Backwards compatibility coming to PS4 and XB1?

[Phredreeke]

On one level, sure, but let's face it, both PS4 and Xbox One have been selling like gangbusters without very many games to this point. The Wii U won't be able to make up much ground at this point, but certainly of the three that one is helped the most by significant releases since it's missing some of the intangibles of the other two.

Here's the thing, PS4 and Xbox One aren't sold on what they offer right now, but on their future potential.

[dashv]

To be clear, I never said or tried to imply that I represent most people. I just pointed out why I'm personally not jumping on the latest gen.

 

I'm actually in the wood_jl camp. Eventually I'll probably get a ps4 and a wiiU. But it will be after costs come down and the hardware has been refined.

Edited July 20, 2014 by dashv

[AtariDude]

It would be great if they can get the PS4 to play some PS1 or PS2 games. I still have my PS2 system and games but the TV that i have to play them on is not so great as it has an issue with sound so I don't use it much. Would be great to be able to play the games on my large screen TV.

[Atariboy]

Especially if it actually renders them in HD and doesn't just upscale them. Would go a long ways towards making them look nice on a modern HDTV such as this Gran Turismo 4 video showing it running in an emulator demonstrates.

 

 

Without texture upgrades and such, it's not quite as nice as a full PS2 port to the PS3 like Sony's various collections. But rendering in HD is half of the battle and much of the reason why something like Ico looks as nice as it does when running in its PS3 form.

Edited July 30, 2014 by Atariboy

[amiman99]

@atariboy

 

I'm not sure if you know, you can play GT4 in 1080i with component cables on real PS2, it looks great.

[Atariboy]

I do (And should give it a try someday), but I believe all it's doing is upscaling the 480p output to 1080i.

 

If the PS4 ever receives PS2 emulation capabilities and is able to render them directly into HD, GT4 isn't going to look much worse than the PS3's actual GT games. Take away the enhanced lighting and shadows from GT5/6 and Gran Turismo 4 running in PCSX2 doesn't look all that much different.

Edited August 1, 2014 by Atariboy

[+wood_jl]

They'll likely never have it upscale the games - even if it can - if history is our guide. The PS2 was capable of doing some limited upscaling of PS1 games, but they cut that feature because they feared it would cut into PS2 new game sales. Even the Dreamcast (with Bleemcast) could upscale a couple of games, Gran Turismo 2 and Tekken 3. They looked better on Dreamcast than they did PS2. But that was 3rd-party. Sony likely still doesn't want to make old games look as good - or near as good - as new games.

[Atariboy]

I think the most the PS2 could do was apply a smoothing filter of some sort and speed up the loading.

 

I think what you meant to say is that it wouldn't render games in HD. Upscaling of course is a standard feature on the PS3 with its backwards compatibility.

[cimerians]

The is a good guide and also list of games that featured 480P etc for PS2

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_2_games_with_HD_support#endnote_6

 

Some games had the mode hidden like God of War II.

[Andromeda Stardust]

The is a good guide and also list of games that featured 480P etc for PS2

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_2_games_with_HD_support#endnote_6

 

Some games had the mode hidden like God of War II.

Many Game Cube games also could be rendered in 480p rather than i. Of course, most of those games were rendered natively at 30fps while in progressive mode, so there was no real performance penalty for switching from interlaced to progressive modes. I transferred all my downloads from Wii to Wii-U, and now my original Wii is crapping out with memory errors, etc, but I still have Game Cube to play my games on, albeit in non-progressive modes. My current setup consists of a CRT TV and a 1080p computer monitor, so sans buying a component-to-VGA converter, I don't even have the hookups for progressive video in my bedroom.

[cimerians]

My current setup consists of a CRT TV and a 1080p computer monitor, so sans buying a component-to-VGA converter, I don't even have the hookups for progressive video in my bedroom.

 

Don't get rid of the CRT!

 

I still prefer a CRT for N64-->Gamecube era games. I don't always play them on my CRT but when I do it still looks great. I don't have my Gamecube hooked up since I use a homebrewed Wii and I'll never sell it. Actually I don't think I skipped or sold a Nintendo console ever. Well, I came close to skipping the Wii U but I caved in. I always cave in. I bought every version of the Gameboy\DS. I think I have a dozen models from the GBA on up.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Kind of off-topic, but it's also not worth tracking down a rare component cable and then a component-to-VGA converter just to get my Game Cube running on the HD monitor with a slightly enhanced picture, not to mention widescreen monitors have been known to nerf the aspect ratio of legacy VGA connections. Game Cube displays well enough on the CRT. Wii was kind of an oddball with the widescreen analog component output, but I run all my Wii software through the Wii-U on the HD monitor now.

 

I also split a separate audio feed from both composite and HDMI sources through my stereo, so no junky TV/Monitor speakers to ruin the audio side of things.

Don't get rid of the CRT!

Believe me, I have no intention of doing so.

In addition to a 26" HDTV in the living room, I've got a smallish 19" Symphonic CRT in the monitor bay of my corner computer desk in my bedroom game setup (with the 23" 1080p monitor on the shelf directly above it), a 27" RCA TV in my mom's bedroom which currently has a cable box and my Best AV-modded 7800 hooked up, and a nice big 1993 32" Zenith currently stored away in the garage, with woodgrain paneling on the sides. My mom originally bought it for $50 from a teacher she worked with before she retired. The teacher later offered to buy it back and I told my mom "no," that I wanted to keep it. The Zenith is a nice big screen and has an absolutely gorgeous display with a nice dot pitch and razor sharp scanlines with no purity or calibration problems as far as I can tell. Despite the fact it is RF only and lacks composite inputs, it's easily the best display out of the three CRT TVs we own. When I finally get my own place, the 1993 Zenith will be the center of my game room. I'll probably also stack a big low latency PC monitor on top of it for HD games.

Edited August 2, 2014 by stardust4ever

[Atariboy]

Wii's output is no different than the GameCube's. Nothing oddball about it. All it's doing with the typical Wii widescreen game is outputting a 16:9 anamorphic 480p picture (Although there are some that are 480i only). That's the same thing you'd get with something like F-Zero GX on the GameCube. It's just a 16:9 picture using non-square pixels compressed into the normal 480p 4:3 frame that both systems output which your tv then re-expands to 16:9 proportions by stretching it to fill your screen.

 

And there are monitors with component inputs. I have a LCD right now with a full range of inputs (Composite, S-Video, component, VGA, and HDMI). But the point for most by acquiring a GameCube component cable has absolutely nothing to do with monitors. Most folks that purchase one use it with a tv for the benefits of component video over S-Video and if it's on a progressive scan compatible set (Typically a HDTV), to enable progressive scan for enhanced picture quality and to decrease the workload of the tv's scaling chip.

 

The big attraction these days since you can buy a backwards compatible Wii and brand new Wii component cables for it for less than the cost of a used GameCube component cable is the Game Boy Player. It enables 480p output for the Game Boy Player which improves picture quality plus on a HDTV it takes away the task of having the tv's scaler de-interlace the picture (which is an opportunity for it to harm the PQ and creates lag due to the processing going on).

Edited August 2, 2014 by Atariboy

[Phredreeke]

Wii's output is no different than the GameCube's. Nothing oddball about it.

Actually, the Wii's component video is supposedely inferior to that of the GameCube.

[Atariboy]

That might true, but what resolutions are output is identical. The Wii isn't doing anything different with video standards than what the GameCube already was doing.