Games That Pushed Older Systems to the Limit?

I know you're joking, so just admit it so we can all forget the Pulse Racer screenshots.

 

I think for SNES, Tales of Phantasia or Star Ocean pushed the SNES the most.

I know its not an old console, but EDF 2017 pushed the 360 to the limit, and not really in a good way. After playing it a lot, it seemed to get really really old and repetitive. I've never been crazy about anything made by Onechanbara or whatever its called.

 

Agreed! That looks like some kind of Amiga demo. Amazing...

 

Did Raiders of the Lost Ark push the 2600? That cart is massive...

 

Raiders of the Lost Ark had a pretty ambitious design for a 2600 title. Maybe a little too ambitious. The entire game is just incomprehensible. It makes Tower of Druaga look logical in comparison.

 

PSX: Tekken 3
Genesis : Virtua Fighter 2, Ranger-X, Vectorman
Saturn : Panzer Dragoon Saga , Shenmue (unreleased)
NES: Robin hood - prince of thieves (awesoooooooome)

 

PSX: Loaded
Max weapons out, zoom out, shoot while turning in a circle. I think it was Bubba with the ground-warping smartbomb and the energy beam that got wider with every upgrade who could get the old Playstation to single-digit frame rates this way.

PC: Strike Commander
They said on the box that it would run on a 386DX. But on such a machine it took several hours to install the damn game due to Origin using a fractal compression for the area maps so they would fit on the disks.
Also, there was a poster in the box which read: "The Intel DX/2-Processor - can you survive without it?"

 

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I was under the impression that yoshis island on the SNES was pushing all kinds of limits in terms of transparencies and mode7 usage and scaling, etc.

Am I incorrect ? The "on drugs" sequences that the game goes into when you touch those poisonous spores is fairly well done ... a demo scene kind of effect, but done very well...

 

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Yes - I wasn't sure if that disqualified it or made it more qualified.

Are the special chips furtherance of the underlying hardware, or are they cheating, as far as this comparison goes ?

 

For the snes I would say Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean for the flexible voice driver and the complex image compressing technologies. Also the games where huge for their time. I also think Seiken Densetsu 3 deserves to be mentioned. If you play it you get overloaded with image manipulation techniques every few minutes.

For the Genesis, Sonic 3 and Streets of Rage 3. And Toy Story as well.

On the Gameboy I think Pokemon g/s proved what was possible on the old brick.

For the Gameboy Color I can't think of any titles that really made use of the extra speed... The second Harry Potter game was pretty impressive.

Super Mario bros 3 was impressive for the nes.

For the N64 I would say Conker, Perfect Dark, Banjo-Tooie and maybe Majora's Mask.

 

- OutRun 2006 Coast to Coast (PlayStation2)

Sumo Digital did a fantastic job porting the game, that was designed for the Chihiro arcade board (X-box with steroids), to run on the PS2. Of course there's lesser detailed textures here and there, some places with a bit of slowdown (mostly on Cassino Town), but the game is there in all it's glory!

 

Shantae works in double speed if that counts and it also has probably the best animation out of all GBC games. But I'd vote for Stunt Race FX demo for original GB = 3d + textures. Too bad the game wasn't released.

 

I've gotta chime in for the SMS:
- Phantasy Star
- Golvellius: Valley of Doom
- Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (Monster World II)

 

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stunt race FX for GB? Link please? I can't find anything

edit: nevermind

 

NES: Kirby's Adventure
Genesis: Vectorman 1 and 2, Red Zone
32X: Darxide
SNES: Star Ocean, Donkey Kong Country, Kirby's Dreamland 3 (though I hate the game, it does have some really nice visuals)
Saturn: Panzer Dragoon Saga
N64: Conker, Banjo Tooie, and Perfect Dark
Playstation 2: Grand Turismo 4, Shadow of the Colossus, God of War II
Xbox: Doom 3, Half-Life, and Conker: Live and Reloaded
Gamecube: Star Fox Adventures, Twilight Princess

 

you hate Kirby's Dreamland 3? what?!

 

Virtua Fighter 2 pushed the Saturn pretty hard. To the limit, no, but almost.

Yes, I know when it was created.

Oh, and to all the sick Kirby devotees - SMB3 pushed the NES harder than Kirby. Everyone knows that.