Video game graphics has come a long way ...

axisus

Had to laugh at this advert for the game Strarcrash! I'm not sure that the game in that little box on the right is actually 'Starcrash', but it looks hilariously low quality! 



I looked up a few others, here's Skydiver



Indy 500



The somewhat advanced Fishing derby



Entombed



It's quite amazing how things moved on. 

exocet

I was never a gamer but I do still recall my brother playing this on a ZX Spectrum around 1983. I was pretty impressed at that stage (having already experienced standard TV games consoles). He was playing this on a B&W monitor - didn't realise it was actually in colour.

Kittyfrisk

The graphics might well have improved beyond all recognition, but so have the processing & memory overheads, none of which guarantee better gameplay, only better looking images.
More importantly, isn't that Caroline Munro in the Star Crash ad? 

sev112

Loved Indy500, and Lunar Lander

hollywoodrox

exocet said:

I was never a gamer but I do still recall my brother playing this on a ZX Spectrum around 1983. I was pretty impressed at that stage (having already experienced standard TV games consoles). He was playing this on a B&W monitor - didn't realise it was actually in colour.

That’s great I never had it but remember the title 

GoFish

Kittyfrisk said:

The graphics might well have improved beyond all recognition, but so have the processing & memory overheads, none of which guarantee better gameplay, only better looking images.
More importantly, isn't that Caroline Munro in the Star Crash ad? 

Star Crash the film was, and probably still is on Amazon Prime Video, for all your post Star Wars, Italian exploitation, sci-fi, action, needs. Those graphics are actually unerringly accurate to the film.

Sporky

Kittyfrisk said:

The graphics might well have improved beyond all recognition, but so have the processing & memory overheads, none of which guarantee better gameplay, only better looking images.

I'd rather play Starfield  or Power Washer Simulator than Slap Fight or Outrun or etc etc. 

GoFish

As an aside, I can't think of her without getting the 70s Bond car chase theme (as heard in The Spy who Loved Me) stuck in my head. From 3:10:

https://youtu.be/XsJCoftGaNU?t=133 

ThePrettyDamned

Sporky said:

Kittyfrisk said:

The graphics might well have improved beyond all recognition, but so have the processing & memory overheads, none of which guarantee better gameplay, only better looking images.

I'd rather play Starfield  or Power Washer Simulator than Slap Fight or Outrun or etc etc. 

Ladyprettydamned just finished Unpacking - a beautiful pixel art game where you unpack stuff and arrange it in rooms. A wonderful idea executed brilliantly! 

Better graphics would, at best, not improve the experience. At worst, it would utterly detract. 

Sporky

I loved Unpacking. I don't want or need tames to model every strand of hair on every character, but almost everything on the C64 or Amiga (or other things of their generations) was actually a bit crap by today's standards.

There is, of course, a shit-tonne of dross these days too. 

Stratavarious

I used to love my 70’s Philips G7000… still got my fave cartridges inc. the programming one which was basically entering assembler directly.

http://www.videopac.org/

11, 30 and 34 were brilliant fun….. at the time.   Could probably create all of them in less than an hour using Scratch today, 



I lived in the world of Elite on the BBC later on and spent plenty of good times with the even more amazing Amiga graphics.  … FA18 interceptor! 

Emp_Fab

...and that's only the 1080p converted to JPG version.  The original is 4K.

equalsql

 My all time favourite has aged somewhat..

skullfunkerry

I spent hours playing Tomahawk on my Spectrum. The wireframe graphics were state of the art, apparently...

https://youtu.be/k6NhKnL2Llw?si=QCVhhJXbKrlcxU2e

bbill335

Sporky said:

Kittyfrisk said:

The graphics might well have improved beyond all recognition, but so have the processing & memory overheads, none of which guarantee better gameplay, only better looking images.

I'd rather play Starfield  or Power Washer Simulator than Slap Fight or Outrun or etc etc. 

outrun is damn near perfect, i'd take 10 mins of outrun over almost anything that came out this year. and i'd take 5 minutes of outrun 2 over that!

Teetonetal

Ha, back then it wasn’t always guaranteed you would get graphics… spent quite a lot of time playing text adventures on an acorn electron!! I think some of the choose your own adventure books became text games.

Sporky

Stratavarious said:

the even more amazing Amiga graphics.  … FA18 interceptor! 

FA18 Interceptor was brilliant. 

The I saw it again a year or so ago...

Emp_Fab

Teetonetal said:

Ha, back then it wasn’t always guaranteed you would get graphics… spent quite a lot of time playing text adventures on an acorn electron!! I think some of the choose your own adventure books became text games.

Leather Goddesses of Phobos anyone?

marauder

Infocom’s finest

boogieman

Teetonetal said:

Ha, back then it wasn’t always guaranteed you would get graphics… spent quite a lot of time playing text adventures on an acorn electron!! I think some of the choose your own adventure books became text games.

My young nephews had a Texas machine of some sort (199?) where you could use game cartridges or program it yourself via the keyboard. I once spent a whole day copying an “epic fantasy” program from a book, expecting wonderful graphics and exciting gameplay. All that came up, once I’d corrected all the bloody errors grrrrr, was a text based game. Along the lines of “You meet a troll. Do you want to use a) sword b) dagger c) axe “. Inevitably you’d chose the wrong one and the game promptly ended. The boys were bored within minutes.  FML. 

axisus

boogieman said:

Teetonetal said:

Ha, back then it wasn’t always guaranteed you would get graphics… spent quite a lot of time playing text adventures on an acorn electron!! I think some of the choose your own adventure books became text games.

My young nephews had a Texas machine of some sort (199?) where you could use game cartridges or program it yourself via the keyboard. I once spent a whole day copying an “epic fantasy” program from a book, expecting wonderful graphics and exciting gameplay. All that came up, once I’d corrected all the bloody errors grrrrr, was a text based game. Along the lines of “You meet a troll. Do you want to use a) sword b) dagger c) axe “. Inevitably you’d chose the wrong one and the game promptly ended. The boys were bored within minutes.  FML. 

Yeah, but those text based games were amazing when they were all we had!