Segataritensoftii Posted January 13, 2008 Share Posted January 13, 2008 ...How do you think games would have evolved? I honestly have no idea what could've happened, but any of you have thoughts on this? I just thought it would be an interesting subject to talk about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Student Driver Posted January 13, 2008 Share Posted January 13, 2008 Honestly, it's difficult to imagine a push for 3D not happening. I used to get computer gaming magazines in the 70s, and the primary fantasy/hopeful wish for the future in articles and editorials of the time was that gaming would become more realistic, to the point where games could roughly simulate reality-- football games to be played from the POV of a player, for example. And programmers were pushing arcades and systems to produce 3D from the very beginning-- witness the Flight Simulator series, Elite, Battlezone, etc. I was surprised by how completely gamers and companies seemed to switch to the mentality of "all 3D, all the time," though. You'd think that decades of 2D gaming had proven that it was a viable viewpoint which enabled types of games that couldn't be easily played any other way. --- Trying to put myself in the mentality that "3D didn't happen," I suppose there would have been a refinement in FMV. It seems like FMV was used as a stop-gap measure as the industry moved from 2D to 3D, allowing developers to start creating pseudo-realistic environments; thus, if 3D tech stalled out, FMV might have been continued to be used-- presumably in more innovative, interactive ways-- to create the illusion of reality. With modern compression techniques and storage sizes and matured FMV techniques, I imagine interactivity would be mind-blowing when compared to the clunky Sega CD/LaserActive stuff. Perhaps the pseudo-3D tactic of scaling/rotating sprites would have been refined, too-- like Sega's Model 16 games on steroids. I wonder how one would model, say, a 3D city for a sandbox game using those techniques? Maybe virtual-reality-type glasses would have been given more of a chance; although it seemed tied to polygon stuff, if 3D modeling had never happened, perhaps it would have been easier to sync VR glasses to pseudo-3D sprites and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari5200 Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 The Neo Geo would still be king if there was no 3d, and hell, even games like Viewpoint would exhist which look 3d polygonal, but are truely 2d. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Sprite Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 Perhaps "Evolved" is too strong a word. Look at the Gameboy Advance, the only mainstream 32-bit 2d system; aside from WarioWare, most of it's titles are a salad bar of the best game styles of the 80's - 90's. Great for the consumer on a limited budget who wants to sample a little of everything (Where else can you legally play NES, Genesis, SNES, 2600, PC, Amiga, and Atari ST titles on the same system?), but nothing that shook the world up a little enough to take notice, or really change anyone's thinking... If videogames are art (and some are), then 2D is at best hieroglyphs on a wall, or a tile mosiac. Nothing wrong with either, but neither can fully represent a world built on 3 dimensions. Or it's people... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imajin Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 Hm, another 32-bit 2d system would be the NEC PC-FX, which falls into the "lots and lots of FMV" category... The Sega Saturn started out life as a system designed to do excellent 2d, and required some major last minute design alterations to make it decent at 3d as well (IIRC the second SH-2 was added at this point). One wonders what happens with Nintendo- some rumors seem to imply that Nintendo was planning on doing more 3d on the SNES, with a game industry that magically doesn't have 3d, they may decide that SNES + SuperFX2 is good enough. The PlayStation may not do as well, as a lot of it's appeal came from it's 3d graphics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Humbug Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 I think the 3-D we know nowadays is a logic evolutionary step. It is the same with the wheel. The wheel, its round shape, was/is the perfect "medium" to move an object with least fricition. Could you imagine the wheel never invented? It was so logical that someone came up with it, because all math of this universe I suppose dictates the shape for the wanted result. Since our world is 3-D, it is the logical desire to recreate the same by means of technologies to use in computer games (and in plenty of other applications, remote surgery for example) because it is the natural way how we conceive or environement. 3-D offers so much more possibilities in gameplay and stuff. I would say, if no-one had invented video games by now but the technology to produce 3-D were there, we would skip the 2-D games straight away. I do love 2-D and the kids of tomorrow will have missed out some great fun should it not be available by then, but I truly think we are where we are because it was the next logical step on the ladder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonmasterDan Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 Hm, another 32-bit 2d system would be the NEC PC-FX, which falls into the "lots and lots of FMV" category... The Sega Saturn started out life as a system designed to do excellent 2d, and required some major last minute design alterations to make it decent at 3d as well (IIRC the second SH-2 was added at this point). One wonders what happens with Nintendo- some rumors seem to imply that Nintendo was planning on doing more 3d on the SNES, with a game industry that magically doesn't have 3d, they may decide that SNES + SuperFX2 is good enough. The PlayStation may not do as well, as a lot of it's appeal came from it's 3d graphics. Yep, the PC-FX was designed in 1992 for all intents and purposes and then sat for two years before NEC released it realizing that the generation was shifting away from the 16-bits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Charlie Cat Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Hi Guys: If there was no 3-D, video games would stink. Anthony.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HammR25 Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 We'd have a thread asking us how cool games would be if they were actually 3d. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike 01Hawk Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 I'm glad 3D has matured, but good god did it suck having to grow up during it's 'teething' years!!! And it'd be great to have 2D classics still made, guess that's why I'll keep my GBA around forever Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scumdogg Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 I'm glad 3D has matured, but good god did it suck having to grow up during it's 'teething' years!!! That's not as bad as having grown up in the reign of 2D, seeing 2D hit new levels of amazing in games like Castlevania SotN, and then watching it all crash down around you in favor of "realistic" games with 50 polygon count characters featuring four colors, no textures, and forearms like cinderblocks. I was worried for the entire run of the Playstation and Saturn that games might never get good again. It's only been in recent years since the panic has subsided that i've even started collecting games for those two systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucket Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 I assume we'd all be dead, because apparently we are monkeys incapable of visualizing things in three dimensions. 3D isn't some recent development. Even some very early games were in 3D (albeit not with textured or even filled polygons). The concept was always there; only the presentation has evolved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raindog151 Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 What always drove me nuts was how bad most early 3D console games looked, compared to Alone in the Dark for PC, which was fantastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 We'd have a thread asking us how cool games would be if they were actually 3d. How do you know you are not living in a giant video game right now???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 If there had been no push for 3D, still today, there would be people playing with their Microvision on every street corner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skylark68 Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Well, whomever was playing me as a game would be really bored. Because all i'm doing is sitting at a desk reading a thread about 3-D video games... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari5200 Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 We'd have a thread asking us how cool games would be if they were actually 3d. How do you know you are not living in a giant video game right now???? that would explain why when I walk into walls I continue to walk...no wait...that's the alcohol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gentlegamer Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 How do you know you are not living in a giant video game right now????Am I a man who dreamed he was a butterfly or a butterfly that dreams he is a man? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Well, whomever was playing me as a game would be really bored. Because all i'm doing is sitting at a desk reading a thread about 3-D video games... You are playing yourself as the game......life is a video game, try to get a high score.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev. Rob Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 ...How do you think games would have evolved? I honestly have no idea what could've happened, but any of you have thoughts on this? I just thought it would be an interesting subject to talk about. Like this game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyberfluxor Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Like this game. Astal is a wonderful and colorful game, really worth more than a couple of dollars. I've discussed and defended the importance of 2D graphics often. With the power behind modern computers and consoles the future development of color resolution possibilities in the 2D environment are becomming ever more impressive. If a gaming company utilized these graphical abilities they could easily wow many gamers. So if there were no push for more 3D then we'd so a wide variety of amazing sprite titles but so many platformers and adventure games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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