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Retro Framerates

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Now I don't know what everyone else thinks but I don't remember framerates ever spoiling my experiences of games back in the day.

 

OK there were the odd occasion of making games like Perfect Dark unplayable on the N64 but generally it didn't phase me.

 

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that sometimes they made games feel really good because they felt like they were pushing the system to bursting point.

 

Take Contra 3 (Super Probotector to most here!). In the first level there is an almighty huge explosion that the SNES just can't handle so it chugs which makes it seem even more devastating.

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Never at the time but nearly always in retrospect...

 

... with the exception of Zelda II because if I recall correctly that had a terrible framerate, but then so did quite a few NES titles but it was - for the majority - less noticable at the time.

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The original Smash Bros on N64 would suffer some horrible slowdown with 4 players. Especially if Pokeballs were involved, a Beedrill swarm would make the game feel like you were playing on the moon. It has its charm, but it's hard to go back and play it now when you consider Melee and Brawl both run at a silky smooth 60fps with no framerate drops.

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Bangai-O Spirits on the DS in multiplayer is the perfect example of slowdown enhancing a game :grin: You haven't lived until you experience that mayhem :bouncy:

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Never had a problem with it to be honest,most frame rates were probably adequate for the time with anything upto Snes/Megadrive era,after that any problems are probably due to designers trying to be clever or shoddy programming.

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Going back further, to the 2D consoles, it was almost never a problem. The Bitmap Bros games (Gods, Speedball, Chaos Engine) didn't run at 60fps but were still perfectly playable, and those are the only ones I can remember at this stage that didn't run at 60. Everything else was just pretty much deadsmooth at the time.

 

Enter 3D hardware and everything started going jerk jerk. And we haven't progressed much, most PS3/X360 games struggle to keep up 30fps without screen tearing or dropping frames.

 

Luckily most Wii games run at full frame rate but I wonder if we've seen the last console where majority of games run at 60?

 

And agreed, Perfect Dark 64 became pretty unplayable in the later stages. Playing it on XBLA at a solid 60 was like a breath of fresh air.

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I always liked it when the frame rate started to chug in older games. It made me feel like I was pushing the games and consoles to their limits, haha. Having games run at 60fps is great and all but it does remove that feeling we used to get of making the game work. (glad to see everyone so far agrees!)

 

I never really had a problem with the frame rate in Perfect Dark, tbh. It probably is shocking to go back to now but I think by the time PD came out, the joystick on my N64 controller made the game feel more unplayable than the frame rate did. :heh:

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This is an interesting one..

 

You can see a classic example in sonic 2's multiplayer in the mystic cave zones.. The game slows down a lot. But honestly what 16 bit title offers a split screen multiplayer at the high speeds of a sonic title.

 

but it's still a HELL of a lot of fun.

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The only reason I wasn't too keen on the later levels in Perfect Dark isn't because of the framerate... it was because they were a bit crap.

 

The level of slowdown/skipped frames in multiplayer could be lessened by using less bots. I never tended to play with them all on so as to help with the balance and make for a more enjoyable experience. Of course, when people whipped out the tranq gun and the fists... there wsa nothing that you could do to prevent the framerate going through the floor.

 

The idea that the system is reaching breaking point is ok an all but when the game is running with minimal on screen action and it still looks like a slideshow, then it's not cool.

 

There is no reason every game released today isn't running at 60fps. It's just a matter of whether developers want to sacrifice the graphical quality to achieve it.

 

Depending on the game, some frame rates are more tolerable than others. An action game with less than 30 looks a bit sorry but an RPG could get away with it as you typically don't have to worry about slowdown affecting your performance.

 

Racing games and fighting games that rely more heavily on split second timing really should be pushing for 60 as to allow maximum control for the player.

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For me it depends on the game. I don't mind a bit of slowdown (really almost all games suffer from it to some extent, new or old) but games like Banjo Tooie and Perfect Dark took it too far. I still enjoy them, but the low framerate does hurt the experience; though I guess that's not so much of a problem now with the 360 versions (shame that both re-releases manage to bungle the games up somehow - BT cheats disable saving, WHY?!)

