So I see there are two excellent compilations out. The Midway Arcade Treasures 3 and the Capcom Classics. I was a huge fan of just about every game on the Midway 3 collection especially San Francisco Rush so that alone would be worth the $20. Then on the Capcom collection ... Street Fighter 2 and Final Fight both seemingly arcade perfect (although some reviewers said there were differences it seemed spot on to me so far). I've had a blast going through all these games and I'm sure my friends and I will enjoy them for a long time.
The thing that struck me was it's amazing how far we've come ... These games ... and some of them are only 6 years old like Off-Road and Hydro Thunder don't look as good as many of the indie games that are out. Heck ... just looking at these games running side by side next to my own recent projects blew me away because what I'm working on look and play better than these oldies ... which I looked up to with such high regard only 6 years ago.
Mind you I'm mainly talking about the 3D titles as the 2D titles seem to keep this timeless luster about them. For example Forgotten Worlds, Final Fight, and Street Fighter 2 are about as impressive now as they were back then ... I guess sprite technology really hasn't improved at all since those days or not much and so they more or less still look like awesome 2D games.
The 3D though ... whoa. At first I thought that because I had the PS2 versions that maybe the textures and some other things were toned down. Then I thought about it and Grand Theft Auto 3 was really good looking to me when it came out and that's better looking in most regards than these titles and it's newer ... so for that to have looked great to me in 2001 must have meant that it was much better looking than these mid - late 90's titles.
I think because they were arcade games I held them in some high regard. Truth is ... they still have their moments where you're flying over a building in Rush and you get some butterflies in your stomach ... same goes for a lot of them (cars, boats, etc... flying through the air) and they're still cool but they can't hold a candle to even a lot of independent games produced today.
If only we could produce what we're producing now in small teams or even with 1 person back in the 90's we could all be doing really well ... ah well it's like that with everything. Only thing to do is move up and onward. In a way it's cool to see how much progress everyone's made in the past 5 years since cheap 3D technology/tools/engines have become available. The skills of the whole giant community at large have really increased a lot and it's very apparent when I check out these games that blew me away so much just 6 years ago.
The thing that struck me was it's amazing how far we've come ... These games ... and some of them are only 6 years old like Off-Road and Hydro Thunder don't look as good as many of the indie games that are out. Heck ... just looking at these games running side by side next to my own recent projects blew me away because what I'm working on look and play better than these oldies ... which I looked up to with such high regard only 6 years ago.
Mind you I'm mainly talking about the 3D titles as the 2D titles seem to keep this timeless luster about them. For example Forgotten Worlds, Final Fight, and Street Fighter 2 are about as impressive now as they were back then ... I guess sprite technology really hasn't improved at all since those days or not much and so they more or less still look like awesome 2D games.
The 3D though ... whoa. At first I thought that because I had the PS2 versions that maybe the textures and some other things were toned down. Then I thought about it and Grand Theft Auto 3 was really good looking to me when it came out and that's better looking in most regards than these titles and it's newer ... so for that to have looked great to me in 2001 must have meant that it was much better looking than these mid - late 90's titles.
I think because they were arcade games I held them in some high regard. Truth is ... they still have their moments where you're flying over a building in Rush and you get some butterflies in your stomach ... same goes for a lot of them (cars, boats, etc... flying through the air) and they're still cool but they can't hold a candle to even a lot of independent games produced today.
If only we could produce what we're producing now in small teams or even with 1 person back in the 90's we could all be doing really well ... ah well it's like that with everything. Only thing to do is move up and onward. In a way it's cool to see how much progress everyone's made in the past 5 years since cheap 3D technology/tools/engines have become available. The skills of the whole giant community at large have really increased a lot and it's very apparent when I check out these games that blew me away so much just 6 years ago.
