Which system ended the "Bit Wars"?

[high voltage]

The Jaguar doesn't look garbage.

 

For a game console, "looking like garbage" is relative. The Jag looks great compared to, say, the NES, but against the backdrop of the disingenuous 64-bit marketing and what the contemporary systems were doing, it indeed came across as soundly second rate. I think anybody who feels strongly otherwise is probably a little bit too willing to turn a blind eye to obvious shortcomings just for the sake of rooting for the underdog.

 

Well, I've seen very, very cringeworthy Nintendo marketing, especially in Japan, it's gonna make you puke.

[Emehr]

Yeah shitting on the Jag is like shitting on the VCS if it had died in 1979. All we'd know of the VCS are the original 2K titles.

Who'd of thought the same system that gave us 'Star Ship' could also give us 'Solaris'?

Given time and dedication, I'm sure the Jaguar could of been a beast.

(pun intended)

 

Could've...would've...should've. Didn't.

Consoles, much like people, are defined by what they accomplish, not what they're capable of.

[godslabrat]

N64 graphics look good for a console released in 1996, and even the earlier titles were impressive. You would have needed an expensive PC with 3Dfx card to rival the graphics in "Mario 64", etc.

 

At the time, I was mostly familiar with Club Drive and Cybermorph... comparing them to SNES titles like StarFox and F-Zero, and the Jaguar really didn't look that impressive... certainly not to the tune of 4x better that the "DO THE MATH" marketing suggested. Of course, I now know that the Jag did have some visually impressive games, but that's all in hindsight... at the time, sitting beside the Genesis and SNES, the Jag wasn't the clear sell it should have been.

 

OTOH, the N64 WAS clearly more impressive than the SNES or Genesis, and was at least playing in the same league as the Playstation in terms of graphics, if not content.

[mbd30]

N64 graphics look good for a console released in 1996, and even the earlier titles were impressive. You would have needed an expensive PC with 3Dfx card to rival the graphics in "Mario 64", etc.

 

At the time, I was mostly familiar with Club Drive and Cybermorph... comparing them to SNES titles like StarFox and F-Zero, and the Jaguar really didn't look that impressive... certainly not to the tune of 4x better that the "DO THE MATH" marketing suggested. Of course, I now know that the Jag did have some visually impressive games, but that's all in hindsight... at the time, sitting beside the Genesis and SNES, the Jag wasn't the clear sell it should have been.

 

OTOH, the N64 WAS clearly more impressive than the SNES or Genesis, and was at least playing in the same league as the Playstation in terms of graphics, if not content.

 

Back in the day, the N64 trumped competitors such as the Playstation in terms of games with full 3D environments, as opposed to games that looked good because they were linear eg."Crash Bandicoot".

[Rex Dart]

Back in the day, the N64 trumped competitors such as the Playstation in terms of games with full 3D environments, as opposed to games that looked good because they were linear eg."Crash Bandicoot".

 

Jumping Flash.

[mbd30]

Back in the day, the N64 trumped competitors such as the Playstation in terms of games with full 3D environments, as opposed to games that looked good because they were linear eg."Crash Bandicoot".

 

Jumping Flash.

 

This must have blown minds when it first came out. It does look sweet. I never got around to playing the "Jumping Flash" series.

[Reaperman]

The Jag had impressive hardware; games like AVP illustrate it was in the same league as the PS1 and Saturn.

I just don't agree with that at all. Below is a video of the first 10 european psx games and they are just in a different league. Sure, maybe there were some psx games along the way that looked worse, but I sure managed to stay clear of them. This sample isn't Gran Turismo 2 or Colony Wars levels of awesome either, but just some average run-of-the-mill launch psx titles. I'll give jag that it generally held its ground against 32x, and that a proper library could have pushed jag harder.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsTYWOY2WYg

Edited June 14, 2012 by Reaperman

[Austin]

N64 graphics look good for a console released in 1996, and even the earlier titles were impressive. You would have needed an expensive PC with 3Dfx card to rival the graphics in "Mario 64", etc.

 

At the time, I was mostly familiar with Club Drive and Cybermorph... comparing them to SNES titles like StarFox and F-Zero, and the Jaguar really didn't look that impressive... certainly not to the tune of 4x better that the "DO THE MATH" marketing suggested. Of course, I now know that the Jag did have some visually impressive games, but that's all in hindsight... at the time, sitting beside the Genesis and SNES, the Jag wasn't the clear sell it should have been.

 

OTOH, the N64 WAS clearly more impressive than the SNES or Genesis, and was at least playing in the same league as the Playstation in terms of graphics, if not content.

 

Back in the day, the N64 trumped competitors such as the Playstation in terms of games with full 3D environments, as opposed to games that looked good because they were linear eg."Crash Bandicoot".

 

Yep. N64 games generally had a smoother look. I guess that could be taken for better or for worse (blurry textures versus sharper, pixellated ones), but the environments were typically larger, and the framerates were smoother overall (60fps in Mario 64 and F-Zero X, for instance). There were also some sweet effects, like the sheen/reflection effects, like you see on Mario's face at the title screen of Mario 64, and the KI logo in Killer Instinct Gold. Traits like that lend certain games to hold up better on the visual end than most PlayStation games.

[StoneAgeGamer]

Dreamcast was the last system I remember actually advertising its bits at 128-bit. This was early on in the DC's short life though, I think Sega realized that no one cared anymore pretty early on.

[HatefulGravey]

The bit wars thing started and ended with 16bit for me. The N64 and Playstation changed things a lot. It was known by that time that the graphics would be about the same between the consoles in the next generation and I started thinking more about game play and load time. The more people starting playing games on CD the more people starting thinking load time and less about bits and such.

 

Also, the N64 and Playstation had very different games on them IMO. The Playstation started out with more mature content and less cartoon looking and kiddy stuff. That made things a good bit different in that generation as well. After that there was not good reason to go back to that kind of thing.

[Arkhan]

Back in the day, the N64 trumped competitors such as the Playstation in terms of games with full 3D environments, as opposed to games that looked good because they were linear eg."Crash Bandicoot".

 

Jumping Flash.

 

/thread

[Brian R.]

I think the Dreamcast was the last console to make a point of bits.

 

I can't remember any console since playing up bits as a strength.