Defining PC Games

[AmigaJay]

People get mixed up with other codec video and FMV which used MPEG-1, this back in the day was the FMV standard until people just started calling any video in a game a 'FMV' game

"digital video data that is transmitted or stored on video discs for real-time reproduction on a computer (or other multimedia system) at a rate of not less than 25 frames per second."

That takes out all the Mega-CD games and the majority of the early PC games, the only true FMV games used MPEG-1 cards (Known as FMV cards then) as i stated mostly the CD-i alone used this standard, a few others followed on PC and 3DO with their own cards.

"Most PC's at the time werent capable of playing back FMV, The 11th Hour, the sequel to The 7th Guest. 11th Hour featured 640x480 FMV at 30 frames-per-second on 4 CDs. The development team had worked for three years on developing a format that could handle the video, as the director of the live-action sequences had not shot the FMV sequences in a way that could be easily compressed. However, this proved to be the game's downfall, as most computers of the day could not play the full-resolution video. Users were usually forced to select an option which played the videos at a quarter-size resolution in black-and-white."



Otherwise you might as well use include some 5fps genlocked video on the Amiga 500 or hound of the basketvilles on the CDTV from 1991! or for that matter Laserdisk games from the early 80s!

[SJ_Sathanas]

Way to kill the thread guys ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[hydr0x]

People get mixed up with other codec video and FMV which used MPEG-1, this back in the day was the FMV standard until people just started calling any video in a game a 'FMV' game

Please, show me the FMV trademark which links the term to MPEG-1... I think you're the one confused about the terms. There is nothing out there directly linking the FMV term to MPEG-1. MPEG-1, as you say, is just one of many codes, which happens to be the one used by Video-CDs. That doesn't mean at all that other technical solutions of presenting fluid video don't qualify as FMV. CD-i/3DO/CD32 and PCs all got their DVC/MPEG cards after the advent of the term FMV.

[AmigaJay]

People get mixed up with other codec video and FMV which used MPEG-1, this back in the day was the FMV standard until people just started calling any video in a game a 'FMV' game

Please, show me the FMV trademark which links the term to MPEG-1... I think you're the one confused about the terms. There is nothing out there directly linking the FMV term to MPEG-1. MPEG-1, as you say, is just one of many codes, which happens to be the one used by Video-CDs. That doesn't mean at all that other technical solutions of presenting fluid video don't qualify as FMV. CD-i/3DO/CD32 and PCs all got their DVC/MPEG cards after the advent of the term FMV.

Last post on the matter as didn't want to derail this thread.
There is no trademark per say, it was just linked with MPEG1 cards before games like Night Trap came out and the media seemed to overuse the phrase at the time, and the quote I added about the minimum of 25fps to be classed as 'FMV' is revelant as until the 11th Hour which didnt come out until 1995, most PCs and no consoles could run 25fps 'FMV' without a MPEG1 board.
Hence why FMV was linked to MPEG1 boards first and foremost before Night Trap, and why some people remember them as FMV cards.

[koopa42]

I wouldn't give this about the techno babble sh1t about FMwank:

[theantmeister]

Aaaaanyway.

Glide games, as in, games that used 3dfx cards. Unreal is probably the game that defined the 3dfx era for me. It looked incredible. Sadly, these early 3D accelerated games are the ones that are hardest to run on a real PC these days.

Fast forwarding a bit, I'd add Farcry to the list as well. Farcry came out of nowhere, at a time when people were already saying PC gaming was dead. Its lush foliage and gorgeous beaches still look amazing today. Crytek were the poster child of PC development. Its a pity then, that piracy drove them to porting to consoles.

And finally, the games that define PC gaming for me today are VVVVVV and Cave Story. Both games that, 15 years ago, would have been released on a console, but were developed in the only place where platformers could still thrive - the PC indie scene!

[Bobinator]

I'd like to put up one more game, if nobody minds. Not nearly as popular as the other three I mentioned, but still very much worth mentioning. Little backstory here: In the days of the PC, 1994, to be exact, there wasn't much choice for fighting games. The only good Street Fighter 2 port wouldn't hit PC for another year, and while the Mortal Kombat ports were great in quality, they weren't really built for keyboards.

One Must Fall 2097.



So what makes this game special? Well, for one thing, it was built from the ground up for PC, so it's practically built to use the keyboard. Even with only two buttons, however, there's quite a lot of depth, and you can even pull of combos. There's even an early infinite prevention system in there, long before more modern fighters like Skullgirls would attempt it. An adjustable speed setting that can take the game from Street Fighter 2 speeds, to Turbo, and far, far beyond. Two hidden gameplay modes, one of which completely overhauls the combo system to let you pull off some insane juggle combos. Fatalities. (which is OK, since they're robots.) And an RPG-style tournament mode where you can use money to upgrade your robot, find hidden upgrades to give them new moves, and use your customized 'bot against another player. Some damn good music. All this from 1994.

Best PC fighting game there ever was, and quite possibly will be. Street Fighter 4 can suck it.

[crusto]

Great, but what's it called?

[snowkatt]

one must fall 2097 apparantly

[Bobinator]

Craaaaaaaaaaaap. Sorry about that.

[snowkatt]

i clicked the youtube link its title is mentioned in there

[crusto]

i clicked the youtube link its title is mentioned in there

So did I, I was just being pedantic

[ncf1]

I was in the thick of it at the time it broke, Doom changed everything on the PC without question. Just simply opened the door well open wide - well it more or less blasted the door right off, really. You also had things like 7th Guest which showed people what this new CD-ROM thing could do, and I like to think our looping shop demo most certainly displayed why it was well worth you coughing up some big bucks for a Creative Labs Discovery kit (TWO speed CD-ROM and all, for heaven's sake). MYST shook up and revitalised the adventure genre and oh how much I hated that horrible game -- Day Of The Tentacle and Sam & Max Hit The Road were much more like it. Then you had things like The Need For Speed, that had people scrambling back to the PC as a gaming format, utilising Pentium power perhaps for the first time and (almost) justifying the upgrade. Those were great times I must say, the early 90's : the next "big step up" in videogaming after the 8- to 16-bit revolution, in my opinion.

[MattyC64c]

Aaaaanyway.

Fast forwarding a bit, I'd add Farcry to the list as well. Farcry came out of nowhere, at a time when people were already saying PC gaming was dead. Its lush foliage and gorgeous beaches still look amazing today. Crytek were the poster child of PC development. Its a pity then, that piracy drove them to porting to consoles.

Far Cry was amazing, and like you've said, it still looks good now. 2004 saw a bit of a defining change with PC graphics. Far Cry's engine was stunning, it was also the benchmark for many PC games for several years in terms of graphics power.

Far Cry was one of the first PC games I had played at the time that truly showed off new forms of pixel shading technologies. For example there are several sections where the player enters caves or old WW2 bunkers that are dank and wet. The new pixel shader tech really made these locations look stunning. The walls in these places really did look muddy and wet, to point where you believed you could touch them.

The other game released that very same year was Doom 3. At the time I actually purchased a new £300 graphics card just to play these two games at their best. Also I was playing these games in HD, two years before this would become standard for pretty much all console and PC games.

Then again, I was playing PC games in HD resolutions back in 2001.

[CrookedMouth]

I came to PC a little late in the game, being an Amiga user.

For me it was Thief:The Dark Project, Unreal and Half-Life, then CounterStrike a little later. These titles just changed the FPS genre totally. The worlds were more alive now with new mechanics that immersed me so much more.