 

The original Smash Bros on N64 would suffer some horrible slowdown with 4 players. Especially if Pokeballs were involved, a Beedrill swarm would make the game feel like you were playing on the moon. It has its charm, but it's hard to go back and play it now when you consider Melee and Brawl both run at a silky smooth 60fps with no framerate drops.

 

You're in luck! The VC release fixes that problem! Silky smooth 60FPS goodness :D

 

 

Bangai-O Spirits on the DS in multiplayer is the perfect example of slowdown enhancing a game :grin: You haven't lived until you experience that mayhem :bouncy:

 

Ok, this series is the one exception. I wouldn't have Bangai-O any other way :D

Edited by Dcubed

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Perfect Dark ran like a dream the majority of the time for me. I was amazed at just how much they tried to fit into that game. Felt like it was more than just an N64 game.

 

That being said, the game ran terrible with four players and all the bots on. Understandably so. I think it was ok with three players, from what I remember.

 

I think Goldeneye also suffered from slowdown in four player mode? That was quite noticeable.

 

There was one moment in Ocarina of Time where I was in The Lost Woods (on the way back from the Forest Temple to the Woods) and there was a huge enemy with the hammer. I've forgotten the name of that character, but when defeated it would cause quite a bit of slowdown when it vaporised. Looked very awesome though.

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(shame that both re-releases manage to bungle the games up somehow - BT cheats disable saving, WHY?!)

I'm just guessing, but I'm assuming cheats disable achievements, and if they allowed you to save while cheating, you'd never be able to get any achievements with that save file without starting over.

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Deliberate slowdown feels ace tho, like in a Shmup when a massive boss is exploding *looks at Ikaruga*

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I'm just guessing, but I'm assuming cheats disable achievements, and if they allowed you to save while cheating, you'd never be able to get any achievements with that save file without starting over.

 

I don't give a toss about Achivements. They should've given you the option to just disable leaderboards and achivements when you use the cheats (not actual saving)

 

Hell they could've put a little "cheater" icon next to your save file. It would've been funny!

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Aye, it has definetly aged and shows it. The original Perfect Dark is unplayable these days, i can't look at it for more than a few minutes without getting a head-ache or something.

 

I never as such had issues with the framerate when playing Goldeneye and Perfect Dark multiplayer on the N64, even with 4 players. Ok it did lag a bit in places, but other than that, they were fine for me.

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Why most of gamers/players wanted to cheats? Me myself I do the same but after all my efforts to finish the game without cheating. :idea:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:o

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When all bots were on and you were using things like proxy mines you could feel the N64 struggling. I remember my mate proper kicking off about PD's framerate until I told him we were using combat boosts! :indeed: Good times!

 

Still, for brawlers like Double Dragon/Turtles in Time (when the framerate would be so bad at points that the graphics would melt into a kind of blurred image) it was just part of the gameplay.

You knew it was coming up so you just changed your timing.

 

Was all part of the fun back in the day...screenshot_33364_thumb_wide300.jpg

Edited by tapedeck

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Slave Zero. Who's got it, who's played it, who loves it and who hates it? The framerate gets panned by ScrewAttack. Seems they even dropped the music for the Dreamcast version in a quick and dirty attempt to make things run more smoothly and the game still chugs. :laughing:

 

When all bots were on and you were using things like proxy mines you could feel the N64 struggling. I remember my mate proper kicking off about PD's framerate until I told him we were using combat boosts! :indeed: Good times!

 

Remember those N Bombs in Perfect Dark? They created utter framerate mayhem.

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Slave Zero actually came with my Dreamcast.. and I hated my brief playtime with it. It seemed rubbish ::shrug:

 

It has since found its way to a charity shop..

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I appreciate that Stuttering Craig can see past the technical glitches to a decent game underneath.

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