What generation of Videogames do you think was the best?

[TMR]

Why these would be on an Amiga FTP site is beyond me!
Could this all be down to a bit of crossed wires and iffy memory (the gooey stuff in your head, not the computer type)?

Possibly, because every 2nd AMIGA 2000,3000,4000 owner used a PC Card? So many DOS programs ran on that Hardware?

That's a good bet yeah, it's either that or the author built two versions, put them both into an archive for general distribution and upped that to the Amiga FTP.

[Scooby1970]

So, looking at the results so far, and reading the posts, it would appear that although alot of us loved our 8-bit machines of the day, it was the 16-bit era that reallty showed us innovation and promise of the future of gaming.

Its strange to see only a couple of people vote on this current gen of gaming. Personally, I think this gen is possibly the best gen yet after the 16-bit era for games, innovation and general excitment of new releases!

Mark

[TMR]

So, looking at the results so far, and reading the posts, it would appear that although alot of us loved our 8-bit machines of the day, it was the 16-bit era that reallty showed us innovation and promise of the future of gaming.

Judging by the poll itself i wouldn't have come to that conclusion; 24 votes for 8-bit and 28 for 16-bit isn't a massive difference in voting and, since not all of the people voting commented, the thread itself isn't as definitive as those scores. i didn't comment on my vote because what Jonathan wrote on page 2 covered everything i would've said about originality and innovation (which i believe the 8-bit era had far more of than the 16-bit) and i dislike posting just to say "me too", but i voted for the 8-bit era; part of that is because if i list my top ten or twenty games at any point, the list might shuffle around extensively but it's usually 8-bit games at the top of the stack.

Its strange to see only a couple of people vote on this current gen of gaming.

That might be because this is the Retro Gamer message board perhaps...? =-)

[Scooby1970]

So, looking at the results so far, and reading the posts, it would appear that although alot of us loved our 8-bit machines of the day, it was the 16-bit era that reallty showed us innovation and promise of the future of gaming.

Judging by the poll itself i wouldn't have come to that conclusion; 24 votes for 8-bit and 28 for 16-bit isn't a massive difference in voting and, since not all of the people voting commented, the thread itself isn't as definitive as those scores. i didn't comment on my vote because what Jonathan wrote on page 2 covered everything i would've said about originality and innovation (which i believe the 8-bit era had far more of than the 16-bit) and i dislike posting just to say "me too", but i voted for the 8-bit era; part of that is because if i list my top ten or twenty games at any point, the list might shuffle around extensively but it's usually 8-bit games at the top of the stack.

Its strange to see only a couple of people vote on this current gen of gaming.

That might be because this is the Retro Gamer message board perhaps...? =-)

That's right, it's not a huge difference, but the stats speak for themselves. From some of the people I have spoken to, it seems some people, especially the 8-bit era, voted that gen as it was what they grew up with. That is all quite understadable. The 8-bit era was awesome, dont get me wrong, loved my CPC and Speccy and even my mates C64, but 16-bit was the pinnicle of 2D gaming imho (and according to the slender lead that this poll has).

As for your second part, YES! It is a retro-gaming forum, but in reality, if some of these people spoke exactly like the ones who did vote "this gen" and didn't have on their rose-tinted glasses (which do now and again - only human!), then I'm sure some of the newer gens would have alot more votes.

Give me "Tekken 5:DR" or even "Street Fighter Alpha 3" over "Way Of The Exploding Fist" anyday! As much as I LOVE my retro-gaming!

Mark

[TMR]

So, looking at the results so far, and reading the posts, it would appear that although alot of us loved our 8-bit machines of the day, it was the 16-bit era that reallty showed us innovation and promise of the future of gaming.

Judging by the poll itself i wouldn't have come to that conclusion; 24 votes for 8-bit and 28 for 16-bit isn't a massive difference in voting and, since not all of the people voting commented, the thread itself isn't as definitive as those scores.

That's right, it's not a huge difference, but the stats speak for themselves. From some of the people I have spoken to, it seems some people, especially the 8-bit era, voted that gen as it was what they grew up with.

The stats speak for themselves yes, but i'm taking issue with your analysis of what they're saying; those figures don't say anything about how the voters felt, they certainly don't say that those voters believed that "it was the 16-bit era that reallty showed us innovation and promise of the future of gaming" and the opinions of a subset of those voters can't be extrapolated out in that way. 16-bit may be the pinnacle of 2D gaming (again, i'd disagree but this part at least is subjective) but that's not the same as innovation or promise.

As for your second part, YES! It is a retro-gaming forum, but in reality, if some of these people spoke exactly like the ones who did vote "this gen" and didn't have on their rose-tinted glasses (which do now and again - only human!), then I'm sure some of the newer gens would have alot more votes.

But, as you're agreeing, it's a retro gaming forum. So when people are asked "which is best" they're already here because they have a penchant for retro gaming and that's always going to skew responses, rose tinted glasses or not.

Give me "Tekken 5:DR" or even "Street Fighter Alpha 3" over "Way Of The Exploding Fist" anyday! As much as I LOVE my retro-gaming!

That's all about personal taste though; for those of use who, like myself, favour 2D scrolling shoot 'em ups, the current crop of platforms has close to bugger all (excluding homebrew) to entice us; Ikaruga, Gradius V, Psyvariar 2 or the Geometry Wars franchise yes (and yes, i own PGR2 purely for Geometry Wars) or the selection of blasters for the GBA perhaps, but unless you import Dreamcast shooters you can probably count the number of games in that genre commercially released on two hands (or two hands and a foot with the GBA stuff). Do i say i prefer that over the 8-bits where i've got scrolling shoot 'em ups coming out of my ears? Nope, can't do that in all honesty.

