classic polygon games

[chrisbid]

im thinking about researching the first generation of polygon based 3D games. Games like Star Fox, Segas Virtua series, Hard Drivin, and the original I Robot. This style of game will probably never be looked at with the affection of crude 2D graphics, but I really like the style and imaginiation used to come up with the design for these games.

 

i know a lot of jag titles used this sort of graphical style, anyone else have any other good examples, or thoughts on this style?

[Dones]

Star Fox is my best memory of this 1st generation era of 3D (was there anything earlier?). Another game that I impressed me was Star Wars 32X for the SEGA 32X system. Considering the bad rep this upgrade/peripheral got, this game was actually good! It would even let you play co-op with a friend. To be honest though, looking at these 1st generation games now is a killer. They look so crude and bare! It really requires an open mind to enjoy these games now.

[The Eidolon]

Red Baron arcade!

 

Most of what I think of as the really early polygon games were

vector graphics. Battle Zone is another good one.

 

--The Eidolon

[The Eidolon]

Hmmm... Double post.

[desiv]

Actually, I Robot comes to mind as a first generation arcade 3D polygon game.

 

I remember Steller 7. Great game. (Dynamix??) But now that I think about it, the original version was wireframe, I think? Like Arctic Fox..

 

Hard to remember now...

 

Since it was fun, Fantavision for the Apple 2 was polygon and pseudo3D!!!

 

:-)

 

desiv

[SteveW]

There were a few computer games on the Commodore Amiga that were polygonal 3D. The one that really impressed me was Robocop 3D. The game was totally made up of plain polygons. And there was an adventure game, where you went in first person perspective and explored an Egyptian pyramid. These were from the late 80's and early 90's, well before consoles were designed with dedicated 3D hardware.

[Paul Slocum]

The Sentinel/Sentry on C64 (1986) was impressive, and a very original game.

 

http://www.geocities.com/cdsixfour/gamepag1.htm

 

-paul

[Albert]

Elite!!

 

..Al

[CPUWIZ]

Elite!!  

 

..Al

 

Bah, Starglider.

 

[Inky]

Elite!!  

 

..Al

 

Bah, Starglider.

 

 

Staarrrrrrrglider! ba ba da da da dudu da dum dum...

 

From RAINBIRD!

 

 

Let's alson not forget SG2!

 

Rainbird did a lot of polygon games for the ST... Midwinter, Carrier command, 3-d Construction kit...

[Inky]

Oh, and Spectrum Holobyte's FALCON!

[CPUWIZ]

Rainbird did a lot of polygon games for the ST...

 

Bah, C64 baby.

[Mr_8bit_16bit]

wasn't there a very early 80's vector graphics arcade version of Star Wars Arcade that Sega redid in the mid 90's to take advantage of the graphics and sound improvement?

[Zaxxon]

I think he's refering to flat-shaded polygon games, not wireframe/vector games. It's very clean and sharp looking. To me it looks more futuristic ala Tron. I prefered this look to later 32 bit games that had poorly done, lo-res, warping texture maps every surface. It looked like crap.

[chrisbid]

thats what im talking about zaxxon, 3D polygons before texturing became norm had some charm to them, just like low res 2D graphic have their own blocky charm (check out pitfallaimee's paintings as proof of that), when virtua fighter came out, i kindof laughed at how they were starting to turn these shapes into people, i also thought the tires of the cars in virtua racing were funny, but at the same time pretty cool. It takes imagination on both ends to make those shapes into real life objects.

 

When Virtua Fighter 4 came out, i was excited that you could play as the VF1 model characters and who can forget the cow on Hard Drivin

 

though i do like the look of vector games too, its just that there is more recognition of those graphics being "classic". Most people like the Hummer Asteroids commercial, even non-gamers, but early polygons havent aged enough to get this kindof recognition.

[shep]

Stunt Race for SNES was awesome

[Thomas Jentzsch]

The Sentinel/Sentry on C64 (1986) was impressive, and a very original game.

Yup, great game (together with Elite). I even thought about transfering the basic game idea to the 2600, but I haven't found a good solution yet.

[Atari_Worshipper]

yeah, I remember the awesomeness of VF1 and VR when they first came out... everybody would just stare at them and think, how are they making them move like that?! The term polygon had no meaning to most gamers up to that point so it was all so new!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Forgot to mention Lucas Art's Rescue on Fractalus and The Eidolon.

[ubersaurus]

SNES Star Trek Starfleet Academy used that flatshading technique...not the 32X one, though.

[Scooterb23]

There was a tank fighting game called Spectre I used to really like...I saw two versions of the game. One w/ wireframe, and one w/ polygons...I seem to remember the polygon version more.

 

Also, I agree on Stunt Race FX on the SNES

[Raijin Z]

STUN Runner, Atari, Arcade

[Atarinvader]

Gunstar Heroes. Not fully 3D, but mixed polygon with 2D visuals.

[Shannon]

The Sentinel/Sentry on C64 (1986) was impressive, and a very original game.

 

http://www.geocities.com/cdsixfour/gamepag1.htm

 

-paul

 

The concept of the sentinel looks an awful lot like I, robot.

[sigma]

no one has mentioned Vortex on the SNES yet