nothing statements. Not sure what you mean here. In terms of raw processing power, don't the 7800 and 8-bits use the same physical microprocessor? Or are you comparing MARIA with GTIA capabilities? If so, can you elaborate on GTIA's enhancements? I'm meaning to say that the Jaguar is a "64 bit gaming system" and even that doesn't handle 3-D incredibly smoothly. I don't think the 7800 can hold a candle to that. Of course, I am also sitting here wondering why TYPE of 3D gaming we are talking about. 3d gaming of the 80's and early 90's. Shmups, FPS, flight simulators, etc. Nothing demanding. I'm wondering if the 7800, by not using a tile based graphics system, had a potential advantage over the competition...

Nobody knows what the 7800 can do as far as 3d game engine performance? Do you have a particular game in mind? Allan Theoretical. I've seen programmers here achieve polygon displays, but they've never applied them to actual gameplay. Scrolling sprites seen in games like Space Harrier haven't even been attempted outside BallBlazer, to the best of my knowlege... Also, the 7800 graphically isn't weaker than the 8bit line, so far as I know...comparing games on both systems, the 8bits are better designed, but the 7800 offers more detailed sprites, more frames of animation, etc. The exceptions (Karateka) are usually due to the sloppiness of the programming code, not the hardware.

Centipede. A port exists on the 8-bits, as well as almost every system ever made, but the 5200 version is the only one redesigned from the ground up ( graphics and AI ) for a home system.

Nobody knows what the 7800 can do as far as 3d game engine performance?

Do share? I'm curious if I can make them work. The Lynx is a unique challenge...

I'm deep into the uncanny valley on this one. The realistic aesthetic would work wonders if I couldn't see slightly blurred pixels wallpaper pasted over every surface, and people had more than three expression variations carved on their cute little wooden puppet faces. Or if people cast shadows on themselves. I'm not asking for much, just something besides faded circus colors to remind me I'm in another world, instead of a videogame. But even then, I don't think it would be enough. I sympathize with anyone who can't get into the story. The big moments are wonderful, almost poetic... There are no small moments. Everything that isn't a big moment feels like a placeholder text designed to get us to the next action scene. Yoshiaki Koizumi's touch is missed...

Seconded. Think of it as Grand Theft Auto: Starship Troopers. It's made by the same people, and if you don't mind the slap on the wrist increase to the difficulty level, allows the same kinds of bad behavior. Great 'unintentional' comedy throughout...

Beetle Adventure Racing - Featured in a recent Hardcore Gamer magazine, where it was praised at timeless. Great track design; compares to Nintendo's best.

What can the 7800 theoretically handle as far as scrolling sprites/simple polygon environments like hallways, etc? I've seen threads comparing it to the NES, but none that ask what else it offered...

Second worst.

Ok, someone explain why we're listening to him after this line? This isn't a terrifying look into the future so much as a "Cover ass and blame the dog."

Youtube is filled with buried teasure...and fossilized monkey poop! .

16 bit wars - Turbografx-CD vs. Sega CD Meet Johnny Turbo.