[C=Style]

Yeah, the 16-bit era is where the template for awesome 2D gaming was made, everything after has added little to the core gameplay and just refined it a little instead with prettier gfx. I would take 16bit era shmups (such as those made by the likes of Toaplan) over 32-bit era "Danmaku" shmups from devs like Cave or Psikyo. They may look super-pretty but I find the gameplay to be lacking compared to the more traditional shmups with actual proper bullet patterns which Raizing were so good at.

Same thing goes for 2D beat 'em up's in the sense that the template was carved out with Street Fighter 2 in the 16-bit era and everything since from Capcom has just been minor tweakage in the gfx or gameplay department, and in some cases becoming too complicated for it's own good.

So yeah, 16-bit era is the daddy!

[Kaede]

Yeah, the 16-bit era is where the template for awesome 2D gaming was made, everything after has added little to the core gameplay and just refined it a little instead with prettier gfx. I would take 16bit era shmups (such as those made by the likes of Toaplan) over 32-bit era "Danmaku" shmups from devs like Cave or Psikyo. They may look super-pretty but I find the gameplay to be lacking compared to the more traditional shmups with actual proper bullet patterns which Raizing were so good at.

Garegga, Kingdom Grand Prix and Souky appeared on Saturn. Most of their arcade titles appeared during the 32bit era. And btw, Cave is made up of ex-Toaplan staff.

I think it's quite clear that Cave have pretty much mastered the art of creating shoot 'em ups. Many would argue they did that with DoDonPachi but to go on and create the likes of DOJ, Mushi and 'Galuda just shows how good they are.

[C=Style]

Yes I do know that the likes of Garegga appeared during the 32-bit era, but Raizing (as they were also ex-members of Toaplan) carried on the work that was already devised in the 16-bit era with older Toaplan games.

What you say about Cave having mastered the art of creating great shumps is mere opinion. I don't like them manic shooters compared to the more finely crafted shumps developed by Raizing like Mahou Daisakusen, Battle Garegga, Souky or Dimahoo! For me they are what Shmups are all about, not cheap bullet patterns like seen in the majority of Cave games. I do enjoy some of the Cave stuff however, esp the DDP series I just prefer the older type shumps, but hey it's just opinion and personal preference.

[Devious]

...i am a programmer...

I only know what I experienced is just like I said. The same hard disk drives and optical drives and PCI cards that run on a MacIntosh computer (Motorola processor) can be run on an Intel based computer. The hardware and how it responds to commands doesn't change. If an OS wants to introduce its own hardware access layer between the hardware and the processor, specific drivers need to be created for the OS. Talking directly to the hardware, which was frequently done in non-GUI based OSes does not require an OS specific command scheme. Just as there are old utilities that provide for physical access to areas on a hard drive that were meant to be accessed only by the manufacturer, a good programmer can do what a common programmer can not even fathom.

[Devious]

Personally, I think this gen is possibly the best gen yet after the 16-bit era for games, innovation and general excitment of new releases!

With the introduction on Shenmue on the Dreamcast I thought we were headed for some industry wide innovation, but I believe that never saw light due to Sega's change.

[TMR]

...i am a programmer...

I only know what I experienced is just like I said. The same hard disk drives and optical drives and PCI cards that run on a MacIntosh computer (Motorola processor) can be run on an Intel based computer.

Which means absolutely nothing as far as software interoperability (or a lack thereof) goes; PCI, IDE or SCSI are standards, as long as the source and target machines both adhere to those standards the drive'll work on both, but taking a drive out of an old Mac and connecting it to a PC won't allow the Motorola-specific code for MacOS run on an Intel in the same way that feeding the 2.5" drive from a laptop to an Amiga 1200 won't allow it to boot Windows. The drives work, the software on them won't.

Talking directly to the hardware, which was frequently done in non-GUI based OSes does not require an OS specific command scheme.

And you're not understanding the point; it's nothing to do with the operating system, we're not even getting that far up the food chain here; it's because the machine code used by Intel machines is totally different to what a Motorola CPU looks for, a piece of code written for one looks in specific places for hardware that are just empty RAM on the other, there is no way code written for an Amiga of any flavour will run on a DOS box.

a good programmer can do what a common programmer can not even fathom.

Subtle. If you wanted to say that you don't think i know what i'm talking about, just say it.

[bhyperp]

I just get butterfly`s when I see a SNES........mmmmmm SNES.

And the fact I was at the age when I didn`t have to do anything with my life.......just school.....you know before the dole.

[bigfreakypossum]

Same thing goes for 2D beat 'em up's in the sense that the template was carved out with Street Fighter 2 in the 16-bit era and everything since from Capcom has just been minor tweakage in the gfx or gameplay department, and in some cases becoming too complicated for it's own good.

I would hardly consider 3D fighters like Virtua Fighter and Soul Calibur, which didn't really take shape until the next (5th) generation "minor tweakage". Heck, they're barely even the same genre.

[Devious]

...

You, like most "programmers" who hang out on sites like this, probably picked up a copy of C++ programming for dummies and now, together with your high cps keying rate, you think you know every little thing there is to know about programming. Yet, what little you do know you likely had to learn from some ubiquitously available, freely accessible book.

To help explain I borrowed this from somebody.

Here is the hierarchy from top to bottom:

Software Architect
Software Engineer
Software Developer
Programmer
Coder
Script Kiddy

[Dudley]

TMR has written multiple playable games, some have sold for real money.

You claimed to know nothing about programming on this very forum and claimed Amiga games work just fine on PCs with no alterations other than renaming a file.

I'll let the viewing public decide on a credibility rating.